I very much enjoyed this conversation hosted by the Learning Pioneers between friends Kath Murdoch and Anne van Dam about the intentionality of co-designing learning spaces with students.
This short 11 minute video is richly packed with morsels of ideas as well as foundational inquiry language, concepts, and moves we can all learn from to impact student agency and inform our constructivist practice.
Key takeaways for me (and there were many!) include hearing the language Anne and Kath use when talking about how co-designing and co-constructing learning occurs:
Attentiveness. Curiosity. Alertness. Noticing. Observing. Negotiating. Responding.
And this language isn’t used in isolation of co-designing the learning space. This language is used as we engage in cultivating inquiry experiences and as we plan for agency and a partnership in the classroom.
Anne’s soft emphasis on the importance of observing, documenting, interpreting, and planning as a guiding process for both the teacher and the learner allows us all to engage in bringing these ideas to life in our own contexts and classrooms.
Some of the questions that Kath and Anne shared, questions that have shaped inquiries they have guided, really stood out to me:
What gets in the way of your learning?
What supports your learning?
How does design impact learning?
If we are to be in this space together as productive, powerful learners, what might this space need to look like?
Last, and I revisit how I began this reflective post, I very much appreciate how Anne and Kath model inquiry for us. This modelling was on display throughout the entire video and yet there is one instance that resonated with me most: when Kath invites us to pause and ask our learners how do you think this is working? What are you noticing? And even models her own response by stating I am noticing…
This Learning Pioneers conversation with Kath and Anne helps demystify inquiry and shed light on the intentionality, the language, and the subtle nuances that are woven with teacher mindfulness, responsiveness, and alertness. I absolutely loved listening to them speak and I am sure you will too.
Who is Learning Pioneers? “Learning Pioneers is an online professional learning community, built by teachers for teachers. We have developed this community over the course of several years in response to the lack of agency teachers and schools often have over their professional learning journey. Through listening to and collaborating with our members, we have fine-tuned our approach and system to make it the incredible learning community it is today. We continue to learn, grow and adapt together. Lead thinkers love what we are doing too.”