{"id":4934,"date":"2018-05-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-29T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/education-reimagined-creating-a-learner-centered-movement\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T13:05:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:05:34","slug":"education-reimagined-creating-a-learner-centered-movement","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/education-reimagined-creating-a-learner-centered-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"Education Reimagined: Creating a Learner-Centered Movement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Paradigms are hard to change because they are invisible. In fact, they are more than invisible. They are like the air we breathe. That\u2019s why Education Reimagined\u2019s movement building for learner-centered education begins with helping leaders think about their context and making visible the assumptions of the paradigm we all grew up in. And to then introduce the new paradigm of learner-centered education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back to the Beginning<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Education Reimagined is one of six projects in<\/span> Convergence Center for Policy Resolution<\/span><\/a> (others include health reform, the federal budget, and re-entry). Convergence seeks to bring new solutions by bringing \u201ctogether stakeholders with diverse perspectives on an issue \u2013 business leaders, policy practitioners, non-profit executives, elected officials, think-tank experts, academics, and community leaders \u2013 to build relationships over time<\/span> …\u201d In 2013, stakeholders were brought together for an 18-month dialogue to consider education. Their work together produced\u00a0<\/span>A Transformational Vision for Education in the U.S.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Reflection: From what I can tell, Convergence\u00a0<\/span><\/i>brought together\u00a0<\/i>primarily\u00a0<\/i>national organizations to the dialogue on education, although other issues such as re-entry had a much stronger mix of perspectives, including formerly incarcerated people. This may not necessarily be a problem, but I would think it influences how problems are defined and solutions are valued, as local perspectives tend to see important intersections between issues.<\/i><\/p>\n

The vision is for learner-centered education. Staff from Education Reimagined emphasized that learner-centered is not a reform, model, or practice. Learner-centered is a mindset. One staff person described learner-centered as \u201ceach student is seen as unique. Learning happens naturally to explore their unique interests. We do not need to force education. Learning is something done by students, not something done to them. Once people adopt this mindset, it permeates beyond kids. What does great learning look like? What do schools look like? What are the roles of educators?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection: Although highly compelling, this explanation of learner-centered reminds me of one perspective of personalized learning (not one that we use at CompetencyWorks) that challenges the idea of common outcomes altogether and wants students to follow their own interests and curiosity. This perspective can assume that the world is a fair and wondrous place without injustice or inequity, where it is okay for kids to get to different places in their learning because they just followed their curiosity. I\u2019m sure that the ER staff have a strong interest in equity and certainly the school participants who attended the Pioneer Lab do, but there is a risk in explaining learner-centered in this way that would allow equity to drop from the table.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Although they start with a mindset, Education Reimagined does go on to define learner-centered education beyond this with a five-part definition: competency-based; personalized, relevant & contextualized; learner agency; socially embedded; and open-walled. The Education Reimagined team are strong communicators, so I\u2019ve included how they describe each of these components at the very end of this article. <\/span><\/p>\n

Building a Movement<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

To advance learner-centered education, Education Reimagined has created three initiatives that are all part of building a learner-centered movement:<\/span><\/p>\n