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THE LANDSCAPE MODEL OF LEARNING
of learning in a year, while another who started ahead barely moves—how do we honor and measure growth when our starting and ending points are so fixed?
The landscape model of learning is our vision of how schools and districts might shift their thinking away from the racetrack model and toward a student-centered design, which leverages student protagonism to ensure inclusive prosperity for all students. We believe that the model offers a different way of thinking about how students move through their learning and how educators might best support success for each of them. In this chapter, we will explore each of the three elements, debunking various myths about education and offering each element as a more inclusive response that addresses and unpacks that myth. See figure 1.1 for a visual of the landscape model.
The Ecosystem The goal of understanding students’ broader context and what they bring into the learning ecosystem is not about judging students by their background or assuming educators know what students are capable of based on, for example, their gender or race. In fact, the goals of this element focus on combating the implicit biases we are often blind to, and learning to see students fully, across multiple facets of their lives: their families, their homes, the values they’ve grown up with, the way they see themselves, and their aspirations for the future. It’s about developing a deep understanding of who students are and what they bring to the classroom, across the spectrum of their experiences and identities, so that we are educating whole human beings, not empty vessels.
The Myth of the Empty Vessel When we begin to address context, we need to debunk one core myth first: students are not a blank slate, a tabula rasa (Locke, 1690/1997) that education serves to fill. In fact, students’ prior learning, their family backgrounds, and other aspects of their identity enter the classroom in myriad ways, inevitably impacting each student’s learning potential and needs in unique ways. Ultimately, students’
©️2022 by Solution Tree Press
Many educators already recognize that the paradigm of education does not serve students or educators as well as it should. Whether we are in the classroom or the boardroom, we know that children are unique and, as such, shouldn’t be treated like race horses. Most educators can tell when the conditions are right for learning just by walking into a classroom space and watching the teacher-student dynamics and learning flow at play. So can most parents and guardians. But for some reason, most educational systems prioritize test results and academic standards over culture and community, over building the kinds of conditions that don’t just allow for growth, but spark it.
