Takeaways

more about your students’ strengths, interests, values, identities, and previous learning experiences? • How are you already defining learning goals with or for your students?

How might you involve students more in that process, and how will you make sure your perceptions don’t interfere with establishing a limitless horizon in collaboration with them? • How are you already personalizing the pathways and supporting your students’ need to succeed? How might you involve students more in establishing the pathway through their learning journeys, to make sure each student gets the right supports and challenges along the way? • How much of your own education resembled what we describe here?

How much of it didn’t? How did your educational experiences impact your sense of what was possible for you in life?

Takeaways

The following summarizes key ideas from the chapter. • The landscape model of learning includes three elements that help educators ensure the highest levels of success possible for all students. • The element of the ecosystem allows educators to understand all of the experiences and identities students bring into the learning ecosystem in order to honor and leverage their whole selves in the learning process. • The element of the horizon asks educators to co-create goals with students in order to avoid limiting their potential with our own assumptions. • The element of the pathway asks educators to work with students to establish personal (and personalized) pathways in order to ensure that the learning journey challenges them appropriately.

DESIGNING STUDENT-CENTERED EXPERIENCES FOR COGNITIVE AND CULTURAL INCLUSION

Think of learning as a landscape with three elements: (1) the ecosystem, (2) the horizon, and (3) the pathway. Authors Jennifer D. Klein and Kapono Ciotti assert that understanding the ecosystem—students’ goals, interests, and strengths and their families’ aspirations— allows educators to identify what the horizon, or the success, looks like for each student without letting their assumptions limit students’ potential. Educators can then work with students to chart personalized pathways across the landscape, positioning students as protagonists. With The Landscape Model of Learning: Designing Student-Centered Experiences for Cognitive and Cultural Inclusion, Klein and Ciotti give K–12 teachers and administrators tools and strategies for connecting with students’ experiences and drawing on them to foster lifelong learners. With this book, readers will: • Pursue the urgent, equitable goal of helping every student reach their highest possible level of success • Embrace the concept of inclusive prosperity, whereby educators accept and support all students— their diverse experiences, gifts, and challenges— so they can prosper • Receive practical, research-based strategies for developing student agency and engagement • Study the landscape model of learning’s eight guiding principles • Anticipate how to successfully implement the model despite potential challenges

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/diversityandequity to download the free reproducibles in this book. “The Landscape Model of Learning is a must-read for educators. By casting out an ingenious planning trifecta of the ecosystem, the horizon, and the pathway, Jennifer D. Klein and Kapono Ciotti not only inspire dynamic possibilities for our modern students but genuinely generate fresh thinking on how to reimagine our systems, goals, and learning programs. Professionals seeking transformations, whether in small steps or bold moves, should consider integrating the practical ideas and solutions these exceptional authors espouse.”

—Heidi Hayes Jacobs

Author, International Curriculum Consultant, and President of Curriculum Designers

“Klein and Ciotti have written a book that is both an education manifesto and a practical handbook. The Landscape Model of Learning offers a new vision for education while providing specific steps for implementation and recommendations for leadership. Highly recommended!”

—Tony Wagner

Senior Research Fellow, Learning Policy Institute; Best-Selling Author