We've Outgrown the Way We Teach and Learn

It’s time to change. Here’s how.

By Rishelle Wimmer, Senior Lecturer, Information Technology and Systems Management and Thomas Grundnigg, Senior Lecturer, Multi-Media Arts FH Salzburg University of Applied Sciences; Faculty Innovation Fellows candidates

When presenting a scale model of his newly designed future education center, Derek Zoolander asks the question, “How can we be expected to teach children... if they can’t even fit inside the building?” For us, the building is a metaphor for our current educational structures, and the message is clear: we’ve outgrown our 20th century system of higher ed.

Objectively we wish for students to be adventurous and explore the unknown. While we harbor hope that they will acquire talents for innovation and develop the flexibility needed to navigate uncertainty, their university experience often runs contrary to those aims. Students experience limited opportunities to exercise their curiosity, and educators have few options for rewarding risk-taking. Instead we persist in offering a rigid curriculum, and evaluate progress in increments of how well learners conform to established methods. At this time, when information is ubiquitous, we need to transform the current system of higher ed into one that awakens an innate interest in learning.

We are born curious. And curiosity is the force that drives us to learn and explore. But curiosity is fragile. Many students arrive at university with a diminished readiness to dive into new learning experiences whole- heartedly. How can we cultivate curiosity and ignite confidence to venture into the unknown? Cultivating curiosity calls for freedom to explore interests, take action, and work in a safe-space where risks can be taken and mistakes made. Even as we aspire to a new paradigm of teaching and learning, we acknowledge that change is frightening for our institutions. Challenging the status quo inevitably provokes push-back. Self-reliance is not enough, it takes a community of courage and practice to realize progress and break free from constraints.

To initiate the change we want to see on our campus, we designed the eXploratorium — a center for the curious learner. Currently, we are engaged in a three-stepplan to realize our vision by: (1) developing options, (2) establishing a community of courage and practice, and (3) cultivating curiosity.

STEP 1 — DEVELOPING OPTIONS

Recognizing the need for students and faculty to pursue topics of interest with meaningful objectives in a variety of learning settings, the center for the curious provides space to explore teaching and learning options that complement and supplement the existing curriculum. Designed for multidisciplinary use, these settings are situated beyond current departmental structures. While some course offerings are experiential and project based in nature, others are designed to reinforce subjects commonly taught in degree programs (i.e. social competences, academic writing, research methods, digital literacy skills, project management, etc.), as well as a catalog of subjects not currently available to all degree programs (i.e. politics, economics, ethics, cultural diversity, etc.).

STEP 2 — ESTABLISHING A COMMUNITY OF COURAGE AND PRACTICE

In the process of developing new learning situations, we’ve attracted educators and students invested in creating new pathways at our university. Establishing a dynamic and collaborative community of practice has been a positive side-effect of developing options. Our

aim is to multiply opportunities for participation, where students can direct their educational pathways, and educators can explore topics and methods that transcend curricular restraints. Having the freedom to choose to opt-in, is an important hallmark of the eXploratorium. With a focus on incremental change, these ideas are gaining traction throughout our university.

STEP 3 — CULTIVATING CURIOSITY

Empowering our community of learners to be active seekers of knowledge and understanding is our pursuit. Awakening them from complacency and the lethargy of resignation — after being told no, it’s not possible and that we can’t — is our device.

Our focus is to arrange learning situations that engage curiosity. When learners are encouraged to take agency and seek deeper understanding, they discover the unexpected. It is through the active pursuit of compelling goals that we experience a shift in perspective, activating motivational forces that energize us, enticing us out of our comfort zone and transforming our behavior.

The directive is – go find your interest, the problem you want to solve, the concept you would like to understand, the skill you want to acquire. Then work for what you want. Cultivate your curiosity and search without dependence on a preprogrammed algorithm. Learn to figure things out for your own satisfaction, all the while being guided by capable experts. The eXploratorium — a center for the curious — is the place.

The eXploratorium aspires to a new paradigm of teaching and learning, one designed to cultivate curiosity while sparking confidence to venture into the unknown. Here, the curious learner encounters an atmosphere where the freedom to experiment in collaboration with others, encourages actions that lead to impactful change. Students and educators stay curious, as they strive for knowledge and develop the ability to navigate the challenges of uncertain futures. Even though the constraints of our institutions may act as limits to our agency, we are prepared to rewrite the rules to escape those confines. Let’s venture together as a curious community of courage and practice, beyond the barriers of our curriculum, to discover places rich in knowledge and explore the future of teaching and learning.

#staycurious

We appreciate the FH Salzburg Future Fund and the Faculty Innovation Fellows at Stanford d.school for supporting our project development.