I've been participating in an online teaching Community of Practice recently. The focus this term is Emergent Design. As a group we've been grappling with what this actually means. Initial conceptions were different to how it is defined by experts in this area.
In lay terms, it boils down to learning design that is responsive. This doesn't mean that it is unplanned and unstructured. Rather "It maintains people as the centerpiece and raison d'être" (Smart Sparrow, n.d.), it is flexible and adaptable to the needs of the needs of the learners. There isn't just a whole year planned out in advance, with a set and forget mentality, rather there are blocks of learning. These could be days, weeks or months. The key things is that there is space for quick reflections and modifications, based on teacher observations, feedback and unexpected outcomes. As this is a learner-centred process, over time the students will have increasing levels of "ownership of the learning process and environment" (Sudlow, Whalley, and King; 2021). This is the ideal. It won't happen overnight, but with careful planning design from the teacher, conditions can be created to nurture learners who "who work together as a community to generate content and build knowledge"(Sudlow, Whalley, and King; 2021).
This requires a different mindset, facilitator rathers than the font of all knowledge. I teach Art History. Traditionally there has been quite a dense set of knowledge that students are examined on. There have been shifts in recent years to make the end of year (it was always the externals that constrained learning in Art History) exam more flexible in terms of knowledge students are allowed to demonstrate. Even so, there are still large sets of information students are expected to know. With that in mind there is a fine, fine balance between students knowing the right things and the right things to do; and providing the flexibility to explore interesting ideas that spark the passion and really absorb students.
- https://www.smartsparrow.com/what-is-learning-design/
- The NetNZ Community, Pedagogy and Practice of Online Teaching
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