Innovative Learning Conference 2017: Blurring Boundaries

 

"Blurring boundaries” was the theme of the most recent biennial Nueva Innovative Learning Conference, which was attended by several Bing teachers. The theme of the conference, held October 19–20, 2017, at the Nueva School’s campus in Hillsborough, California, prompted speakers and breakout sessions to explore what it really takes to create impactful learning experiences that transcend traditional boundaries in education. The conference explored topics that ranged from creative and critical thinking to equity and social justice. Experts from the field of behavioral biology spoke alongside experts in design thinking. The intention to “blur boundaries” was clear in the variety of speakers and topics available throughout the day and was inspiring to consider in the context of early childhood education.

 

 

To begin the day, Warren Berger, a leader in design thinking and innovation and self-proclaimed “questionologist,” highlighted the need for our educational world to embrace questions, saying “within problems and questions there are opportunities.” These are opportunities to learn, to be creative, to challenge the status quo. Berger revealed that children on average ask about 40,000 questions between ages 2 and 5 years of age, and that the peak questioner is a 4-year-old girl who asks on average 300 questions a day, mostly directed at her mother. Questions at this age are pleasurable, says Berger—they are the expression of curiosity, an essential learning skill.

 

What happens at age 6, then? Questioning declines after these early years, and Berger argues that we must fight against the forces that make questioning disappear. Our educational system changes how children are asked to think. They start to believe that to learn is to learn facts and knowledge, not to ask questions. Berger argues that the skill of questioning should be part of classrooms and should be celebrated. The future of innovation lies in our ability to see beyond what we “know” and further explore accepted beliefs to see what we don’t know. Berger encourages students not only to ask questions but to take ownership of their questions and pursue their questions, as they are the path to innovation.

 

Berger said his three favorite questions are “why…?” “what if…?” and “how…?” because these questions allow one to understand the problem, come up with ideas and imagine new possibilities, and start solving the problem. Berger has done extensive research in the business world on the factors common to successful companies, and much of his research shows that questions and challenging the status quo are at the center of a successful modern business. Successful leaders of today and the leaders of the future are ones who lead with humility and confidence. We must teach our children to learn these skills early. The children at Bing are in their prime years of this learning, so let’s not deter these beautiful questions—let’s find a way to keep them coming for many years to come.

 

 

In this lively session, Elizabeth Rood, director of the Center for Childhood Creativity at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, took a deep dive into the world of creativity. Her presentation highlighted the importance of creativity in the lives of children and how to support its development in children of all ages. The focus was specifically on how experiences and environment play a key role in developing children’s creativity. She walked us through what she considered the important aspects of creativity development—child-directed, risk-friendly, exploratory, active, time for imagination, and exchange of ideas. She spoke about each of these in depth. Highlighted here are two of her main ideas:

 

“Child-directed” was the first aspect that Rood discussed, noting that this process must be guided by the child for it to be successful. In a 1962 article published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, professor Sam Glucksberg showed that extrinsic motivation actually diminishes efficacy in creative problem-solving tasks and adds stress to the process. Instead, supporting children’s intrinsic motivations and giving them time to explore allows them to enter a flow state and increases creative problem-solving. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discusses this in his 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, where he defines flow as “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” Rood emphasized that guided play, where experiences are adult-initiated but child-directed, is key.

 

Another important part of supporting creative development is the idea of “exploratory learning.” Rood sees play as hypothesis testing: “When children mess about with things, they are exploring cause and effect and learning about the natural world around them.” She mentioned that hands-on learning boosts engagement and offers opportunity for divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is a process where many ideas are generated to solve a problem, as opposed to convergent thinking that asks for a specific solution to a problem. Exploratory learning supports creative development by offering opportunities to think divergently. During these hands-on learning experiences, adults can offer open-ended prompts, such as “I notice…,” “tell me more…” and “I wonder…” to encourage divergent thinking.

 

Rood’s ideas in this presentation align with Bing’s philosophy. Our child-centered environment, with a focus on time for play, deep exploration and hands-on learning is key to children’s learning and development. What Rood is arguing for, though, is that this type of learning should not stop at age 5, but should continue on for the rest of our lives.