Creating a "Well of Support" for Educators Through Total Experience Learning?

Welcome to?Constructing Innovators: Building Tomorrow’s Educational & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.?This biweekly newsletter features insights from Science Research Institute leaders that aim to cultivate conversations that matter for educators, administrators, legislators, and our communities. In this issue, Science Research Institute Founder and Dean of Pre-College and Summer Programs at Albright College Adelle Schade outlines the impact of Total Experience Learning? not just on students, but on teachers and the education system as a whole.

I’ve shared how I didn’t set out to create an experiential learning environment — it just happened by observing less and less engagement in the classroom and wanting to explore what happened if we let students follow their own interests.?

Sometimes the students would go to another teacher directly to ask the questions I couldn’t answer. Other times, I might suggest a collaboration with another teacher and ask if they wanted to partner with me to work with more students. But telling another teacher about what I was doing and them putting it into practice were two different things.?

Even for me, I couldn’t achieve the same results every time.

It took eight years of tinkering and refining how I introduced Total Experience Learning? to my students to find a methodology that worked. And that’s where the idea of teacher training came in. Why not create a structured learning experience for practicing teachers so they too could experience engaged students who are empowered in their education?

Albright College, who had so gracefully welcomed the Science Research Institute, agreed that we had an opportunity to lead the way. We could replicate the work we were doing in the classroom across the state of Pennsylvania, to reach more students, nourish underdeveloped talent, spur innovation, and increase economic development. It was there that I created a graduate curriculum that centered around what I thought of as the four pillars of research-based learning: culture, management, tools of the trade, and field experience.?

The program was designed for practicing educators, who could expand on their pedagogical knowledge to incorporate Total Experience Learning?. Crucial to this curriculum was making it clear that this practice could be applied to any subject, not just math or science, and that this could be linked to classrooms throughout a building or even a school district.?

My amazing colleague, Karen DeNunzio, our director of learning and innovation, was integral to helping me make this possibility a reality. We spent about a year working to get all the mechanics in place to ensure that we could hit the ground running — and then we launched! Our first cohort included 56 educators from Berks County, where we have a close-knit educational community, which helped teachers find us through word of mouth.?

As the inaugural cohort puts into practice the concepts they learn in our program, they’re seeing their classroom dynamics shift and their students meaningfully engaged. Success breeds success; through these cohort members sharing their positive experiences and learning, word is getting out about what we’re doing and we already have more than 110 educators enrolled for the next cohort.?

I think what makes us different is that we’re both teachers. I have 27 years of teaching behind me, and Karen brings 25 years of her own experience. We aren’t coming in from outside of the classroom and telling teachers what to do. And in those two-plus decades of teaching, we built up an extensive network that lends an added credibility to the work we’re doing.?

Not to mention, we know firsthand that the most powerful support teachers can get is from people who are doing the same thing they are, day-in and day-out. So we’re tapping into that well of support while replenishing it so it never runs dry. However, we also recognize that while we want to scale this program up for educators throughout the state and country, we want the quality to stay high. Educators deserve that.?

In some ways, it’s a continuation of Total Experience Learning?. We’re asking teachers, “What do you want to know more about? Where do you need help?” And then we’re saying, “Try it in your classroom tomorrow and report back to the cohort about what worked.” And they’re taking that philosophy and sharing it with their peers, who are trying it in their own classrooms. That tells us this is working — and that is incredibly exciting.

When I started teaching 27 years ago, I did not envision any of this — Total Experience Learning?, the Science Research Institute, or any of the amazing connections I’ve made with partners in industry and beyond. But it seems by simply following my curiosity, it’s created a pathway for students and teachers to explore their own, while creating new opportunities for us all.