We know we want our students to be academically successful. We also want them to become the empowered creative problem-solvers that the world needs.
Recognizing that real learning begins with authentic curiosity, we begin to wonder.
How do we create the conditions for real learning?
Shared Intention
“Without changing our pattern of thought, we will not be able to solve the problems we created with our current patterns of thought.”
The Problem
Educators are facing increased pressure to improve academic achievement. Many students are being assessed as “underperforming” or simply dropping out. Increasing control structures are leading to teacher burnout.
What is going on?
Underlying this crisis is a deep issue: declining student engagement. Many students are questioning the very reason for being in school. They no longer believe the traditional promise that by simply doing what they are told and “playing the game of school” they will be ensured a successful and fulfilling career.
Students are also telling us that they are leaving school with no idea of what they really want to do and without the confidence needed to discover it for themselves.
We all need to learn how to learn differently to become the empowered creative problem-solvers that the world needs.
The Solution
As our innovation-based industries confronted rapidly changing technology and market dynamics, companies began to experiment. They engaged in a new way of developing solutions in which teams were brought together using fast, iterative learning cycles. These practices became collectively known as Agile and led to exponentially faster development.
Neuroscience is now beginning to illuminate how this approach has the potential to ignite higher levels of creative performance by activating our core neural networks and creating conditions for moments of what are called ‘supercriticality’.
Before our students can develop the growth mindset needed to be fully engaged in their learning potential and their inherent brilliance, the educators working with them must first experience this potential for themselves.
This is why, at Catalyst Learning Labs, we start our engagement with school communities through a learning workshop for its educators. We then guide these educators as they begin to introduce the Agile Mindset into their classrooms. While challenging at first for some, this mindset can soon become normalized, engaging students in a new collective learning culture that leads to higher academic performance.
