INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION
Understanding How We Learn, Transforming How We Teach
In a constantly changing global landscape, knowledge is at the heart of skill-building, critical thinking, and informed leadership. New challenges coupled with new contexts require a transformation in how we learn, teach, communicate, and collaborate. Promoting global learning through global health, Goldie explores and experiments with different models of teaching, pedagogical approaches, and learning spaces.
Drawing Inspiration from Design and Theatre
New contexts require creative thinking about innovative models and methods that promote interdisciplinary and integrative learning, and “flexible hubs of experimentation” that push the envelope on the design of learning spaces, physical and digital. Goldie describes her studios as places to tinker, explore, imagine, and design—she argues that "spaces to take risks, prototype, innovate and incubate" should be in every school, in every community, in every university. This clip was assembled by Marlon Kuzmick depicting the earliest kernels of our brainstorming three years ago.
Tinker, Explore, Imagine, Create
Creating educational modules for kids in South Asia inspires dialogue and debate about chalk highways, toy ambulance trucks, and cultural stereotypes.
Experimenting with drawing, graphics, and modalities in the studio as visualized behind the camera by the talented dancer and studio manager, Camilla Finlay.
Moments from behind the scenes trying to complete an assignment from a class taken (incognito) on media instructional design (with the one and only Marlon Kuzmick)!
Teaching the Teachers: Global Learning through Global Health
Sue has worked with high-school teachers, locally and globally, to incorporate global health concepts, ideas, resources, and tools with biological science, mathematics, art, and literature. In the Boston area, what began as a pilot course that engaged a committed group of teachers from the Cambridge School of Weston (CSW), evolved into new curricular materials, experiments in pedagogy, a newly launched integrative course, and game-changing relationships. Download an iBook pdf describing the final art assignment for the integrative course with video links to interviews with CSW art teacher, Tom Evans.
Brainstorming with high school teachers about using wooden puzzles and maps to teach students about population density.
An excerpt about student learning from Sue and Marilyn's discussion of the new global health integrated course at CSW.
Tom Evans shares insight on the artwork from the final assignment for the new integrated CSW course.
Drawing Inspiration From How Kids Learn
Building multimodal literacy across generations. An 8 year old teaches a 13 year old, who teaches a 57 year old...who then teaches the ages in between!
Kids in rural Tanzania provide feedback on educational modules centered around storytelling and created in two languages, and sparking new ideas for narrative learning!
Piloting an exercise in art and geometry in grade school kids provides fresh ideas for graphics and modeling for graduate students in Boston!
Teaching With Dogs? Learning From Dogs?
Insights about teaching and learning emerge in unexpected ways. A grade school pilot that began as an "out of the box" idea to improve math skills evolved into a six-week program where Meg Harding and Sue watched girls gain confidence and vocal agency through learning and executing basic commands to two trained therapy dogs. Stay tuned for a series of insights on adult learning that we are drawing from training our dogs with the world's best behavioral specialist and trainer, Dan Cavalletto.... (yes, after more than a decade we are VERY biased!)
