Giving Compass' Take:

• Chris Unger describes how Northeastern University is working with others to create a network of experimental education (NExT) to break the status quo of K-12 education. 

• How can funders provide resources and information that the network needs to succeed? 

• Learn more about the need for innovative K-12 education advances.

At Northeastern University, we have decided to join in the revolution for more student-centered, personalized, and impactful learning for all students in K-12 through a developing network of experiential learning educators we call NExT.

Unfortunately, the many forces of our current educational ecosystem (policies, funding, and adopted practices) work to reinforce our everyday perceptions and practices of teaching and learning in our schools. And these mutually-reinforcing constructs also work to maintain and sustain the current status quo of schooling: whole groups of students, in classrooms, in buildings, with content-directed teachers pressing students to memorize pre-determined knowledge and the development of skills and knowledge untethered from personal meaning and authentic application.

As for the revolution toward re-imagining teaching, learning, and schooling, NExT (and our Graduate School of Education) has made a commitment to being an active community hub for the pursuit of experiential learning in our K12 schools and school systems that contribute to student and community prosperity. We have committed ourselves to connecting educators, education leaders, schools and school systems, industry, and community partners who are working to develop a new paradigm of teaching and learning through their creative, courageous, and inspired efforts.

In this effort, this is what we have learned: There are educators across the country and beyond creating new “images of possibility” that demonstrate how teaching, learning, and schooling can look completely different, providing students with the kinds of experiences that far better support the development of personal agency, competencies, skills, and opportunity.

Read the full article about a network of experiential learning by Chris Unger at Getting Smart.