Two years after they had completed their 4th grade "Pilgrims" unit, students from Steven Levy's class at the Bowman School in Lexington, Mass., answered questions about the value of their learning. One child observed that "in other classes, the teacher says, ‘Here's how, do this and this and this, any questions?' In this class, [Mr. Levy] gave us a chance to think about problems on our own and figure out answers." Another child explained, "It all became one. You mushed stuff all together. We got math and English and science all in one project." Yet another child observed that "they're teaching us this stuff, and it's a lot of fun, but we don't [usually] put it into practice. In 4th grade, we put our learning to work."
When students entered Levy's classroom on the first day of school in 1992, they found an empty space—no desks, no chairs, no shelves, no books. For the entire year, they immersed themselves in learning all about pilgrims' lives by doing many tasks pilgrims once did as they discovered and settled in a new land. At the same time, these children learned lifelong lessons about getting things done collaboratively, in the present-day world, by involving their parents and the community in their work.
Early on, the class determined that they would need resources to build desks and chairs, buy a loom to weave cloth, and grow wheat to make flour for bread. They sold "shares" to local businesses with the promise of tangible returns at the end of the school year—a weekly newsletter, a calendar with geometric illustrations, a videotape highlighting their work, a woven wall hanging, a loaf of bread, and proceeds from the sale of the handmade furniture.
As the children launched each of their tasks, they discovered the need to learn about furniture design, the basics of building, fundamental farming skills, making flour from wheat, weaving yarn into cloth, and more. They did not sit through hour-long, textbook-based lessons on math facts or history highlights. They found resources as they needed them for each task. They did not sit through paper-pencil tests at the end of each week or month. Their assessments were based on the products of their work—whether the desks and chairs were functional, whether the bread rose as expected when it was baked.
Throughout the unit, the students found willing resources in the community, including the accountant who agreed to keep their financial records, the builder who donated supplies for the desks and chairs, and the printer who made his presses available when the calendar design was ready for mass production. At the end of the year, students conducted an auction, selling their handmade furniture to pay back their shareholders. The shareholders, however, wouldn't take the proceeds, so the money was used for the incoming 4th graders' project-based activities.
What was the difference between the "Pilgrims" unit and these children's other learning experiences? It was part of a project-based learning program called Expeditionary Learning/Outward Bound (ELOB), a comprehensive New American Schools design for K–12 public schools that transforms curriculum, instruction, assessment, and school culture and is intended to enable all students to achieve at high levels.
Through professional development and technical assistance, a school's entire staff becomes involved to make Expeditionary Schools safe and engaging communities where all students are expected to achieve more than they thought possible. Expeditionary Schools conduct activities with students that are based on 10 design principles and five core practices. The 10 design principles are the best short statement of ELOB's philosophy of education and core values:
- The primacy of self-discovery
- The having of wonderful ideas
- The responsibility for learning
- Intimacy and caring
- Success and failure
- Collaboration and competition
- Diversity and inclusivity
- The natural world
- Solitude and reflection
- Service and compassion
The five core practices provide direction on how a school transforms itself into a center of powerful teaching, rigorous academic achievement, and character development for all students:
- Learning expeditions: long-term, in-depth investigations of a topic that engage students through authentic projects, fieldwork, and service
- Reflection and critique: teachers model a culture of reflection, critique, revision, and collaboration
- School culture: a strong culture of best effort, high expectations, community and collaboration, service, and diversity
- School structures: longer and more flexible blocks of time for project-based learning and fieldwork, for team planning, and for community-building activities like community circles
- School review: an annual cycle of reflection, planning, and action to improve the quality of teaching and learning
As one of Levy's former 4th grade students observed, "You didn't just learn to get a grade. The reward was only as big as your effort." Expeditionary learning inspired these students to produce high-quality work that satisfied their need to know, met the expectations of their shareholders, and made their parents and community proud.