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Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning

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Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning

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Spencer and Juliani provide a practical framework for implementing student-centered learning that fosters agency, ownership, and passion. Includes actionable strategies for higher education instructors to transition from traditional models to more empowering approaches.

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The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

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The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life

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Palmer's reflective work explores the connection between authentic teaching and student engagement. His insights on creating learning communities that honor student voice are particularly relevant to passion-led learning in higher education contexts.

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Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions

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Teaching for Critical Thinking: Tools and Techniques to Help Students Question Their Assumptions

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Brookfield addresses how instructors can foster critical thinking through student-directed inquiry. His approach aligns with passion-led learning by emphasizing how students can pursue deep understanding of topics that matter to them.

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Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

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Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice

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Weimer's influential work provides concrete strategies for shifting power and responsibility to students. Her approach emphasizes how instructors can facilitate passion-led learning by redesigning course elements to maximize student agency.

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Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower Your Students｜充满热情的学习者：如何激发并赋能你的学生

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Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower Your Students｜充满热情的学习者：如何激发并赋能你的学生

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While primarily focused on K-12, Ripp's work offers valuable insights applicable to higher education. She presents research-backed strategies for creating learning environments where student passion drives academic achievement and personal growth.

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Nilson examines how instructors can develop students' ability to direct their own learning - a critical skill for passion-led approaches. Contains practical activities and assessment methods specifically designed for higher education contexts.

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Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom｜为什么学生不喜欢上学？——认知科学家解答关于大脑运作及其课堂意义的问题

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Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom｜为什么学生不喜欢上学？——认知科学家解答关于大脑运作及其课堂意义的问题

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Willingham applies cognitive science principles to explain how deep learning occurs. His insights on curiosity, problem-solving, and memory formation provide valuable background for designing passion-led learning experiences.

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Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology

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Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology

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Miller explores how digital tools can enhance student engagement and facilitate passion-led learning. Her work addresses how technology can be leveraged to provide greater student choice and more personalized learning pathways.

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This collection examines how participatory culture principles can transform educational environments. The chapters explore how student voice, collaboration, and authentic creation align with passion-led learning approaches.

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Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty

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Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching: A Guide for Faculty

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This practical guide offers frameworks for meaningful student-faculty partnerships that amplify student voice. The authors present various models for collaborative curriculum design and assessment that support passion-led learning.

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Guiding Students to Think Like a Teacher

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To increase engagement and foster collaboration, high school teachers can have students prepare and present part of a lesson.

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Provocations are not just early childhood

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Provocations are not just early childhood

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Recently, in a Facebook group, a poster asked for photos of provocations. Inspiring images were shared of setups on table tops and in large play trays. The common focus was the purposeful set up of materials. The materials were chosen and displayed in aesthetically pleasing, photogenic ways to intentionally provoke curiosity.

The concept of using provocations in early education is not new. Materials have long been used to support learning since the time of Froebel's first Kindergarten. Materials shape the development of meaning between individuals, giving shared meaning to symbolic cognitive tools such as letters, numbers, or words.

Educators from Reggio Emilia speak of the hundred languages of materials that can develop over time when placed in the environment. Vygotsky suggested that the types of materials chosen facilitate the development of higher mental processes. How the materials are used, who is using the materials, where they are placed, and when they are offered, are essential questions to ask. Most important, perhaps, is the question, "why these specific materials?".

The problem with the beautiful "provocations" ubiquitously shared on social media is that we can't fully understand the context. What is being provoked? Children's interests, their agency, their thinking? Is the intention to deepen interest, increase agency and/or provoke thinking at higher levels? How engaged is an adult during the child's experiences with the provocation? I cannot know the motivation for what is shared on social media and labeled as provocations, but it appears to me, that there is pride and pleasure derived from the presentation of an aesthetically pleasing, photogenic group of materials. The question I have is, who is the provocation for? If it doesn't come from the children-their ideas, questions, thinking, theories, and interests, where does it come from? Does it come from a desire to share one's creativity? Does it come from a desire to cover curriculum and address outcomes?

Clearly, I am provoked as I ask these questions! I am provoked in a good way, as it is sparking professional inquiry. When you think about invitations and provocations what do you think is most significant? What is the relationship between an invitation and provocation?

What is an Invitation?

An invitation is the act of inviting or presenting a situation that is tempting. I believe that all we do with children should be invitational, to support the premise that children learn through play. Play is freely chosen. When children have access to unstructured play, that is truly child-led, they have control over the play activity. Children's sense of agency is fostered through self-directed play and it inspires rich learning. Agency is the ability to have choices and make decisions.

When an adult intentionally provides materials for children, set up in a way to inspire learning, the child still must be allowed to follow their own ideas without adult-defined outcomes. If the child chooses to interact with the materials presented, the invitation is accepted. If this spark ignites engagement, then you have a provocation. If the invitation is ignored, it becomes an opportunity to reflect on why. Could it be that the children were just not interested? Was the invitation hidden away in a corner? What happens if children respond in a completely different way than expected? These questions should spark reflection and professional inquiry.

What is a Provocation?

An invitation that has been responded to is a provocation. A provocation is something that provokes action and stimulates thinking. Provocations are by nature nuanced and complex. They can be animate or in-animate. They can be concrete or abstract. Provocations can simply be a verbal exchange between the child and the educator who is the "provocateur". The concept of provocations is not as simplistic as it is often pictured.

I wish I knew the full origin story of the term provocations in relation to early education. In my observation, the term provocation continues to be associated with the schools of Reggio Emilia. However, when I last visited in 2018, I was listening intently to hear the word provocation to no avail. I did hear the word proposal spoken of often. A proposal is an act of putting forward or stating something for consideration. In 1990, Rebecca New described the practice of inquiry in Reggio Emilia. She explained that children had many opportunities to create representations of their play and learning. "The results of children's play and experimentation are represented by drawings. The "teacher joins in by presenting the children with a challenge, or what is referred to as a provocation".

We can see that a provocation is so much more than an Instagram-perfect photo. It is more than these beautiful, intentionally, and purposefully concrete tabletop displays of materials with an accompanying book, or prompt such as "What do you see?" or "Can you make a pattern?". The adult that is providing the "provocation" has something specific in mind to deliberately stretch the knowledge and experiences of the child.

Invitations in your Classroom
Placement
In 2007, Strong-Wilson and Ellis suggested introducing provocations such as "positioning small mirrors around the classroom or placing easels close to natural sunlight", or placing "a pizza box in the kitchen corner, paper and pencil in the blocks center". Other strategies suggested include bringing in realistic objects for children to use in their play such as real dishes or kitchen utensils. Provocations can be as simple as putting a mirror ball in the room to interact with the natural sunlight as a spark for discussion. The placement of the object is intentional to best capture the sun's rays.
Storage
The way an object is stored can also be a provocation. Materials provided in transparent containers will pique children's curiosity and imagination. Containers with compartments like muffin trays or type set trays will provoke sorting by color or texture. When the materials are easily accessible and visible, children may respond to materials in ways not expected.

Slightly tilted baskets allow children to
easily view and access available loose parts.

Open storage options with high visibility
provide the best invitation to explore.
Time
Another important element of provocations is time. Are the invitational materials a one-day provision or are they left in the environment from week to week? How often are new provocations provided? If new provocations are provided each day, it is not really enough time for full engagement. Time is needed to experiment and express theories and ideas. Time is needed for documentation. Time is needed to more fully consider how to continue to provoke, arouse and stimulate.

Professional Development

I invite you to use provocations as a means to provoke your own professional learning. Start with an invitation to the children that can be a display of materials grouped together purposefully with a written prompt, or an intentionally placed curiosity triggering object. Observe and document how children respond to it. If the children respond it becomes a provocation. If there is a different response than expected or no response at all, it is an opportunity to be reflective. This, I believe, is the greatest benefit of provocations, however one defines the term.
References:
New, Rebecca S. 1989. Projects and Provocations: Preschool Curriculum Ideas from Reggio Emilia Italy. [Syracuse University]. Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED318565.pdf

Strong-Wilson, Teresa and Julia Ellis. Children and Place: Reggio Emilia's Environment As Third Teacher. Theory Into Practice 46(1) pp 40-47 http://extendeddayresources.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/110106670/Strong-Wilson%202007.pdf

Cuffaro, Harriet K. 1995. Experimenting with the World: John Dewey and the Early Childhood Classroom. Teachers College Press.

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Sponsored by Teaching Channel and UL Xplorlabs

While hexagonal thinking is not new in the world of business and innovation, it's just making its way into the classroom. It's a method for considering the connections between ideas and finding the nuances in those connections. If you're looking for a fresh framework for discussion and critical thinking, this may be just the thing.

How it Works

When you place an idea on a hexagon, it has six sides where connections could be made to other ideas. When you place many ideas on many hexagons, the discussion about where to connect what will be different every time.

Hexagons for the Vietnam-War era
(click all images for a close-up view)

If you gave the same seven idea cards to seven people, do you think you'd get the same seven webs of interconnected hexagons? Would the people explain the connections in the same way?

Nope.

And really, that's the beauty of hexagonal thinking. It provides a springboard for a totally creative discussion. When you give a small group of students a deck of hexagons and ask them to connect them however they choose, every group will come up with a different web for different reasons. Along the way they'll hopefully question each other and dig deep into the concepts on the cards, arguing about which idea connects more to an important concept and which example deserves one of those precious six sides.

The Step-by-Step

Let's imagine you've got your students in small groups, and each group is staring at a beautiful deck of hexagons.

Now what?

I recommend you kick off this activity for the first time by giving directions something like this:
Once you have your set of hexagons, it's time for your group to begin making connections between them. Your conversations now will be about showing how and why you think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that's OK. Just keep talking until you find the connections that stick. As you discuss your ideas, use the text to find supporting evidence for why you think your connections are strong ones. Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until you feel you have the strongest hexagon web in place that you can. Then begin explaining your connections with connection arrows, writing in why you have created intersections between key hexagons. Everyone in the group will contribute differently, and that's OK. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people debating, people asking questions. By the end of your discussion, you should have an interconnected web of concepts along with clearly explained connections. If you're working with paper hexagons, tape or glue them down to another sheet of paper to secure them, or take a photo of your finished web. If you're working digitally, submit your two slides: the finished hexagon web, followed by the slide with your explanations.
There's a lot of room here for students to participate in their own unique ways. For me, part of the point of the activity is for students to see that everyone can take on different roles that matter.

Two Examples

Let's take a look at what this might look like in your classroom. In this case, I'll share digital examples created in Google Slides, since you may well be leading your discussions and small group activities via online channels this year. But paper hexagons are equally wonderful when you can use them.

Example 1: English Language Arts

First let's take a look at a hexagonal thinking discussion for an English class, wrapping up a unit on 1984.

Here's the set-up, with the terms listed in individual (moveable) text boxes.

Now students can discuss the placement of their terms/hexagons. In this case, rather than shifting paper hexagons around, they will go into the Google Slide, then drag and drop their terms across the slide and into the web of hexagons as they decide where to place them.

Now that the students have made their connections as they wish, they need to explain their choices. This can take place in many ways:

Students could record arguments for one or two connections on a tool like Flipgrid,

Students could write down their analysis.

Groups could collaborate to write explanations for several of their connections or present them back to the class.

Take a peek at what the written explanations look like for the web pictured above. In this case, students are sharing five explanations, but you could adjust that to suit your needs. Some connections are always going to be more interesting than others - the ones that generate the most debate, the surprising ones, the ones where three key sections link in one place. Have students write or present about the key connections, rather than about every single one.

Example 2: Science

Now let's take a look at how this might look in a science class. Imagine you're looking back over a unit on global warming, and helping students review the big ideas.

Here's the set-up: For this version, students can move the hexagons as well as the terms, creating any number of different webs. Then they use the connection arrows to point to the intersections they are going to explain in detail.

Student groups discuss the possibilities, dragging the hexagons and terms into place as they go. The final product could look one hundred different ways.

Once they have their web created, they make their explanations.

Creating Your Hexagonal Thinking Decks

You can create decks of hexagons with the terms already inside (let your students help you cut them out!) or print blank hexagon sheets and invite student groups to brainstorm the concepts to put inside before their discussion.

No matter how you create them, you want the hexagon decks to be filled with the key ideas of your recent class work, as well as interesting ties across disciplines and to the modern world. Hexagonal thinking makes it easy to cross disciplines and bring relevant modern connections into the discussion.

Let's say you're creating a hexagon deck for Jason Reynolds' book, Long Way Down. You'll fill it with characters, themes and style elements, but also with figures from the news, current political movements, similar books, and background information about the author.

Now imagine you're creating a deck for a unit covering an artistic period. You can put in key terms and artists, but also important authors and political figures of the period, and artists and movements of today that connect back.

As for making the shapes themselves, there are lots of time-saving options, whether you want to use digital hexagons or paper ones.

Digital Hexagons

Get access to your free copy of the digital hexagonal thinking toolkit featured above right here.

Create your own digital hexagons with PowerPoint or Google Slides by following these instructions:

Paper Hexagons

Use this online hexagon generator, created by Pam Hook.

Print and laminate these free rainbow hexagons, then add concepts with dry erase markers for quick discussions.

Print blank sheets of hexagons (you can easily create these in any size using the shapes tool in PowerPoint) to give out to small groups of students, then ask them to generate key terms, ideas, connections to other disciplines, connections to the modern world, etc. on their hexagons and cut them out. Then have groups switch decks so they are discussing a fresh list of ideas.

Create your own hexagon templates with terms you can change up whenever you want to do a hexagonal thinking discussion. Cut them out while watching New Girl on Netflix, or make the first step of the discussion in class to cut out the hexagons while beginning to discuss how they will connect.

A fun addition to any paper deck is a set of connection arrows. Print a few bubble arrows (again, the PowerPoint shapes tool makes it easy) on paper for students to put in at key intersections. Have students fill them in with their explanation of the connection. Sticky notes will also work well.

Wondering how to grade this?

There are a few ways you could grade hexagonal thinking. You could have everyone write a short reflection at the end about their contributions, and grade that. You could use it as a springboard into a writing assignment, asking students to explain and argue for key connections from the discussion, then grade that. You could have students present about a key connection on Flipgrid. Easy.

But I want to suggest a slightly more complex option too. Recently I interviewed Sarah Fine, co-author of In Search of Deeper Learning. One of her findings, after years of study across American high schools, was that we rarely ask students to truly collaborate in our core subjects, so we don't really create a culture of interdependence among them. They don't get to use their individual gifts to contribute to a final product created by the team, although that is often what real-world projects look like. Instead, we favor what she calls "lockstep learning." Everyone must do the same thing, separately.

So maybe for hexagonal thinking, you grade the final group web. And you ask the kids to share about how their different strengths allowed them to contribute to the final product.

Maybe some kids are super brainstormers, coming up with lots of great terms and ideas for what to put on the hexagons. Maybe one or two students in the group are great at lettering and drawing. They could create beautiful visual representations of the terms and ideas. Maybe some students shine at leading discussion. Maybe some are natural at making spatial and visual connections, and can help move the hexagons around as they listen to the group. Maybe some are excellent listeners, and can be taking notes about the connections based on what they hear from others. Maybe some are good mediators, who can help find common ground and calm down heated debates when discussion gets intense.

If you go this route, I really think it's worth discussing in advance what project teams are like in the workplace, and how people contribute in different ways. Then, at the end, you might let kids write a short paragraph about how they contributed based on their own strengths and skills, and whether they were happy with the way the group dynamics turned out.

Variations and Additions

Individuals or Partners

This would certainly work as an individual assignment or a prompt for partners as well. But with a small group, you'll get more perspectives on where to place what, which can be nice. You might consider giving students the option to work alone, with a partner, or in a group.

Adding Visuals

If you and your students are fans of sketchnotes or one-pagers, you can always add a visual layer to your hexagons. Invite students to illustrate their concepts with representative imagery and add quotations from their texts to bring more meaning for each idea into the conversation.

This is certainly not necessary, but adds dimension to the discussion and the eventual display of the concept web.

Hexagonal One-Pagers for Long Way Down

Gallery Walking

Once your students have completed their webs, you can do a gallery walk to see each other's concept webs and check out the connections their peers have made (this can be done online through a collaborative Google slides presentation), or have each group in turn present briefly back to the class about some of their most interesting connection points. The hexagons that caused the most debate will probably be the most fun to share back, and everyone will get to see how others mixed and matched the same hexagons in unique ways.

When you bring hexagonal thinking into your classroom -whether that's online or in person-you bring a fresh spark of energy to discussion. Your students will see things in new ways as they seek to connect wide-ranging ideas. If you're finding it difficult to get kids talking this year as they transition into new scenarios, you're definitely not alone. Hexagonal thinking just might be the tool you're looking for to help your classes over this transition and back into their critical thinking zones.

Come back for more.
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Hexagonal Thinking: A Colorful Tool for Discussion

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If you've been looking for a fresh way to get students thinking outside the box, this may be just what you need.

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From the bestselling author of What the Best College Teachers Do, the story of a new breed of amazingly innovative courses that inspire students and improve learning

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As you leave today, respond to one of the following prompts.

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As you leave today, respond to one of the following prompts.

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我今天受到了什么的启发？What is your key takeaway?​

从我出发，我希望激起怎样的涟漪？What kind of ripple do you hope to create from yourself?​

我为孩子创造了怎样的学习可能性？What new learning possibilities have you opened for children?

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What connections can you make with your current practice and the foundation of passion-led learning?｜你的实践如何与热情驱动学习相呼应？

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What connections can you make with your current practice and the foundation of passion-led learning?｜你的实践如何与热情驱动学习相呼应？

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What new thoughts or wonderings do you have about passion-led learning from what was shared so far?｜从刚才的分享中，你对热情驱动的学习有哪些新的思考或疑问？

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What new thoughts or wonderings do you have about passion-led learning from what was shared so far?｜从刚才的分享中，你对热情驱动的学习有哪些新的思考或疑问？

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Innovative Technology

As a school dedicated to innovation and research, we ensure our campus remains at the forefront of technology. Our expert teams in technology integration and library & media innovation empower learning through cutting-edge tools and resources.

Since its founding, Avenues Shenzhen has been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School, an honor awarded for excellence in innovation, leadership, and educational impact.

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avenues | avenues shenzhen | international school | bilingual school

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Avenues Shenzhen a "future-ready" bilingual school serves students from 1.5 years old through 12th grade nurturing future leaders who are confident interdisciplinary and responsible.

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不要着急走开……这个还有更多内容！

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Learning that Transfers, Designing Curriculum for a Changing World｜迁移性学习：为变化中的世界设计课程

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Learning that Transfers, Designing Curriculum for a Changing World｜迁移性学习：为变化中的世界设计课程

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Learning That Transfers empowers teachers and curriculum designers alike to harness the critical concepts of traditional disciplines while building students’ capacity to navigate, interpret, and transfer their learning to solve novel and complex modern problems.

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But how do we know what today's learners will really need to know in the future? Future Educating Our Children for a Changing World is a toolkit for approaching that question with new insight. There is no one answer to the question of what's worth teaching, but with the tools in this book, you'll be one step closer to constructing a curriculum that prepares students for whatever situations they might face in the future.

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Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing Worl…

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How to teach big understandings and the ideas that matt…

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In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake American High School｜寻求深度学习：重塑美国高中的探索

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In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake American High School｜寻求深度学习：重塑美国高中的探索

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Drawing on hundreds of hours of observations and interviews at thirty different schools, Mehta and Fine reveal that deeper learning is more often the exception than the rule. And yet they find pockets of powerful learning at almost every school, often in electives and extracurriculars as well as in a few mold-breaking academic courses. These spaces achieve depth, the authors argue, because they emphasize purpose and choice, cultivate community, and draw on powerful traditions of apprenticeship.