“the goal of education is not to let students ‘fit’ in the future, but to offer them a structure by which they can shape that future”.
KAOS pilots
Last week I attended a 3 day masterclass hosted by the KAOSpilots. The goal of the masterclass is to design a ‘course on pedagogy’ for experienced teachers at the Hogeschool Rotterdam (HR). The masterclass was attended by a variety of HR-teachers of different disciplins.
On day one we reflected on how to stimulate ‘involvement’ of ‘the learner, and what would be important values for us in designing a course. The basis of our dialogue was constructed by creating a large collage with visuals of our ideas. It was interesting to see our shared values in pedagogy among these different teachers.
The values seemed related to the principles of the KAOS pilots such as: – humanism, self regulation, and positive psychology. My first impression is that the KAOS pilots use team/community-building, learning-by-doing, and focus on rituals.It’s not hard to share these values; but the challenge will be in the interpretation and incorporation of these values in the construction of our ‘pedagogical course’. (Weten wat te doen wanneer je niet weet wat te doen; Max an Manen & Geen prestatie zonder relatie: Luc Stevens)
On day two we explored collaboration and teambuilding with a game of ‘silent – Lego’. We were introduced to the ideas of KAOS in relation to complex situations and the Cynefin-model. We reflected upon what our recommendation for leaders would be.
Next we followed consecutive steps of the KAOS-pilot curriculum model (vision backcasting). KAOS concepts that I liked were the verbs used for project phases; prejecting, projecting and ejecting. The time-based process of developing was new, but the vocabulair of the program became familiar: learning goals, desired outcomes, knowledge/skills/attitude, and competencies.
On day three we were prepared to present our ‘project development’ to an audience of stakeholders/guests. At this moment the process of decision-making went fast and another familiar vocabulair was presented: sense-of-urgency, vision-statement, customer-journey, value&impact, commitment, marketing, and hook-up words.
The presentation went well, and I believe some important questions were raised by the audience such as: why develop a program for teachers who are already doing well? What is the role for digital learning in this course? Looking back I think it was a wonderful experience to learn about the KAOS-method, but I have questions about what we have delivered.
In my perception we haven’t yet begun to design the course. What we have done is preliminary research and orientation on the topic of pedagogy and the ideas of KAOS pilots…I’m looking forward where the flight will take us further.