J-WEL Week
Oct 2019
Have you ever thought about how education can address global challenges around the world? With climate change, the global refugee crisis, and vast socioeconomic inequality, today’s challenges in education are more pressing and complex than ever.
CEL brought 20+ teachers and senior leadership of the Partner Schools to attend the J-WEL Week in October, which was themed “Major Challenges in Education”.
Attended by 127 J-WEL members from around 33 countries, the Conference gave an in-depth look into how members of the MIT community are addressing some of those challenges.
For example, “Climate Action through Education,” run by MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative, introduced tools and curriculum to use in high school classrooms to teach about the complexities and economics around climate change science. Other presenters shared information about the problems they are trying to solve in education, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and ethics, early childhood education, and other topical challenges. {Interested readers can view the full program HERE}.
In addition to J-WEL Week, CEL invited the Right Questions Institute to host an interactive workshop titled “The Power of Student Questions for Problem Solving and Lifelong Learning”, whereby participants learnt how to apply the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) in their classrooms. {All workshop materials are open-source and can be accessed HERE.} We also arranged a visit to the The Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, where we learnt about their competency-based school model, observed how student learning and teacher collaboration were practiced, and had in-depth conversations with different stakeholders in the school.
Apr 2019
CEL brought 20+ educators from its Partner Schools to join the J-WEL Week in Apr 2019. With the theme “Scaling Up Transformation in Education”, 112 participants from 26 collaborated with MIT faculty and staff to develop strategic plans to scale transformation across pK-12, higher education, and Workforce Learning.
Within the pK-12 Collaborative, three different tracks were offered for participants to choose from -- “Learning Science & Online Learning”, “Compassionate Systems Framework” and “STEAM Learning”.
In “Learning Science & Online Learning” track, participants had hands-on learning experience offered by the MIT Little Devices, App Inventor and MIT Museum team, heard from the Director of the MITx Program about the takeaways in promoting online learning in the education space, and also learnt how to apply learning sciences to concrete learning experiences. In “Compassionate Systems Framework” track, participants were introduced to the tools and approaches to implementing “compassionate systems”, which are being used at both the level of classroom innovations and collective leadership in shaping a more generative school culture. In "STEAM learning" track, participants heard from STEAM Studio Founder David Birnbach on how to bring innovation in the K-12 classrooms, and also had discussions with various MIT faculty on rethinking curriculum design and assessment.
Besides attending the J-WEL Week, CEL also organized other enrichment activities for the participants. For example, we visited the MIT AgeLab to learn about their multidisciplinary research programs that work with business, government, and NGOs to improve the quality of life of older people and those who care for them. We also arranged a visit to the The Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School, where we learnt about their competency-based school model, observed how student learning and teacher collaboration were practiced, and had in-depth conversations with different stakeholders in the school.
Oct 2018
Organized by Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) and held in Boston, this J-WEL Week provided members with first-hand access to MIT’s educational resources and practices. This week’s theme was “Strategic Planning”, with deep-dive and practical sessions with the MIT community on topics like reimagining school, compassionate systems and computation.