Join Institute Partner Tyler Thigpen for this virtual Town Hall with Getting Smart for a discussion on how we might guide young people to cultivate strong relationships for life.

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From Getting Smart…

Do you know who your students know? As schools strive to ensure that all young people have access to supportive relationships, work-based learning opportunities, and postsecondary options, they often rely on scarce support staff and educators who are stretched thin. But what if schools could authentically engage with all of the people their students already know beyond the four walls of the classroom?

Join Getting Smart, alongside Julia Freeland Fisher (Clayton Christensen Institute), Edward DeJesus (Social Capital Builders, Inc.) and Tyler Thigpen (The Forest School) for a discussion of innovative approaches to mapping and analyzing students' existing networks as a way to build more asset-based pathways. Learn how building networks doesn’t just have to be about students meeting new people; it can be about students having new types of conversations with people they already know. Discuss how these asset-based approaches could make new pathways more relational, better resourced, and more deeply connected to students' existing communities.

Imagine a world where every high school graduate is a self-directed, independent learner. The Institute for Self Directed Learning—founded in 2020 by TDC members Tyler Thigpen, Cristina O’Brien, and their team—partnered with TDC members Rachel Carlson, Brandi Kenner, and Erin Raab to write and publish a landscape analysis of the field of self-directed learning. To build on the 9th of Transcend’s Ten Leaps for Equitable, 21st Century Learning—“active self direction”—this webinar will share a high-level summary of key concepts and findings further outlined in the 2021 landscape analysis.

Imagine a world where every high school graduate is a self-directed, independent learner. The Institute for Self Directed Learning—founded in 2020 by EDLD Alum Dr. Tyler Thigpen and his team—recently published a landscape analysis of the field of self-directed learning. This talk will share a high-level summary of key concepts and findings further outlined in our landscape analysis, including:

• Definitions of self-directed learning

• The why of self-directed learning

• Key theories that support self-directed learning

• Shifts schools can make toward self-directed learning

• Key levers of self-directed learning design

• Exemplary self-directed learning schools and research hubs

• The mission and work of The Institute for Self-Directed Learning

We are all born with innate capacities to set goals, problem-solve and find solutions to meet our individual and collective needs. However, traditional school design chips away at these capacities, perpetuating an epidemic of dependent learners, unprepared to do the complex thinking and creative problem-solving required for life. A disproportionate number of students in poverty, English-language learners, and students of color do not reach their full potential because of systemic inequities and learning experiences that lack freedom. We envision a world where every student flourishes and is a self-directed, independent learner.

We will walk away with an understanding of why self-directed learning is the future for learning and what steps you can take to bring this transformational and equity-enabling learning model to life.