Everyone Loves an Origin Story

While not quite as fantastic as, say, Wolverine's origin story, the origin of Expeditionary Learning is still interesting. Just don't hold your breath for knife hands.

 

More like this guy's origin story.

First and foremost, you should know that Expeditionary Learning schools are largely based on the Outward Bound model, and there's a good reason for that.

Back in 1991, in conjunction with President George H.W. Bush's "America 2000 Excellence in Education Act," a bunch of CEOs got together to create the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) with the goal of creating some "break-the-mold" schools. The idea was that these cutting-edge schools would bring in new innovation and spawn a complete overhaul of the American education system.

Ambitious.

Being business people, the CEOs of the NASDC did what business people do when they have a project to complete: they put out a request for proposals (RFP). This RFP yielded eleven winning designs, and one of those designs was—you guessed it—the Expeditionary Learning model submitted by—right again—Outward Bound.

Of course, Outward Bound didn't come up with the whole model themselves. They worked together with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and had input from a few other organizations including Facing History and Ourselves, Project Adventure, and the Technical Education Research Center.

And since Outward Bound already had a successful educational model in place, it was the OB model on which EL was based. Let the acronyms continue!

The Outward Bound Model

Before moving out into the Expeditionary stuff, let's dig into Outward Bound.

The original idea behind Outward Bound as developed by its founder Kurt Hahn was that an educational curriculum should place equal emphasis on character, leadership, service, and scholarship. Today, Outward Bound is a nonprofit organization that offers challenging learning experiences for people of all ages. Their programs typically involve outdoor expeditions (rock climbing, kayaking, backpacking, and the like) that offer participants an opportunity for reflection and discovery in an unfamiliar setting. Some pretty smart folks have said you can get your best thinking thunk out in nature.

EL schools also use expeditions (hey—it's right there in the name) to encourage reflection and discovery, and they build those expeditions into the curriculum of the school along with a rigorous approach to everyone's fave core subjects like reading, science, and math.

They also incorporate, as Hahn believed was important, elements of service and character development. They're all pieces of the great expeditionary pie.

But how does that actually look in real life?

Key Components of EL

You know the old "learn by doing" idea? EL schools are way into that. To this end, students get the chance to design their own lessons, conduct research, complete case studies, do field work, collect and analyze data, debrief with peers and teachers, offer and receive feedback, and participate in their own and their peers' assessments.

Whew. Sounds like a Masters agree to us.

So let's take a gander at the central factors that EL schools include:

• Exhibitions of Learning: EL schools organize exhibition nights or special performances that allow students to present their work to an audience of peers, faculty, parents, and community members. Like show and tell, but way fancier.

• Student-Led Conferences: In the EL model, the Parent-Teacher conference becomes the Student-Parent-Teacher conference, with students presenting their work and discussing their school performance while parents and teachers ask questions and offer feedback.

• Portfolios: Students keep records and examples of their work (yes, the definition of a portfolio) and use these to help both measure their progress and demonstrate their learning during conferences and assessments.

• Passages: In 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grade, students get the treat of a tradition meant to demonstrate their readiness to move forward. Passages are kind of like mini-graduations except that instead of having a ceremony and funny hats getting tossed in the air, students to put together a body of work or a presentation to summarize their experiences and demonstrate how they've gained proficiency in various academic subjects. Not to mention showing growth in character development and overall maturation. It does sound more mature than throwing caps, we have to admit.

• Crew: Similar to what is called "Advisory" in some schools, Crew is a built-in time for students and faculty to come together to build relationships. In the elementary years, Crew may involve the whole class and take the form of team-building activities, morning meetings, or check-ins. In high school, Crew groups are smaller (8-16 students) and meet multiple times per week, usually for 20-60 minutes, often with particular learning targets or instructional plans in mind.

Finally, EL schools are known for paying particular attention to their teachers, requiring continued professional development—thereby demonstrating that all staff are themselves learners—while also allowing teachers creative freedom and involving them in curriculum development and school decision-making processes.

For a complete description of the EL approach, check out EL Core Practices: A Vision for Improving Schools. This 96-page document from (who else?) EL Schools covers everything from teaching approaches for various subjects to school culture.

And if that's not enough info for you, you'll just have to go take a visit for yourself.