Valid & Vital: Response and Review to Uncommon Learning

Summary & Response

The world is fully enveloped by the digital modern age. An age that students are ill-equipped to handle with the traditional K-12 education model. The primary issue, as Eric Sheninger outlines, is that “an information society needs people who can effectively manage and use ever-increasing amounts of information to solve complex problems, but the traditional model of education is incompatible with these demands.” Our schools are plagued by aging infrastructure, inequity in funding, and an overall global focus on standardization, which leaves little room for meeting students where they are and instead forces irregular minds into regular molds. The solution posited is the idea of uncommon learning, creating a learning system that emphasizes education through creating solutions to real-world problems, classrooms collaborating to reach a goal, teaching effective communication and the skills to develop “unique ideas that can change things for the better.”

In Uncommon Learning: Creating Schools that Work for Kids, Sheninger predominantly focuses on the ever-increasing arsenal of digital tools that educators should set their sights on to transform their learning spaces. But a tool is only as valuable as the environment it is used in. Schools must first grasp the “bold vision to grant students and educators the autonomy to take risks, learn from failure, and adapt as needed.” Digital tools facilitate the vision, but utilized outside of the vision will fail stakeholders and investment. Although some of the specific tools are now outdated due to a publishing date of 2016, Sheninger’s framework is not only valid, but even more vital in 2023. While many schools have embraced the array of tools and approaches presented in Uncommon Learning, due to being hastily implemented by the necessity of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown protocols, the tools are operating without a holistic learning infrastructure to support them. As schools plunged headlong into the pedagogical techniques of blended and online learning, the intrinsic deeper learning processes embedded within these styles have not been actualized. For most schools, blended and online learning are simply transposed versions of the traditional classroom model into a digital space.

Uncommon learning on the other hand opens the classroom door to allow flexibility, autonomy, and inquiry to occur. Flexibility refers to both how instruction and lessons are delivered and received, but more importantly in how students can demonstrate what they know. Rather than condemning every student to the same test or project to measure the status of their learning, students thrive when they are given choices for their own assessment. Further, as the traditional classroom paradigms of tests and projects are not reflective of life outside of school, flexibility within the classroom will lead to better equipped students for the world of tomorrow, who are able to adapt to new challenges, ideas, and concepts. Autonomy expounds upon the concept of flexibility, in that it enables students to take ownership over their learning. When students have autonomy,it leads to a vested interest in learning, greater engagement, greater school retention, and higher academic achievement. Uncommon learning enables students to learn at their own pace. Inquiry links the principles of flexibility and autonomy together. Students impassioned with a growth-mindset and a desire to learn drives deeper discovery and application. Inquiry within uncommon learning culminates when students demonstrate their learning through the creation of an artifact. 

For the principles of flexibility, autonomy, and inquiry to enter the classroom, the teacher must be a guide and lead through modeling. Educators need to demonstrate and operate within the classroom with the same expectations they have for the students. When an issue arises with the tools, unplanned teaching is occurring. How the educator reacts, problem solves, and adapts are more vital teaching moments than the specific nature of the content lesson plan itself. Digital tools and technology enable these moments to happen more frequently, in part due to the nature of harnessing education to technology and the resulting variety of factors that can cause tools to stop working. More importantly though, because technology tools can be flexible, it is not a foregone conclusion that teaching be stopped in its tracks when tools momentarily fail, but rather tools allow educators to adapt and steer into the issues by diverging down an alternate path in the moment. The greater ability of teachers to take new roads as they present themselves, rather than being tied down to curriculum maps written in stone, increases the learning potential for all within that education space. 

With a holistic learning infrastructure in place, a wide variety of EdTech tools can be utilized to further the learning process. The specific tool is less important than the process, but Sheninger recounts his own experience with tools in the classroom and credits success by keeping the barrier of access to technology low or non-existent. Students are more engaged and have increased learning and application potential if they use the same digital tools they use outside of the classroom inside it as well. Digital tools in this context include both the physical devices as well as the software applications. The concept of completing assignments via a mobile device is off-putting to me, but I recognize that I am an anomaly and that I am not the focus – I am no longer a K-12 student. The question revolves around how to engage current students (in 2023 and beyond) in owning their learning process. Sheninger does provide various ways that Twitter or other social-media-esque apps can be integrated into the classroom, including several platforms specially created to replicate the environment of social media but keep within the confines and privacy of a classroom space. I recall an assignment in college in 2012 within my sports history course in which we were given an assignment of writing an overview of a sports club community fan-base. My professor encouraged us to follow and Tweet @ fans of the particular club we chose, as it would be more personal and reflect the reality more accurately than traditional research methods. This was my first experience using social media for education related purposes, and while it proved extremely useful for that specific assignment, I did not consider using Twitter again for educational purposes until reading Uncommon Learning. This speaks to the importance of a concrete, cohesive approach to EdTech across the  educational environment, as if Twitter had been utilized more commonly it may have completely shifted my view on what historical research is and could be. 

One blended learning model that piqued my interest is that of the flex model. Within a flex model, online activities form the basis of student learning, with students learning on their own, at their own pace, but have access to educators nearby for help. Sheninger describes a school that installed several learning spaces with this model, with large cubicle-like areas so that students could work individually at computer workstations, but with in-person teachers floating around the room to supplement and act as support to the education occurring. This model reminded me of my home-school education. Once my parents taught me how to read, much of my learning was done at my own pace. There were no formal classroom times. I was given a list of assignments to complete each week, and could complete the work in whichever order, at whatever times as I pleased. My parents were available if I required help, but the majority of my education was essentially a process of self-teaching and self-learning. However there is a glaring issue to this model, one shared with the model of homeschooling my parents developed. If students are completing work individually, on their own time, and at their own pace, they are not learning communication or collaboration skills. I continue to struggle with these skills today, and I was only home-schooled through 6th grade. My transition to 7th-12th in a traditional public school revealed that while academically I was ahead of my peers, I was years behind in the soft skills department and struggled with group projects, oral presentations, and even basic social interactions with my classmates. A strength of this model though could be fostering a strong sense of time management, as within my homeschooling (ages 5 -12) I essentially was empowered to plan how I spent my days learning. The flex model however leans heavily on digital tools, none of which were utilized in my homeschooling days, and this critical discrepancy may aid in resolving the issue of lack of developing soft skills, as online forums and applications create opportunities for communication and collaboration, to name a few.

How can we view uncommon learning from a biblical perspective?

Sheninger lists many values and advantages to uncommon learning, but the ones that stand out are contextual and relevant curriculum and essential skill sets. Digital tools help convey the relevancy and interconnectedness of what students are learning by supporting inquiry, fostering a supportive learning environment, encouraging reflection, “relevance of new learning, facilitates collaboration, invokes communication, allows students to actively solve real-world problems, makes connections to prior learning and experiences, and provides sufficient opportunities to learn through choice and application.” This philosophy was echoed within Beyond Biblical Integration, but more widely applied to immersing the entirety of curriculum from and within a biblical worldview. Just as digital tools encourage reflection and application of academia to real world problems, a biblical worldview develops through deep reflection, which correlates to the step of “processing” that Roger Erdvig cited as integral to reframing our perspective. It is a biblical worldview that enables Christ-followers to appropriately respond to and address the brokenness inherent in the world (real-world problems). 

Digital tools also promote skill sets needed in a rapidly changing world, including “communication, collaboration, creativity, entrepreneurship, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, online responsibility, and core literacies for the digital age.” As agents of God’s Kingdom working to redeem the world, the use of digital tools promotes the development of exactly the sort of soft skills necessary to live out the Great Commission. Walking alongside each other in God’s Kingdom requires an ark-load of communication, collaboration, and creativity. We are all still broken human shells with sinful desires. When the aforementioned soft skills are neglected, navigating these issues faithfully aligned with God’s heart becomes an insurmountable task, bogged down by the confusion and manipulation of the forces of darkness who conspire to convince us that these skills are unnecessary and that our human understanding of love will prevail. It is rather Jesus’ love which prevails, but living as the body of Christ and speaking that truth in a manner that honors the Author of Humanity requires each and every one of us to equip ourselves with skills that ultimately point to Him. Communicate with others from an understanding that Jesus is the Word. Collaborate from a perspective that God’s plan is to include us in His family and we are all united through His love. Be creative as a follower of the original Creator. An entrepreneurial spirit and critical thinking and problem-solving skills reflect a desire to transform the brokenness in the world into a bastion of holiness for God’s Kingdom. Being a responsible citizen online in the digital sphere is a call to love wider and louder than Paul and the early church could fathom, limited by the 1st century mechanism of walking and sailing to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Possessing core literacies for the digital age is a call to use the tools God has given us for His Kingdom and use them with excellence, because doing so brings honor and glory to Him, for “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

There is a learning model that is problematic from the perspective of a biblical worldview – the à la carte model. In the à la carte model, students take one or more courses entirely online, to augment their traditional education. These courses are taught by educators at different institutions, who may teach from a perspective and philosophy unaligned with that of the “home” institution of the student. While this is an opportunity to learn and hear different perspectives, careful consideration should be taken by Christian Ed institutions when they adopt this practice. If the school desires to raise up God-fearing leaders for Christ, but students are taking courses outside the purview of the biblical worldview framework, then these students’ education becomes fragmented, torn between conflicting priorities and objectives. One way that administrations could ameliorate this issue is by grouping together students for which the à la carte model is a part of their education, with regular discussion meetings with an educator to connect and apply what the students are learning in these online courses back to a Christ-centered perspective. An à la carte course taken in this way leans more towards the enriched virtual model, where students have daily meetings with a teacher face to face to address any understanding issues or questions the student may have from the online content. 

One of the most striking statements is the reality that schools need to prepare students for jobs that do not exist yet, all while students yearn for an educational experience that caters to their interests, desire for expressive creativity and a need for play. The current system is catered to the teacher’s perspective, and only asks what the student desires if it can be accommodated within the standardized curriculum. With the advent of AI tools, this issue is heightened. It is difficult to conceive of what the world will be like in 5-10 years and what jobs will be needed. As Christian educators a biblical worldview can aid us in approaching this issue. While the career prospects will be in flux, bringing up a myriad of difficult questions surrounding how to properly educate young minds for the future, we must keep at the core the biblical directive to raise up agents for God’s Kingdom with the mission to redeem while we eagerly await final restoration. This issue is mirrored by our prime objective, because the reality is that Christian schools need to prepare students to be authentic imagers of God’s Kingdom in a world that does not exist yet. This directive in fact brings uncommon learning to the fore, because as Christians we must be able to adapt and be flexible to “be ready for every good work” (Titus 3:1, ESV). Looking to the context of Titus 2 and 3, there is a list of ways Christian educators can carry out modeling for their students, through obedience to rulers and authorities, “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” 

Further, the concept of modeling is predominant throughout scripture. Jesus modeled to His disciples how God desires that we love ourselves, others, and most importantly, God the Father. Jesus did not simply sit and teach His disciples through dialogue, but through service to those of the subaltern around Him. His moment with the woman at the well (John 4:5-30) is a pivotal moment of teaching within the gospels that shattered their framework of how they were called to live by going against societal norms of the day. Jesus humbled Himself and seized the moment not only to reveal Himself as the Messiah to a woman outside His Kingdom, but also strip down the disciples’ preconceived notions of who could be in His Kingdom. Teachers must be ready to capitalize on those “woman at the well” moments as vital opportunities for shifting students’ notions towards a Christ-centered attitude. 

How can we approach autonomy and inquiry for students within a biblical worldview as well? The concept of inquiry is ubiquitous throughout scripture. Inquiry refers to Knowing God more by seeking Him: “I love those who love me; and those who seek me diligently find me,” (Proverbs 8:7, ESV); “Instead seek His Kingdom, and these things will be added to you” (Luke 12:31, ESV). Inquiry can also refer more broadly to desiring to understand God’s creation in the world around us as well. The subtext to Romans 1:18-21 is that we are encouraged to investigate and inquire about the world around us, because through that God will be revealed to us, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Through the process of inquiry, students align their heart with God when they behold a glimpse of how the universe is screaming out His name. Autonomy on the other hand may seem to contradict God’s plan, as many may view following Jesus as constrictive through a series of rules to follow. In reality, with a proper biblical worldview we are more autonomous in God’s Kingdom than those outside, as we are free, “called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another…walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:13-17, ESV). God commands us to be free, to live free, and when we take ownership over our faith journey and pursue God autonomously, we are free indeed from the sins of our past selves. Autonomy then within a Christian classroom can still be granted, as long as the desires of the flesh are held at bay and inquiry is led by the Spirit. 

In sum, Sheninger states that the aim of educational technology should be to modernize pedagogy and to shape the education of the future. But as Christians with an eternal perspective, there should be more to the aim of educational technology. EdTech can and should modernize pedagogy and shape education of the future, and do so in a way that points to the Author of Humanity. Digital tools can be used to create artifacts of learning, and do so in a way that the artifact operates as a reflection of Christ’s love for us. EdTech can be leveraged not only for excellence in learning, but in shaping hearts on fire for Jesus. Through digital tools students can encounter and face the brokenness resulting from the fall of man like never before. Digital tools also provide the means to innovate solutions and do the messy work of redemption in the world, all in the hands of young minds, hands, and hearts. The artifacts of learning that Sheninger refers to could be restorative projects that not only solve real-world problems, but do so in ways that “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [your] God” (Micah 6:8).