Radically collaborative learning environments
Tab Betts
What is the idea?
What would learning look like if we radically re-thought its structures and interpersonal dynamics? Education – and higher education in particular – has a long history of being hierarchical, elitist and didactic. What if we broke down these divisive hierarchies in an attempt to empower learners as true co-creators of the learning experience? This chapter will propose a number of strategies to facilitate radical collaboration in education.
Why this idea?
In general, power in education is very centralised. There is a fear among many teachers that if you let go of authority, then chaos will result. However, Renn’s (2020) articulation of Lithwick’s (2012) theory suggests that chaos can promote radical inclusion, allowing us “to queer things, to take seriously Indigenous and decolonial worldviews, to burn it all down and start from scratch” (Renn, 2020, p. 928). Moreover, research into active learning shows that students benefit from being active participants (Deslauriers et al., 2019) and learn more when they are able to have agency in the design of their learning (Bovill, 2020).
How could others implement this idea?
This chapter will suggest five methods for implementing radically collaborative environments: 1) decentralised design; 2) decentralised content; 3) decentralised delivery; 4) decentralised questioning; 5) decentralised construction of knowledge. These interventions should ideally be applied longer term across a module, as it will take time for staff and students to adapt to each strategy.
1) Re-constructive alignment (decentralised design)
The concept of re-constructive alignment attempts to combine the notion of constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996; Ruge et al., 2019), where all learning and assessment is aligned to learning outcomes, with the idea of taking the community as the curriculum (Cormier, 2008), so the community regularly re-evaluates and radically redesigns the content and curriculum. Benefits of this approach include that it: 1) encourages authentic, up-to-date learning content; 2) mitigates bias; and 3) ensures that the perspectives of all stakeholders are better represented. At regular intervals (e.g. yearly), the community could come together to revise the four main elements of constructive alignment: intended learning outcomes (ILOs), assessments, activities and content. These evaluations could take inspiration from Brookfield’s (1998, 2017) four critical lenses, where self-reflection, students, colleagues and the literature provide lenses through which to assess practice.
These opportunities could take a variety of forms, including:
- Workshops – stakeholders collaborate on tasks for re-evaluating and re-designing the learning experience
- Surveys – stakeholders anonymously provide feedback to inform the process
- Pitch meetings – stakeholders pitch their ideas for changes to curriculum and decide on best options to take forward
- Focus groups – s