Instructors: Rafe Steinhauer & Ted Munter
2-Week Course for Summer Scholars Program 2024
Dates Available:
Session 2 - July 14 - July 26 2024,
Overview
"The Question is not, Does or doesn't public schooling create a public? The question is, "What kind of public does it create?" - Neil Postman, The End of Education (1995)
Education is the vehicle by which we collectively decide what kind of citizens–and citizenry–do we need and want. But who designs education, and how? This mini two-week course–adapted from Prof. Steinhauer’s course, Design and Education–is ideal for high school students interested in education’s role in shaping a flourishing, equitable society. Even though this course is only two-weeks long, it includes two projects; thus, this is for students who want to roll up their proverbial sleeves and get to work designing education. There will be supplemental readings and discussion, but this course primarily cycles through action and reflection, thus modeling a form of pedagogy that is engaged and both personalized and communal.
We’ll explore the future of education through two mini-projects and investigations:
- Project #1 - Teach as You. How might we design a lesson for 2031?
- Project #2 - Schools of the Future. How might we design the school of 2031?
To help us do this, the course will begin with a crash course in Design Thinking, an interdisciplinary, human-centered methodology for addressing complex issues, such as those in education. In this course, we’ll explore: how design thinking methods are used to create lessons and curricula aligned with learning objectives, student needs, and societal outcomes; and how design thinking might help us improve education systems more broadly.
Learning Outcomes
Upon completing this course, students will:
- Feel motivated to help effect change in education, while gaining a deeper appreciation for how challenging it might be to do so. (Affective Objective)
- Feel more confidence and purpose as a learner, through the transition from high school to college. (Affective Objective)
- Be able to articulate an inspiring viewpoint on the purposes of education that are aligned with personal experience and the writings of educational philosophers.
- Be introduced to Design Thinking, and use a few design thinking methods to develop and deliver a novel lesson plan that facilitates students learning, and is informed by identified learner needs, well-framed societal objectives for education, and the student’s own educational values.
- Be able to identify the potential harms and benefits of educational and technological trends, and imagine a school that proactively creates an experience that is informed by identified learner needs, well-framed societal objectives for education, and the student’s own educational values.
Pre-requisite
Students should have a laptop or tablet and have at least a beginners level familiarity with the Google Drive suite (Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Slides, and organizing/sharing in Google Drive).
Instructor Biography
Rafe Steinhauer is an educator, father, and sports-enthusiast. Professionally, he is most interested in the design of education and the education of design, especially helping students and educators bring their values to the foreground of learning. At Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering, Rafe is an Instructional Assistant Professor where he teaches: an introductory undergraduate course on Design Thinking; the capstone Engineering Design course for B.E.s; a continuing ed alumni course on Life in the 21st Century (and Various Subtopics); and he is developing a new course on the intersections of Design and Education. His Studio for Emergent Education Design publishes lesson plans and educational materials in design education, engineering education, and life/career education (website forthcoming). Rafe also helps run a grant program that supports any instructor at Dartmouth to reimagine an assignment in their course as a design project, thus deepening learning and engagement. You can read Rafe’s latest personal teaching statement linked here and his thoughts about the future of higher education at the outset of lockdown linked here.
Ted Munter is an executive coach, an advisor to schools, and founder of Molly School, a collective of educators who believe in lifelong learning and community-building. He is a long-time teacher and was Head of Professional Development at African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg. He works with educational leaders, philanthropists, and those in their twenties who want to make a life of signature, meaning, and joy. He graduated from Columbia University and did his graduate work at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to teaching courses on life navigation with Rafe, he runs workshops for private school administrators with Tracy Bennett (Dartmouth '81.)