Hands-on, real-world learning often makes instruction more sustainable and more impactful, says Andy Calkins, co-director of Next Generation Learning Challenges, in a K-12 Dive article.
Students are normally tested directly on school curricula, but “far greater value comes when they have an opportunity to take that knowledge and those skills and apply them within a whole different set of contexts,” Calkins says.
Developing personal and workplace competencies that students will need after graduation is another benefit, Calkins says. Hands-on learning combines development of hard skills and soft skills, he says. “You develop soft skills in the context of content, and not by reading a book about resilience and perseverance.”
The San Diego County Office of Education last year launched a hands-on learning program for K-12 students. Students learn about design thinking, listen to local speakers from the business world, and have the chance to use 3-D modeling software.
Programming taps into students’ individual strengths, and hands-on learning is designed around those, says Matthew Tessier, assistant superintendent of innovation at SDCOE.
“Kids who may be artistic have an experience within the healthcare optometry lab, where they’re actually designing frames for glasses,” he says. Activities appropriate to their grade levels are very hands-on and replicate what’s going on in the real world.
“Employers we collaborate with say the ability to work together is important; and also to iterate, and try things again,” Tessier says. “Those are some of the soft skills we are giving kids.”
Employers work with the county office to design learning experiences, and many have corporate social responsibility goals to meet.
Ensuring that students find a place for themselves in the working world, whether they plan to attend college or not, is another goal, Tessier says. “We are very intentional in making sure kids feel like they belong, whatever it is they want to do.”
Other schools and districts are leaning into hands-on learning. Like San Diego County, these schools and districts “have worked for years to develop close, ongoing outside partnerships with employers, with community-based organizations — especially as kids mature into their junior and senior years,” he says.
Calkins suggests that districts looking to launch hands-on learning experiences start small.
“Identify two or three interested community partners who want to work with you to make this a good experience,” he says. “And then co-design programs with your partners actively involved to make sure it’s an experience that will help the kids … learn valuable skills along the way.”
K-12 Dive
