The Interest-Based Learning Coach

A Step-by-Step Playbook for Genius Hour, Passion Projects, and Makerspaces in School

Jeanne H. Purcell, Deborah E. Burns, Wellesley Purcell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000489651
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Many educators appreciate the value of interest-based learning, but struggle with the management and facilitation of individual and small-group projects in a limited space and time allocation. This easy-to-read guide:

• Features a step-by-step plan for managing Genius Hour, passion projects, Makerspaces, and more.
• Includes time-saving planning templates, checklists, and charts.
• Supports students' intrinsic motivation for learning, agency, voice, and problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
• Provides a systematic and practical approach to interest-based learning.
• Can be implemented and adapted by an individual teacher, department, or team.

Chapters also include techniques for helping students identify their interests, frame their goals and questions, create project plans and timelines, self-assess their progress, and share their work with real-world audiences.

CHAPTER 1
Interest-Based Learning and Its Counterparts

DOI: 10.4324/9781003238843-2

If one has failed to develop curiosity and interest in the early years, it is a good idea to acquire them now, before it is too late to improve the quality of life. . . . There are literally millions of potentially interesting things in the world to see, to do, to learn about. But they do not become actually interesting until we devote attention to them.

—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow

Genius Hour, passion projects, Makerspaces, and problem- and project-based learning are wonderful opportunities for students to find, explore, study, problem solve, and create with their interests. This book provides a supporting framework for organizing and coaching the interest-based learning process with students who may have little experience designing their own learning paths.

This chapter reviews the IBL process and the steps and strategies students and teachers can use to organize their work. Specifically, we explain the framework, components, and overarching expectations and connections illustrated in Figure 1 (p. 7). In addition, we have included an explanation of the goals for IBL, its rationale, and a short review of related research. The last section compares interest-based learning models such as Genius Hour, passion projects, Makerspaces, and the more generic project-based and problem-based models. Lastly, we clarify how the IBL framework can be used to support teachers’ and students’ work within the context of each of the other models.

As a result of reading, reasoning with, and discussing the content in Chapter 1, you will be able to:

1. define and give examples of interest-based learning;
2. provide a rationale for including interest-based learning within the curriculum;
3. link academic, literacy, 21st-century, and social-emotional learning standards with the goals and process for learning;
4. describe the framework, components, and process that support interest-based learning;
5. explain the research related to interest-based learning; and
6. compare the framework in this book with current inquiry learning models.

What Is Interest-Based Learning?

When you hear the phrase “interest-based learning in the classroom,” what do you imagine? Pure pandemonium? Students shooting hoops, playing video games, and updating their social media accounts? Not so fast. Sure, sports, technology, and friendship are popular student interests, but we’re talking about interest-based learning in this text, and the three previously mentioned activities fall more into the “activity” department than they do into the learning category. On the other hand, if you’ve helped a student expand their interest in video games by suggesting that they learn how to code so that they could design their own games, then that is a solid example of IBL and coaching.

Merriam-Webster defines interest as “a feeling of wanting to learn more about something or to be involved in something.” The definition continues: “Interest is a quality that attracts a person’s attention and makes them want to learn more about something or to be involved in something.” In this text, we append the word learning to the term interest in order to clarify the purpose for the inclusion of interests within curriculum and to amplify the meaning of interests beyond mere enjoyment. In a complementary fashion, IBL employs students’ interests as the gateway for the development of students’ project goals, learning questions, engagement, and self-management.

This book advocates for a designated time of the week or corner in the curriculum that allows for choice and encourages students to ask and answer their own IBL questions and to develop their own explorations, design projects, and development goals. As such, when they are tied to learning—the chief purpose for education and schooling—interests become a rightful and deserving part of the curriculum. In order to support learning and engagement, IBL projects always begin with the identification of students’ interests (see Chapter 5).

Interest identification is followed by the development of a focused goal or question that guides the design, experimentation, tinkering, construction, research, and problem solving inherent in such projects (see Chapter 6). The attention to goals and questions helps students frame the purpose for their projects and identify the formal or informal learning that must take place to achieve the goals and answer the questions. The journey from students’ known to unknown knowledge, skills, and applications ensures that each project truly illustrates new learning and not merely a repetition of previous actions and understandings.

Examples of IBL might include:

• × a kindergarten student who wants to learn how to use the various shapes of the wooden classroom blocks to create a replica of the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York;
• × a sixth-grade student who becomes fascinated by the estuary display in San Francisco’s Exploratorium museum and volunteers to collect and test water samples in nearby Oakland, CA;
• × an eighth-grade student who learns about food insecurity in social studies class and works with some classmates to educate others and raise money for a local food bank;
• × a second-grade student who wants to write letters to famous people to see if they will write back; or
• × a fifth-grade student who wants to learn about architecture and blueprints in order to design a home.

Why Include IBL Within the Curriculum?

There are many reasons to include interest-based learning in a classroom, grade-level, or school curriculum. Some of these motives address students’ intrapersonal skills, mindsets, and dispositions. Others are academic and social traits.

Student agency, a facet of intrapersonal intelligence, is the primary reason most educators choose to become involved in interest-based learning, especially when they sense issues regarding students’ passive compliance or disengagement. Building student agency means providing opportunities for students to direct their own learning, using goals, tasks, and resources that are personally interesting and relevant, thereby encouraging self-initiation.

If the essentials are in place, and the shared vision credible (see Chapters 2 and 3, respectively), then additional intrapersonal dispositions and skills are likely to grow as well. These include authentic engagement and the development of students’ self-management skills, self-efficacy, curiosity, growth mindset, and intrinsic motivation for learning. Depending on the nature of each project, students will also have the opportunity to enhance their reasoning skills, including, but not limited to, analytic thinking, planning, decision making, organization, problem solving, creativity, research, and communication. Teacher-student conferences that ask students to discuss and reflect on these attitudes and skills also support students’ self-awareness, self-evaluation, and related goal setting.

Second, the rationale for IBL also includes opportunities to strengthen academic standards. Projects always involve some type of content and, as such, offer students opportunities to learn, deepen, or apply their understanding of core concepts, skills, and principles in the academic area most related to their interest. For example, the sixth-grade student who collected and studied water samples also learned and applied Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) related to precision, identification, and measurement. He also deepened and applied his understanding of NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas, such as salinity, pollution, habitat, and ecosystem interactions.

In addition to content knowledge and skill standards, social-emotional learning standards are also inherent in IBL projects. Reading, writing, listening, speaking, research, self-management, reasoning, organization, and collaboration skills are integral to students’ inquiries, although any specific standard’s linkage is unique to students’ individual projects. The expectation that students learn and apply these skills makes them relevant and necessary in the immediate moment and more likely to be linked to the success of students’ work.

Third, the rationale for IBL also includes the opportunity to develop students’ social skills and dispositions. Individual, partner, and small-group projects provide natural opportunities that allow educators to teach and coach traits and skills such as empathy, collaboration, active listening, relationship building, and an appreciation for the perspective of others. The classroom culture benefits from students sharing and celebrating the interests, goals, and accomplishments of others.

“So,” you ask, “are there any reasons not to implement IBL?” There are. Concerns related to parental, administrative, and collegial support; time constraints; the need for varied resources; classroom space; the multitasking required to manage numerous projects among individuals and small groups of students; and students’ levels of self-management all weigh on teachers’ minds as they decide whether or not IBL is relevant and doable in their situation. Chapters 2 and 3 suggest how to address these concerns, so make a quick list of any issues that you have, keep an open mind, and reconsider your perspective at the end of Chapter 3.

How Are Academic, Social-Emotional, and 21st-Century Learning Goals Linked to IBL?

IBL is grounded in students’ interests. These interests are wide-ranging and specific to each child. Interests serve as the motivation for students’ effort and persistence during the course of their projects. But how are these real-world interests aligned to the academic, 21st-century, and social-emotional learning standards that govern curriculum? After all, these standards are one of educators’ first priorities.

Start with a closer look at the language arts standards specified for each grade level and subject area. How are they aligned with IBL projects? Whether you are considering the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (CCSS-ELA) or individual states’ language arts and content literacy standards, most educators would agree that the standards’ emphasis on reading, writing, research, speaking, and listening skills are naturally linked to the work students do during the course of IBL projects. Students read about their interest area, they conduct research and take notes, and they critically evaluate the topic-specific writings of other people who specialize in their interest area. Often, students also do their own topic-based writing, speaking, and listening. All of these actions foster deeper learning and an application of these literacy standards to each IBL project.

But what about science, social studies, and math standards? Are they also aligned with student learning during the IBL process? The CCSS math practices, with their attention to problem solving, precision, abstract reasoning, argumentation, and the use of tools and structures, are well-aligned with the nature of an inquiry project (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA] & Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010b). However, the specific math standards related to numeration, algebra, geometry, etc., coordinate only with the work of those students engaged in a math project that applies such skills. In a similar manner, if a student is investigating a science interest, there may or may not be an alignment with the NGSS, depending on the topic and its NGSS grade level placement. The same is true for the social studies standards (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 2013). Their inquiry, research, informative and argument writing, and listening and speaking expectations align well with most social studies IBL projects. Again, the alignment to a specific topic standard in social studies depends on the nature of students’ individual projects and the grade level placement of a standard.

Finally, consider the alignment of the tenets of social-emotional learning (Frey et al., 2019) and 21st-century skills (P21, 2019). Can these standards be learned, practiced, or applied over the course of an IBL project? Our emphatic answer is “Yes!” The SEL tenets address intrapersonal and social skills, dispositions, and attitudes, such as agency, collaboration, and self-management. The 21st-century skills focus on reasoning skills, such as problem solving, design, planning, and decision making. These traits are inherent in nearly all IBL projects.

“Independent research contributes to my growth as a student more so than any other activity that we do as a class; it forces me to develop numerous skills, such as critical thinking and time allocation. . . . It fosters an environment rich with creativity and innovation that invariably stimulates students. The independent research projects boost my self-confidence because I am genuinely excited about the topic and proud of the work I produce and share.”

—GRETCHEN, GRADE 11

What Frameworks, Components, and Processes Support IBL?

This is not a book about Genius Hour, passion projects, and Makerspaces per se. We consider these to be curriculum models for IBL. These are learning designs that can and should be instituted in a school or classroom that values student agency. Minds greater than ours have already championed their use and explained their benefits. This book supports these models by outlining a universal framework (the eight-step IBL process) that aids the management of any form of interest-based learning and supports its coaching, assessment, and success.

To clarify these models, we define them here. Genius Hour originated in corporations and businesses that allocated time (e.g., 20% time) for employees to work on their own projects. In a school or classroom setting, teachers allocate classroom time for similar interest-based inquiry projects. Students explore any real-world interest with their teacher’s support. Passion projects are interest-based inquiries that often culminate in a sharing session, product, or service. A Makerspace is a location in a classroom or school library that allows students with common or varied interests to come together to work on projects, especially those that involve technology and hands-on tasks. These students sometimes share equipment, provide support, and collaborate.

Regardless of the specific model selected by practitioners, we suggest that all forms of IBL can be represented by the IBL framework (see Figure 1, p. 7). We use the word project to describe an individual, partner, or small-group adventure that is guided by a specific aim. Lastly, we include the word inquiry to designate the purpose for an interest-based project. The foundation for IBL includes attention to its prerequisites and the developments of its shared vision. The process itself has eight different phases or steps that occur sequentially across the course of each child’s project. These include:

1. finding interests;
2. focusing interests;
3. goal setting, developing inquiry questions, and mapping plans;
4. finding and managing resources;
5. researching, investigating, exploring, experimenting, and designing;
6. determining and designing products;
7. tapping potential audiences; and
8. reflecting, debriefing, and celebrating.

Embedded in every stage of the process are content, content literacy, and social-emotional learning standards, and the application of an aligned formative assessment system.

What Research Supports IBL?

There are at least three different types of research related to interests and interest-based learning. The first category of research seeks to describe interest and explain its origins, clarify the two different kinds of interests (i.e., situational and individual) to detail the process learners experience as they progress through interest’s developmental stages, and document its impact on students’ choices and future actions. We recommend that you review the work of Alexander et al. (2008) and Hidi (2006) for more detailed information. Dewey’s (1913) seminal work is also worthy of attention.

The second type of research examines the influence of interest on student motivation. These studies strongly suggest that students achieve at higher levels when they are interested and engaged with a topic. Relevant researchers and experts include Schiefele and Csikszentmihalyi (1995) and Tomlinson et al. (1998).

The third type of relevant research measures the impact of various teaching strategies and influences on students’ aca...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Foreword
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1 Interest-Based Learning and Its Counterparts
• CHAPTER 2 Ensuring a Strong Foundation
• CHAPTER 3 Vision Making and Sharing
• CHAPTER 4 Measuring the Impact of Interest-Based Learning
• CHAPTER 5 Finding Interests
• CHAPTER 6 Focusing Interests
• CHAPTER 7 Developing an Action Plan
• CHAPTER 8 Finding and Managing Resources
• CHAPTER 9 Research, Development, and Design
• CHAPTER 10 Developing Real-WorLd Products
• CHAPTER 11 Engaging Authentic Audiences
• CHAPTER 12 Reflecting, Debriefing, and Celebrating
• References
• Appendix A: Case Studies
• Appendix B: Background Research and Theories
• Appendix C: Interest Surveys
• Appendix D: Product Finder
• About the Authors