Cultivating Curiosity

SECTION THREEDeveloping a Design-Based Learning Classroom

To be serious about preparing students for their futures, the culture of the classroom has to mirror aspects of life outside the classroom. In the Design-Based Learning methodology, a student-built, tabletop City and the classroom itself become student-centered micro worlds, parallel hubs of active student participation.

As they build their City (always based on an actual location), students are taught real-world decision-making skills. These skills can be reinforced by having students learn to compare the functioning of their City to the functioning of their classroom. In this back-and-forth flow of Non-Specific Transfer of Learning, between their roles in the City and in the classroom, ...