Welcome to the Learning Institute at Appleby College – a Space to Celebrate Learning!
Learning plays a central role in human development. We learn from the time that we are infants, discovering everything about the world around us at a rapid rate, to our learning progressions through the various phases of life’s journey.
For many of us, the act of learning means to acquire knowledge or skills, to study, to experience or to be taught. What does learning mean to you? What were pivotal moments of learning that come to mind when you consider your formal schooling or your life learning?
What does learning mean to you?
For me, so much clicked into place when, during a positive education course, I discovered that my top strength was that of curiosity. I’ve always been inquisitive, full of questions, wanting to know the why behind ideas, decisions, and theories. Perhaps it’s no surprise that I went on to study music at the post-secondary level, a field where there is no one linear artistic pathway. I love the notion of more than one correct answer. I appreciate the possible, the unknown, and the not yet discovered. I’m comfortable living in the messy moments -- both theoretically, and in actuality, if you’ve ever seen my desk – and improvising and ideating around problems that seem insurmountable.
If we can move forward in tackling problems with curiosity, gratitude, and a designer mindset, we will likely have a more positive learning experience, no matter the outcome.
Several years ago, I was introduced to the book Designing Your Life by Stanford’s Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. This book was transformational in that it focused my need to start thinking like a designer in all areas of my life. When we begin to think like designers, we realize that designers love problems. They also approach problems with a different perspective than we might consider. When many of us are faced with a problem, we might approach this with a negative or worried mindset, perhaps thinking in terms of how are we possibly going to be able to overcome this obstacle? I have learned that designers view problems with a growth mindset open to challenges, particularly obstructions, which they call ‘wicked problems.’ When we find ourselves stuck and unable to move forward, then we have a wicked problem – one that is resistant to resolution. If we can move forward in tackling this problem with curiosity, gratitude, and a designer mindset, we will likely have a more positive learning experience, no matter the
And it was out of this idea that the Learning Institute at Appleby College was created. This space comes out of collaborative dialogue and ideating around areas of design thinking, cognition, learning, research, and growth.
So, what exactly is the Learning Institute and why might it matter?
The primary intent of the Learning Institute at Appleby College is to create and provide a space where a community of researchers and innovators can thrive. Our goal is that employees at Appleby College will have opportunities to research, ideate, and innovate and that they will then share their learning with the community. And since innovation is process-based, we want to hear about the beginning of their journey, the aha moments, the moments of challenge and failure, the recovery moments, and the ongoing questions and discoveries. There are no right answers here and there are no wrong ideas – this is a space of sharing our stories, questioning, and collaborating.
Our goal is that employees at Appleby College will have opportunities to research, ideate, and innovate and that they will then share their learning with the community.
The official mission of the Learning Institute is advancing innovation and growth to promote learning and teaching locally and globally.
So here we are at the beginning of our learning journey in this space. We hope that you will read, engage, comment, collaborate and we invite you to share your stories as well. We are here in this moment, ready to embark on the creation of this learning institute together.
Join us!
