CBL: From Lessons to Learning Experiences

The idea behind making the shift from “lessons” to “learning experiences” is to rethink your approach to your day-to-day classroom planning and practice. Instead of viewing curriculum as a checklist, how might you reframe your approach to pacing and design to create an immersive experience that replicates what the work of your discipline might look like in a professional, real world context? How might you use the skills you’ve identified as essential to inform your selection of relevant, meaningful content? At the core of making the shift from “lessons” to “learning experiences” is the fundamental principle that students are empowered to have voice and choice in how they learn and how they transfer their learning and understandings to new and authentic contexts.

This course is:

• Collaborative: Ideal for individual teachers, school teams, learning leaders, and instructional coaches
• Flexible: Fits within a teacher schedule; you choose your time commitment in this experience.
• Practical: Designed for immediate application; grounded in foundations of competency-based learning while prioritizing action steps educators can take now.

In this course, you will:

• Dive into readings on the conditions necessary to promote deeper learning.

• Act as a CBL anthropologist and observe a non-school learning environment to expand your vision for how, when, and where learning can happen.

• Design for a shift from lessons to learning experiences in your own practice.

The purpose of the Competency-Based Learning series is to guide educators in translating the theoretical underpinnings of CBL into sustainable classroom practices. Each course in this five course will prepare educators to take actions for competency-based learning in their own classrooms and schools.

Regardless of where you teach and the language your school uses for learning goals and grades, a CBL approach offers a mindset and a framework for supporting students in developing skills that transfer across subjects and contexts and that contribute to environments and systems that promote educational equity. You do not need to be an educator in a “CBL school” to join in this series; all five courses are designed to apply to any classroom and curriculum.

Each course is self-paced and includes a downloadable PDF workbook for design and reflection. Participants will leave with practical, tangible work products that can be applied directly to their practice, whether teaching in online, in-person, or in hybrid learning environments this year.

These five courses have relevance as both a series and as individual courses taken on their own. Participants will retain access to all courses to allow for ample time to revisit ideas, resources, and examples.