Its official, the failure of the constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential and inquiry based teaching model has been proclaimed. Well, at least from the likes of Paul, John, and Clark the three horseman of the ‘no fun’ school of thought………….smiling face emoji.
An obvious overstep, however, the reading/analysis of these fine gentleman flies pretty much 180 degrees away from the guiding philosophy of Darren’s’ education approach vis a vie career programs. Essentially, make it real and relevant and make it fun and the learning occurs all on its own – that is pretty much the entire game when it comes to career education from my perch. How does one achieve these two metrics? – well, every career awareness events, initiative or programs, no matter the grade, are designed and delivered in such a fashion to provide experiential (hands-on) and inquiry based (explore) opportunities for its many and varied participants. Students indirectly or directly discover a broad swath of insights and knowledge via their participation.
And yes, it is done with a fair bit of problem solving occurring in tandem as well. The whole premise of career education is to afford students these real world exposures not otherwise available via the traditional classroom delivery model. These experiences play a significant role in evolving and shaping paths and/or decisions for students as they navigate their way through high school. Nothing is locked in stone in terms of direction, however, at the very least a sense of general direction is developed.
The old adage of, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink perfectly sums up career education. If you drink, great, if not, that great as well at the very least you now know where the water is and you know the process to find more it in the future.
https://www.bu.edu/ctl/ctl_resource/experiential-learning/
https://www.kings.uwo.ca/current-students/experiential-learning/
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