Human (students) : Nature  

Educators Co-Learning  

Sandy Chan (project chief curator and educator)  

 In the early stages of planning and organizing the “Co-Learning Squad” project, I have been already aware that I needed to create opportunities to facilitate the exchange of teaching experiences and ideas among instructors from across different disciplines. 

Promoting “coexistence” is not merely a talk. In order to make the entire project work, educators and teachers are clearly the crucial parts in guiding students how to learn. I have always placed great importance on communication and collaboration within the team, and I proactively arrange opportunities for mutual learning and sharing. 

Therefore, the “Co-Learning Squad” is not aimed only at students; creating co-learning among educators and teachers from different disciplines within workplace settings is also an underlying aim of this project. 

Curatorial Strategies : 

1/ Try arranging for educators to lead for more than one school, so they have opportunities for self-reflection between schools, class-facilitation skills improvement by leading in different schools to accumulate experience. For example, Louis Fung leads ecological education at three schools, and Sunny Wong participates at two schools. 

2/ The co-learning environment isn’t confined to indoor meetings; it also extends to the pre-workshop field trips joined by the whole team of educators. 

3/ I will arrange opportunities for educator(s) and teachers to meet, to evaluate and exchange ideas (this of course includes the participation of myself and the teaching assistant) during the early phase, after each class session, and at the last session. 

4/ At different stages, I will arrange “educators team exchange meetings” to bring together the ecology educator Louis Fung and the arts educators involved in various schools (rebeka tam + Sunny Wong + Chung Wai Ian) to meet and exchange, learning from one another.

5/ At each educators co-learning exchange session, we invite the educators to share: “What are the essential elements in your definition of coexistence? How can coexistence be promoted?”

I’ll include my definition & thoughts, sharing them with educators in the agenda. 

“Within the experiences and frameworks of everyday life, how can we respect one another’s differences and, across different domains, find the content—the perspectives on things—from which we can learn from each other. The hope is that, through this, we can face difficulties together or create a vision of truth, goodness, and beauty.  Let us have the courage to experiment for a period of time, and to make adjustments after listening to one another; even if it fails, we would keep trying together with mutual respect.“

What are your thoughts on “Coexistence”?