As part of the Tarrant Institute Learning Lab, educators & students across Vermont undertake participatory action research. An integral part of the process requires participants to craft and share the story of their work so others can learn from both their bright spots and belly flops.
The Learning Lab supports participants in each year's cohort with weekly reflection prompts, coaching support, and feedback on stories in progress. Educators are encouraged to work with and alongside their students in crafting multimedia reflections to inform the larger field of education.
Here are some examples.
At Harwood Union High School, Kathy Cadwell has spent the past five years partnering with students on understanding what makes a conversational space work for learners. In a recent online workshop, they shared some of the common roadblocks they've encountered, along with the ways they've found to get around them.
At Orleans Elementary School, in Orleans VT, humanities teaching team Kyle Chadburn & Andrea Gratton undertook participatory action research into using playlists to help their students with self-direction. With the support of Learning Lab VT, they shared the results of that action research in a recent online workshop for a national and international audience.
At Charlotte Central School, instructional coach Allan Miller, and educator Tasha Gray used their time as Learning Lab participants to conduct participatory action research on project-based learning. They and their students chose to partner on project-based learning that paralleled the ISS journey through the cosmos, presenting their findings at the 2020 Middle Grades Conference, at the University of Vermont.
The Warren School, Warren VT
Proctor Elementary School, Proctor VT