Critical Explorers: Eleanor Duckworth's Legacy Lives On!

"Learning is Messy." 

— Eleanor Duckworth

One of my absolute favorite courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Education was my T440 course on Teaching & Learning. The course, taught by my amazing advisor, Eleanor Duckworth, forced me to think of teaching as an art of developing "critical explorers" in our students, always asking them to "Tell me more...."


Since graduating from HGSE in 2007, I have been part of a list-serv for all T440 alumni. Our conversations about teaching, learning, reaching students, and pushing them to think about the WHY in all of their lessons are ongoing -- and I walk away always being able to take something new and valuable into my classroom.


Word has it that Eleanor is going to retire in the next few years. In order to ensure her lessons and legacy NEVER stops, some T440 alumni created a website and group called Critical Explorers in her honor:


From Eleanor's announcement:

Here's what's happening: In anticipation of my retiring in a couple of years, a group of us has been creating a non-profit organization called Critical Explorers to help "the having of wonderful ideas" take hold in classrooms. I am touched, honoured, and, to tell the truth, thrilled by all that this group has accomplished and is planning. Our website is almost ready, making this an exciting moment — a good time to celebrate and share with you this evolving work.

I hope you will join me in supporting Critical Explorers in any (all!) of the following ways:

» Come to the party and bring colleagues or friends
» Visit the new website http://www.criticalexplorers.org/ and online curricular resources
» Join the online forum and encourage others to do so
» Consider making a financial contribution


More about Eleanor's incredible career:

Photo by Janet Smith

From: http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/learning/LD2-2.html Critical exploration in the classroomHGSE Professor Eleanor Duckworth A classroom teacher can take on the role of researcher, observing what students have learned, while guiding students' explorations towards a deeper understanding of the subject. HGSE professor Eleanor Duckworth describes how teachers' "critical exploration" of students' behavior as they are engaged in an activity can reveal the nature of their understanding. An educator can gain insight into students' understanding by observing and talking with students as they work through complex problems and projects. Eleanor Duckworth describes a dialogue between a teacher/researcher, Lisa Schneier, and six high school students, four of whom spoke English as a second language, as they read a poem together1. Among the students' initial reactions to the poem were: "I don't get this." "It don't rhyme." "It's silly." "It doesn't make sense." These responses provide no evidence of what students understand about it. But the responses are revealing. They highlight the fact that the students bring their prior expectations about poetry to the learning experience. To reach an understanding of the poem, a student makes a connection from the poem to what he or she already understands. Over the course of several sessions, Schneier asks questions based on students' comments and has the class look at the poem in different ways, such as by identifying phrases that "go together" in meaning. In the midst of an animated class discussion, a student conveys, in his own words, that the language of the poem is figurative; there are many things that the word "you" could refer to in the poem, even things other than people. This statement demonstrates a new understanding about poetry—that non-literal meanings are possible. The teacher could observe this learning in action, and with this understanding, the student is making an enormous leap, toward understanding the nature not only of this poem but of all poems. Teachers critically explore student learning through projects in poetry, science, mathematics, history, spelling, or any other part of the curriculum. As students struggle through a problem, the teacher puts them at ease, invites them to talk about and keep thinking about their ideas, and reacts to the substance of their answers without judging them. In this researcher mind-set, the teacher refrains from signaling to the students what she wants them to say; doing so would sacrifice the opportunity to know what the students actually think. Rather than being expected to provide a certain answer, the students reveal their own understanding through their responses. This does not mean that the teacher's own curricular goals are pushed aside. On the contrary, a teacher's knowledge in the subject matter and skill as an educator are simultaneously put to work as she deepens the students' understanding and helps them to take their own thoughts further. 1Schneier, L. (2001). Apprehending poetry. In E. Duckworth (Ed.) "Tell me more:" Listening to learners explain (pp. 42-78). New York: Teachers College Press.