An Introduction to Creating a Culture of Thinking

Within the constantly changing context of the world in which we live requires us to rethink what a quality education means. It is no longer enough to develop compliant (and often complacent) learners merely making their way through school. Today we seek to develop engaged and empowered learners ready to take their place in the world. To accomplish this we need to not only change the curriculum and our instruction, but also the culture of our schools. But how do we create culture? How do we shape and mold it so that it supports students’ development as thinkers and learners capable of deep learning? This course will demystify the creation of classroom and school culture through an examination of the process of enculturation. We will do this by looking carefully at the various “stories of learning” that schools perpetuate. We will then look at the “new story of learning'' we want to make a reality for our students and examine how the eight cultural forces can help us to enact that story. We conclude the course by examining one of the very powerful cultural force of “language” and how it acts to shape the culture of the classroom.