Key features

A set of key features and hints based on over forty years of experience in developing enrichment courses has been put together by Julian Whybra, an enrichment education veteran. We found them to be extremely useful for reflecting the transformative power of SENSE.STEAM activities:

  1. Any piece of extension material must provide an intellectual challenge through the quality rather than the quantity of work involved. It should be of an interdisciplinary nature, demand the highest standards, and should be on a subject which is either not on the syllabus or else is a genuine extension which does form part of the syllabus.
  2. The material should provide an opportunity for self-direction, for independence of thought and action, and for leadership and communication to develop.
  3. The material should provide an opportunity for originality and imagination to be demonstrated through problem-finding, creativity, sensitivity, logic and reasoning. If possible, the material should be open-ended.
  4. The material should provide an opportunity for individual attention such that the learner will find it necessary to discuss options with its peers, their curriculum extension teacher, and other adults.
  5. The material should be based, according to good educational practice, on primary sources or first-hand experiences and contain opportunities for extensive reading, should the learner desire.
  6. The material should be obscure enough to be interesting and interesting enough to be compulsive.
  7. Any initial attempt at writing suitable materials should be on a topic about which one can enthuse infectiously.
  8. After the material has been used, it should be evaluated, revised, and re-trialled, until a satisfactory final format has been achieved. The writing of teachers’ notes is an optional, time-consuming but worthwhile activity, especially if others are to use the material. They are also useful for evaluation purposes to see whether aims and objections have been met.

Background

These hints provide a valuable guiding force for educators and curriculum developers seeking to create innovative SENSE.STEAM practices.

While these insights are not prescriptive, they can provide valuable guidance for ensuring that new practices are interdisciplinary, intellectually challenging, and foster self-direction, originality, and individual attention.They also emphasize the importance of evaluation and revision to ensure the quality of STEAM practices.

By highlighting the relevance of interdisciplinary approaches, originality, self-direction, individual attention, evaluation, and revision, these hints can help to ensure the development of effective and engaging while at the same time empowering practices.

The nature of the SENSE. approach expects creativity and resourcefulness unique to the context, including the time, place, community, and other factors, where the practices and activities are being carried.

As such, these hints provide jumping off points and places to begin in the ‘future-making’ process of a SENSE.STEAM educational practice. The design allows for the results to sometimes be not what is expected.