Follow-Up to Lesson

The open-ended lesson was piloted, and interesting things that would apply to emergent curriculum and emergent program planning came out. Specifically, what surprised me was the quiet in the room (I had expected spirited conversation and interaction), the mild confusion about being given freedom to move around the room at will (I had expected relief), and the slight discomfort with a less-guided activity (I had expected hunger to learn to emerge). Students did have a series of questions to consider, but it wasn't until they played around with another program planning model in groups that the connections to the other models placed around the room began to be made. Note to self: start with the safety of group discussion and shared dialogue to illuminate the topic and build a base of shared experience, and THEN get students to venture out alone.

Of interest for program planning was that this border between order and chaos, the structured and the unstructured, is probably important to emergent program planning as well. While some people thrive in the self-directed environment, and are comfortable with the unpredictability of "emergence", the diversity of the stakeholder group would suggest that the management of change, the management of connections, and the management of concept-reassembly need to be considered thoroughly. The program planner needs to be able to do this management, and to be comfortable with a certain degree of unpredictability and emergence. The idea of remembering that familiar ground makes for a better take-off spot than unknown territory is also valuable. (Ie. committees need to come to an understanding of something before they can move into new risks).