This activity is designed to encourage teachers to explore diverse examples of impact-driven education in the context of a workshop. The goal is for participants to think of examples they have already experienced or heard of, but also to imagine new possibilities. You will find ready-to-use inspiration cards to implement this activity.
Imagination Drifting: Explore Examples of Impact-driven Education with Teachers
Introduction
When we introduce teachers to what impact-driven education is, we run into the risk of having a purely conceptual conversation. To avoid this, it is important to encourage teachers to identify concrete examples of impact-driven education. By connecting the principles of impact-driven education to real-life examples, you can promote deeper insight and reflection.
The goal of this activity is to invite teachers to explore diverse examples of impact-driven education in the context of a workshop. Moreover, this activity encourages them to think of examples that they have already experienced or heard of, but also to imagine new possibilities.
Activity Outline
Step 1: Introduce the Principles of Impact-driven Education (15 minutes)
The first step is to introduce the principles of impact-driven education as presented in the Learning Landscape. You can do this using a power point presentation or in any other way you see fit.
Step 2: Invite Teachers to Explore Familiar Examples of Impact-Driven Education (15 minutes)
Working in groups of 3-4 teachers, invite them to explore examples of impact-driven education they already know of. Examples can be courses they have designed themselves or that they have heard of from other colleagues. Examples can come from within or outside the university. The goal is for them to share and discuss real-life examples of impact-driven education. This activity can be proposed as a general brainstorm or, guided by questions according to your objectives. For example, you can encourage them to think of one example that clearly represents each of the principles of Impact-Driven Education. They must write down these examples in post-its of one color.
- To help them expand their thinking, and consider impact-driven education at different levels, participants can make use of the “Think of” inspiration cards. They provide prompts that can help them identify previous experiences of impact-driven education. For example: "Think of... graduation projects", "Think of... the use of authentic cases", etc.
Step 3: Invite Teachers to Imagine New Possibilities for Impact-driven Education (15 minutes)
In this step, invite teachers to think of examples of impact-driving education that do not exist yet. This is the moment for them to imagine and talk about their wildest dreams about how impact-driven education can look like. They must write down these ideas in post-its of a different color.
- To encourage their creativity, participants can use the “What if?” inspiration cards. They provide questions to think about new possibilities for impact-driven education. For example: "What if... we think outside of the campus?" "What if... we think beyond disciplines?", etc.
Step 4: Plenary (15 minutes)
Invite each group to share their experience during both steps of the activity. According to your objectives, you can propose different reflective questions. For example: “Which idea(s) inspired you the most and how can you apply them in your course/project?”, “How can we bridge the gap between existing examples of impact-driven education and new innovative ideas?”, among others.