Whole Dojo

 
Welcome to the Whole Dojo. My name is Phil. I am a Professor at Curry College’s PAL Program, a middle school level Special Education teacher, and doctoral candidate in Lesley University's PhD program studying metacognitive problem solving. The Whole Dojo is an experiment that I have begun based on work drawn from some of research I have been doing in pursuit of my doctoral degree. The core question of this experiment is how to best teach an understanding of metacognitive problem solving so that a student can take control over her/his own learning and self direction. My hope is to develop enough understanding of what drives people to become self-reflective and self-motivated learners to orchestrate a broader educational movement away from our present achievement test based model, to a metacognitive model. Such a model would be based on the student's ability to self-assess and direct their own learning for success.

 The theory, basically stated, is that intelligence is process; how you think is more important  than what you think. The program strives to take content that the student is interested in and expand their understanding of cognition through that content. The goal of the program is to produce individuals that are more cognitively aware and skilled when they approach challenges in the future. My assumption is that students are not only more willing to muster focus and attention on subject matter they are interested in, but will actually activate a greater diversity of thinking strategies when they approach the subject. This enables the teacher to both introduce new metacognitive learning approaches to the student, and also explicitly highlight and mediate the strategies that the student is already using. It is hypothesized that strategies and styles of thought developed in a dojo can be transferred to the study of other content areas by the student. 

For example, last week we did a Whole Dojo on Rick and Morty episode #15, Total Rickall. Essentially, a dojo can be held on anything. The content is the medium through which various types of thinking, logic and behavior are identified, explored and developed. A successful Whole Dojo does require its subject matter to be complex enough to be stretched in the various dimensions of reasoning. It also requires the teacher and student relationship to be strong and positive enough to push each other towards deeper understanding of the complexities presented by the subject matter. If you have seen Total Rickall, and were able get by the fact that it is a cartoon, you may have appreciated the stories complexity. This dojo moved from discussing the series, to the real life implications of toxoplasmosis, and an insight that that the realest people in your own life will be those who you hold both positive and negative memories.  Through Whole Dojo we are teaching students to come to deeper truths about their learning, relationships, and lives by discussing a cartoon, or whatever subject they are interested in. 

 
The Whole Dojo grows out of my work developing public school based programs for students with learning, social and emotional disabilities. In the classroom I developed a metacognitive learning system called Wholistic Problem Solving. This metacognitive approach to academic problems had a tremendously positive impact on my students.

Around 2011, I started Skate Whole Dojo, which used the Wholistic Problem Solving technique to teach skateboarding. It introduced the idea that metacognitive educational routines could be embedded into the learning of a non-academic activity, given that the activity contained a degree of difficulty that required practice and consideration. This research is ongoing at this time. Also, I love skateboarding, and I feel it is an area where a lot of information about the connections between physical health and cognition could be uncovered if studied more deeply. 

The idea behind Whole Dojo has grown out of a metocognitive problem solving practice. The idea turns the present educational paradigm on its head. Rather than starting with a curriculum, into which metacognitive thinking strategies are embedded, a Whole Dojo makes the thinking strategies  central and looks to engage the student’s interests with them. This strange inversion of the educational paradigm will have the students self engage in a process of finding the best ways to enhance their learning of subject matter.

My initial hope was to develop an educational program that students would actually choose to be a part of because it interested them. Once their interest was captured they would become motivated by the deeper ideas of self development and creation.  Motivating students to become self directed and regulated about their own learning is considered by some to be the Holy Grail of education. The introduction of STEEMIT to this building paradigm could be profound.
STEEMIT presents the opportunity to connect this learning experiment with a fascinating economic experiment.

 As a teacher I can not even begin to estimate the number of times I have heard a student complain that my classroom based token economy system should use real money. With this platform I may actually be hitting on something truly revolutionary, as my students will, if I am understanding this platform correctly, be able to earn money for participating in the educational experiences I design.

I am presently in the early stages of development, and feel it is important to start to record my results so that the STEEMIT community can be aware of what my experiment is,  how it is progressing, and give me feedback If needed. I also think it is important at this stage to promote  the value of self knowledge and metacognition as the core principles. I have found these ideas and practices transformative in my usual off line teaching format. I also feel I have a responsibility to others with learning challenges like mine to impart this metacognitive understanding. Plus, I also believe there are students whose challenges may be different and more complex than mine, who would benefit greatly from this approach to learning as it can be not only motivating but transformative. 

When I started Whole Dojo this summer I felt it could be a format that could bring metacognitive problem solving to a wider audience. The introduction of STEEEMIT, with its potential for students and teachers to earn money for sharing their ideas and learning, I believe, could be transformative to the entire education system. However, at this time I am suspending my belief. Presently, I believe  Whole Dojo is an educational experiment that could work synergistically with the STEEMIT platform. How this synergy evolves will be the subject of upcoming posts.