Ideating a Passion Pathways Program
This post aims to provide a framework for the effective implementation of a passion pathways program for senior high school students. The justification behind creating this program is threefold:
- Allows students to dive deeply and comprehensively into the exploration of how they can grow by engaging with the world in a way that aligns with their skills and passions
- Allows students to assume their identities as global citizens to address personally meaningful issues by creating collaborative, meaningful, shareable, enduring, reflective projects that serve their neighbors, the community, and the world
- Develops the student as a digital citizen, equipping them with the skills and resilience to communicate, document, and create effectively and authentically in the digital era
In the face of creating such a program, I reviewed the requirements and real examples of IB CAS and AP Seminar. Both are programs that aim to address students' individual interests.
A Little Research
While there's no doubt that IB CAS and AP Seminar provide for alternative educational experience and academic research skill improvements respectively, I've found high variability in the quality of experience in the former and a lack of intrinsic interest in the latter for most students.
For IB CAS, experiences counting towards the 7 or 8 learning objectives have high variability on the scale of intensity. The mandatory nature of these experiences for IB DP may also mean that some students won't dive deeply to take advantage of CAS.
While this model works for the IB DP because it is desirable as a diploma program, I want the Passion Pathways Program to be viewed as a desirable achievement as a standalone program and therefore need to instate standard quality control measures so that the products show real growth in students.
While the AP Seminar course gives students freedom over the choice of topics, the skills developed in the course are strictly academic research skills. The rigor makes the course similar to IB's TOK requirement. While these are important skills, I believe that the development of such skills should be the focus of an academic reading and writing class and not AP Seminar.
In short, I believe the former lacks rigor and the latter lacks flexibility. It makes sense that the IB CAS lacks rigor because it is just a part of the more comprehensive IB diploma program. It also makes sense that AP Seminar lacks flexibility because it is an AP course meant to develop scholarly skills.
From this, I conclude that an effective passion pathways program should be rigorous but intrinsically motivating because the student is invested in growing. Artifacts from the program should represent growth, and the final portfolio should show that the student tried to address and improve his or her community.
The First Requirement
I believe a successful passion pathways program has participating scholars that are excited to do so, and that participants do not treat it as another checkbox or another 'thing on the resume'.
This means the program needs to be voluntary but with high enough entrance requirements so only the students who intend to seriously go through the program are accepted.
The Qualification Process
To establish the standard for the applicant's work, and to make sure that stakeholders know what they are committing to, any application process to the program should aid in the completion of the program.
This is similar to an independent study project offered at university with a project proposal before entry is granted, and a probation period to guarantee work quality before a continued stay in the program is promised.
Rubrics and requirements for the qualification process need to be formalized.
The Documentation Process
Like the IB CAS program, a digital documentation process needs to be set up. This makes it easy to track milestones and maintain accountability. Requirements should be specific to maintain quality but allow for flexibility according to students' skills and preferences. The documentation process should be personal, and metacognitive. The option to share the process publicly would generate real-world buy-in from students involved.
Unlike the IB CAS program, the documentation process is not for showing how learning objectives have been met but should be reflective evidence on the progress of passion exploration according to the goal set previously.
Once a goal is set, the student should be allowed to modify but not significantly change the goal. Doing this allows for inherent flexibility, but discourages quitting too early which may compromise the value of the program. Students insistent on changing their goal after the program officially begins should risk forfeiting the program altogether depending on the quality of the product.
Rubrics and requirements for the documentation process need to be formalized.
Demonstrating Pathway Completion
Both the IB CAS and AP Seminar have excellent measures in place for a student to formally present their findings, reflect on their journey, and showcase their product.
Presentation formats should be standardized and should center on the student's reflective voice rather than just showcasing the results of the program. Artifacts should be used as support to show growth in understanding of the issue, as well as development as a digital citizen. A consideration is that the presentation itself could be something digitally shareable.
Rubrics and requirements for demonstrating pathway completion need to be formalized.