Purpose Powered Learning Needs a New Home

All learners should have purpose.

Sadly, many young learners inside our traditional school system can’t find their purpose. Some lose it while spending years traveling to and from classes that don’t matter to them.

Last fall, Tom Vander Ark wrote an article for Getting Smart online titled “Purpose Powered Education”.

Vander Ark writes,

“’What if purpose were the purpose of education?’”

“Dr. Heather Malin, Director of Research at the Stanford Center on Adolescence, poses this provocative question in her 2018 book, Teaching With Purpose.”

“Marlins defines purpose as ‘a future-directed goal that is personally meaningful and aimed at contributing to something larger than the self.”

“A sense of purpose motivates and organizes shorter-term goal setting, goal action, and behavior. ‘With a sense of purpose, young people are more included to seek out and gain the skills and expertise they need to fulfill their goals, so purpose can drive learning that results in the necessary college and work life skills to succeed,’ explains Malin.”

“What if we put purpose, this motivating drive, at the center of education and, as Malin asks, ‘let that purpose be the primary driver of students’ engagement with school?’”

“Malin’s advice to make purpose central to education is compelling but not simple – purpose is multidimensional and constructed individually. A sense of purpose includes beyond-the-self motivation, a meaningful higher-order goal, and taking action. These three dimensions develop independently and integrate, weaving together what is personally meaningful with what is socially consequential, resulting in fully realized purpose.”

“To develop a sense of purpose beyond self, Malin suggests inviting learners to think about the kind of world they want to live in and how will they participate in creating that world.”

“’A purpose goal is one that is personally meaningful and connected to what is most central ot your identity and feels like something you must do. Most important to our definition of purpose, it is motivated by a desire to be of consequence in the world, to do something positive for the world beyond the self’ explains Malin.”

“For Malin, purpose is acting on a beyond-the-self-oriented higher-order goal in a sustained way. In How to Navigate Life, Dr. Belle Liang and Tim Klein called this applied persistence a purpose mindset. Angela Duckworth said, ‘Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals.’”

“Malin suggest asking learners what they want for their future, who they are becoming, and how they want to be in the world.”

“’In order to best help students achieve their goals as aspiring entrepreneurs, we must first help them build durable skills and understand what their passions and talents are,’ said Julie Lammers, Senior Vice President at ASA Research.”

“Learners can take purposeful action and build durable skills in work-based learning-internships and client connected projects. Work-based learning also builds social capital. ‘Building social capital and making connections with adults who’ve walked students’ desired paths is paramount to success for budding entrepreneurs,’ said Lammers.”

“Purpose is developed individually, intentionally, and iteratively by combining information, experience, reflection, and social capital. Learning about the needs of the world (through place-based learning, social studies, travel, and studying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) invites a purpose beyond self. Spirals of career exposure and work experiences informed by values development and aptitude assessments expand and then prioritize possible futures.”

“’Purpose mindset is about manifesting one’s reason for being, which is simultaneously selfish and selfless, private and public, and internal and external,’ said Dr. Sasha Barab, CEO of Lifelab Studios. ‘It is about taking the time to know who one is, what one has to offer, understanding if the world needs that, and then doing the hard work of realizing it,’ added Barab.”

“Helping learners develop purpose isn’t quick or easy (or permanent) but it’s a powerful motivator that builds performance and persistence and informs co-constructed learning journeys.”

The picture Vander Ark presents here is quite different than what is going on in most schools today. It seems like the traditional school’s purpose is one of standardized curriculum, pacing guides, lesson plans, and testing. Far from the “purpose powered learning” Vander Ark discusses.

That’s why I’m confounded that Vander Ark, and others, think what they talk and write about – like purpose powered learning – will ever take place within our current traditional school system.

It won’t because the traditional system and its leadership won’t let it happen.

Lots of news for the Friday News Roundup tomorrow. SVB