Design Principles

10 Design Principles

Expeditionary Learning is based upon ten principles of design which reflect the values and beliefs that Kurt Hahn, founder of Outward Bound, felt were critical for successfully educating young people. The design principles are the foundation for what we do throughout the school year with students. In fact, we focus our attention on one design principle each month, with "Solitude and Reflection" being a theme all year long. Below are descriptions of each design principle, taken directly from Expeditionary Learning Core Practices: A Vision for Improving Schools.

1. The Primacy of Self-Discovery (September)

"Learning happens best with emotion, challenge, and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. A teacher's primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can."

2. The Having of Wonderful Ideas (October)

"Teaching in Expeditionary Learning schools fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed."

3. The Responsibility for Learning (November)

"Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of an Expeditionary Learning school encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning."

4. Empathy and Caring (December)

"Learning is fostered best in communities where students' and teachers' ideas are respected and where there is mutual trust. Learning groups are small in Expeditionary Learning schools, with a caring adult looking after the progress and acting as an advocate for each child. Older students mentor younger ones, and students feel physically and emotionally safe."

5. Success and Failure (January)

"All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities."

6. Collaboration and Competition (February)

"Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Students are encouraged to compete, not against each other, but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence."

7. Diversity and Inclusion (March)

"Both diversity and inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, and respect for others. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students investigate and value their different histories and talents as well as those of other communities and cultures. Schools and learning groups are heterogeneous."

8. The Natural World (April)

"A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the Earth and of future generations."

9. Solitude and Reflection (all school year)

"Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need to exchange their reflections with other students and with adults."

10. Service and Compassion (May)

"We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of an Expeditionary Learning school's primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service."