Consulting Philosophy
Consulting begins with your why…
My philosophy of consulting is grounded in the work of Kolb’s EL Theory of Learning, which is based on work by John Dewey, along with other notable theorists such as Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, and William James. I’ve worked in education for over 16 years—as a classroom teacher, coach, coordinator, consultant, keynote speaker and entrepreneur—and what I offer to you and your team is…
CHALLENGE and EXPERIENCE followed by REFLECTION leading to LEARNING and GROWTH
My Consulting Process
Understand Intention
All learners must be clear from the beginning why the experience is the chosen approach to learning. Intention represents the purposefulness that enables the experience to become knowledge and as such, is deeper than the goals, objectives, and activities that define the experience.
When you know your why, your what become more clear and impactful.
Build Relationships
Meaningful relationships are multi-layered, and extend beyond the relationships we have with ourselves, with each other, and with our students.
We also need to plan and prepare for:
- the relationships we will our learning environments (offline & online)
- the relationships we have with community (local & global) learning partners
- the relationships we have with technology
- and we need to understand the relationship we have with the process of learning
Engage in Authentic Experiences
Relationships bring a certain level of authenticity to any experience. Authentic experiences are meaningful to any learner because they are grounded in the ‘real world’ – the world we often associate with outside of school.
Consulting can serve as the foundation for a new bridge between school, home, business and community. Our learning together will lead to the exploration of new places, in ways that connect us with new people, as we co-design new experiences and opportunities for growth.
Make Time for Reflection
Reflection is an act of looking back in order to process experiences. Metacognition, a type of reflection, is a way of thinking about your own thinking in order to grow.
Reflection is second stage in Kolb’s Experiential Learning cycle, but it also deserves attention as foundational component of my consulting philosophy. Teaching ourselves to practice reflection in a variety of ways will help us develop as more metacognitive thinkers.
Reflection is a mindset and an intentional action that can transform a simple experience into a learning experience. Reflection is necessary for us to measure our success.
Monitor Learning for Continuous Improvement
Any learning activity can be dynamic and engaging, but what matters is that the process of learning provides the richest learning experience possible. The feedback loop is paramount to every individual’s success.
As such, the learning process needs to be sufficiently flexible to allow for change in response to what that feedback suggests. While reflection acts as a catalyst for new hypotheses and knowledge based on our documented experiences, other strategies for assessing progress against our intentions should also be in place. (i.e. blogging, sharing on social media, conferencing with other educators, students, parents, admin… , engaging in professional learning communities, mentorship, etc.)
Assess & Evaluate Learning
In order to assess and evaluate learning, processes should be documented with regard to your intentions and identified learning outcomes for later reflection.
Assessment is a means to develop and refine the specific learning goals and success criteria identified during the planning and process stages of the experience, while evaluation provides comprehensive data about the experiential process as a whole and whether it has successfully met your intentions and goals.
Celebrate!
Recognition of learning needs to be intentionally integrated throughout the experience by way of the reflective and monitoring processes, documentation, and sharing of accomplishments.
Celebration of learning not only provides closure to a cycle of learning, but maybe more importantly, motivates learners to begin another. Celebrate!
Work With Me
Virtual Consulting Sessions are a more cost effective and timely way for me to work with you and your team(s). Sessions are booked on dates and times that work for everyone, and we meet online in a video conferencing room using either Zoom, Hangouts, or Skype (your preference). Contact me and let’s discuss your needs!
Leigh Cassell Consulting 