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Discover the QUESTion Project
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We would like to introduce our readers to the QUESTion Project!

Howard Gardner interviewed founder, Gerard Senehi, to get a sense of what this important project is all about. Their conversation below will give you an outline, but please read this paper (Education's Role in Shaping the Future) to learn more about the QUESTion Project’s view on the promise of whole child education and social-emotional learning.

What is your goal with this paper, who are you trying to reach, and what do you want them to take away?

I propose to prepare students in two ways: for their own future lives—and for becoming citizens who are engaged and care for the common good. I’m trying to reach educators, policy makers, and others who care about the future of education. I hope to heighten awareness of what is possible, outline the methods to achieve it, and make more room in education for this important work.

Why is this important?

We are failing to address the whole child, to strengthen the core of what makes us human. We are also failing to prepare our youth for a rapidly changing and unpredictable future, as well as some of the challenges they and society will experience. I want to convey urgency but also introduce new possibilities. I think it’s only by bringing light to concrete possibilities that we can expand our approach with students in thoughtful and healthy ways.

We must provide students with an outlet and method to make sense out of life. Otherwise, students can easily feel disconnected from themselves and from others—depressed, anxious, with a feeling that something is wrong while not having a way of knowing what that might be. The consequences of not having this support are evidenced in the current mental health crisis of our youth.

As for the broader society, we must create a space where students from all walks of life can see and experience this idea: we all are on a common human journey together, even as we each have our unique path. Otherwise, we will not overcome the false barriers that too often separate youth from one another and that they then carry into their adult lives. The result: a depressingly divided citizenry.

How have you addressed this in your own work in education?  

For a long time, I felt there was something fundamental missing in education. Twelve years ago (in 2011), my wife Francesca and I went on a quest to identify and tackle this missing piece. Our intention was to empower students’ authentic identity (or identities), their confidence in their agency to express and pursue who they are, and their identification of purpose in their lives and future. We wanted to go beyond teaching social-emotional skills and support students with the core of what makes us all human.

Over five years, we worked closely with many groups of students and teachers; we sought to identify some of the most important questions/topics about life and design the best ways to engage with them. In doing so, we co-created the QUESTion Project (a program of the nonprofit Open Future Institute). This is a semester/year-long daily class where high school students engage together with questions about who they are and how they can shape their lives with meaning and purpose. The class is delivered as a credit-bearing elective, advisory, or part of the health class. Teachers go through a training regimen that focuses on the understanding, methods, and dispositions that can engage students’ humanity and empower students’ agency on a shared learning journey.

Through this process, students define their identity as they explore their relationship to life. They are helped to take charge of their lives—not just considering what they are going to do, but also who they are going to be. They develop an ongoing relationship with purpose that can inform their lives and futures. And they do all this together, with vulnerability and openness, which allows them to express their own and experience each other’s humanity. When this approach works well, students break down fundamental barriers between them—barriers that otherwise are often carried into adulthood, further perpetuating divisions in society.

A recent study of the QUESTion Project found a significant impact on individual students. They also identified important implications for schools and society: a multi-faceted way to support student wellbeing, overcoming assumptions about others, and engaging with purpose as an individual and for social good.

As the implications of engaging students in this way go beyond our organization, we believe it’s important for us to share our discoveries and test our conclusions.

what are you calling into question, and what are the misunderstandings?

I believe that there is a fuller way to understand what it means to address the whole child and to support educators in doing so. In the paper accompanying this introductory note, I go into detail; I seek to convey how it’s possible to approach the core of what makes us human in very concrete ways, without reducing the approach to something narrow and losing the depth of what it means. This is part of the tremendous potential I see ahead.

I caution against the limitations of addressing only one or a set of social-emotional skills without engaging the underlying layers that define our humanity. I’m also concerned with certain approaches that address aspects of what makes us human—such as identity or purpose— in a way that, regrettably, can sometimes cause more harm than good.

An example: Suppose we reduce deeper elements of who we are, such as identity, to a set of labels or over-simplified ideas to which we “lead” students; this well-intentioned approach can inadvertently make students adopt static labels that limit the ongoing development and discovery of who they are and who they can become. We have to make room for students to embrace areas of life as profound as identity and purpose in a way that holds the depth and complexity of life; otherwise, whatever our laudable intentions, we do students a disservice.

Tell us a bit about your own background and what inspired you to create the QUESTion Project

My education at a first-rate college gave me great skills and knowledge, but it did not provided me with a way to find out who I was, and left me deeply confused about life, without a way to determine how to go forward.

When I became a teacher, the situation became clearer. What had been missing in my own education, particularly in high school, was something missing in the overall school system. Still, I had no idea how to address this lack, this gap, this uncertainty. Only two decades later did the pieces of the puzzle start to come together.

One day the president of my college wrote to all alumni/ae expressing his concern for the development of character and citizenry of his students and asking for advice. In response, I offered the nascent ideas for what is now the QUESTion Project. It took a few more years and the collaboration with my wife, our team, hundreds of students, and teachers for the QUESTion Project to take the full form it has now and that I describe in the accompanying paper.

What challenges do you anticipate and how can you resolve those?

I see two main challenges ahead. The first is for educators, funders, and policy makers to recognize the fundamental need for and importance of this work. There is of course accelerating recognition of the importance of SEL and character development, but that is not enough. We need to make a compelling case for going beyond supporting students with a set of knowledge, skills, or attitudes; we need to support the deeper elements that make us human. We need to implement this approach (or others in the same spirit) with theoretical rigor, demonstrable practices, and research, just as the world of education has been doing with respect to SEL.

The second challenge is anchoring this work during the school day. School leaders are naturally concerned (particularly in this post-COVID time) with shifting student learning time and teacher resources away from addressing learning loss, grades, and graduation. And, understandably, they sometimes see the time needed for programs like the QUESTion Project (a semester/year-long class) as something that competes with those objectives and, since it does not lead directly to higher SAT scores or admission to selective schools, as an extra that can be discarded.

However, after having worked with 18 public schools and 12,000 students for the last 7 years, we have an uplifting message to share. School principals tell us that the development of identity, agency and purpose in students not only contributes to the students’ wellbeing and mental health; our approach also supports their academic achievement, helps their college essays, and gives them a stronger foundation for college preparedness.

What do you most hope to achieve with your work, and how can others carry it on?

The purpose of this work is for students to have structured support and space to engage with some of the core aspects of what makes us human, to do it together with their peers, to have the opportunity to bring out the best in who they are and how they can contribute to others. I see an approach like this as foundational for the creation and maintenance of a thriving society.

Of course, I hope that the QUESTion Project will spread to schools broadly. I also see our work as an important piece to a larger puzzle and need—a new subject field in education that places students’ humanity at the heart of the learning process. Students need this kind of age-appropriate support at every stage of their learning journey. This need is much bigger than a single project like ours. To that end, I hope to bring light to insights that can be foundational to build a new subject field, a new discipline, a new theme and focus in education. My dream is that all teachers in the future will have access to training that includes the understanding, methods, and disposition that can best engage student’s humanity and empower their agency on a collective learning journey. My fondest hope is that the accompanying essay will contribute to that long-term aspiration.

As far as how others can carry it on, this will necessarily and properly continue to be a co-creative process. Neither I nor my close colleagues have all the answers! The best insights, decisions, and paths forward reveal themselves as we engage together and stretch our minds and hearts to consider what is truly going to best serve students and society. Envisioning what’s possible allows us to create innovative approaches and solutions these should enable our youth to engage with the deepest parts of themselves, develop the skills to fully embrace life and contribute to society, while holding room for the mystery and wonder of what life is all about.

How optimistic are you about the possibility you envision?

Every step we (and other organizations who focus on this work) have taken strengthens the foundation for what will be possible.

Some people tell me “The educational system is never going to change.” My sense is that the system won’t change…until it has to! And the way that it will have to change may only become clear when we realize that we have no other choice.

If we continue to fail to prepare students in a substantial way for their lives and future, we will continue to experience a mental health crisis. We will perpetuate barriers that stem from our inability to see our common humanity in our differences. And we will continue to be unprepared to respond to the needs of this moment in history…not to mention the challenges of an even more rapidly changing world.

On the other hand, at a time when the educational system fully supports students to develop their authentic identities, to take their lives into their own hands, and to pursue a life of purpose, we will be standing on completely different ground.

In the end, declaring that the current system will never change limits what is possible. Systems do change and that takes time; therefore, this work requires a long-term mindset. We need to lay the foundations for this change with as much integrity and foresight as we can and fervently strengthen and demonstrate a vision for what is possible, as others have done before us.

We advise our readers to look at Senehi’s paper, Education's Role in Shaping the Future, to learn more.

Remembering Bob Asher (1929-2023)
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by Howard Gardner

Robert (Bob) Asher was a “good worker.” Indeed, he exemplified the three attributes of that praiseworthy descriptor. He was excellent at his work; he was completely engaged in his work; and he carried out his work in a moral and ethical way.

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Robert Asher, left, receives the Herzl Award from Lester Crown (2008)

We came to know Bob because of his founding role in the Israel Academy of Arts and Sciences. Working with the incomparable Raffi Amram, Bob played a major role in launching the school, and he remained its steadfast supporter for several decades.

When one carries out educational research (as we have done for half a century), those who participate often express a polite interest in learning what was found. And almost always, that’s it.

Bob was totally different. When we approached him about studying IASA, he was extremely helpful, making the necessary introductions and connections. He followed the work throughout the course of our study. And once the study had been completed, he gently prodded us to share the results so he could help bring about changes and improvements in the school. Again, this has rarely happened on our watch.

Usually, a philanthropist, a founder, and one who follows through, are three different roles in education, but just as Bob Asher captures “the three E’s of good work,” he synthesized three crucial roles in education.

He will be missed. We hope that all in education, wherever they are, can learn from his inspiring example.

The Good Project Core Concepts: Models and Mentors
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by Danny Mucinskas

Throughout our lives, we will meet countless individuals and be exposed to the stories of thousands of other people through mass media. The relationships that we develop, whether direct interpersonal relationships (such as a deep friendship or family bond) or parasocial relationships (such as being a fan of a celebrity) can have profound effects on our values, identity development, decisions, and actions. Consider:

  • What types of relationships in your life have influenced you in positive and negative ways? 

  • Is there a particular person or persons who shaped who you are today? 

  • Have you held this role for someone else in your life? Do you think you’ve helped shape who they are in positive ways? 

In various lines of qualitative work carried out by The Good Project, related to both the way that adolescents navigate the world and how adults conduct their professional lives, we have often focused on two specific types of influential relationships. Research participants have spoken about:

  1. Role models. These are people who others often seek to imitate or emulate based on some characteristic, behavior, or set of achievements in a particular field. People often find them to be inspiring and to represent something that they seek to accomplish themselves and are described as “looked up to.” While people often have a direct relationship with their role models (e.g., an older sibling), it is also frequently the case that role models are widely recognized individuals who may not know the people who are emulating them (e.g., a widely known author).

  2. Mentors. These are people who others look to for guidance. Unlike role models, mentors (e.g., a teacher or a close colleague in a leadership position) are by necessity always known well to those they are advising, who are often seeking to follow in their footsteps. Mentors are often people who have experience or knowledge of a particular domain and can provide their mentees with support or feedback that can be actively used towards achieving the goals or ambitions of the mentee.

From research, we know that having role models is important for a variety of reasons. For example, role models are often responsible for increasing motivation towards goal achievement (Morgenroth et al., 2015), for setting examples of how one wants to work (particularly in parental role modeling; Wiese & Freunde, 2011), and can even inspire others to make bold decisions like starting a company (Bosma et al., 2012). Role modeling is also potentially associated with the development of character strengths (Johnson et al., 2016), with advancement of values like multicultural harmony (Onyekwuluje, 2000) and has been found to influence certain health outcomes (Yancey et al., 2011). 

Similarly, mentorship is also tied to a variety of positive outcomes and is often important in directly transmitting interpersonal support. In the health professions, mentorship models are relied upon for the sharing of knowledge, values, and emotional encouragement between older and younger members of the workforce (Henry-Noel et al., 2018), while mentors who embodied a “Close Connector” relationship model were found in one study to be most beneficial for youth outcomes (Austin et al., 2020). In the business world, 75% of executives say that having a mentor has been important to their careers, and 90% of workers with professional mentors are happy at work. It is clear, then, that across the lifespan, a relationship with a mentor can assist people in growing their skills and reaching their potential.

The demonstrated benefits of finding role models and mentors prompts all of us working in education to help young people to cultivate and maintain these types of relationships. From The Good Project’s years of investigating and speaking to individuals about these relationships, we have developed several insights which may not only be helpful for educators but also for adults as they do their work across the lifespan.

  • We are all members of a multitude of communities, whether the city or town where we live, schools, families, workplaces, hobby groups, and more. We can each find and connect with mentors or role models in any one of these environments or circumstances. In an educational context, by allowing students to choose personally meaningful role models or mentors from any arena of life, the likelihood increases that students will make choices that represent a diversity of voices and identities. Thinking expansively about who might be a role model or mentor reduces the reliance on easy answers or moral paragons who might often be held up as exemplars but who may seem one-dimensional or out of reach (e.g., Mother Teresa, George Washington).

  • No mentor or role model is perfect, and there may be a temptation for all of us to find one singular individual who possesses a multitude of admirable qualities or who is in exactly the right position to provide future career advice. Instead of looking for one individual, we have learned that it is possible for people to engage in “frag-mentoring.” Frag-mentoring is the concept that we can have several mentors at once, dependent on their qualities and their areas of expertise. For example, one might choose a senior colleague at work as a mentor for their tenacity and wisdom, even if they aren’t always someone who displays warmth as a friend, and also have a religious leader as a mentor for their spiritual devotion and community leadership, even if they aren’t always organized. The counsel or example of each one of these individuals might serve different purposes in particular circumstances, dependent upon one’s needs.

  • Negative examples can be equally as powerful as positive ones. While the definitions of role models and mentors we offered above presuppose positive interactions or a desire to mirror, the opposite may also be true. People who don’t embody the expectations or qualities we value in others, such as a micromanaging boss or a noncommittal family member, can still be instructive from an opposite vantage point. What is it about these individuals that encapsulates what we don’t want to be like, and could their example serve as an “anti-mentor”?

  • Concrete and direct action can come from mentorship or role model imitation with planning. Identifying individuals worth emulating as role models or interacting with as mentors is a first step, but the qualities or goals that make these people inspiring and worthwhile exemplars should be specifically named. Naming the qualities of a role model specifically or the goals that a mentor can support can be a tool for intention-setting and getting down to the particulars of what might be productive and life-changing about these relationships. For institutions like schools and workplaces, defined programs can also make mentoring concrete, such as a guest speaker series or a peer mentoring program.

While these insights may help a general audience think about mentors and role models, it can simultaneously be difficult to identify boundaries on who is a suitable individual to fulfill those roles. Notably, in forthcoming data collected by The Good Project, students (primarily secondary schoolers) were asked in an at-home reflection activity to identify multiple exemplars of “good work.” Analysis of their responses revealed that youth are already drawing on both close (e.g., family) and distant (e.g., celebrity) role models and that the qualities they admire in these individuals also cross a variety of complex dimensions of character strengths, including intellectual, moral, and performance character. Yet while these findings are encouraging, students often spoke of business leaders who have questionable scruples (e.g., Elon Musk) as people worthy of imitation as role models. 

While we believe in the idea identified above (that no mentor or role model candidate is perfect), every individual represents a complicated totality of decisions, experiences, and interactions with others and the world. As a project that believes in excellence, engagement, and ethics in human pursuits, The Good Project’s stance is to encourage the choice of mentors and role models who embody convictions and virtues with universal appeal, including common good, equity, empathy, perspective-taking, and sustainability. To complete the three-dimension framework of “good work” that is at the center of our project, leaders who are excellent and engaged in their pursuits must also be ethical.

Some further resources related to role models and mentors that you could explore are:

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