Reviving Our Educational Life: An Anti-Design Case of an Alternative to Traditional Course Design
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18357/otessaj.2025.5.2.110Keywords:
course design, instructional design, case study, rewilding practiceAbstract
In this paper, we report our attempt to revive our educational life by participating in a rewilded graduate course, meaning one where we treated learning as if it was a living ecosystem which, like the natural world, thrives best when we meddle with and try to control it less, not more. A rewilded education is formed on the belief that when learning is allowed to unfold in unexpected ways outside of narrow, pre-set, meticulously-designed parameters, it becomes richer and more transformative. We describe how we accomplished this through (a) initial course preparation; (b) early class sessions and how they built trust among the students and the instructor; (c) individual formation activities each student engaged in; (d) joint experiences, usually student-led, that made up much of the course structure; and (e) how reflection and assessment took place during and at the conclusion of the course in the forms of class diaries and ungrading letters. Along with our report, we reflect on common questions that could be asked about a model such as ours, including whether all students are prepared for an education like this, and whether these mechanisms are appropriate or useful in other contexts.
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