Celebratory Learning for Learners around the World!
Corda Ladd Kinzie and Kathryn Markovchick
corda@adelphia.net and kathryn@maine.edu

“Your way of teaching and learning looks and feels like too much fun to be real learning.”

 Many people question the validity of the learning if learners are having fun while tackling new and maybe difficult subjects and concepts.  So about 17 years ago two women from Maine, a state in northeastern United States decided to formally explore and document their beliefs about teaching and learning.  They named their way of designing learning opportunities Celebratory Learning.

The following attributes are at the heart of Celebratory Learning:  positive interdependence, individual accountability, simultaneous interaction, play, humor, connections to previous learning, theme-based learning, need-based learning, and a brain compatible environment.

The Maine Support Network, where Corda Ladd Kinzie and Kathryn Markovchick are co-directors, has always presented learning opportunities in the state of Maine that added an element of anti-burn out for Special Educators.  For 19 years they received a grant from the State of Maine Department of Education to create learning environments that support the retention of teachers that teach children with disabilities.  In order to support and celebrate teachers that teach children with disabilities, the learning environment becomes as important as the learning!  When participants walk through the door to the “classroom” it becomes clear that everyone and everything that happens here is important to our individual and collective learning.

After presenting Stephen H. Glen’s Barriers and Builders to Relationships several times, Corda and Kathryn looked at each other and the name was born!  One of the Builders is CELEBRATING the learner where she/he is and taking her/him further.  Always celebrating the learner and the learning and consciously letting go of the shaming and blaming that can so often be a part of traditional learning in the pass/fail tracked system.

The elements that make up Celebratory Learning are a mix of what we have learned in the past two decades from the fields of science and education.  Cooperative Learning is a must when designing Celebratory Learning opportunities.  Engaging the learners, using humor, and always connecting the learning to a theme supports memory retention.  If the concepts from Multiple Intelligences Theory, learning styles and the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator are incorporated in the lesson design, all types of learners have access to the content. During the Decade of the Brain (the 1990’s), brain research confirmed this is the way of supporting, teaching and learning and learners!

Corda and Kathryn want to write a book about Celebratory Learning, but are so busy doing it they have not found the time to write.  Lauren, a co-worker at the Maine Support Network, said to Corda one day upon returning from a presentation in Singapore, “You know, you ought to write a book on this.”  “YES!  we should and we want you to ask us every month , What have you written this month?”  That was a year ago and still no time has been devoted to writing the book.  We find ourselves doing about three learning sessions a week on all different topics and there is not the time to write with a schedule like that….well Spencer Kagan would say otherwise, but we haven’t figured out how he does it!!!

Celebratory Learning is a coming together of  the learning environment, the learner and the learning!!!  A Celebration for all teachers and learners!  Below is a more in-depth description of each attribute.  There is also a web (Figure 1) used to show the attributes and authors whose work we honor and consider co-founders of Celebratory Learning.

Cooperative Learning

Celebratory Learning always contains the elements of cooperative learning as defined by David and Roger Johnson and Spencer Kagan. These elements include positive interdependence, individual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, group processing, simultaneous interaction, equal participation and the use of cooperative structures.

Play and Humor

Laughter is a light-hearted gift we can learn to model in our work. Humor is one of the skills that has been documented to add to our students' resiliency as well as our own. Positive humor and play promote a positive attitude in the learner and the learning environment as well as other benefits: increased feelings of hopefulness, pleasurable learning, promotes new insights, enhances self esteem, increases retention, builds rapport, pushes us to divergent thinking, relieves stress, and adds to a better attention level.

Connects to Previous Learning

If our brains are to make any new learning our own then the new learning must be linked to previous knowledge. Celebratory Learning looks for ways to connect what we already know to what we are learning now.

Theme-based Learning

Choosing themes which encompass a topic or concept for intended study makes learning fun and inviting. Themes can be organizers that interest the learner while putting learning in context and/or creating an enriched learning environment as well as linking a skill to the real world of living and working. Themes may be chosen as catalysts for learning, bridges to other learning, or organizing umbrellas. Themes open up wonderful opportunity for metaphor development and push the learner to a higher level of thinking and creativity.

Need-based Learning

As learners we benefit most from learning opportunities that meet our needs both in content and process. Celebratory Learning promotes choice, life-long learning, individual problem solving, independence as a learner, situations which are meaningful for the learner, self-identified needs as well as learning that is important for the entire community.

Brain Compatible Environments

Schools and classrooms that are restructured according to our current knowledge of how the human brain learns will enable participants to learn the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are important to be a successful and contributing citizen. Components of brain compatible learning environments include: absence of threat, meaningful content, choices, adequate time, enriched environments, collaboration, immediate feedback, and mastery.

Learning Community

Building a collaborative learning community is the foundation of Celebratory Learning experiences. A sense of belonging and caring for others moves members along a continuum that has isolation, competition, winners and losers toward cooperation, equality, membership, ownership, empowerment, and responsibility.

Celebration

Celebrating the individual in the learning process actively promotes understanding, acceptance, and affirmation of the individual and their individual perspective. The Celebratory Learning environment offers the learners opportunity to contribute in meaningful ways while promoting mutual respect and trust. Recognizing progress and encouraging any step in that direction is what is aimed for rather than perfection.

Corda Ladd Kinzie (corda@adelphia.net) is co-director and Kathryn Markovchick (kathryn@maine.edu) is director of the Maine Support Network, Readfield, Maine, USA.