New Angus MacLean Professor of Religious Education teaches first class
Twittering and Transformative Bowling: Learning That Takes Root
March 13, 2009
In January, Dr. Mark Hicks taught his first class at Meadville Lombard, The Congregation as Learning Community, a course designed to create multigenerational learning communities that deepen the relationship and insights of both teachers and learners. Rooted in John Dewey's notion of "having an experience," students themselves experienced what it means to engage new and old ideas in ways that capture the imagination of the mind, body and spirit. For example, thinking about the role of 'relationships' and 'displacement' in the context of building a learning community, students gathered at the Smart Museum of Art on the University of Chicago campus to witness the experience of Chinese residents who were displaced when construction of The Three Gorges Dam removed them from their homes. Students themselves considered their own issues of relationship and displacement during the visit, as they were asked to communicate using a new, cell phone-based technology called 'twittering' to communicate their response to the exhibit. In the video below, Dr. Hicks explains how and why he chose this type of activity.
Another activity Dr. Hicks developed for the students is what he calls "transformative bowling," which is as an exercise for arousing wisdom that is hidden in our bodies. In this case, he wanted students to contemplate how issues of "competition" shape human interaction and the ability to meet expectations of the self and the group. The rules of Transformative Bowling were anything but typical, which encouraged students to encounter a familiar activity in a strange way.
"Afterward, some of the students said they felt themselves shift as they moved from one bowling pattern to another. When students collaborated and removed the competitive edge, they rocked with laughter and conviviality. Some even started bowling strikes! Yet, and as the game turned more 'traditional,' many students turned inward, focusing on their own performance and lessening their sense of connection to other members of the group. I noticed that many of their scores dropped, they were more intense," said Dr. Hicks. "While this exercise was fun for the students, it also opened the door for a previously absent, visceral critique on how competition and individualism shapes human interaction. I wanted our seminarians to not only come to terms with these sorts of insights, but to experience how they can create deep learning experiences in their communities that are powerful for all types and ages of learners. I wanted students to think about how to evoke cognitive and intuitive connections in broader ways than simply having a good read about it," said Dr. Hicks.
Pam Rumancik, a student in our residential Master of Divinity degree program, said that Dr. Hicks "brought a completely different way of imparting information to us. Every part of the day had us doing." In that 'doing,' Rumancik said "I was able to integrate the learning right away -- in that day and at that time."
By combining the reading with the action and then providing an opportunity for the students to talk together about their reactions to the bowling, Dr. Hicks says he has provided an alternative type of "learning container" for students to think about issues of teaching and learning within congregations. Jennifer Dant, an MDiv student in Meadville Lombard's Modified Residency Program, said this particular class "reinforced for me the philosophy that the process of learning together is more important than the end product."
Dant, who is in her fourth year as the Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples, said Dr. Hicks's teaching style met her needs for both "head-oriented, intellectual learning, and visceral learning." (Dant is also the author of the book Unitarian Universalism is a Really Long Name, recently published by Skinner House.)
Dr. Hicks will be offering a week-long course this summer at Ferry Beach entitled Educating for Barack's World: Creating Educational Experiences that Promote Justice and Cultural Intelligence. Dr. Hicks says the class will provide opportunities for students to grapple with the complex range of issues that must be considered in order to build multi-racial, multicultural learning communities. With a huge smile, he added, it will also be an opportunity for "whole body learning on the beach." (For more about this class and our other summer offerings, click here.)
Dr. Mark Hicks, right, and Pam Rumancik at the Smart Museum of Art. Rumancik is "tweeting" to her classmates about her response to an art exhibit on "Displacement."
