Upper School Teachers Discover New Experiential-Learning Strategies During P.D. Trip to Costa Rica

Through a week of lessons, exploration, self-reflection and meaningful experiences immersed in a different culture, five St. Margaret’s Upper School faculty members took part in the World Leadership School educator development program earlier this month in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica.

The World Leadership School is designed for teachers to reimagine learning and apply new strategies to the classroom, centered around experiential and project-based learning.

“We returned to the student side of the desk and were pushed to leave our comfort zones by learning through new experiences,” Upper School Spanish teacher Peter Soderin said. “It was an amazing opportunity, and it further emphasized the importance of creating those type of learning moments here for our students.”

The five St. Margaret’s faculty members on the professional-development trip represented four different Upper School departments – Mr. Soderin from world languages, English teacher Kimberly Kim, science teacher Andrea Chou, and history teachers Simon Fellowes and Kristina Taylor.

Their busy days were a blend of classroom learning sessions and outdoor exploration with cultural storytelling and lessons that bring deeper meaning to the experience.

For example, the teachers did an afternoon hike with a local biologist who gave extensive insight on flora and fauna in the area. They also visited a sustainable chocolate farm, and zip lined through the rainforest before learning from indigenous people about the history of the land they were exploring.

The classroom sessions focused on topics like developing driving questions, student voice and choice, reflection and assessments, and refining project-based learning in the classroom.

The five also visited several Costa Rica high schools and colleges, even stepping in to do quick impromptu teaching lessons in the classrooms.

One of St. Margaret’s strategic priorities is to increase “learning through doing,” with the knowledge that experiential learning opportunities provide context, connections and relevance beyond the classroom and help students connect better with the “why” of their learning experience.

Through this professional-development opportunity in Costa Rica, where the faculty “learned by doing” in a new setting, the five Upper School teachers experienced the impact that the teaching approach has and gained insight to better apply it into their own classrooms.

“It was a life-changing experience,” Ms. Kim said. “By collaborating with experts in project-based and experiential education, we learned how to integrate these concepts and introduce them into our lessons. We are excited to continue increasing these opportunities here at St. Margaret’s.”