Physics teaches us that refraction happens when light approaches a different medium from a new angle. In the case of light approaching a prism, the result is a beautiful spectrum of visible light. This phenomenon mirrors the transformation that occurs within a student when learning. Rather than bouncing content back at their teacher or allowing content to travel through them, a learner takes hold of the content and bends it, changes it, wrestles with it, pulls it apart, puts it back together in a new way and makes it their own.

Last summer, our team discovered insights like this one while learning alongside academic leaders from Jesuit secondary and pre-secondary schools across North America in Fr. Johnny Go SJ’s “Master Class” on a 21st century Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP). At the heart of Fr. Go’s rendition of the IPP is the idea of refraction or “refractive learning”. Refractive learning emphasizes reflection and action by integrating thinking with rich forms of feeling and doing, empowering learners to explore and deepen their sense of self and their purpose in the world. Ignatian pedagogy stands as a unique and valuable resource as together Ignatian educators transition from the global pandemic and enter this new phase of the Information Age.

Inspired and energized by our experience last summer, we collaborated over the past nine months to transfer, or “refract”, our learning about 21st century Ignatian pedagogy in various ways at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon, USA, and within the Jesuit Schools Network (JSN) in North America. The workshops and retreats our team designed and facilitated for first- and second-year teacher cohorts as well as for full-faculty IPP enrichment contributed significantly to Jesuit High School’s greater effort to move towards using the IPP intentionally in the design of learning experiences across all classrooms and programs. Leveraging design tools that follow the Experience-Reflection-Action progression of the IPP such as the template at right (Fig. 1) structured our planning and design.

Our team was also afforded opportunities to scale and facilitate our project-based workshop “Mapping Students’ Journey” to the Academics JSN cohort in Omaha, NE this past November and to the Co-Curricular and Student Life JSN cohort in Dallas, TX in March (Fig. 2). The workshop prompted both cohorts of Ignatian educators and leaders to explore the third Universal Apostolic Preference: Journeying with Youth: Accompany young people in the creation of a hope-filled future. Participants co-created maps that illustrated the many obstacles, puzzles, and onerous choices students face in their school, and engaged in dialogue about how the four strands from the JESEDU-Global2021 Colloquium (educating for faith, depth, reconciliation, and global citizenship) can be an orienting and empowering force when accompanying youth in the midst of such challenges.

Our experiences in Omaha and Dallas were breakthroughs in our work. Designing and facilitating the “Mapping Students’ Journey” workshop revealed to us a number of essential design principles for IPP enrichment experiences for adult learners. Simply talking at educators about the core concepts and instructional moves that define progressive Ignatian pedagogy is not as effective as actually practicing what we preach. Refractive learning requires a shift in the roles students and teachers play in any given learning environment. Rather than position our students and adult learners as sponges, spectators and products, we must position both students and adult learners as inquirers, meaning-makers, and creators. Similarly, rather than assuming the roles of experts, performers, and inspectors, all three of us situated ourselves as designers of learning experiences and environments, as facilitators of reflection, and coaches of transfer of learning.

Many more valuable design principles come to mind as we reflect on our approach to IPP enrichment this past school year. Essential ingredients include engaging in a backwards design process that encompasses identifying key insights and action goals (two major concepts in refractive learning) as well as embedding “anchors” or performance tasks, brief formative assessments, opportunities for practicing with design tools and posing questions. What’s more, articulating the purpose of a workshop or retreat at the outset and aligning that purpose with the various roles and problems our adult learners face in their practice were also effective strategies for winning the engagement of our audience. We also learned about the importance of having fun and not being too hard on ourselves in spite of the pressures that come with trying new things and taking risks.

Questions abound as we look ahead at continuing our collaborative work to improve IPP.-based instructional practice at Jesuit High School. Most of our workshops this year focused on instructional theory and design. But how do these different components of the IPP “breathe together” when engaging in the backwards design process and what does each component look like when successfully implemented in classrooms, within our counseling department, in campus ministry, in DEI programming, et cetera? Slowly we are developing a shared language of practice across our faculty and staff. How do we begin to use that shared language to create synergy within departments and across disciplines in order to move toward more equitable learning? How do we design Ignatian assessments and rubrics in a way that makes sense to students and for students’ learning?

Working in a team made all the difference. Without each other, we would not have been able to accomplish what we did. We hope sharing how we “refracted” our learning from Fr. Johnny Go’s master class this school year is a source of inspiration for educators and leaders who are searching for ways to support and challenge teachers to move away from a transactional approach to teaching and move towards a “refractive” approach to learning that transforms the hearts and minds of the young people we accompany in our respective Jesuit schools.

About the Authors:

Russ Fiorella is about to complete his second year of teaching in the Theology Department at Jesuit High School. Russ’s professional interests include project-based learning, instructional leadership, and designing workshops and programs for adult learners. He will be starting doctoral studies at Gonzaga University this summer. (rfiorella@jesuitmail.org)

Jennie Kuenz (pronounced “Kenz”) teaches Physics and works in Jesuit’s Arrupe Center where she oversees Global Networking and Ecological Justice. She is an alumna of the school and is in her 19th year of teaching at Jesuit. (jkuenz@jesuitmail.org)

Greg Allen is the current Ignatian Formation Director and a member of the Theology Department, having held the positions of Campus Minister and Theology chair over his 34-year tenure at Jesuit. (gallen@jesuitmail.org)

This article was originally published in https://www.jcapedu.org/