A Pedagogical Design for Human Flourishing

In A Pedagogical Design for Human Flourishing: Transforming Schools with the McCallister Model, Cynthia McCallister presents a revolutionary paradigm for education that is practical, conceptually convincing, and grounded in contemporary behavioral science theory. Beginning with the assertion that equality of educational opportunity depends on access to experiences that are sufficiently appropriate and rich to enable the achievement of diverse human potentials, she provides a comprehensive school design for intervention that demonstrates how to achieve it. Grounded in recent advances in learning science, McCallister asserts three necessary conditions for learning: the need for learners to have access to diverse, rich environmental experiences; the need for them to enjoy fundamental freedom and autonomy to direct their own learning; and access to full and free forms of association. In her model, these conditions provide what is necessary for learners to coordinate their minds with others to develop their identities, personalities, and talents. These conditions are animated in concrete procedures that can be adapted to a wide variety of populations in formal, informal, and remote educational settings. The procedures take the form of rules that learners comply with in the exercise of their freedom. When they are followed, the rules provide a grammar for the social norms that govern the moral worlds of learners and compel them to flourish. Tested over two decades in her work as a teacher, scholar, and school reformer in more than 20 NYC public schools, the McCallister Method has delivered an innovative and disruptive approach to schooling that has proven successful in finally transforming low-performing industrial schools into 21st-century learning organizations. Online support material includes assessments, records, surveys, and more to be used in school design and classroom settings.