PHOTOS COURTESY OF HARWOOD UNIFIED UNION SCHOOL DISTRICT

Teachers at Vermont’s Harwood Union High School were disheartened when students would ask “What do I have to do to get an A in this class?” on the first day of school. The students were bored and not engaged in classroom tasks. To address the lack of student motivation, a small group of students and faculty developed a strategy to transform teaching and learning at our grades 7-12 high school by introducing the Harkness method of student-driven learning.

The goals of the Harwood Harkness Initiative were to amplify student voice, encourage a diversity of perspectives, cultivate equity and inclusion in classroom culture, and develop the skills of civil discourse throughout our high school. Our initiative, which earned a 2023 Magna Award, directly addresses the challenges inherent in traditional classroom teaching models.

Traditionally, students are trained to be passive recipients of knowledge that is delivered by teachers. Their task is to do what they are told and to regurgitate what they have learned on a test. Teachers are trained to talk and to put a premium on answers rather than on questions. As a result, students often disengage from the learning process and feel that their voices are neither valid nor valued.

The Harkness pedagogy places students at the center of the educational process. It fundamentally shifts the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship and places ownership and initiative for learning on the learner. Students drive class discussions by asking probing questions and working together to delve deeply into complex texts and ideas and make meaning of their investigation. The skills of questioning, valuing different perspectives, and learning how to disagree respectfully, and work collaboratively are the essential skills our students need to acquire if our democracy is to remain healthy, vital and strong. Now, more than ever, we need to teach students how to use their voice in the classroom and in our greater world.

Harwood Unified Union School District (HUUSD) serves nearly 1,800 pre-K to grade 12 students who come from six towns: Duxbury, Fayston, Moretown, Waitsfield, Warren, and Waterbury. Located in the heart of the Green Mountains, Harwood Union High School is a short drive to the cities of Burlington and Montpelier and to several ski areas including Stowe Mountain Resort, Sugarbush Resort, Mad River Glen, and Bolton Valley. These communities are also home to businesses such as Ben & Jerry’s, Cabot Cheese, Cold Hollow Cider Mill, the Vermont State Office Complex, and many small businesses. Our communities include professionals who commute to Montpelier and Burlington, along with sculptors, artists, writers, chefs, farmers, and business owners, all connected to this area and to our Harwood Union school community.

The Harwood Harkness Initiative was launched during the 2016-17 school year with a $100,000 grant from the Rowland Foundation to social studies teacher Katherine Cadwell and the Harwood Unified School District. These funds were used to support professional development opportunities and curricular materials for Harwood students and staff, travel to schools that use the Harkness method of teaching and learning, and to provide compensation for consultants to help us train students and faculty in Harkness learning.

What is the Harkness method?

In a Harkness class, learning takes place through discussions held around an oval “Harkness Table.” All members of the class must question, contribute, and contemplate in order to learn and succeed. This pedagogy fundamentally shifts the dynamics of the teacher-student relationship and places ownership and initiative for learning on the student.

The method gets its name from Edward Harkness, an early 20th century American philanthropist. Harkness challenged private New Hampshire school Phillips Exeter with an offer: He would donate to the school if it could originate and implement a radically student-centered method of teaching, and then use this method in all classes.

The Harkness method promotes authentic student voice and student inquiry, equity, inclusion, and the importance of diverse perspectives. Students develop a sense of autonomy, empowerment, and appreciation for all voices around the table. Harkness learning promotes important skills of civil discourse, critical thinking, questioning, and risk-taking. It values the contribution of all voices in the classroom, and it is grounded in the belief that the one that does the work does the learning.

Student and teacher partnerships

Cadwell formed a cadre of students and teachers who were interested in introducing student-driven inquiry and growing this work from the ground up. They used the principles of the diffusion of innovations theory, which describes how new ideas or behaviors spread through a population gradually, rather than all at once. Students and teachers created the Harwood Harkness Initiative model of classroom transformation together. The school administration, school board, and the superintendent lent their enthusiastic support to these efforts.

Student leaders addressed the faculty at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year, calling for teachers to create a classroom culture based on mutual respect, trust, and collaboration. They expressed their frustration with the existing school and classroom culture, and they wanted the faculty to develop systems to hold students accountable for their behavior. As a result, schoolwide norms for classroom behavior were developed jointly by students and teachers. Moving forward, every aspect of our model to infuse Harkness into classroom practice has been grounded in the power and importance of student-teacher partnerships.

Using this innovative approach to school transformation, faculty and students work together to introduce student-driven inquiry and civil discourse in middle and high school classrooms. Teachers can participate in professional development courses and workshops to learn about Harkness. High school students can enroll in a Harkness leadership class, where they gain leadership skills and learn the essential components of inquiry learning and classroom dialogue. This course is co-taught by a teacher and two students.

Harkness student leaders go into classrooms to train their peers in the skills of Harkness, and they facilitate discussions in middle and high school classes. Together, students and teachers work to plan schoolwide and community dialogues, and students facilitate the discussions at the events. As our work has grown, other high schools in Vermont have been inspired by the model and have adopted the Harkness pedagogy into teaching and learning at their institutions.

Using their training and experience with Harkness Circles, our high school students have led community dialogues on a variety of topics including race, engaging participants of all ages in powerful discussions both online and in person. Student representatives serve on the Harwood leadership team and on the school board. Students plan and direct the high school assemblies. Third and fourth grade students, working with high school Harkness students, made up the majority of the 2021 Renaming Team to recommend a new name for Brookside Primary School, which was previously named for a slave owner.

In 2020, the district established a Task Force on Anti-Racism which has brought new professional learning opportunities to all faculty and staff. This work continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a top priority for our district.

Bring all voices to the table

Since its inception in the 2016-17 school year, the Harwood Harkness Initiative has continued to expand within and outside of the district. In the 2017-18 school year, 12 teachers and 12 student leaders were trained in the Harkness pedagogy. All ninth grade English and social studies teachers received intensive instruction in Harkness, and they developed specific techniques and strategies as to how to scaffold this instruction to “bring all voices to the table.” By the end of the 2017-18 school year, all ninth grade students participated in Harkness discussions as part of their academic program. In the 2018-19 school year, 16 additional teachers and 15 students joined the cadre and were trained in Harkness. Teachers of sophomore students then began to integrate Harkness discussions into their classes. In 2018-19 and 2019-20, 15 additional teachers in different disciplines received Harkness instruction.

Beginning in 2018, the school administration supported the creation of a Harkness professional learning community (PLC), so that faculty could receive on-going professional development to enhance their classroom practice. Coached and encouraged by teachers and students, the school administration began to use the Harkness model in faculty meetings to discuss issues of race, class, and privilege. This model of collaborative inquiry continues to be used for faculty discussions. In addition, the Harkness leadership class for student leaders has grown from an elective activity to an academic offering. During the 2022-23 school year, the class was fully enrolled for both semesters.

From the beginning, the district and the high school administration has supported this initiative. From 2017 to 2021, the district provided funding for a “Harkness teacher coach” faculty position for Cadwell to serve as a Harkness coach and mentor to faculty and students. The district also provided financial support through professional development funds for teachers to take graduate courses in Harkness. The school has provided bus service for students and faculty when they go to regional conferences and other schools to present our Harkness work. The district has provided stipends for teachers who wish to participate in the Harkness PLC. The district also provides compensation for faculty who provide Harkness instruction to their peers.

Be the change

Students and teachers did not wait for administrators to develop educational improvement plans to address the need for student voice in classroom instruction and issues of school climate. They did not wait for the building leaders to hire consultants to train teachers and make them attend workshops that they may not be invested in.

Instead, a cadre of students and teachers came forward and became the change they wished to see happen at Harwood Union High School. As a result, they created a model to infuse Harkness student-driven dialogue into classroom practice that has longevity and sustainability. By using and nurturing student voice, student leadership, and student-teacher partnerships, this program has made a major impact on both classroom practice and the school climate at Harwood Union High School, and our model is now being replicated by other school districts throughout the region.

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Michael Leichliter (mleichliter@huusd.org) is the superintendent of Harwood Unified Union School District, Waitsfield, Vermont. Katherine Cadwell (katherinewcadwell@gmail.com) founded the district’s Harkness program.