Holyoak Music Studio

MAPLETON, UT – Candice Holyoak, owner and piano teacher at Holyoak Music Studio, began incorporating The Art of Learning principles into her teaching with a focus on helping her students develop resilience and a growth-minded relationship to learning.

Holyoak explores the concept of Valuing Process Before Results by teaching her students a specific process to follow when learning a new piece of music that breaks the practice into smaller chunks and builds proper technique and accuracy over time. She also offers her students opportunities to include a variety of additional practice elements of their choice to build a sense of ownership of the process of learning the piece.
Holyoak introduces her students to the concept of The Middle Way through a metronome exercise that encourages them to stretch their boundaries and push the limits of their current abilities. As they progressively increase the speed at which they play a given piece, students develop an understanding of what they are capable of today, and what they need to work toward moving forward. In addition, this exercise allows students to practice Investment in Loss by examining the points at which their playing broke down and planning for how to improve.
An exploration of Beginner’s Mind starts with a discussion of a baby’s approach to learning and the curiosity and joy they have for the process of discovery. Holyoak expands on this principle with her students by bringing out their own curiosity, helping them ask questions about “what if” and “why” as they play new pieces of music.

“What I love about The Art of Learning”, Holyoak explains “is that Josh has broken down the mystery of mastery, making explicit the “things that can’t be learned” – the principles that great achievers have known and learned implicitly. I want my students to have the opportunity to be consciously aware of these principles for learning, so the doors of mastery will be open to them as well, if they choose it.”

826 Valencia

San Francisco, CA: 826 Valencia, a non-profit organization founded by author Dave Eggers and educator Ninive Calegari, provides free after-school writing tutoring to children in under-resourced communities with an aim to support them in telling their stories, developing confidence and pride, and making the world a better place.

Writing and homework tutor Felicia Spahr is using The Art of Learning principles to develop student engagement, expand student creativity, and deepen students’ understanding of the valuable role writing can play in their lives.

“These kids are really bright,” Spahr explains, “but many of them seem apathetic and jaded when it comes to doing school work and writing.  I would love for them to not only feel excited and challenged by learning, but also feel a sense of ownership over the process. It would be beautiful to see a student excited by a school assignment and find their own path to integrating that love into their life in their own unique way.”

Spahr believes that using principles from TAOL will benefit the students because of the structured approach it provides, while still allowing a sense of freedom for both herself and the students. Her aim is to bring that sense of excitement and challenge to the students in her writing group.  Through Listening First, Spahr will help students identify their passions and strengths and bring them in to their writing. By using improvisational acting as a planning process for writing, she will help them explore Using Adversity as an on-ramp for creative inspiration and Investment in Loss as a tool for revision, first within the improv and later within the writing.  Finally, her students will explore Valuing Process Before Results throughout, as they experience the open-ended creativity of both improvisation and writing.

MYEP Ltd.

BANGKOK, THAILAND – Adam Prance has been an educator in international schools for the past 7 years.  After becoming frustrated with the limitations of the public education system (while recognizing its value and importance), he has developed his own education project with the aim to both teach English to Thai adults, and to introduce them to the ideas from The Art of Learning in hopes that they will encourage their children to develop a growth-oriented mindset.

The Art of Learning, in my mind, is the most practical and nuanced exploration of performance and training that I have come across,” explains Prance. “Many of the principles are not new, stretching back thousands of years; but what TAOL does is make them relevant to the modern world with a powerful narrative. The work of Carol Dweck exposes the mistakes made in the so-called self-esteem movement and Josh Waitzkin’s own experience demonstrates these principles in action. “

This 20 session program will introduce students to each of the learning principles outlined in the book, connect each principle to real life scenarios, and provide the participants with practical actions they can take in their own lives to begin to internalize the concepts. The program is expected to work for participants of Intermediate level (B1) and higher.

Each session will work through a PowerPoint covering a learning principle in addition to exploring the grammar and syntax of some sentences. The session leader will share personal stories from their own life and participants will be encouraged to do the same if they feel comfortable, as well as answer questions that dig into the concepts.

“Thailand is a rapidly modernizing country with a very traditional education system (often with up to 50 students in a class). Many in the younger generations recognize the shortcomings of “chalk and talk” education and want to counter the potentially damaging consequences on their own children – or on themselves.”

Exercise Medicine Group

BENDIGO, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA – Jamie Tarrant is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, and the Director of Exercise Medicine Group Australia. He leads a team of progressive health professionals who prioritize the learning process through movement based and self-reflective activities for young adults – providing the scaffolding to become the best versions of themselves. Programs center on the felt sensation and directing attention inwards with a long term view on sporting performance, reducing injury rates, decision-making and presence.
Tarrant and his team are embarking on a 4-year program in collaboration with the Girton Grammar ‘Sport Excellence Program’ in which students will explore The Art of Learning principles as they relate to physical activity. Term One hones in on the Resilience principles, with students spending roughly three weeks each on Valuing Process Before Results, Investment in Loss, Beginner’s Mind, and Using Adversity. Through games and activities that teach balance, breathing techniques, proper form, awareness and response to challenge, and reflection, each student will deepen his or her relationship with these learning principles in connection with both their physical, emotional, and academic lives.
When asked about how his work with The Art of Learning Project has affected his students and staff, Tarrant explained, “The Art of Learning principles have brought attention to not only what we are teaching, but how we are teaching to achieve creativity and excellence in our clients and students. The structured incremental learning focuses on the development of a deep understanding of the fundamentals – ‘bridging the gap’ between academic research and the students’ long-term skill retention and self-discovery”.

St. Michael’s Parish School

ASHBURTON, AUSTRALIA – The staff at St. Michael’s Parish School are committed to developing flourishing and animated learners in prep through grade 6.  Christian Williams, a school leader with a passion for building resilience and empathy in children, is working with his staff to develop growth mindsets and build deep pedagogical knowledge and capacity across all subject areas by utilizing key concepts from The Art of Learning.

“The resources that are provided by The Art of Learning Project are incredibly valuable to teachers and students,” Williams explains.  “The systematic framework for building students’ confidence, self-efficacy, and metacognitive skills is the best I have ever used in 10 years as a teacher.  I have also grown professionally and personally by embracing Josh’s philosophies”

The primary focus of the school program is Investment in Loss, where students and teachers are given the time and support to attempt skill mastery in any discipline about which they are passionate.  By encouraging risk-taking, patience, and self-reflective learning, students are shown how to Value Process Before Results and develop a deep sense of their own abilities and potential.

Bloom Education

SHANGHAI, CHINA – Bloom Education brings together children and teenagers from diverse cultural groups with an aim to provide a holistic educational experience, especially in subjects not typically taught at school. They strive to connect people from different backgrounds and to inspire a love of learning in all of their students.

Strategy Advisor and Youth Mentor, Osmond Wang, approached The Art of Learning Project while preparing for a two-week summer camp program based in Xicang, Sichuan Province, which would focus on exploring TAOL principles while providing students with opportunities to truly enjoy the learning process. An important component of the program was to support the students in developing empathy and discovering the connections between the three participating cultural groups – the Han ethnic majority, non-Han minority, and Americans or Canadians with Chinese heritage.

The entire student population participated in daily martial arts practice as well as a variety of academic, arts and crafts, and other activities, including small group city-building games and debates themed around selected topics. The facilitators led the groups in 1-hour reflection sessions at the end of each day, during which the students contemplated and discussed their learning. Through these reflections, students were able to Value Process Before Results by noting progress and growth, and practice Investment in Loss as they made plans for how to approach a situation or problem differently in the future. Finally, at the end of the 2-week session, the student who demonstrated the most commitment to the process of learning was voted “most dedicated learner” by the other participants in the camp.

“In the beginning (and for many days…), the mandatory daily 7am martial arts practice was not an activity that the students enjoyed, due to the early morning time slot it was scheduled for” shared Wang. “But by the end of the camp, it was the most popular activity and the martial arts teacher was voted best teacher among all the instructors, which was a testament to the quality of his teaching and also an indication of the students beginning to grasp (emotionally and behaviorally) the principles of learning. Martial arts offered a medium through which students could clearly see their own progress – of being able to do something they weren’t able to before.

“I think it shows that learning activities can be structured in ways that allow students to enjoy learning even when the initial learning experience requires elements of discomfort. I love that – when discomfort is enjoyed, even desired, in service of learning.”