If you’re anything like me - you loathe a test. I am a notoriously bad test taker, but a truly capable individual. So, when I first read about Peter Nonacs, I thought - “woah, he really did flip the script for his students!”
Imagine this…Nonacs, a professor at UCLA walked into his Behavioral Ecology class with what he deemed was an impossibly difficult exam. Instead of a normal testing environment filled with anxieties of students, he encouraged his students to work together, laptops and notebooks open, sharing thoughts to find what they as a group deemed the best answer. Now, most of us might consider this cheating under normal circumstances, but what Nonacs was trying to do was give his students more than facts and figures but experience.
You see, Nonacs’ class is about teaching behavioral ecology, and an important part of understanding that is a deep understanding of animal behavior. When he allowed the students to group together, he gave them the animal experience of working together to win the “game” (the situation at hand). He gave them notice in advance that he would allow them to work together on the test and utilize anything at their disposal. Instead, they plotted and took a logical approach to how they could make the best of their circumstances to get the best grade. Since nothing was out of the question, they became resourceful and thought outside the box. Because there was no box!
Now, this may seem like a stretch, but we love how Nonacs made learning experience for his students. He thought beyond the confines of his classroom and asked himself “what could students take with them once this class is over? What if you did the same thing? What if you approached your everyday scenarios without worrying about resources or confines, limitations or boundaries? Based on what Nonacs found, your creativity would soar. So this week, take a cue from Nonacs’ and his students. Imagine your circumstances without the confines of our preconceived thoughts of what should be and allow them to grow into what will be. I can’t wait to see what you create!