"The gift that I wanted for my granddaughter was the soft shelter of what might be Earth, but could well be mistaken for heaven." ~ Kathleen Dean Moore
Education Beyond the Ordinary
Education is in desperate need of a re-think. The separation of academic learning from the "world out there" is inadequate to address the very real challenges our students and our planet are facing. Outdoor education in the form of 'outdoor gym class', 'week-at-camp experiences', and 'hot chocolate making in the woods', while providing unique, engaging, and often memorable experiences, lacks the capacity to integrate with academic learning in a meaningful way.
Headwater is different. We start with the premise of re-imagining the classroom: not only taking students outside, but integrating academic lessons into the world around us: taking the place we are in and intentionally building a course that will draw the curriculum components out of the natural and cultural landscape.
We develop and deliver curriculum-linked, for-credit courses that teach the Ontario Secondary School curriculum and so much more. Beyond the textbook and more than outdoor or experiential learning, our courses are immersive education.
To achieve this, we take a deliberate, long-term, three-pillar approach to educational programming. Recognizing that institutions are often siloed between research and practice (those who research are rarely also those who practice, and vice versa), we bring them together. Always research-based, and always integrated, we follow a cyclical model of Development, Delivery, and Dissemination in everything that we do, enabling us to be at the forefront of educational philosophy and pedagogy – of both research and practice – advancing the field through an integrated approach.
As a boutique organization with an intentionally small team, everything we do is thoughtful, purposeful, and highly personalized to the needs of our partners. Schools get to know us, and we get to know them.
To read more about our research activities and findings, click here.
1
Development
Develop and integrate curriculum-linked programs which are unique to the needs, culture, and mission of the school, melding academic and nature-based education
2
Delivery
Put our development into practice through the organization, facilitation, and Delivery of the programs, in partnership with the school and its teachers
3
Dissemination
And Disseminate any findings, research results, philosophies, and pedagogies which were discovered in the delivery of the program, with the goal of improving the educational work and expertise of the school, building their internal capacity and educational excellence
This Development, Delivery, Dissemination model is cyclical, with the results of Dissemination informing the Development and Delivery of future programs.
Partners in Educational Development
Impactful Research | Exemplary Programs
Headwaters develops curriculum-linked, for-credit experiential courses that deliver the Ontario Secondary School curriculum while going beyond the textbook: a canoe trip down the Missinaibi River to earn a grade 11 geography credit; an immersive conservation training program in Temagami as the culminating assessment of an environmental science credit. This is real, high-calibre academic education delivered in an extraordinary way, pushing the boundaries of what learning can – and should – look like.
Viewing research and practice as linked, we partner with schools to develop unique programs, facilitate those programs, and then learn from the results to continually improve and iterate, remaining responsive to today yet forward looking to tomorrow.
