The second phase of the Holistic Think Tank program is launched. HTT awards the next tranche of grants to its partners

Each of the two organizations – which also participated in the first phase of our project – will receive $75,000. The grants are awarded to develop and promote the idea of Interdisciplinary Subject (IDS) worldwide. Our partners will prepare tools and materials for teachers and conduct three seminars for educators in their countries, as well as create an umbrella concept for IDS.

IDS Incubator

HTT Summit 2023, which took place in early March in Ohio, once again proved that the idea of holistic school education and IDS – the methodological tool proposed by HTT – has international potential. Therefore, we decided to continue to work closely with our partners: the Human Restoration Project (US) and the School of Education at the University of Sheffield (UK).

This will allow us to develop and implement IDS methodology in schools in three countries concurrently: Poland, the UK, and the US. In each , during the upcoming months, pilotage lessons will be conducted by a minimum of ten teacher-ambassadors of the IDS program. As a result, we expect at least 600 students in the three countries to participate in the IDS pilot program.

By the end of the year, we will therefore have gathered observations and conclusions from 30 pilots conducted in schools, which will allow us to prepare thoroughly for the next phase of the Interdisciplinary Subject Development (IDS) Program, i.e., the development of a detailed IDS curriculum in schools around the world.

Grantees’ actions

The recruitment and guidance of IDS teacher-ambassadors (at least ten in each country) in the US and UK will be handled by our grantees and, in Poland – by HTT team. Selected teachers will be tasked with preparing and implementing IDS lesson scenarios in their classrooms.

We will also ask our partners to prepare three Seminars each for teachers in their countries. These meetings are supposed to present the idea of IDS as well as coach educators on how to participate in the project.

In addition to introducing the IDS methodology to schools in their countries, grantees are also expected to collect detailed feedback from students and teachers to help us generate practical recommendations for developing the IDS curriculum. The aim is to create an open and ready-to-use database of lesson scenarios aligned with IDS ideology and values from the “What School Ought To Teach” list.

Mission

Simultaneously, the Holistic Think Tank will work in Poland to promote the IDS idea. We will be assisted by experienced teachers who have already expressed their willingness to support introducing of holistic, student-centered teaching into schools.

We are confident that these parallel activities in three countries – Poland, the UK, US – will thoroughly prepare us for the implementation of IDS in countries worldwide. As demonstrated by the statements of educators from around the world that we gathered at HTT Summit 2023 at Ohio State University – the idea of IDS has an excellent chance to prove sustainable and global.