Design an obstacle course, not a syllabus. One thing that we have validated repeatedly is that no amount of lecturing will get across the core points of this class; some things just have to be experienced. But as the instructors, we can’t fully control or design each student’s experience—rather, we have to build an obstacle course through which an experience is likely to happen.
When designing an obstacle course, our building blocks are habits, challenges, and constraints. We have learned that it’s important to keep the objectives for the students concrete, even if our teaching goals are lofty and abstract.
Teach habits through challenges