Rhizomatic Learning – Why we teach?




  • Why do we teach?
  • What does successful learning look like?
  • What does a successful learner look like?
  • How do we structure successful learning?

Why do we teach?

What does successful learning look like?




What does a successful learner look like?


How do we structure successful learning?
Establish a context

Community Curriculum





102 thoughts on “Rhizomatic Learning – Why we teach?

  1. what if……

    a teacher is…..an individual who becomes increasingly more convinced that teaching is even more of an art and mystery and challenge than he thought

    a teacher is……an individual who knows that wisdom not methodolgy is the fundamental ingredient in his success

    a teacher is…..an individual who recognizes questions not answers as the dynamic of rhizomatic learning

  2. Bravo! A wonderful website for those of us interested in moving toward an educational semiotic. The learning environment as umwelt is wonderful! Our students thrive in the rhizomatic curriculum and learner centered community that we have constructed and I appreciate this space and your words of inspiration very much!
    Warmest wishes Professor Cormier….Clyde

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  4. Hi Dave,
    I have been following your ideas on rhizomatic learning after #ETMOOC, and I find this metaphor powerful, I wonder if it is because it suits my learning style.
    I tend to be “messy” when learning and when teaching too. Note: messy, curious and a questioner.
    I’m trying to be as honest as possible because I want to learn, and I need a helping hand. This year I encouraged my learners to create their own e-books, I teach one to one and am a freelancer, not following any textbook. The first challenge was that the google docs we use to collect students productions and tasks, were so messy it took us (not them, brutal honesty once again) so long that some gave up. But this challenge brought me back to the rhizome metaphor, my first idea was that we were jumping from one thing to the other as we were moving forward and because of emergent needs my students had. Needs sometimes were questions that rose as a consequence of the learning process. The editing was a whole unintentional process of assessment. My students were not only trying to follow and find a logical thread to put their productions together but as they had produced some material at the beginning of the year, learning had happened, their use of English as a second language had evolved, (mine as well) and they wanted to re consider every piece of what they had written.
    It has been an amazing adventure, though there was a moment I thought that we were facing complete chaos and felt that I might have led them to failure. (The Cynefin framework: Simple and Chaotic boundary)
    If I get to understand your view about the syllabus, you are not saying there’s no syllabus, there’s not much content which is quite different. And I like that because again, it suits my teaching/learning style. Every year I sit in front of my computer and try to write a list of topics we are going to work with, and it simply does not work in my classes, my students come to class and they know what they need to learn, or they need different things as we move forward. How can I predict topics? Is it possible in a rhizomatic mind? Yes, yes I am taking things to an extreme, I am aware of this.
    I suspect I might be the only EFL teacher involved in this discussion, but I find this rhizomatic metaphor so attractive that my idea is to discover to what extend it is applicable to different learning environments, like EFL for example.
    If I got everything wrong, please let me know. I am messy but not lazy,
    Thanks Dave

  5. wow. That’s some kind of blog comment. The challenges you are talking about here are very very similar to the ones that i have in my own classes. My students are accustomed to having structure imposed upon them, and don’t always react well to having to impose their own structure. Have you seen my learning contract? Might that help as a model? http://davecormier.com/edblog/2013/05/12/assessment-and-rhizomatic-learning-course-start-tuesday/

    I would love to use your comment as a topic in the rhizomatic learning ‘course’ we are running in January. If you haven’t signed up you should jump in! http://davecormier.com/edblog/2013/12/27/rhizomatic-learning-an-open-course-rhizo14/

  6. Hi Dave me again!
    I know it looks like a blog post rather than a comment, but How else how I could ensure someone would read about my many uncertainties? And it’s a way of expressing gratitude to. I am learning about this with you, from you.
    Your learning contract: I read it, and I am thinking that sty like this could become my “syllabus”. However need to find a way to adapt it to private lessons.
    As I write this I begin to understand something, it’s not about designing our tasks or lesson plans following the rhizome model it’s more about becoming rhizomatic thinkers. OMG! How about that?
    I would love and be even more thankful if include my comment and share or open it for critique. I’ll check this course, though I ‘ll be a co-moderator for two EVO session in January, one about crafting ebooks and the 2nd about mentoring.
    By the way, my sessions have to do with Crafting e-books and mentoring
    One last thing, your book Making the community the curriculum is so ideal to encourage me to keep on this lane. I wish I could learn a little bit more about keeping our digital files.

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