PROGRAMS
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
PEDAGOGICAL PHILOSOPHY
You won’t find long lectures or pop quizzes in our workshops. Everything we do is based on an experiential approach to education. Participants experiment by doing something intuitively (a game, a role play, a simulation), then examining their results together, reflecting on what factors affected their outcomes, and determining what they might want to change or try the next time around. This experiential method creates a more profound connection to and understanding of key concepts. It also gives each participant a personalized journey into new ideas and tools to which they can connect their own outlooks and lived experiences, whatever their backgrounds or points of view.
APPROACH
We uncover assumptions and preconceptions that shape how we negotiate with others, helping participants to name their assumptions, identify more enabling ones, and foster a mindset of growth and possibility.
We build key life skills for effective problem-solving and communication, practicing and learning to apply new skills with practical tools.
We develop foundational knowledge of relevant theory and create a shared vocabulary to support effective negotiation and communication.
WHAT WE DO
GAME CHANGERS – TRANSFORMATIONAL IN-SCHOOL PAIRED WORKSHOPS
The Game Changers Student Workshop is our flagship two-day experiential negotiation skills program involving two high schools paired together from across different communities (Jewish, Arab, Druze, Bedouin, religious/secular, etc.). Through interactive and playful exercises, role plays, and games, students discover that they can “change the game” of negotiation from conflict or arbitrary compromise to creative problem-solving negotiation. Each participating school in the pair hosts one day of the program at their school during the regular school week as an official co-curricular learning experience and intercultural exchange supported by the school’s administration. We are proud to partner with the school networks Darca, Atid, and Amal to systematically offer the program to their students and also work with a growing number of municipal/regional and independent schools. The Game Changers approach is based on methodology developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project.
GAME CHANGERS – ONLINE WORKSHOPS
Our sequence of Game Changers digital workshops builds vital life skills by introducing students to a problem-solving approach to negotiation. In interactive sessions – with games, break-out exercises and creative role-plays adapted for online learning – students discover key negotiation concepts and practical thinking tools while strengthening their English language skills. We can run the workshop with single schools and with mixed school groups. We are rolling out these workshops in partnership with school networks.
GAME CHANGERS IN EDUCATION
The Game Changers in Education program brings together education majors and pre-service teachers from the United States and diverse communities in Israel for interactive joint learning and facilitated online exchange focused on developing and applying creative negotiation skills in their schools and communities. In paired exercises, group dialogues, and team-based project work, participants develop intercultural understanding and global awareness while acquiring practical pedagogical and professional tools based on a principled, problem-solving methodology for negotiation developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Through the experiential curriculum, participants build their skills and self-confidence while explore how the vital mindsets and skills of cooperative, interest-based negotiation can be incorporated into their roles as change-makers in education. The program is supported by the Stevens Initiative.
ONLINE WORKSHOPS
PATHWAYS is offers a selection of online professional development workshops and seminars for educators.
PATHWAYS EDUCATOR COMMUNITY
Educators who have taken part in PATHWAYS programs become part of a growing and diverse network of educators working to bring problem-solving negotiation skills, mindsets and values into their schools. Activities of the community include a series of Negotiation Education Master Class webinars with guest experts, facilitated Negotiation Education Labs for peer-learning and exchange, Negotiation in Practice Panels to learn from practitioners, and access to the PATHWAYS online membership platform and resource library – a growing database of negotiation education activities and tools for the classroom.
NEGOTIATION EDUCATION SUMMER INSTITUTE
The Negotiation Education Summer Institute has been run by PATHWAYS with the support of the U.S. Embassy and became known as a premiere professional program for English Language educators and praised as “the ultimate educational retreat” by participants. The course is built around the book, “Difficult Conversations”, diving into complementary negotiation material to the other cornerstone program, the NET Fellowship. Whereas the Fellowship is focused on 5-point English educators over the year, the Institute may be relevant for a broader range of EL instructors and administrators. It is action packed into a four-day residential experience, typically held in early August. Past guest experts have included Sheila Heen (Harvard Law School and Co-Author, Difficult Conversations); Whitney Benns (Harvard Grad School of Education); Rachel Viscomi (Director, Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program); Dr. Elizabeth Rayer (Partner & Head of Enterprise Learning at Vantage Partners).
PATHWAYS has been certified by Israel’s Ministry of Education as a provider of professional development courses and participating educators receive PD (“gmul”) credits.
LEARNING PROGRAMS FOR SOCIAL IMPACT ORGANIZATIONS
PATHWAYS works with social-impact and educational organizations to deliver a variety of negotiation skills learning programs, bringing problem-solving negotiation skills into a relevant and applicable context for program participants, alumni and staff. Programs also emphasize connection, team-building and leadership. We are now offering a selection of interactive digital workshops.
INSTITUTIONALIZING PROBLEM-SOLVING NEGOTIATION – TRAIN THE TRAINER
We collaborate with aligned organizations to help them incorporate the learning and practice of negotiation concepts and skills into their core programs.
INTERNATIONAL LEARNING & EXCHANGE
We partner with international schools and organizations to deliver workshops and programs that provide a meaningful joint learning experience and encounter for their participants/alumni with students or teachers in the communities in which we work. Online options are now available.
THE GAME CHANGERS PLUS NETWORK
PATHWAYS is partnering with a growing network of selected organizations and individual consultants to provide Game Changer schools with opportunities for curated follow-up programs (“Game Changers Plus”) that reinforce connections between schools while furthering relevant communication skills. Here are some of our current partners and what they do:
Jerusalem Peace Builders: Storytelling and Personal Connections Workshop (Interpersonal Communication)
JPB’s skilled facilitators continue to deepen the counter and exchange of the work started in the Game Changers program as students reunite for a creative and compassionate session built around sharing in one another’s personal narratives.
Alfie Gelbard: Spoken Word Poetry Workshop (Intrapersonal Communication)
Alfie uses the medium of performance poetry to encourage students out of their shells, building oral proficiency and honing English language skills. Alfie’s workshops play in negotiation language and self-expression by using word play, sensory detail, and improvisation to raise confidence and deepen connections.
Speak Up: Public Speaking and Communication Skills Workshops (Public Communication)
The trailblazing team at Speak Up promotes public speaking and dives deeper into the element of communication. High school students practice and improve their ability to speak confidently, persuasively, and directly. They do so while reinforcing and integrating the specific terminology and language from the negotiation frameworks with which the students are now quite familiar.
Please contact us if you are interested in joining the Game Changers Plus network.
VIRTUAL LEARNING & EXCHANGE
All of our in-person workshops and programs
are now also available in interactive virtual editions,
with adapted exercises and role plays.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
PATHWAYS programs REVOLVE around a progression of experiential learning cycles supported by a process of FACILITATED DISCOVERY, connection and experimentation. Participants learn by doing, reflecting, and then constructing new conceptual frameworks and practicing skills together.