By Jodi H. Levine and Nancy S.

Shapiro

HOGWARTS
Harry Potter and the Sordelivered personally by the cerers Stone, the rst in the schools groundskeeper, now-famous series of Hagrid. To Harry, Hogbooks by J. K. Rowling, warts is a great unknown. has been at the top of most Intimidated, unsure of himbest-seller lists for over a self, but denitely ready for year, from The New York a change in his circumTimes to the Chronicle of stances, Harry accepts the Higher Education. This faninvitation and prepares for tasy series about a young the greatest adventure of Looking for insights into what makes for boy in transition, set in a his life. magical world of wizards, Harry Potters is the a challenging and supportive learning witches, spells, potions, and familiar story of a young environment? Try the bookshelf of good and evil, has captured boy on a journey of disthe imagination of a broad covery that takes him to a almost any nine-year-old. spectrum of readers ages new academic environeight to eighty. Reecting ment, where he eagerly on this surprising cultural welcomes new experiphenomenon, it occurs to ences, new friends, and us that in Harry Potter we nd an intriguing literary vehinew challenges. Hogwarts opens the door to a parallel cle for considering our role as educators, interpreting the universe for Harry, where he ts into a community made rst-year student experience, and contemplating ideal conup entirely of wizards and witches. In a recent article in texts for teaching and learning. Harry Potter is someone The New York Times, Pico Iver suggests that Hogwarts is worth getting to know. similiar to a traditional British boarding school, except The story is relatively simple. Harry is a ten-year-old that at Hogwarts the professors are magicians and wizorphan who was grudgingly adopted by an aunt and uncle ards, the hall monitors are ghosts, and unicorns populate after the death of his parents. As he struggles to adapt the grounds surrounding the school. (unsuccessfully) to his new home, in a family of insensiHarry soon discovers that his parents were both tive, self-centered, and narrow-minded people, he begins famous sorcerers who sacriced their lives to save the to realize how different he is from those around him. At world from the evil Voldemort.Thus, Harry arrives at the moment of his deepest despair, he is rescued by a sumHogwarts with a reputation, which is both a curse and a mons to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, blessing. He makes new friends and new enemies. Small,

THE

LEARNING

COMMUNITY

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skinny Harry becomes a star Quidditch player (a ercely competitive game that appears to be a mixture of lacrosse and soccerplayed on ying broomsticks) and earns points with fellow students and some of the wizard professors for his natural talents. He also incurs the jealousy of a gang of boys led by a particularly nasty character and eventually outwits the forces of evil, at least temporarily. Harry Potter is a childrens book.The story is fantasy, written at about a fourth-grade reading level.Yet we suggest that the Harry Potter books may illuminate what college campuses could be doing better. Like all good fairy tales, they speak a universal fantasy language of adventure, plot twists, and lessons to be learned. But this world of fantasy closely resembles what the undergraduate experience promises our students and what attracts us as educators to our work. For students, the Harry Potter books offer the freedom to participate imaginatively in an alternative reality and share the experiences of other novice learners. For educators, Hogwarts offers new models for active learning, critical thinking, and problem solving. Regular About Campus readers will recognize that the books merge themes routinely addressed in this magazine: diversity, rst-year experience, learning communities, good practice in teaching and learning, and civic responsibility.We can engage in a comparative discussion of the Hogwarts educational philosophy of supporting and protecting students as they explore their magical potential and the traditional educational practices in place on our real campuses. The true magic of the books is that the author offers readers a new perspective on reality. For the same reasons that the stories excite young readers to better appreciate the adventure of their own daily lives, the stories inspire us to be better teachers, administrators, and student affairs professionals. One might argue that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could be found at the top of most best colleges lists, thus raising the standard for excellence and inspiring us to become better teachers and Jodi H. Levine is assistant vice provost for university studies and a part-time instructor in the educational administration program at Temple University. Her e-mail address is jodih@astro.temple.edu. Nancy S. Shapiro is director of the University System of Maryland K16 Partnership for Teaching and Learning. A founding director of the College Park Scholars Learning Community at the University of Maryland, she coauthored, with Jodi H. Levine, Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide for Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs. Her e-mail address is nshapiro @usmd.edu.

more purposeful architects of learner-centered environments.What resonates with us as educators is that we recognize that we have much to learn about teaching and learning, and the journey of Harry Potter and friends provides valuable lessons.The stories challenge us to think about the learning environments we aspire to create.

D IVERSITY

HE HARRY POTTER BOOKS speak brilliantly to the issue of diversityfrom an intriguing perspective. In the beginning of the rst book, Harry is lonely, misunderstood, confused, and generally miserable. His guardians are prejudiced, unmagical Mugglesordinary humans who look on anything different with suspicion.To hide their fear of Harrys magical powers, they punish him unfairly and treat him with contempt.They know that he is not like them, and they work hard to convince him that his difference is shameful.What could be more unusual than a wizard in a world of Muggles? But it is not only the Muggles who are prejudiced against those who are different. One of the rst students Harry meets during a shopping expedition for school supplies is a boy who says to him,[Your parents] were our kind, werent they? I really dont think they should let the other sort in, do you? Theyre just not the same, theyve never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families.Whats your surname anyway? Similar conversations take place on our own campuses, where some students arrive considering college a right, while others come realizing it is a privilege. In many ways, one of the hardest transitions our students make is between the familiar world in which they grew up and the complex, diverse world of the university. Students encounter not only many ethnicities and culturesvisibly evident in clothing, skin color, and languagebut also divergent religious beliefs, political philosophies, and class differences. Creating a campus climate that embraces these differences is a challenge shared by both the ctional Hogwarts educators and real-world academics. When Harry arrives at Hogwarts, he discovers a much more diverse population than hed ever imagined. He nds authentic soulmates and a wide variety of magical creatures, of which wizards are only one manifestation. Readers pick up a subliminal but powerful message about the nature of difference.Things are not necessarily what they seem. Harry meets some very good friendsHermione and Ron, for exampleand some intimidating bulliesDraco Malfoy and his gangas he

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struggles to nd a place for himself in this new community.Through his hard work (doing homework and practicing Quidditch) he earns respect in his new environment. He is introduced to new ideas, theories, and concepts that challenge his assumptions about the world. He struggles to make sense of the labs, the readings, the lectures, and he strives to do well on the exams. Looking at the Hogwarts campus from an educators perspective, we see that it handles diversity as a normal part of the academic environment.The curriculum is diverse, and some students are stronger in some areas than others, but there is a required curriculum (a general education of sorts) and all students are held to high standards.There are curfews and clear parameters for behavior that lead to respect for the faculty, the campus environment, and fellow students. Hermione, who comes from a Muggle family, might be likened to a rstgeneration student. She studies hard and is a serious student who overprepares. In some ways, this portrait is a stereotype, but it may also reect some realities faced by rst-generation students in that she is trying to prove herself.

F IRST-Y EAR E XPERIENCE

HEN WE LOOK at the new student experience through Harrys eyes, we gain a perspective on the experiences of our own entering students. The real power in these childrens books may be in helping us to see our practices through the eyes of a young learner embarking on a sometimes intimidating journey of self-discovery. Consider the traditional sorting hat ceremony at Hogwarts, a dening moment in Harrys career there. All new students participate.They gather together in the grand entrance hall, where each awaits a turn to try on a special witchs hat that possesses magical powers to sort them into the houses (Gryfndor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, or Hufepuff) that will be their academic, social, and residential homes while they are at school.

Students are sorted into the houses according to individual characteristics, such as bravery or cunning. When they place the hat on their heads, the students gain powers of insightinsight into who they are and who they would like to become at school.The hat is a magical thinking cap that guides them through the process of self-discovery. Gryfndor is suited for those who are daring, of nerve and chivalry. Residents of Hufepuff are true and unafraid of toil, whereas in Ravenclaw reside those of wit and learning. Slytherin is where you can nd students who are cunning. Individuality is valued at Hogwarts. There is a house for everyone, and it is instilled in students at an early point that who they are and the traits they possess are relevant to their learning experience.The simple premise is that students learn best in an environment that builds on their strengths and individual characteristics. However, Hogwarts also stresses learning from others and respect for difference, which is why the students from the different houses share several courses, eat and play in common spaces, and participate together in school rituals. In higher education, we too have our sorting hat rituals. Students take placement exams, go through advising, and choose majors. Is Professor McGonagalls advice to the new witches and wizards (I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting) any different from the implicit or explicit words of advice we offer new students when we inform them of impending placement tests? Perhaps we can glean from the Hogwarts rituals some insights into how students thoughts, beliefs, and self-assessment affect the nal placement. Just as the hat is about to sort Harry into Slytherin, the house generally regarded as home for the cunning folks, the power within the hat defers to Harrys strong desire to be placed in Gryfndor, the house where dwell the brave at heart. Imagine if a students own sense of his or her reading and writing abilities were considered along with subjective and objective scores on standardized placement exams!

At Hogwarts, the simple premise is that students learn best in an environment that builds on their strengths and individual characteristics. However, Hogwarts also stresses learning from others and respect for difference.
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Although learning communities offer a model for restructuring students curricular experiences, many campuses embed them in the first and second years but leave students on their own to make meaning of the upper-division curricula.
L EARNING C OMMUNITIES
tical worlds equivalent of residential learning communities. Students are enrolled in a common core of classes and reside in a shared space.They eat, sleep, and learn together, sometimes mixing with rst-years in other houses for larger courses. Instructional leaders such as the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, recognize the power of students learning from each other and sharing common curricular and cocurricular experiences.These are important principles on which learning communities and residential living and learning programs are based. Once they are placed in the houses where they will remain through all seven years at Hogwarts, students begin their rst-year studies. Just as anthropology, philosophy, or statistics are disciplines that our students might experience for the rst time in college, so potions, charms, and transguration are the subjects that await Harry and his friends. Harry confesses that history of magic is boring, transguration is challenging, defense against the dark arts disappointing, and potionswell, Harry describes it as the worst thing that [has] happened to [him] so far. Harry could be any undergraduate describing his rst-year courses to a peer or parent. His experiences with his teachers during the rst three books in the series illustrate the importance of the teacher-student relationship. The more engaging teachers inspire him to fall in love with certain subjects, whereas the teachers with whom he doesnt connect are unable to help him realize his potential in a discipline. The Hogwarts curriculum is designed so that students can see the connections between skills learned in year one and subjects studied in year two, and so on through the seven years of study. On our campuses, students often experience courses as discrete fragments of a curriculum and not as interconnected programs of study.Although learning communities offer a model for restructuring students curricular experiences, many

HE HOGWARTS HOUSE SYSTEM is the mys-

campuses embed them in the rst and second years but leave students on their own to make meaning of the upper-division curricula.The curriculum is much more intentional at Hogwarts, where each year students grow one step closer to realizing their potential as witches and wizards.

G OOD P RACTICE IN T EACHING AND L EARNING

HE HARRY POTTER BOOKS offer a unique context in which to consider and discuss the dichotomies we confront in higher education: passive versus active learning, curricular versus cocurricular dimensions of learning, teacher versus student.What we begin to understand about the structure and philosophy of a Hogwarts education can help educators realize that perhaps these aspects of education are not contradictory parts but rather complementary and interrelated parts of a whole: the magical undergraduate experience. At Hogwarts, the students learn by trial and error; they learn by doing. So what if a student accidentally transforms a matchstick into an unidentiable object? The learning is as much about the process as it is about the outcome. Active learning is the primary mode of instruction and assessment. Students are encouraged to take risks.There is as much to learn from spells gone wrong as from spells that are properly executed.Teachers mediate and guide, but ultimately the students are responsible for their own learning. Students arrive at Hogwarts with different abilities. Harry has just discovered that he is wizard material. Hermione is at the top of the class; Neville Longbottom seems at risk to even make it through year one. Potions comes easy for some, but the class is a struggle for others.The Hogwarts learning environment is structured to support the success of all students.The house system promotes student accountability and allows the more talented witches and wizards to help others who are struggling.Those with leadership potential, like Percy Weasley, rise to the top to become prefects and house

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leaders. And no deed, good or bad, goes unrecognized, with the result being a gain or loss in points for the house in the annual house cup competition. Peer leadership, school spirit, and community and team building are important outcomes of a Hogwarts education. Supplemental instruction (group tutoring and mentoring in high-risk courses), peer counseling and advising, and resident advising are all examples of programs on our campuses that encourage students to help each other and learn from each other. On our campuses, we need to learn from the successes of programs like these and deliberately extend the benets of peer support into the classroom. We can do this by creating learning environments that value and promote collaborative learning and community. Learning has curricular and cocurricular dimensions. For the Hogwarts student, not all lessons are learned in the classroom. Some of Harrys most powerful experiences come from the adventures he embarks on outside the classroom with Ron and Hermione; other lessons he must learn for himself.Although teachers, particularly Headmaster Dumbledore, are often nearby to guide Harry, the lessons the boy will likely never forget are those he learns for himself. The roles of both teachers and students are important at Hogwarts. The teachers are the guardians of knowledge, but they do not treat the students as empty vessels into which they pour knowledge. Although it is natural for students to turn to teachers for guidance, at Hogwarts the teachers also challenge students to look within themselves and to their peers for answers. In the character of Dumbledore, powerful magic and wisdom are tied together. He seems to understand every students heritage (literally, because in many cases he personally knew their parents) and what he needs to do and not to do to help them nd their way. At the end of the rst book, Harry describes to his friends his personal confrontation with Voldemort, the messenger of evil. It seems that Dumbledore knew Harry was breaking school rules to test his destiny, but did not stop him. Hermione says, Thats terrible! You could have been killed. No, it isnt, replies Harry thoughtfully. Hes a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or

less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I dont think it was an accident he let me nd out how the [magic] mirror worked. Its almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could. With these words, Harry described the teacher or educator we would probably all like to be: the guide who has a ne-tuned sense of the appropriate levels of challenge and support for all students to get them properly launched on their own learning curves. Dumbledore embodies the Hogwarts philosophy of teaching and learning, where each individual student and teacher is appreciated for his or her strengths.

C IVIC R ESPONSIBILITY

HE MOST POWERFUL and enduring lesson offered by the Harry Potter books is that learning is in fact magical. Although the students who enter Hogwarts are chosen for their potential as wizards and witches, they can only realize their true magical powers through learning. The Hogwarts education prepares them to take their place in the magical world, to use powers for the good and in defense against the dark arts, and to become law-abiding citizens in society. If you were to survey entering Hogwarts students, you would probably nd that their primary reason for coming to the school is to become a better witch or wizard. Similarly, increasingly our students tell us that their primary reason for going to college is to get a better job.Thus, both sets of students seem alike in their motivations for seeking higher learning.The Hogwarts education, however, seems better suited for developing lifelong learners, whereas many of our campuses struggle to balance the agendas of liberal learning and career preparation. The magical world of the Harry Potter books is a society that values education for its role in producing skilled witches and wizards who respect and value their place in the community. Hogwarts is considered a sacred place, a haven where only the darkest forces of the dark world would dare to tread, because the brightest wizard and witch minds, led by Headmaster

The most powerful and enduring lesson offered by the Harry Potter books is that learning is in fact magical.

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Our challenge is to design our general education curriculum so that students have a better foundation on which to build higher-order thinking and learning.
Dumbledore, reside at the school, protecting its mission and students. How delightful it is when the reader discovers that the trading cards popular among students depict famous Hogwarts graduates, some of whom still teach at the school! Rowling plays with this image and teases readers to imagine the day when real-life students holding the trading card of a faculty member recognized for great teaching will earn the awe of their fellow classmates. Hogwarts students dream of the day when they will possess the powers of the highest order of witch and wizard. But they learn that magic is to be used appropriately and in the right places and that actions have consequences. Although they enter the school eager to experiment with the good stuff, like vanishing spells, they learn that disciplined witches and wizards respect magic and do not use their powers until they are properly taught how to do so. Knowledge itself is power, and the power comes through learning. For our students, the good stuff is often in the major, subjects that traditionally await them in their later years of study. Our challenge is to design our general education curricula so that students have a better foundation on which to build higher-order thinking and learning.

N SUM, the Harry Potter books carry a special message for college and university educators.The main character offers readers a safe distance from themselves because he exists in a parallel universe but also the ability to identify with him because his experiences are so familiar. In fact, this may be the reason that the books have become such a cultural phenomenon: Rowling has made the magical real, and reality magical. If you have not yet read a Harry Potter book, we encourage you to pick one up. We found them delightful, stimulating, and surprisingly engaging. Reading for fun is such a luxury, and discovering the many parallels between Rowlings characters and the witches and wizards in our own worlds was a delectable treat and a spell we wish to share with all.

NOTES

Iver, P. Bookend: The Playing Field of Hogwarts. The New York Times Book Review, Oct. 10, 1999.

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