We have this myth that the only way to learn something is to read it in a textbook or hear a lecture on it. But that’s nonsense. Everything can be taught in more than one way. And anything that’s understood can be shown in more than one way.
– Howard Gardner
Learning is a product of thinking, yet with the demands teachers and students face today, real cognitive endeavours can get easily buried or missed altogether. Assignments and projects often become work for work’s sake rather than being real opportunities for students to get their heads around concepts that challenge and expand their developing understanding. The Walden School learning framework guides educators to help their students go beyond the simple acquisition of knowledge to being able to use and apply the knowledge flexibly in novel contexts.
Teaching for Understanding:
We educate our children to help them understand the world in which they live. The better they understand the world, the more effectively they are likely to participate in and engage with it. In the 21st century teaching for deeper understanding has become more important than ever. Teaching for Understanding engages students in learning experiences that help them to build and construct an understanding of the studied topics.
Interdisciplinary Learning:
Preparing students to grapple with global problems and issues demand that we nurture their capacity to solve problems, create products or ask questions in ways that go beyond single disciplinary lenses. Interdisciplinary learning enables teachers and students to make connections across learning through exploring clear and relevant links across the curriculum. It supports the use and application of what has been taught and learned in new and different ways. It provides opportunities for deepening learning.
Framework:
Research-based frameworks, practices, and tools that promote outcomes such as understanding, critical thinking, ongoing assessment, creativity, and professional development in school and other learning environments.
The framework helps
- identify topics, concepts, and skills that are worth understanding
- frame goals that help students focus on the most important aspects of those topics
- engage students in challenging learning experiences that help to build and demonstrate their understanding
- develop assessment practices that help to deepen student understanding
Curriculum:
ICSE / Cambridge IGCSE
Students can take either ICSE at Grade X and ISC at XII or Cambridge CIE IGCSE examination at the secondary school level and the Cambridge CIE GCE ‘A’ level examination at the senior secondary level.
Assessment:
Nursery – Grade V
We have adopted various frameworks and tools developed by Harvard University Graduate School of Education that enable us to look at teaching analytically, develop new approaches to planning and make informed decisions about instruction.
Grades VI – XII
Assessment will be both formal and informal. We also document the student’s work in a portfolio.
Classe size:
Classes are organised formally and informally in small groups of 5 – 9 students for a quality learning experience.
Notes:
Howard Gardner is the Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is also an adjunct professor of psychology at Harvard University. Howard Gardner’s work around multiple intelligences has had a profound impact on thinking and practice in education.
Teaching for Understanding © Harvard Graduate School of Education