-
Conventional School Approach
|
-
The Walden School Progressive Approach
|
- A school is a preparation for life.
|
- The Walden School is a part of life.
|
- Learners are passive absorbers of information and authority.
|
- Learners are active participants, problem solvers, and planners.
|
- Teachers are sources of information and authority.
|
- Teachers are facilitators, guides who foster thinking.
|
- Parents are outsiders and uninvolved.
|
- Parents are the primary teachers, goal setters, and planners, and serve as resources.
|
- The community is separate from school, except for funding.
|
- Community is an extension of the classroom.
|
- Decision-making is centrally based and administratively delivered.
|
- Decision-making is shared by all constituent groups.
|
- The program is determined by external criteria, particularly test results.
|
- Program is determined by mission, philosophy, and goals for graduates.
|
- Learning is linear, with factual accumulation and skill mastery.
|
- Learning is spiral, with depth and breadth as goals.
|
- Knowledge is absorbed through lectures, worksheets, and tests.
|
- Knowledge is constructed through play, direct experience, and social interaction.
|
- Instruction is linear and largely based on correct answers.
|
- Instruction is related to central questions and inquiry, often generated by the children.
|
- Disciplines, particularly language and math, are separated.
|
- Disciplines are integrated as children make connections.
|
- Skills are taught discretely and are viewed as goals.
|
- Skills are related to content and are viewed as tools.
|
- Assessment is norm-referenced, external, and graded.
|
- Assessment is benchmarked, has many forms, and is progress-oriented.
|
- Success is competitively based, derived from recall and memory, and specific to a time/place.
|
- Success is determined through application over time, through collaboration.
|
- Products are the end point.
|
- Products are subsumed by process considerations.
|
- Intelligence is a measure of linguistic and logical/mathematical abilities.
|
- Intelligence is recognised as varied, includes the arts, and is measured in real-life problem-solving.
|
- A school is a task to be endured.
|
- School is a challenging and fun part of life.
|