A Learner-Centered System Student Experience
This graphic presents a story of a typical day in the life of a fictional student, Katrina, at the age of 4, 11, 19, and 27, experiencing student-centered learning. It brings to life learner-centered education and shows the long term impact a shift in the education system could have on students’ future success. To more… Read More ›
Beginning Your Journey to a More Learner-Centered Classroom
In this article on pages 7-10 in Issue 17 of Pioneer, Dr. Jim Rickabaugh, the Senior Advisor to the Institute for Personalized Learning and a former Superintendent, attempts to answer the question for teachers, “Where do I start?”. He suggests beginning with small changes in the classroom, starting with giving students more voice and choice… Read More ›
CBAM: Stages of Concern About Personalized Learning
This article introduces the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) which provides a structure for understanding and addressing the concerns of educators as they transition from more traditional to more student-centered, personalized learning. A simple chart identifies seven levels of readiness for adoption from “Awareness” which describes educators who are newly aware of the concepts of… Read More ›
Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners: The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance, A Critical Literature Review
This frequently-cited report from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research provides a comprehensive review of the connection between noncognitive factors and academic success based on existing research. After a literature review of over 400 resources, the authors organized a large number of noncognitive traits, skills, behaviors, and attitudes into five categories. The report… Read More ›
Discipline Through a Personalized Learning Lens
This article, written by a former secondary school teacher, shares strategies for harnessing the fundamental principles of personalized learning to help with discipline. The author asserts that a disciplinary culture that uses a personalized learning lens may help transition schools away from punitive, zero-tolerance policies, and create more empowered and successful students. She makes several suggestions, such… Read More ›
Internships Aren’t All About Careers
This blog post by Tristen Gamboa, a junior at High Tech High North County presents a student’s view of the internship experience, and his growing understanding of the concept of ‘deeper learning’. Tristen’s four week internship at the Center for Research on Equity & Innovation (CREI) influenced his thoughts about college readiness and his career path. He… Read More ›
Research Collaborative Seminar: Rehumanizing Mathematics Education
This Research Collaborative Seminar questions: How can educators rehumanize mathematics learning and establish assessments that serve as both a window and a mirror? The featured presenter in this video is Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Research has demonstrated that well-designed personalized… Read More ›
The Student-Centered Learning Podcast
Created by Students at the Center Distinguished Fellow Arthur Eduardo Baraf, this podcast explores the many facets of student-centered learning. In this featured episode, Baraf interviews Courtney Jacobs, a veteran teacher and coach who works with schools through the Great Schools Partnership in New England. They discuss the “what” and “why” of competency-based learning, and the “how” of… Read More ›
Why Growth Mindset Isn’t Working in Schools…Yet
In this opinion piece, Rupa Chandra Gupta former Redesign administrator at a California middle school, and a founder of the growth tracking tool Sown to Grow, discusses the disconnect between teachers’ sense of the importance of teaching a growth mindset and their confidence that they have the strategies and support to do so. The author suggests… Read More ›
Why a School’s Master Schedule Is a Powerful Enabler of Change
This KQED MindShift blog article follows the school-wide improvement led by Principal Jerry Smith at Luella High School outside Atlanta, Georgia. Looking to drastically transform classrooms and move to a more inquiry-based approach, the school competed for and won a Next Generation Systems Initiative grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to begin their… Read More ›
Competency Education and Personalized Learning
This short video produced by KnowledgeWorks provides an introduction to the concepts and need for competency-based learning. The video discusses students’ learning differences and shows the potentially negative impact of the traditional system in which students can advance from grade to grade without mastering all the foundational skills they will need for the next grade… Read More ›
How Lobsters are Keeping Students in School
This article explores the move to a personalized learning program in one small rural community in Maine. Deer Isle-Stonington High School was struggling with one of the highest dropout rates in the state, losing many students early to the lobster fishing industry that is the life-blood of the town. A school improvement plan, begun in… Read More ›