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You are here: Home / Archives for School Design

Does the Seating Arrangement Matter

April 28, 2015 in Best Practices, default, Features Tagged: Approaches, Behavior, Engagement, School Design

Does the Seating Arrangement Matter

As I share new evidence-based tools for increasing calm, focus and achievement in school, I also look for any research on more traditional approaches. Recently, I focused on the traditional practice of sitting in rows. Here is what I turned up: "Seating Arrangements That Promote Positive Academic and Behavioral Outcomes: A Review of Empirical Research," by Rachel Wannarka & Kathy Ruhl. Support For Learning, 2008 "There is no single classroom seating arrangement that promotes positive … [Read more...]

Author: Penny Cuninggim Leave a Comment

What’s Your School’s Culture

March 28, 2012 in Best Practices, News Tagged: Approaches, Educators, Relationships, School Design, Student-Centered Education

Central to delivering student-centered education is the continuous feedback loop reflected in the NISCE Instructional model. Thoughtful assessment guides developmentally appropriate differentiated instruction, which promotes student engagement which in turn leads to success as defined for each individual student. Positive and supportive school relationships permeate and sustain each element of the model.In Part 1 of 6, we offer brief tips to help individuals and schools support a true focus on … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

The Importance of Relationships Through All Educational Contexts

March 8, 2012 in Best Practices, Research Tagged: Educators, Elementary / Middle, Extended Learning, High School, Higher Ed, School Design, Student Voice, Student-Centered Education

The Importance of Relationships Through All Educational Contexts

Relationship is Fundamental The importance of relationship carries on through constructivist, traditional, religious, military, and non-traditional models. It is so fundamental, in fact, that it could be said that the ability to form positive and nurturing relationships with students is the sine qua non of a student-centered approach. The primary importance of relationship is also a well established factor in research on the development of resilience in children.Seeking to identify the factors … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard 1 Comment

The Importance of Relationships and the Basics of Self-Teaching

March 8, 2012 in Best Practices, Policy Issues, Research Tagged: Approaches, Engagement, Extended Learning, Relationships, Resources, School Design, Student Voice, Technology

The Importance of Relationships and the Basics of Self-Teaching

Sugata Mitra Teaches About Self-Teaching Consider the connection between relationship and self-teaching.At first glance this will appear to be a contradiction. It would seem that self-teaching is, by definition, outside the realm of relationship. Of the list of educational context categories—military, traditional, Montessori, et cetera it is the least dependent on adult guidance. On further inspection, we discover that the very nature of learning is deeply affected by relationship at the … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

The Value of Religious Schools

March 2, 2012 in Features Tagged: Approaches, Curricula, Relationships, School Design, Student-Centered Education

In religious schools, we may expect to encounter a very different conception of the role of education in a student’s life. Because there is often an essential and openly professed drive towards uniformity and the cultivation of religious values, the individual may appear to be secondary to the mission.However, a statement of purpose for one such school, the Covenant School in Arlington, MA, reflects the synergy between values formation and acquisition of knowledge (or wisdom): "We believe … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

Cognitive, Emotional and Developmental Differences in the Classroom

February 28, 2012 in Features Tagged: Approaches, Curricula, Mental Health, School Design

There is variety among students, including those that are outside the mainstream student population, and we know that each learner is unique in his or her manner of learning and of expressing what he knows. However, there are reasonable limits to the degree and types of variance that any teacher can be expected to manage effectively. There are cognitive, emotional, and developmental differences that stretch beyond the capacities of any single classroom.Consider developmental differences. These … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

Architecture of a Traditional Classroom – An Opportunity for Change

February 21, 2012 in Features Tagged: Approaches, Curricula, School Design

We entera medium sized, architecturally uninteresting space. At the front of this roomthere is a black, white, or smart board. The person standing near the board isthe teacher. Somewhere to the side is the teacher’s desk. It is small to mediumsized, industrial, no frills, except whatever has been added by the teacher. Inmost of the rest of the room, students sit in rows in smaller desks, in chairsof a type that are rarely found anywhere outside of schools. The teacher’sdesk, though not large, is … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

Using Technology to Drive Student-Centered Education

February 21, 2012 in Features, Policy Issues Tagged: Approaches, Engagement, Resources, School Design, Student-Centered Education, Technology

During a trial in the East Auburn Community School in Auburn, Maine, a group of students were “taught to read and write using an iPad” and “another group of students were taught the ‘old fashioned’ way, using a pen and paper, it was found that in every single literacy test, students using the iPad outperformed those who did not use the iPad by a significant margin” (TabTimes, February 2012).Noting this story is important to the expanded view of student-centered education, especially in the … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

Can A Child In India Teach You Something About Learning And Education?

February 17, 2012 in Best Practices, Features Tagged: Approaches, Curricula, Literacy, Relationships, Resources, School Design, Student-Centered Education, Technology

Can A Child In India Teach You Something About Learning And Education?

When most of us think about education we assume the presence of at least one teacher and one student. More often, we imagine a teacher and a room full of students, the classic and ubiquitous model with which we are all familiar. Who of us imagines a room with no teacher?One answer to that would be Sugata Mitra, an education researcher from India who has done remarkable work in an unusual line of thinking. Mitra has made it his business to investigate a very difficult question: What can be done … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

Self Teaching – Are you a genius yet?

February 17, 2012 in Best Practices, Features Tagged: Approaches, Curricula, Literacy, Relationships, Resources, School Design

Self Teaching – Are you a genius yet?

 A great deal of what we learn is self-taught. We learn through modeling, observation, trial and error, and pattern recognition, and we do all these things with or without the help of others.As evolving humans, this is what we do. As many philosophers of education point out, we are hungry for learning and will naturally develop many important skills and realms of knowledge with no more than the slightest nudge from those around us. In a very true sense, we are students of our world, … [Read more...]

Author: Alyssa Kierkegaard Leave a Comment

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