Educational Models
The academics in our utopian school district have high scores that stem from using combination of several educational models. Our students thrive from various models of learning.
The teachers use constructivist, which allow the learner to build on prior knowledge and understanding from authentic experience. Students are allowed to confront problems full of meaning because of their real-life context. In solving these problems, students are encouraged to explore possibilities, invent alternative solutions, collaborate with other students (or external experts), try out ideas and hypotheses, revising their thinking, and finally present the best solution they can derive. Student-centered learning (SCL), or learner-centeredness, is a learning model that places the student (learner) in the center of the learning process.
In student-centered learning, students are active participants in their learning. They learn at their own pace and use their own strategies. They are more intrinsically than extrinsically motivated. Learning is more individualized than standardized. Student-centered learning develops learning-how-to-learn skills, such as problem solving, critical thinking, and reflective thinking. Student-centered learning accounts for, and adapts to, different learning styles of students (National Center for Research on
Teacher Learning. 1999). The last type of learning is Active and Cooperative learning, in which students solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions of their own, discuss, explain, debate, brainstorm during class, and use cooperative learning, in which students work in teams on problems and projects under conditions that assure both positive interdependence and individual accountability. Learning styles are as different as the individual who is using them.
