Our Beliefs...

Underlying any significant change effort there is a set of beliefs that cause people to take action. It is very useful to list these beliefs, because doing so allows the designers of the new system to validate their new designs to ensure that they are consistent with these foundational principles.

Here is a partial and evolving list of the beliefs that underlie this project. This list will be the topic of vigorous and onging debate. The list will grow, and headings and subheadings will emerge.

• THE NATURE OF LEARNING
  People learn by constructing meaning based on their past experiences. This process requires attention and activity on the part of the learner, who must make connections between new ideas and past experiences. Learning happens when students are engaged.
  


• INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
  Students are different in many ways that are very important to learning, including their experiences, their prior accomplishments, their interests, and the amount of time they may need to learn something. A variety of instructional approaches and a varying amounts of time will be required if we are to be successful with all students.
  


• HIERARCHICAL CONTENT AND PREREQUISITES
  While it is possible to learn many things at just about any time, other bodies of knowledge are characterized by a structure that makes it difficult or impossible to learn certain things before others. Where such hierarchies exist, it makes little sense to approach certain topics without having first established the prerequisites.
  


• FOCAL STANDARDS
  Many things we want students to know and be able to do cross political boundaries and are important enough to be held up as "focal standards." These should be measured well, and students shoiuld be expected to demonstrate mastery before graduating.
  


• LEARNING IN CONTEXT
  People are constantly learning, as they encounter problems and set out to accomplish things. When they learn in the context of doing something they care about, what is learned is much more "useable" and worthwhile. In contrast, pulling a curriculum out of context removes the relevance of what is to be learned and reduces the probability that it will be learned or remembered.
  


• THE POWER OF FEEDBACK
  A typical learning cycle involves trying something and seeing the results. Feedback is the information the learner receives related to the quality of the response, and it is very powerful, especially when the response was not very good. The most useful feedback comes soon after the response, and carries good remedial information if the response warrants it.
  


• ASSESSMENT, EVALUATION, AND LEARNING
  Assessments are conducted to understand and improve a performance, and should therefore be conducted as a part of the learning experience. When an assessment reveals that has not attained the level of mastery expected, the assessment should be followed by informative feedback and additional opportunities to practice, perform, and assess. Evaluations, on the other hand, are conducted after the product is complete or learning opportunity has ended, and is conducted for the purpose of assigning a value or label to the finished product. Therefore, assessments are far more valuable in causing learning, while evaluations can provide important data about the effectiveness or quality of the learning experiences.
  


• RELATIONSHIPS
  Learning is a social activity. The relationships between teachers and students are incredibly important, but many characteristics of the existing system work against the development of productive relationships between teachers and students. Peer-to-peer relationships, too, can be a valuable asset supporting learning, and approaches that cause students to work together toward important goals have proven to be powerful.

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To suggest another belief, comment on an existing belief, or make other suggestions, send your thoughts in an email to Dr. Kyle Peck.