INTRODUCTION
"Within the next decades education will change
more
than it has changed since the modern school was
created
by the printed book over three hundred years
ago."
Peter Drucker, The New
Realities
As the new millenium rapidly approaches, we are
experiencing one of the great transitions in human history. With all the uncertainty it engenders, a
global community is emerging, born largely of digital communications and
jet-powered transportation. Within this
global community, a "new world order" is developing based on a
shifting currency of power. Alvin
Toffler, in his book Powershift, describes this as a shift from low quality
power (violence) to high quality power (knowledge).
Both capital and technology are being transmuted into
knowledge. "Knowledge has replaced
material resources as the cardinal commodity in the postindustrial
economy. The creation, manipulation,
and transmission of knowledge have become the strategically critical production
process. Another name for these
processes is simply 'learning.' The
learning enterprise—comprised of education and training along with activities
such as communication and research—has become the keystone industry of the
modern era. In these circumstances, the
nation most likely to lead the world in the 21st century is the one that is the
most efficient 'learning society.'" (Perelman, 1989).
The U.S. educational system is at a crossroads. "Since the mid-1980's, there has been
increasing evidence and heightened public and private concern that the
"skills gap" between what our children need to know to be productive
citizens and what they are learning in schools is growing. Data indicate that while schools are in the
process of implementing higher standards in traditional basic education
programs, rapid technological advances, automation and changing production
processes are creating dramatic changes not only in the level of skills needed,
but in the kind of skills needed.
Between 1950 and 1991, advanced automation and
robotization reduced the percentage of workers in production and manufacturing
from 73 percent to 17 percent. This
change resulted in a shift away from mechanical equipment to
electronic/microprocessors, requiring workers to have skills in advanced
technological applications. By the
close of this decade, it is estimated that 44 percent of the workers will be
employed in the information sector: the
business of collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, storing and retrieving
data. Today, over 75 percent of the
workers in the information sector are in skilled positions; by the year 2000,
the number will increase to 90 percent, leaving only 10 percent of these jobs open
for individuals who are unskilled" (Speaker's Blue Ribbon Commission on
Career/Technical Education 1992).
Both the educational and the skill requirements of
U.S. jobs are rapidly increasing. Of
the new jobs in coming years, "41% will have requirements ranked at the
highest levels of proficiency in language, reasoning, and mathematical skills,
compared with only 24 % of existing jobs that demand the same level of
ability" (Johnston & Packer, 1987).
In addition to the traditional "three R's," American business
now considers these basic skills to be essential for any kind of employment in
the 1990s and beyond: knowing how to
learn, listening and oral communication, and creative thinking and problem
solving (Carnevale, 1990; SCANS, 1991).
Workers needs these skills not do the same tasks over and over but in
order to be able to learn new things continually. Learning is no longer preparation for work--learning is work; it
comprises an ever larger portion of most jobs (Perelman, 1990a).
The key obstacle thwarting America's shift to an
information age economy is the poor productivity of the education sector
(Kelly, 1988). Education is tied with
social work as the most labor-intensive businesses in the economy, with by far
the lowest level of capital investment of any major industry: $1,000 per employee, compared to an average
for the U.S. economy as a whole of about $50,000 and in some high tech
industries, $300,000 or more. No wonder
that business and political leaders have called for dramatic increases in
technological investment in our schools.
Most recently, President Clinton in his State of the Union addresses
last year and this year issued a challenge to schools to ensure technological
literacy for all children.
"Inherent in the challenge was the provision of appropriate
training for teachers, modern multimedia computers in classrooms, connections
to the Internet, and effective software and online learning resources. The expectation is that by the year 2000,
there will be a three-student-to-one computer ratio in our schools"
(Dwyer, 1996).
Without critical, structural changes in the education
system, however, placing more computers, videodiscs and other gadgets into
conventional classrooms will do nothing to improve education. "Productivity gains from technology
innovation come not from new hardware or software but from fundamental changes
in management, organization, and human resources" (Perelman, 1990b). For many years, it didn't seem to matter that
computers could turn out memos or financial analyses faster than by hand or
that they were doubling in capacity every two years or so. The growth in productivity by workers
surrounded by them was dismal because companies were trying to automate the
same old paper processes. “Only in the
past few years, when businesses began ‘reengineering’ fundamental
activities—opening wide swaths of their business to new approaches and
reorganization--has the technology begun to pay off”.
“Today, the useful parallel between running a business
and running a classroom is in the way technology can empower individuals. In many corporations, advanced computer
networks have given workers at all levels access to critical information. The effects have been invigorating: employees gain autonomy and take more
responsibility, organization charts flatten, and enterprises become more
responsive and efficient. Likewise, computers
can help children find and nurture their ability to learn and become responsible
for their own learning,” (Verity, 1994).
Judging by the rush of school districts to pass bond
issues for the purchase of new instructional technology, it would seem that
every effort is being made to integrate technology into teaching and learning. While schools' acquisition of technology has
increased dramatically in the 1990s, for the most part its application has
failed to transform teaching and learning nor to generate the significant gains
in student achievement that advocates for the use of technology claim are
inevitable.
The problem is that most educational planners,
particularly curriculum planners, view the computer simply as a tool and align
it with traditional classroom "tools" that can be used as
"alternatives." "Instead
of being integral to curriculum development and completely integrated into it,
the computer environment remains peripheral, an "add-on" in space and
time that many teachers and administrators can reject" without having to
understand what its capabilities for learning and productivity really are
(Morton, 1996).
This "add-on" is often provided in
laboratory settings, where scheduled periods allow students to "do"
computing. "The most common
pattern in schools is to cluster 20 or so machines in a single laboratory and then
to schedule classes from time in the lab once a week. A decade ago computers were used mainly to teach programming,
computer literacy, and to run drill-and-practice exercises. More recently, computers have been used for
enrichment, as work tools, and--less frequently--for purposes of computer
literacy. However, computers in
elementary schools continue to be used heavily to teach basic skills, and this
pattern is growing in high schools. The
use of computers to support instruction in the academic areas or to allow
students independent exploration is sharply limited. Indeed, many American students have more access to a computer at
home that at school" (Mehlinger, 1996).
In such settings everything positive about the
computer environment is destroyed. The
worst-case scenario, "computer literacy" programs usually in late
middle school or early high school, typically involve students acquiring
"tool skills" such as word processing, keyboarding, and spreadsheet
use--which are thought to be important for them to master at some point in
their school careers. In these settings
students do not learn that the computer environment is all-embracing, that it
provides enormous opportunities for learning, and that it can encourage student
engagement and access to the "real world." In these setting teachers are not able to realize the
instructional potential of the computer systems they control" (Morton).
To suggest that computers are simply tools entirely
misses the point about their expanding capabilities and their interaction with
humans. In the larger society, the
computer is more than an accepted part of our lives, it is a symbol of the
future and all that is good about it.
It is only in schools that we consider the computer to be an add-on, a
thing little related to skills development and communication. Computer systems in schools should be viewed
as structured learning environments with complex and comprehensive capabilities
to access and manipulate information" (Morton). They should be seen as interactive learning extensions of the
children themselves (Papert).
Superintendents and school business officials say that
schools cannot hope to keep up with the changes in equipment that are taking
place in industry. But this is a
serious misconception. Schools must
follow the changes in industry because these changes reflect changes in the
skills required of students when they leave school.
If the computer is to be seen as a means of improving
achievement in education, then it should be seen as an integral part of an
environment that is structured to engage students in the learning
process." Computer-based skills
such as the ability to access and manipulate current information, the ability
to communicate globally, the ability to expand creativity, and the ability to
test new knowledge through sharing and rebuilding can only be developed in a
supportive computer-based environment.
The computer is an essential element in an educational approach that
focuses on gathering information and on learning how to transform it into new
knowledge, on the changing role of teacher-as-facilitator, on the involvement
of children in experiential learning, and on the expanded world of lifelong
learning (Morton).
From digital television to voice recognition systems,
from personal information managers to the Internet, education challenges and
opportunities are here to stay. Schools
that refuse to recognize and work with these challenges and opportunities may
well follow many of our outmoded industries into decline.
* * *
"The successful transformation of student
learning and accomplishment
in the next decade requires effectively bringing
together three agendas--
an emerging consensus about learning and teaching,
well-integrated uses
of technology, and restructuring."
Karen Sheingold, Restructuring
for Learning with Technology
Research
strongly indicates that technological transformation of teaching and learning
grows out of carefully designed programs of school reform, including "a
comprehensive model and implementation plan that addresses the total
functioning of the school and emanates from a focus on student learning"
(Bain, 1996). The model must be built
"on the assumption that meaningful school reform is be based on a
comprehensive restructuring and applying the best practices in the field of
education, psychology, and management."
Restructuring on such a comprehensive scale is an
enormous challenge for existing schools, particularly with so few successful
models in place currently. Such a
process can be expected to take at least four to five years. The distinct
advantage enjoyed by a charter school is that it starts from a blank
slate: a seamless linkage between
learning theory, curriculum, instruction, assessment, school organizational
design and professional development can be developed through the power of a
shared vision, inclusive planning, and continuous monitoring and
adjusting. From the outset, technology
can be infused in the school culture and become "a routine and meaningful
part of the whole community, based on the belief that technology actually
becomes invisible when it is ubiquitous" (Bain).
The vision of the 21st Century Academy for Creative
Learning and Enterprise is to become a national model for the technological
transformation of teaching and learning based on a comprehensive and fully
integrated design and implementation plan.
Undergirding the Academy's comprehensive design and
implementation plan is an understanding of the emerging consensus about
teaching and learning and how the use of technology comports with it.
For several thousand years, the focus of education has
been on teaching: master teachers today
teach the same way master teachers taught three thousand years ago. No one has yet found a method to replicate
what they are doing" (Drucker).
Today, however, we know a great deal more about learning that we did 100
years ago and even twenty years ago.
These new insights into learning are causing us to rethink the teaching
enterprise, from which a new pedagogy is emerging.
In this new model "learning takes place through
transforming encounters between the learner's prior experience and intuitive
knowledge, and disciplinary knowledge and know-how. Teaching involves (1) creating and posing challenging tasks, (2)
building an environment that supports productive engagement with the tasks, and
(3) guiding students' inquiry and problem solving, largely through modeling,
questioning, and coaching rather than information-giving.
Learning takes place through two kinds of
thinking. One of these is active
construction of solutions, interpretation, or other responses to
learner-stretching tasks. When real
learning is taking place, students must revise or amend what they previously
thought or believed. Challenging tasks
are the heart of the matter: a
genuinely educative task embodies and provokes the learner to struggle with an
idea and/or process that is important to the subject-matter discipline and that
is just slightly beyond or different from what the learner already knows or
knows how to do. Some conflict,
discrepancy, or mismatch between the content of the task and the learner's
beliefs and competencies is essential to create the discomfort that motivates
engagement; but the conflict cannot be so great that the learner is mystified
and discouraged.
The second kind of thinking involves reflection on and
management of the active construction process.
Through guided reflection, students learn about their own thinking and
learning, and how to think and learn more effectively. That is, when students talk about how they
thought through a problem or question, listen to the ways in which other
students did so, and observe the teacher's behavior, they become conscious of
their own thinking and learn how to monitor and guide their thinking during the
learning process. In other words, they
learn how to learn.
The interaction between students and tasks, among
students, and between teacher and student takes place in an environment
deliberately built by the teacher.
Through modeling and direct, explicit instruction, the teacher
establishes norms for student behavior that promote constructive learning, such
as these: (1) go ahead -- express your
ideas as clearly as you can; (2) don't worry about being wrong -- expect to
revise your thinking; (3) listen carefully to other people; (4) say what you
agree with before saying what you disagree with; (5) when you're stuck, ask for
help, but first try to be clear about what you do and don't understand"
(Michigan Partnership for New Education, 1992).
The emerging consensus about teaching and learning involves
a shift from instruction to construction (Dwyer, 1994).
The new technology is forcing us to make this shift,
for it is a learning rather than teaching technology. Just as the printed book became the new "high tech" of
education in the fifteenth century, so computers, televisions and video
cassettes are becoming the high tech of education in the twentieth
century. From the beginning the printed
book forced schools to change drastically how they were teaching. Before then,
the only way to learn was either by laboriously copying manuscripts or by
listening to lectures and recitations.
Suddenly, people could learn by reading....We are in the early stages of
a similar technological revolution, and perhaps an even bigger one. The computer is infinitely more
'user-friendly' than the printed book, especially for children. It has unlimited patience. No matter how many mistakes the user makes,
the computer will be ready for another try.
It is at the command of the learner the way no teacher in a classroom
can be…And, unlike the printed book, the computer admits of infinite variation. It is playful" (Drucker).
The printed book in the West triggered a surge in the
love of learning such as the world had never seen before and has never seen
since. It made it possible for people
in all walks of life to learn at their own speed, in the privacy of their own
home, or in the congenial company of like-minded readers. Will computers and
technology together produce a similar explosion in the love of learning? Outspoken computer guru Roger Schank
believes that the computer's interactive and stimulative capabilities make
almost anything possible. Peter Drucker
observes that, "Anyone who has seen a seven or eight-year old spend an
hour running a math program on the computer…knows that the powder for such an
explosion is accumulating. Even if the
schools do their worst to squelch it, the joy of learning generated by the new
technologies will have an impact."
At the
heart of the Academy's design is the belief that technology can be harnessed to
dramatically increase student motivation for learning by enhancing the
learner's self-concept.
"The essence of the integrated, universal,
multimedia, digital network is discovery -- the empowerment of
human minds to learn spontaneously, without coercion, both independently and
cooperatively" (Perelman, 1990c).
"Until recently, most educational software programs have been of
the drill-and-practice variety--about as much fun as flash cards. Today, however, interactive education
programs are captivating. As in video
games, there are levels to conquer, treasures to find, and villains to
pursue. They are compelling enough to
hold kids' interest, but rich and complex enough to support sustained learning
over time in the classroom" (Business Week, 1994). Access to the Internet has generated an
explosion of rich learning opportunities as well. The computer is giving control of learning back to the kids.
Now more than
ever, students are demanding educational media that is engaging. Children raised on a steady diet of visual
and auditory stimuli are less and less challenged by traditional teaching, with
its emphasis on lectures and texts. The
challenge of engaging students is particularly acute at the age of young
adolescence, when they are developing an expanded sense of self and increased
ability to interact with others.
Computer environments can channel adolescents' capacity for active,
engaged thinking; draw on their developing abilities to work and cooperate with
peers; help them become independent learners by developing their sense of
autonomy as they learn and apply learning strategies; build on their natural
curiosity and genuine desire to know about themselves and the work around them;
and help them develop a positive sense of their own worth engaging in and
completing worthwhile work.
Recent studies provide evidence of the positive impact
of educational technology on self-concept.
Students are motivated by computer programs that offer a sense of
control over the instructional activity; use multiple, appropriate levels of
difficulty to provide a sense of challenge; provide feedback that builds the
user's self-esteem; include an element of fantasy that offer the potential for
the student to take on roles; and incorporate game formats into the learning
activities (Sivin-Kachala and Bialo, 1996).
Schoolwork seems real and important to students as the result of
technology lending authenticity to school tasks: students take great pride in using the same tools as practicing
professionals (Means & Olson, 1994).
Teachers in one research project reported that students had to be chased
out of classrooms at recesses, and in some instances, worked with their peers
after the formal end of the school year.
In addition, the average rate of absenteeism was cut in half, and 90
percent of graduates went onto college (Dwyer, 1994).
Moreover, technology-based active learning benefits
all students, including those with diverse learning styles and needs (Rockman,
1993). Inquiry-oriented instruction is
often advocated for verbal, normally achieving students, while bottom-up,
skills-based instruction is typically espoused for at-risk students and
students with special needs. "But
these latter groups of students, even more than their higher achieving
counterparts, need to be actively engaged as learners, searching for answers to
questions that are personally meaningful, drawing on their previous knowledge
and experience, developing new understanding by linking old and new
information, and experiencing the enhanced self-esteem that results from
contributing their unique talents to a group effort" (Hopfenberg et al,
1990). Research from community learning
centers located in high-needs areas of Ypsilanti demonstrates that is precisely
the at-risk student population that stands to gain the largest improvement in
learner self-concept as the result of becoming acclimated to using technology,
particularly computers in the learning process.
Finally,
research has demonstrated that children's interest in and engagement with
technology did not decline with routine use.
In fact, they demonstrated a steady fascination with technology and used
it more frequently and imaginatively as their technical competence increased
(Dwyer, 1994).
The result of enhancing the learner's self-concept
through technology is that students are empowered to take more responsibility
for and control over their own learning .
Students become authentic learners, motivated to complete tasks for
reasons beyond earning a grade. Students
see learning activity as worthwhile in its own right.
At the 21st Century Academy, an authentic learner will
be:
*A Technology User *A Creative Learner *A
Productive Worker
*A Problem Solver *An
Innovative Learner *A Collaborative Worker
*A Complex Thinker *A Responsible Citizen *A
Cooperative Worker
*A Critical Thinker *An Involved Citizen *A
Goal-Setter
*A Knowledge Applier *A Positive Person *A Group Contributor
*A Decision Maker *A Self-Worthy Person *A
Personal Manager
*An Effective Communicator *A Respectful Person
*A Cooperative Team Member *A Self-Directed Achiever
*A Lifelong Learner *A Quality Producer
In summary, the 21st Century Academy aspires to
produce self-directed, life-long learners who use positive core values to
create a positive vision for themselves and their future, set priorities and
achievable goals, create options for themselves, monitor, and evaluate their
progress and assume responsibility for their actions.
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN FEATURES
At the 21st
Century Academy, all students will actively participate in an instructional
program which is authentic, personalized, and adaptive to a variety of learning
styles and individual strengths.
Students will participate in activities which are relevant to real life,
which allow them to internalize knowledge through hands-on experiences and
which will enable them to acquire the communication, literacy, thinking, and
personal skills necessary for life in the 21st century. Features include:
*Point of Instruction Technology *Cooperative
Learning
*Balance between Direct Instruction and Inquiry-based
Construction *Teachers as
Facilitators
*Individualized Instruction *Flexible Scheduling
*Longer School Day/Year
Technology will be embedded at every point of every
student's instructional program--this is what is meant by "Point of
Instruction Technology." A variety
of technological tools will be readily available as an integral part of the
students' and teachers' daily work.
Students have access within their classrooms to electronic field trips,
e-mail, the Internet, fax capabilities, and multi-media computers supported by
an integrated package of general purpose modules (word processor, spread sheet,
data base, and communications) plus a wide variety of instructional software
titles matched to the individual needs and learning styles of the
students. Instructional technology
provides information to students in a visual, interactive manner with which
they are familiar and comfortable.
Teachers have access within their classrooms to a
computer with the same set of integrated modules for use as productivity tools
as well as for curricular support and for presentations to their classes. The basic need is to provide teachers with
quality, customized, multimedia materials which can be used to break down the
classroom walls and extend the learning environment well beyond the physical
boundaries of the school. Teachers also
have access within their classrooms to e-mail, the Internet, fax capabilities,
customized report generation for parent communication, and a wide variety of
instructional software titles to assist in individualizing instruction. In addition, teachers are provided with
custom curriculum support consisting of live satellite interactions, videotape
and print materials in respond to their individual requests, on-demand
teleconferences with subject matter experts, and the ability to participate in
the planning of future electronic field trips such that the resulting products
will match their own curricular needs.
A content map providing connections between and across social studies,
science, math and language arts is accessible to support the development of
interdisciplinary units and projects.
In addition, teachers and students can get involved in past electronic
field trips through Interactive CD (CD-I) technology provided as an integral
part of the available technology.
The underlying premise in active learning is that
students learn, or construct knowledge, by doing (Zorfass et al, 1993). They learn from seeking answers to questions
that stimulate their imaginations.
Therefore, active learning involves less reliance on the traditional
lecture and more use of instructional methodologies that place increased
responsibility on the learner in the teaching/learning process. The greatest student advances in
technology-infused schools occur where teachers achieve a balance between the
appropriate use of direct instruction strategies and collaborative,
inquiry-driven knowledge-construction strategies (Dwyer, 1994). In the 21st Century Academy, teachers will
spend about one-fourth of their teaching in the lecture/demonstration mode and
three-fourths in hands-on and technology-based activity. Lectures and
demonstrations will focus on the cognitive understandings that students will
apply during hands-on activity.
Teachers will utilize technology to make experiential activities, interdisciplinary
units, and, cooperative learning integral part of the instructional
methodology.
Learners, particularly adolescents, have an innate
curiosity about their surroundings and are generally fearless when it comes to
implementing new ideas and technologies (Braukman, 1993). "Inquiry-based instruction captures the
spirit of adolescent inquisitiveness that accompanies growing intellectual
abilities. Adolescents are able to
gather information; weigh and challenge the reliability of evidence; draw
conclusions; make judgments; recognize the viewpoint or voice behind the words,
pictures, or ideas presented; see relationships between ideas; and ask what-if
and suppose-that questions" (Hill, 1980).
One particular instructional model for inquiry
learning that teachers will utilize is known as the "I-search" model
whereby students engage in a meaning-making process through which they pose a
question that intrigues them, gather information, integrate information to build concepts and generate ideas,
refine their thinking, and write both about how they have carried out their
investigation and what they learned
The process by which someone builds knowledge, refines
thinking, and generates meaning has in iterative quality. For example, as students gather and
integrate information, they are likely to revise or refine their research questions
and their search plans; as students write drafts of their report, they may come
across gaps that require them to return to data gathering to find the missing
information. In each stage, students
are engaged in numerous writing activities that contribute to their unfolding
search" (Macrorie, 1988).
Inquiry-based learning also lends itself to
culminating projects. Current research
shows that students are more likely to activate the knowledge and strategies
they need for solving a problem if they have learned them in real,
problem-solving contexts. Projects
allow students to draw on the most important ideas, concepts and skills gained
from their studies; focus on more complex higher-order thinking; link information;
and take responsibility for self-management.
Students will regularly participate in projects and be required to
complete at least one major project each year of an entrepreneurial or
community service nature.
Technology plays a vital role in inquiry-based
learning by creating opportunities for students to do meaningful work and by
supporting students and teachers in obtaining, organizing, manipulating, and
displaying information:
·
Electronic
media can bring experiences and information previously unimagined by students
into the classroom. Through
instructional television, students can view and discuss events they otherwise
could not experience. Laserdiscs and
CD-ROMs put thousands of images and topics at students' fingertips. The Internet empowers students to
inexpensively and instantly reach around the world and make connections outside
the classroom and school. Adolescents
can express their boundless energy by using these outside resources as part of
their project: going to the library,
interviewing people, taking surveys, and directly observing phenomenon.
·
Computers
"can foster an increase in the quantity and quality of students' thinking
and writing. Several features of word
processors seem to reduce the phobia often associated with writing. Writing on the computer has a temporary
feel, making it easier to take creative and grammatical risks. Editing and revising can occur almost as
quickly as one thinks, and finished products printed from a word processor have
a professional quality that generates a sense of accomplishment" (Peck
& Dorricott, 1994). Desktop
publishing programs permit students to artistically display their ideas through
such vehicles as newsletters. Students
can create their own Webpages through which they can "publish" their
writings in cyberspace.
·
Technology
can nurture artistic expression. Video
production, digital photography, computer-based animation and the like have
great appeal, particularly for those students who have been constrained by the
traditional options of verbal and written communication. These tools increase motivation and foster
creative problem solving skills as students evaluate the many possible ways to
communicate ideas (Peck & Dorricott).
·
A collection
of computer applications empowers students to develop higher-level process
skills that cannot be taught in the traditional sense--they cannot be
transferred directly from the teacher to the learner. "Databases, spreadsheets, computer-assisted design, graphics
programs, and multimedia authoring programs allow students to independently
organize, analyze, interpret, develop, and evaluate their own work. These tools engage students in focused
problem solving, allowing them to think through what they want to accomplish,
quickly test and retest solution strategies, and immediately display the
results" (Peck & Dorricott).
Learners apply academic skills and concepts, as well
as develop technological literacy, through application-based learning activities. Having students involved in hands-on
activities that require the use of new information and communication
technologies guarantees the development of higher-order thinking and problem
solving skills. One four-year
longitudinal study of students graduating from a high school where they had
high access to computers showed that they routinely employed inquiry,
collaborative, technological, and problem-solving skills uncommon to graduates
of traditional high schools (Dwyer).
Even low-achieving students using computers can master higher-order
thinking skills (Rockman, 1993).
Students learn and develop at different rates, and
learn best when they learn in the way best suited to them (Betts, 1994). Technology can individualize instruction by
offering thousands of lessons covering the same skills now taught in a
lock-step way through textbooks to groups of students with incredibly different
backgrounds, interests, and motivation.
Students can move at an appropriate pace in a non-threatening
environment, developing a solid foundation of skills rather than the shaky
foundation a calendar-based progression often creates (Peck &
Dorricott). Multimedia enables the same
content to be presented in a variety of instructional formats, empowering
students to acquire information themselves in ways that are congruent with
their natural styles of learning.
Research demonstrates that students learn from each
other in small cooperative groups.
Cooperative learning involves interdependence among students. The goal is for every student to have a role
or task and to be held accountable for completing that task.. Within this
context students are free to draw upon their own creativity and the strengths
of their teammates. One positive
outcome is the building of strong social skills and respect for others that
enable students to work well together as a team. "In an I-search unit, students engage in cooperative
learning in meaningful ways. For
example, they may share information about a common topic; they may engage in
peer conferencing as part of drafting reports; or they may work together to
create a newsletter, play, or audio-visual project based on what they have
learned" (Macrorie).
Researchers have observed that students, rather than
becoming social isolates, constructively interact with one another more
frequently while working at computers (Dwyer, 1994). The interactions are different because students are more curious
about what other students are doing.
Frequently, students in computer environments spontaneously organize
collaborative work groups and spontaneously help each other. Peer tutoring frequently results in more
effective cooperation and increased learning (Rockman; Means & Olson,
1994).
As students begin taking more control over their
learning through technology, the whole role of the educator changes. Teacher-centered classrooms tend to evolve
into student-centered ones (Hancock & Betts, 1994). The teacher acts more as a coach and guide
than an information dispenser. The
teacher can't simply be a coach who inspires students, because many need some
direct instruction. But technology
frees the teacher from having to be the lion-tamer in the front of the room who
presents information all day long (Betts, 1994).
Teaching through guided inquiry involves striking a
balance between providing thoughtful guidance and freedom for students to
investigate their own ideas (Wiske, 1990).
"The very manner in which a teacher presents a question or problem
to students not only partially defines the classroom climate; it influences
students' success in solving the problem.
The teacher's motivation should be to establish a feeling in the
classroom of psychological safety and freedom where students are aware of that
freedom and are willing to explore any and all ideas that lead to answering a
question or solving a problem" (Waetjen, 1994).
"What propels teachers in inquiry-based
instruction is not that they view themselves as dispensers of knowledge, but
rather that they see their role as one of helping, guiding, and supporting
students as they construct meaning. As
a facilitator, a teacher's energies are directed toward determining how
learning might best occur, observing how students are progressing, and
intervening as needed. More
specifically, the teachers carefully select materials, structure learning
activities, support and extend student decisions on directions for learning,
challenge and encourage students, respond to students' meaning-making attempts,
and reflect on their teaching and their students' learning" (Lester &
Onore, 1990).
"In an I-search unit, the teacher engages in many
practices to facilitate learning. S/he
begins every instructional activity be setting the context; that is, drawing on
students' prior knowledge, setting a purpose for the activity, and clearly
identifying expectations. S/he directs
student learning by helping with problem understanding, asking questions that
extend cognition, suggest alternatives, invite discussion, and focus students'
attention. S/he ends every activity by
relating completed activities back to the I-search process. S/he carefully determines how best to group
students, taking into account the purpose of the activity, students' academic strengths
and weaknesses, and social factors.
S/he models aspects of the inquiry process; for example, s/he might
conduct a mock interview to model ways to ask probing follow-up questions. And s/he provides direct strategy
instruction; for example, in how to extract information from a videotape"
(Zorfass et al).
Although students are motivated by instructional
technology to become self-directed learners, researchers note that the most
important determinant of students' attitudes when using technology is the
teacher (Sivin-Kachala & Bialo, 1996).
Only the teacher can create a friendly, caring environment in which
students feel secure and willing to accept the many learning challenges they
will face. Only teachers can build
strong, productive relationships with students. And only teachers can identify and meet students' emotional
needs. Technology frees the teacher to
do the important work that requires human interaction, continuous evaluation,
and improvement of the learning environment, thereby elevating the role of the
teacher (Peck & Dorricott).
Research further demonstrates that:
·
While the
addition of technology into traditional classrooms failed to radically alter
the learning context of students initially, over time teachers reported and
were observed to interact differently with students--more as guides and less
like lecturers. Technology stimulates
increased teacher/student interaction (Dwyer, 1994).
·
Technology
amplifies what teachers are able to do and what they expect from students. Teachers present more complex material and
see complex assignments as feasible.
The range of learning experiences extend far beyond those offered in
traditional classrooms.
·
Teachers are
not hopeless technical illiterates. In
fact, over time they personally appropriate technology for creative expression
and personal work (Dwyer, 1994).
·
Teachers
begin teaming, working across the disciplines, and modifying school schedules
to accommodate ambitious class projects.
In addition, teachers' lesson plans and students' projects begin
demonstrating mastery of technology and frequently integrate several kinds of
media (Dwyer, 1994).
·
Teachers
experiment with new kinds of tasks for students and encourage far more
collaboration among their students.
They also provide more opportunities for students to use a broader mix
of learning and communication tools (Dwyer, 1994).
·
Time-consuming
paperwork for teachers is reduced, permitting them to focus their attention
elsewhere. Teachers can better meet the
demands of individual students, give them more attention, allow more
independent work, and accommodate different learning styles.
·
Finally, the
introduction of technology gives teachers the opportunity to become learners
again. The challenge of planning and
implementing technology-supported activities provides a context in which an
initial lack of knowledge is not regarded as cause for embarrassment (Means
& Olson).
Technology will not make a teacher's life simple. Rather this kind of teaching calls for a
teacher with multiple skills. The
subject matter is inherently challenging, and because it is evolving and
open-ended, it can never be totally mastered.
New roles pose many challenges, too.
The teacher must be able to launch and orchestrate multiple groups of
students, intervene at critical points, diagnose individual learning problems,
and provide feedback.
It has been observed that serious intellectual
activity doesn't fall neatly into 50-minute periods for a set number of
days. Complex tasks put pressure on the
conventional small blocks of instructional time. Daily schedules will be modified regularly to permit students
more time to work on projects.
School cannot make a bigger difference in student's
lives without playing a larger role in them.
The Academy will offer an extended school day and year so that students
have more time to learn, less time to forget over the summer, and more reason
to develop a passion for education:
·
An optional
after-school tutorial program lasting until 6 p.m.
·
An optional
summer program offering six weeks of recreation and academic enrichment
The Academy will enhance the educational opportunities
for all students by adopting a high content curriculum, based on the model
content standards and draft benchmarks established by the Michigan State Board
of Education. The curriculum will be
accessible to all students and will ensure that students successfully achieve
the State's model content standards in the core subject areas of English
language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science, as well as in the
subject areas of arts education, career and employability skills, health
education, life management education, physical education, technology and world
language.
The curriculum design of the Academy offers numerous
distinguishing features, including:
*Standards-based Curriculum *Promotes Inquiry Learning
*Interdisciplinary, Thematic *Curricular Embedding
Standards-based Curriculum
The Academy will use the Michigan Curriculum Framework as the basis for
its unified curriculum. The content
standards established in the curriculum framework represent rigorous
expectations for student performance, and describe the knowledge and abilities
needed to be successful in today's society.
The goal of the curriculum framework is to improve student achievement
by aligning classroom instruction with core curriculum content standards and
national content standards. It is designed
to be used as a process for the decision-making that guides continuous school
improvement.
The Academy has selected the Michigan Curriculum
Framework as the basis for its curriculum because standards of authentic
instruction embedded in the content contained in the content standards and
benchmarks comport with the Academy's instructional design. These standard are:
·
Higher-order
thinking: Instruction involves students in
manipulating information and ideas by synthesizing, generalizing, explaining or
arriving at conclusions that produce new meaning and understanding for them.
·
Deep
knowledge: Instruction addresses central ideas of a topic
or discipline with enough thoroughness to explore connections and relationships
and to produce relatively complex understanding.
·
Substantive
conversation: Students engage in extended conversational
exchanges with the teacher and/or peers about subject matter in a way that
builds an improved and shared understanding of ideas or topics.
·
Connections
to the world beyond the classroom: Students make
connections between substantive knowledge and either public problems or
personal experiences.
Interdisciplinary instruction is defined as "a
knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and
language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue,
problem, topic, or experience."
One goal of interdisciplinary curriculum is to provide less fragmented
instruction. Instead of being inundated
with bits and pieces of information in each separate content area, students are
provided continuous opportunities to learn for understanding, to interrelate
ideas, and to grapple with ideas that span several disciplines. In such an environment, students actively
internalize a range of perspectives that serve them in the larger world.
Organizing the curriculum thematically facilitates the
development of interdisciplinary units.
In a thematic approach, students confront themes, problems to be solved,
or clusters of subjects and learn to inquire, link, and synthesize ideas. Thematic units whose organizing centers are
drawn from issues in the larger world are particularly effective in engaging
adolescents in active learning.
Interdisciplinary thematic units will have the following
characteristics (Sinatra, 1994):
·
broad-based
and composed of many topical areas; planned to develop students' critical,
creative, decision-making and problem-solving skills and involve students in
practical, experiential learning;
·
represent the
content of what students are supposed to learn; are not special projects;
·
become the
focus of a teacher's curriculum and the students' learning focus;
·
incorporate
traditional subject disciplines in learning experiences/strategies that
maintain the integrity of each discipline;
·
are developed
over an extended time period through the study of many subtopics within the
theme;
·
utilize
inquiry at the core of each them and involve students in searching for answers;
·
offer
learning opportunities for students at differing developmental levels and with
differing abilities;
·
facilitate
successful direct skills instruction emerging from contexts that are rich and
meaningful to students.
Technology can serve as the glue that connects
subjects together in interdisciplinary units. It supports students and teachers
in obtaining, organizing, manipulating, and displaying information from a
heretofore unimagined diversity of sources.
Multimedia capabilities permit information to be presented in a rich
variety of contexts that stimulate students to make connections between
otherwise separate subject matters.
Interdisciplinary, thematic units provide an excellent
context for inquiry-based instruction (Sanders, 1994). To illustrate, problem-solving activities
typically begin with reading and research (language arts) to provide background
information and enhance the student's understanding of the problem. Activities often utilize principles of
science and mathematics in the design and evaluation of solutions. As they proceed through the activity,
students usually assess their solutions vis-a-vis the interactions with and
impacts upon the environment and society (social and environmental
sciences). Finally, activities almost
always culminate with the formulation of technical documentation and oral
presentations (language arts).
Inquiry-based learning is a key element of the
curriculum design because it translates the content of the curriculum into a
varied and stimulating series of learning experiences that interest students
and help them relate new content to previous knowledge and make connections
between school experience and real-world issues.
Curricular Embedding
Curricular embedding requires that technology become a meaningful,
integral part of learning and not just something to be learned about (Bain).
Major curriculum reform efforts in science and
mathematics are calling for connections to be made in technology with their
curriculum. The Curriculum and
Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics, 1989) is having a profound impact on mathematics curriculum. As these Standards suggest: "The vision
articulated in the 5-8 standards is of a broad concept-driven curriculum, one
that the reflects the full breadth of relevant mathematics and its
interrelationships with technology" (p. 66). A report of Project 2061, already having major impact on science
education, states that the sciences are important to the understanding of the
processes and means of technology and their integration with technology
education curricula is vital.
The Academy will assure that students achieve mastery
of high performance standards for all curriculum areas by utilizing a variety
of pupil assessment measures to identify what students know and need to know to
demonstrate high academic performance.
The Academy will further develop and implement multiple assessment
measures to evaluate the organizational design, the curriculum, the
instructional process, and the professional development program, and will
assess the effectiveness of each key process relative to its impact on the
achievement levels of all students.
Features include:
*Individual Education Compact *Ongoing, embedded assessments
*Multiple student assessments *Annual Reports
*Educational audit
Individual Education Compact (IEC)
The Academy requires that an Individual Education
Compact (IEC) be developed for each student.
The IEC is an agreement among the student, parents and advising teacher
that charts a specific educational program tailored to each student's aptitudes
and achievements. The IEC has three
major functions: establishing
measurable educational goals for the student, identifying the responsibilities
of the parents and teachers for helping the student reach defined standards,
and identifying special assistance or services the student will need to receive
from the school, parents, or community to achieve his or her goals.
The time period covered by the IEC varies, depending
on the age of the student and expected time needed to achieve mastery in
certain subject areas. The student's
advising teacher will be responsible for monitoring a student's progress for
two to four years and for updating the IEC regularly based upon student
performance and achievement. Each IEC
is integrated into a computerized system accessible to all teachers and,
eventually, to parents.
An important feature of student assessment in the
Academy is the fact that the assessment tasks are embedded into the ongoing
instructional process to the greatest possible degree. Thus, assessment is seen as an important
dimension of instruction, not a separate "add-on" which necessitates
putting instruction on hold while it happens.
For example, writing is a primary vehicle for ongoing assessment, with
students' portfolios providing a concrete, tangible focus for teachers and
students to talk together about how the inquiry process is going and to
co-construct plans to guide and support each student's individual development
within the larger group endeavor. A
student's writing gives the teacher a window into the student's individual
thinking and learning process at key points.
This ongoing assessment is particularly critical for students with
special needs who may need additional support in formulating questions,
organizing a search, extracting information from reading or interview material,
and linking and integrating ideas.
As a student enters the school for the first time, a
variety of assessment tasks are mobilized which are appropriate to the student's
age and stage of development. The goal
of assessment at this initial stage of the student's tenure in the school is
two-fold:
·
to allow an
initial determination of where the student should be placed in the school's
program; and
·
to provide a
benchmark against which subsequent development can be compared.
Interim progress assessments are embedded into the
individual curriculum units that prepare students to demonstrate mastery of the
State of Michigan Model Content Standards.
They provide products for a student's portfolio and information on a
student's mastery of some standards.
Such assessments are useful for:
·
giving
periodic feedback to students as to their progress;
·
reporting to
parents on student progress; and
·
sharing with
team members and other staff in preparation to making adjustments in the
student's instructional program.
Such interim assessments may include:
·
teacher-constructed
performance tasks and
related scoring rubrics which build in the relevant standards;
·
student-constructed
performance tasks (when
age appropriate) in which teachers help students construct their own
performance tasks that:
·
are
meaningful both to teachers and students;
·
are framed by
students to the greatest possible degree;
·
require
students to locate and analyze information as well as to draw conclusions about
it;
·
require
students to communicate the results clearly; and
·
require
students to work together on at least part of the task.
Not all of these characteristics need to be present in all
student-constructed performance tasks.
·
Naturalistic
observations occur all the
time as teachers and students go about their ongoing work. Teachers will be trained to observe and
record student behaviors which provide evidence of student competence in the
various standards;
·
Student
exhibits, products, and performances provide powerful ways to observe and record
accomplishments and progress toward mastery of standards;
·
Student
self-assessments (e.g.,
via journal entries) afford invaluable opportunities for students to reflect on
their accomplishments and to internalize their own progress;
·
Traditional
tests should by no means
be ignored as an important indicator of student progress, especially when
criteria external to the school are involved.
Both criterion-and norm-referenced tests (type to be determined) will be
involved in this aspect of the assessment program.
A third dimension of the Academy's approach to student
assessment entails summary validations or watershed assessments. As implied by these descriptors, such
assessments consist of summaries of several individual assessments and usually
are motivated by the need to take stock in a more summative sense on occasions
such as the end of the term or a student's demonstration that s/he has mastered
one or more standards and is ready to move on to another level of instructional
activity. Several different types of
measures will be used for this assessment.
For the sake of brevity, the foregoing discussions
concentrate primarily upon cognitive assessments. Many of the same procedures described above
are useful to assess students characteristics in the affective and physical
areas which are also integral parts of a holistic approach to child growth and
development. As decisions are made
regarding which affective and physical indicators are to be used to supplement
the cognitive measures, these data will be gathered and stored as well.
Michigan Educational Assessment Program
(MEAP)
The Academy will administer the Michigan Educational
Assessment Program (MEAP) in compliance with Part 6B of the School Code. MEAP is administered annually to select
grade levels. Seventh and tenth grade
students are assessed in the areas of mathematics and reading, while 8th and
11th graders are assessed in the areas of science and writing. The Academy's curriculum will be aligned
with the state objectives which underlie the MEAP and will serve as one
important indicator of the extent to which specific cognitive goals have been
achieved.
The Academy believes that educational success for any
school cannot be undertaken without clear lines of accountability. The public school academy statute, by its
very design, requires that the Academy be accountable to the parents and
students who voluntarily choose to enroll in the school, as well as to the
University Board for the Academy's performance in meeting its educational
goals. The Academy will fulfill this
responsibility through student and school reports.
Student reports will document the progress of a
student in mastering the state content standards. At the end of the time period covered by the Individual Education
Compact (IEC) for each student, the advising teacher will analyze test scores,
evaluations of papers, observations, and the instructors' progress reports to
determine the degree of success in meeting the objectives of the curriculum
units outlined in the IEC. The advising
teacher will provide the report to the student, his or her parents/guardians,
and the school. Based on this report,
the student will receive credit for completed foundation and capstone
units. Units that were not successfully
completed will be incorporated into a new IEC.
Annual reports will report on a student's progress in attaining the
standards. Parents will know what
specific knowledge and skill areas need additional attention and work and when
their child will be ready to begin the watershed assessments. A narrative assessment will be written by
each student's advising teacher for all student reports.
School reports will allow parents, community members
and the University Board to assess how well the Academy is performing in
meeting its educational goals. Each
annual report will include such items as curriculum offered; number and type of
curriculum units mastered by students; aggregate student scores on the subject
exams, MEAP tests, and other standardized tests utilized; student attendance
records; and student behavior records.
The school reports will also include information on school staffing,
parent involvement, and levels of satisfaction among students, parents, and
teachers.
The Academy will annually conduct its own internally
directed educational audit to initially establish a baseline of performance and
thereafter to determine its progress and opportunities for improvement. The educational audit is a comprehensive
system designed to enable the school to analyze its current performance against
a set of world class standards, establish a performance baseline for strategic
planning purposes, and identify quality indicators as a framework for
continuous improvement.
The educational audit allows the school to gather and
analyze data through a set of instruments which enable systemic examinations of
the essential elements that serve as standards for an academically effective
and developmentally responsive school, including student performance data and
other statistical indicators of the success of the program.
Analysis of the various student assessment results
will allow the Academy to examine the degree to which the objectives covered by
the assessments are being taught effectively at all levels and to identify
opportunities for improvement in the areas of curriculum design, curriculum
alignment, instructional strategies, and professional development. The Academy will use the information and
data to strengthen the instructional delivery process relative to the high
content standards, while demonstrating the school's achievement in comparison
with like schools across the state.
ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN FEATURES
The Academy's organizational structure is designed to internally
facilitate implementation of its innovative instructional design and externally
to generate a momentum powerful enough to transform Ypsilanti into a 21st
century learning community. Features
include:
*Flexible Organization and Management *Total
Learning Community
The Academy will implement a common sense
proposition: administrators and
teachers know best how to educate students in their schools. The principal and teachers will be able to
respond flexibly and creatively to student needs. Changes will occur in the traditional roles and responsibilities
of the school stakeholders: The
principal will become an education leader and executive, teachers will develop
coaching and mentoring skills, and students and parents will take more
responsibility for educational activities.
The principal assumes overall leadership.
Given the complex and far-reaching character of technology integration
described in the instruction, curriculum, and assessment design features
(above), the principal must play an active role in launching and monitoring the
innovation as it unfolds (Zorfass et al).
The principal is responsible for setting and articulating school-wide
goals, fostering a spirit of inquiry among students and staff, motivating staff
and students to work toward a common purpose, providing the resources to
support technology use, and supervising and evaluating the process. The principal will also be responsible for
establishing a collegial working environment in which collaborative planning
and shared decision-making about the educational needs of students are the rule
rather than the exception. Since the
educational needs of students will be the driving force in making decisions,
input and appropriate participation will be sought from all those with a stake
in the outcome: teachers, counselors,
parents, students, and the community at large.
The principal will set a tone encouraging all stakeholders to look for
opportunities to improve the system and thereby improve the quality of education.
A strong facilitator guides the process.
Given the nature of the principal's job, someone else will likely need
to take on the critical role of guiding the project on a day-to-day basis
(Zorfass et al). The facilitator must
have a broad base of knowledge about curriculum design, inquiry-based learning,
and technology applications. S/he must
be able to make this innovation a top priority because large portions of time
will be allocated to training and curriculum design, as well as implementing, monitoring,
and evaluating the units. The
facilitator must have a flexible schedule in order to be readily accessible to
teachers, not only to guide them in conceptualizing, but also to take care of
many minute details. A likely candidate
for this key role is a team leader, computer coordinator, or assistant
principal.
Professional staff have freedom to
innovate. The success of the Academy will be dependent
on the attitudes and competence of its staff.
The staffing process will focus on obtaining teachers who believe all
students can succeed. Only people who
want to be at the school will be selected.
The school will be staffed with teachers who are willing participants in
the decision-making and mentoring process.
The Academy's instructional design empowers teachers to utilize
instructional strategies that work for the children in their classrooms. Teachers will also have maximum flexibility
in the choice and use of instructional materials
The organizational design of the Academy will no longer allow
traditional policies and practices to limit teaching. For too long teachers have been hampered because they were unable
to answer two questions: How can some
students be given more time to learn without wasting the time of others? How can a teacher vary the way he or she
provides instruction to some, but not all, of the students? Teachers will be able to move beyond these
questions by organizing the school to allow for the following:
·
the
incorporation of technology into teaching and assessment;
·
innovations
in the use of time and pedagogy;
·
practical and
common sense solutions to problems; and
·
the use of
"best organizational practices" of pioneering schools.
An interdisciplinary team of teachers designs the
curriculum. Teachers will work in teams across the
disciplines to carry out the integrated curriculum, enabling students to
understand the relationship of different subjects. A group of math, science, and language arts teachers, for
example, may work together to plan a lesson that uses math in a scientific
experiment, which students then report on for an assignment in language
arts. Teams will be coordinated by team
leaders and are comprised of teachers experienced in the core disciplines. In addition, by structuring the teaching
staff to work in teams, teachers will be able to benefit from the direct
interaction with and observation of their peers. The collegiality and communication fostered through teacher
teaming will enable teachers to improve their own skills, heighten morale and provide
a direct benefit to students' learning.
An experienced school management company provides
administrative and technical support. The Leona
Group, L.L.C., as the management company for the Academy, provides traditional
central administrative and support services to the principal and staff so as to
allow the Academy to function effectively as an autonomous site. The principal will be relieved of many of
the record-keeping and compliance responsibilities in order to focus on
providing educational and organizational leadership. Instructional staff will gain access to a host of professional
development opportunities and technical assistance services to be offered by
The Leona Group.
Model Learning Community
True
restructuring of schooling must be expressed at the total community level, not
just in individual schools or buildings (Perelman, 1991). In a knowledge-based society, learning
occurs everywhere at all times; learning isn't constrained to a particular time
and within a particular building.
Technology is making rich learning experiences available at the touch of
a finger. If schools are to survive and
prosper in the 21st century, they must be connected to the community at a much
deeper level than is presently the case with most public schools.
The 21st Century Academy will extend the walls of
learning for students well beyond the school building through connections to
local universities, businesses, non-profit community organizations and
families. The result will be nothing
short of the transformation of the greater Ypsilanti-area into a 21st total
learning community.
A graphic presentation of these linkages appears after
this description.
Universities & Colleges.
The Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor region is blessed with a wealth of quality
post-secondary educational institutions, including the University of Michigan,
Eastern Michigan University, Washtenaw Community College and Cleary
College. The Academy will establish
close linkages with these institutions through student tutorial programs, field
trips, mentoring, visiting lectures and common projects. Each student will have a mentor at a local
university or college.
Business Community. The Academy
will establish strong connections with local areas businesses, especially
computer companies. Students will be
exposed to "real-life" experiences through visiting lectures, field
trips, and joint projects involving local businesses. Local businesses organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce,
will have ongoing input into the design and operations of the Academy to ensure
that students are learning the most relevant skills for success in the 21st
century. Students will also learn from
business people how knowledge is applied everyday in real life to create new
wealth and opportunity.
Learning Centers. The Academy
will be connected directly to local communities through a consortium of
neighborhood learning centers, some of which the Academy will directly operate
itself. These learning centers will be
located in low-income apartment complexes, churches, community centers, and
other community buildings. The learning
centers will provide after-school and evening tutorial and technology
exploration programs to children and adults, bringing transformation of the
learning enterprise deep into the community.
Students of the Academy will be required to participate in learning
center activities through community service projects.
Community
learning centers will be connected by a cyberbus--a 21st century
"bookmobile" that will visit neighborhoods on a regular basis and
showcase the newest learning technologies.
Students and teachers from the Academy will participate in demonstrating
learning projects as applications of these learning technologies.
Families. Homes are
rapidly becoming learning institutions as computer technology becomes more
affordable and the Internet brings museums and other learning resources
directly into the home. As a result,
students are experiencing learning beyond the walls of schooling. Unfortunately, a growing portion of the
achievement gap between students can be attributed to the availability of
technology in the home. The Academy
believes that all students should have access to the powerful learning
technologies that are shaping our future.
The Academy will seek to link every home to the school through the
Internet. Businesses will be invited to donate equipment and supplies to make
technological resources available to students and families who cannot otherwise
afford to purchase these resources themselves, helping to mitigate and even
reverse this growing learning gap.
At almost every turn, the effective integration of
technologies into teaching practice calls into question traditional assumptions
about many things, such as what teaching is, what it means for teachers to be
professionals, and how schools should be organized (Sheingold, 1992). To be successful in a technologically-rich
environment, teachers must reformulate their roles as professionals, learning
to teach as facilitators, to work in teams with colleagues, use multiple
instructional strategies, become curriculum innovators, manage ongoing,
individualized student assessments, and renew their commitment to the belief
that all students can master challenging curricula.
These changes are challenging, time consuming and
intensive, requiring the following professional development features:
*Systemic professional development program *Resident
experts
*Teacher planning time *Personal
learning plan
A key obstacle to the use of technology in traditional
schools is the limited support teachers have for integrating unfamiliar
technologies into instruction. As a
result, teachers frequently avoid new technologies or use them for purposes
other than those for which they are designed.
Before technology can be moved from the periphery to the center of teaching
and learning, two major goals must be achieved (Sheingold, 1992):
1.
Teachers must
become comfortable and flexible in their use of the technologies to support and
enhance student learning throughout the curriculum.
2.
Teachers as
professionals must be prepared to use technologies to enhance and support their
own communication, productivity, and learning.
The Academy's
process of professional development for integrating technology into teaching
practice will include:
·
gaining
increasing comfort and facility with hardware and software,
·
finding
software and ways of using it that are consistent with teaching goals,
·
experimenting
with alternative ways of using the technology with students,
·
learning new
ways of teaching by observing students using technologies,
·
noticing and
taking advantage of new forms of classroom organization and management made
possible by the use of technology.
Professional
development experiences are most effective when they enable educators to
construct new concepts and strategies based on their current knowledge and
skills (Kyle et al, 1989). Educators
need experiences that challenge their ways of thinking and force them to
negotiate new understandings within their own minds and with others. Once educators seriously consider new ways
of thinking and acting, they need opportunities to try out new ideas and
strategies in safe, supportive environments, and to make adaptations and
refinements that work best in their particular situations. This process can take months or even
years. Without taking this kind of
time, educators are unlikely to make meaningful changes in their practice.
The Academy will rely less on in-service workshops and
focus more on providing opportunities for educators to develop new knowledge, attitudes,
behaviors, and skills. Sparks and
Loucks-Horsley (1989) describe several models that are well-represented in
professional development literature:
·
Training
with coaching includes
development of the theory and rationale behind the new behaviors to be learned,
demonstration or modeling, practice in training settings, and guided practice
or peer coaching in the classroom with supportive feedback from a
colleague. The process of peer coaching
will particularly help teachers change their teaching practices, provide them
with opportunities to discuss their changing ideas about teaching, and give
them the psychological support they need to persist in learning.
·
Observation
and assessment
involves careful observation of teaching with attention certain behaviors and
an open discussion of the results.
Teachers agree on a focus for the observations. The observer records behaviors as they
occur. A conference follows during
which the observations are discussed, strengths and weaknesses assessed, and goals
set for the future. Both the observed
teacher and the observer can gain insights into facilitating and coaching
strategies to instruction and how to incorporate it into daily teaching
practice. One special use of this
approach will be in programs for the induction of beginning teachers, involving
assignment of a mentor and structured orientation to teaching.
·
Inquiry incorporates such practices as action
research and reflective inquiry. Teachers, alone or collaboratively, decide what problem or
situation they are interested in examining, gather and analyze data, and
interpret the results in light of changes they might make in their classrooms
or in school practice.
Teachers and administrators will be provided with
regular opportunities through a flexible scheduling program to meet in a
variety of professional growth activities.
Teachers will meet in teams to insure that the
curriculum is consistent with the state's model content standards. Additionally, content area teachers will
meet in content teams to assure that there is a coherent plan for ongoing
content development throughout the levels of the Academy. Included will be ongoing collaborative
working relationships with curriculum consultants who will assist with the
implementation of the curriculum program.
Each teacher in the Academy has or will develop an
area(s) of expertise from which all colleagues can benefit, particularly
through mentoring relationships. For
example, one might specialize in integrating curricula, while another has
expertise in portfolio assessment. By
specializing, teachers are able to achieve a broader base of knowledge from
which all can draw and children can benefit.
Teachers who attend special training will be asked to give a report or
mini-training to their colleagues.
Each professional staff member will develop his or her
own plan for professional growth, in collaboration with his or her teams and
the overall faculty. The plan will
address the skills and knowledge needed for the individual to maximize his or
her success as well as the success of the Academy. Professional staff are provided with opportunities to attend
professional conferences and workshops at both the state and national level.