Best Practices in Education

Do schools kill creativity?

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson (biography) challenges the way we are educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines)

All around the world, a new kind of educational model is taking tentative steps toward the mainstream. This model is far better suited to provide the knowledge and skills that students will need to succeed in a new global economy than the traditional model still practiced in most schools.

The new model embodies many ideas which are not new but are only now being seen as a real alternative to traditional schools. The reasons why these ideas are taking root have to do with the simple fact that the old mass-production model of education simply doesn’t work for most, if not all, students. schools and school systems overwhelmingly favor the older mass-production model of schooling.

Redesigning High Schools

Educational researchers have found that, all else equal, in comparison to large schools, small schools tend to have:

• better attendance rates

• stronger academic achievement

• lower dropout rates

• higher grades

• fewer failed courses

• greater participation in activities

• less vandalism and violence

• fewer behavioral incidents

Visit the School Redesign Network at Stanford University website at http://www.srnleads.org/ o read their report on high school redesign.

Designing Schools to Meet the Needs of Children -  The Basic Elements of a Secondary Montessori Program

See some samples of best practices in action within "traditional" public schools

Key Largo School: Using Technology to Understand How the Brain Learns

We do not have to travel far to see how innovating programs are shaping the future of education.  Technology use based on brain research gives students an edge at Key Largo School.

More to this story.

The role of technology in the curriculum:

Technology is ubiquitous, touching almost every part of out lives, our communities, our homes. Yet most schools lag far behind when it comes to integrating technology into classroom learning. Many are just beginning to explore the true potential tech offers for teaching and learning. Properly used, technology will help students acquire the skills they need to survive in a complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy.
                                 

Learning Landscape: Kids Monitor Terrain with Tech

Students at this Minnesota elementary school use new technology to study the ancient ecology of a vast prairie wetland.

Harrison Central High School: A Commitment to High Tech

Sophisticated electronic gadgets such as probes and global-positioning-system devices catch students' interest.

References:

30 Strategies for Educational Reform.

                                     .

This is just an introduction. We will continue to expand on ideas to jointly explore as we move along the definition of the school's  curriculum. Is there a theme you would like to cover? Let us know. Send us your comments.

As we move firmly into the conceptual age, our professional success will depend on our ability to think on our feet – be very agile if you will. Be creative thinkers, be critical thinkers, be social learners.
- Prakash Nair
Fielding Nair International

"The top ten ‘in demand’ jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004 – so we’re “preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet, using technology that hasn’t yet been invented, in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet.

- Richard Riley
Past US Secretary of Education (1993-2001)