Curriculum 21:
Essential Education for a Changing World by Heidi
Hayes Jacobs
Chapter 4 New School Versions:
Reinventing and Reuniting School Program Structure
We shape our buildings:
thereafter, they shape us. -Sir Winston Churchill
·
Imagine a 100 years from now, thinking back on
your time in school.
·
Possibility of new kinds of form
·
New versions of software=platforms
·
New versions of schools = versioning
1. Form should always
follow function
2. The whole is the
sum of the parts
Curricular
Destiny: Schedules, Grouping Patterns,
and the Use of Space
·
Schedule (long term and short term)
·
Grouping Patterns of Learners (institutional and
instructional)
·
Grouping Patterns of professionals (multiple
affiliations)
·
Space (both physical and virtual)
To move our school structures into more open, fluid, and
correspondingly inventive forms, we need new form, not reform.
Essential Questions
·
What type of both long-term and short-term
schedules will best support our specific learners?
·
What various ways of grouping our learners will
assist them in their learning experiences?
·
How should faculty be configured to best serve
students and to assist one another?
·
In what ways can both physical and virtual space
be created and used to support our work?
Schedules
·
Graduation
·
Time: Let
function lead form
·
Heroic Schools
Rhode Island Met Center
Thinking and Planning Outside the
Scheduling Box: Virtual Space
American students videoconferencing in their tech center -Advanced French class in
Paris Advanced English language class in their tech center
VLM – Virtual
Learning Magnet- connects cyber space with physical space
·
Link our finest cultural and scientific
institutions directly to the student in a focused experience using internet-based
tools.
CCSSO Council of
Chief State School Officers
Grouping of Students
·
Institutional - gender, age, developmental
spans, function, proficiency based
·
Instructional – skill grouping (constant), skill grouping (immediate needs),
cooperative, competitive, individualized
·
Independent – clubs, online courses,
internships, work experiences, travel abroad, community service and projects
Grouping of Professionals
– The need for multiple affiliation
Consider:
·
Vertical teams
·
Vertical strategic teams
·
Cross disciplinary teams
·
Internship supervisors
·
Task force study groups
·
Data analysis teams
·
State education network teams
·
National network team
·
Global peer coaching team
·
Global network team
Social Learning Frameworks
Leveraging
social production, social networks, new modalities for discovery, media grids,
and an organic learning process
New Versions of Physical and Physical
Space
DesignShare
1.
Whom the
building is to serve
2.
What the building’s function will be
Form should follow function.
The whole is the sum of the parts.
Could your Curriculum 21 review team generate a version of school that
had both flexibility and regulation in long-term and daily schedules, supported
multiple professional affiliations, offered a wide range of student groupings,
and used physical and virtual space in direct response to the actual students you
have been charged to educate?
