WHOLE-CHILD DESIGN

Shared Goals

School staff, leadership, caregivers and students have differing visions for learning, which may focus primarily on what students should learn and when, without considering how and why. There may be disagreement about what learning outcomes matter most, or lack of transparency around what learning outcomes are valued. Goal setting may be minimal or might be oriented toward groups of students, rather than personalized to each student. Goal-setting processes do not integrate students’ interests, hopes and dreams with schoolwide, high expectations. Because of this, adults may have to exercise a lot of control over students to motivate them to engage. Adults may have a limited concept of what students are capable of.

Meaningful Learning Design

Little effort is made to understand students’ identities, prior knowledge and experiences, interests and goals, so learning experiences are not necessarily resonant. Learners are seen as passive, and much effort might go into controlling their engagement through rewards and/or punishments. Student interest and emotional engagement is seen as their responsibility, so students might be blamed when they do not care about or like what they are learning.

External pressures, such as curricular requirements and standardized testing, might be a primary driver of students’ learning experiences. As a result, instruction might focus on siloed knowledge and/or skills that are decontextualized. If students ask why they’re learning or doing something, teachers may lack a clear answer or often default to responses like “you’re going to need to know how to do this next year” or “because it’s on the test.” Teachers may primarily use strategies like rote memorization and summary, versus making meaning of real-world examples. Much of the language in the classroom may focus on procedures rather than the learning process.

Collaborative Experiences

The classroom setup and schedule make one-on-one, small-group, and whole-group interactions between peers and with teachers challenging. Most, if not all, student work is independent, with limited opportunities for students to practice social, communication and relationship skills. Little support is provided to help students talk about their learning. Because of this, student discussions might often appear “off topic.” When students do work together, it may not go well. Hierarchies and lack of matched supports might limit some students’ sense of belonging within their academic community.

Assessment and Feedback That Supports Growth

Assessment practices may primarily focus on evaluating student deficits, with little information that supports decision making about how to better achieve learning, growth or mastery. Similarly, adults may receive summative feedback that groups them into performance categories, without providing a pathway to growth.

Teachers may not have a great sense of where each student is, instead planning learning experiences based off of their preferences and/or assumptions about what students need at different ages. Students’ performance may be measured based on whim, and families, caregivers and students might be confused about how they’re doing or surprised by their teachers’ assessment of them.

There are minimal processes for formative feedback – instead, students might find out at the end of the term how they are doing. Students are not likely to regularly provide feedback to their teachers and school about what they need to grow.

Shared Goals

Leaders, staff, caregivers and students may agree upon some ways to center students in the learning process, but may struggle to consistently act against that vision. Learning outcomes are somewhat clear and shared but are not consistently referenced in the design of learning goals. Goal-setting processes might account for student voice at times (e.g., specialized goals for a project block), yet at other times they may be primarily directed by school and adult priorities. Adult expectations of students may still be somewhat low, especially for struggling students, resulting in adults doing a lot of the “heavy lifting.”

Meaningful Learning Design

Some of the time, learning experiences are emotionally resonant for students. Educators may use their understanding of what students care about to design some learning experiences, or learning experiences might often reflect the interests and goals of the teacher or school. At times, experiences might provoke authentic use of skills and students’ desire to seek out knowledge (e.g., choice of meaningful texts to read, choice of topics for research projects), while at other times, students may be asked to learn passively (e.g., extensive drilling of facts or strategies without context or application). Some of the time, students seem to engage in practice opportunities eagerly and productively, while at other times, they might resist or disengage.

External pressures, such as curricular requirements and standardized testing, may make it challenging for educators to create learning experiences that are meaningful. As a result, some learning opportunities might engage students in transferable, meaningful, and contextualized skill and knowledge building (e.g., for certain projects, during certain instructional blocks). At times, students can share meaningful purposes for their learning, while at other times, they might be less sure. Some relevant, real-world examples and cases may be integrated throughout the learning process.

Collaborative Experiences

The classroom setup and schedule provide some opportunities for students to work with peers and teachers one on one, in small groups, and as a whole group. These opportunities might only occur during certain instructional blocks (e.g., students frequently work together during science, but rarely engage with peers during writing). Supports for student collaboration and communication might be rigid and limiting (e.g., students might collaborate to get clear on assignments, but may not actually work together throughout their learning process). Learning experiences might not help all students feel as though they belong. Students might value some peers as resources for their learning but might also see others as having less to offer because of how collaboration is framed by educators.

Assessment and Feedback That Supports Growth

Assessment might at times focus on grouping or evaluating students based on past performances rather than assessing how to achieve growth and mastery for all. These same structures might be mimicked in approaches to adult capacity building.

Teachers are attuned to students’ academic progress. While there may be some variation of assessment techniques (e.g., observations, student self-assessments, exit tickets), they may not support a multifaceted and dynamic understanding of students. At times, adults may hold students to different sets of standards for the same work, perhaps being overly hard or easy on certain groups of students based on biases, despite efforts to unpack and address them.

Students may receive some formative feedback as they are learning new things, but most of their feedback might come from tests or comments on completed work at the end of the learning process. Additionally, feedback might focus primarily on academics without addressing holistic skills that support growth. Students may provide some feedback to staff about the support that they need to learn, but it might not be implemented regularly.