Study Proves Effectiveness of Student-Centered Learning in Science Classes

This article from Science magazine provides further evidence that when students are actively engaged in creating knowledge, they learn more than when they are passive recipients of information in traditional lecture-based classes. This study affirms the approach to education that we have adopted in all disciplines at Friends, one that is closely aligned with the goals articulated in our Teaching and Learning at Friends School paradigm. As we seek to achieve these goals with our students, we will continue to rely upon research-based studies such as this to inform our practice.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/05/a-better-way-to-teach.html

UVA School of Medicine Embraces Habits of Mind

This article offers a stirring affirmation of the student-centered, habits-of-mind-focused approach to learning that is at the heart of our Teaching and Learning at Friends School paradigm. Indeed, not a skill nor a habit of mind from our diagram goes unmentioned, in one form or another, in this article.

Like the UVA School of Medicine, we acknowledge the importance of factual knowledge while also recognizing that the ability to find and analyze information, to think about it critically, and to apply it to novel situations in collaboration with others is equally essential.

The RX FOR EDUCATION box halfway through the article is another heartening reminder that the direction we've charted aligns nicely with best practice and theory in the field.

http://uvamagazine.org/features/article/adjusting_the_prescription/

Well-Deserved Skepticism on College Rankings

This Newsweek article, written by the President of Reed College in Oregon, is a cogent summary of the many shortcomings of the college rankings offered most prominently by US News and World Report. Among the many unfortunate aspects of these rankings (above and beyond the fundamental dishonesty of claiming to be able to reduce a complex and very human process to a highly questionable algorithm) is that colleges and universities find themselves forced into making decisions on matters like admissions with an eye towards their impact on the statistical categories used in the ranking process.

There is also a call in this article for the kind of individualized college counseling that we are fortunate to be able to provide to our students. At Friends, we choose to eschew the view of the college search process as a trophy-hunting process segregated from the educational process. Instead, we see it as an extension of that process, an opportunity for reflection and discovery that deepens students' self-knowledge while also leading to the ideal "fit" between the individual and the college.


http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/12/can-you-trust-college-rankings.html