Learning Principles
North Warren’s learning principles were collaboratively developed by the entire North Warren Regional School faculty based on the following question: “What do we believe about learning?”
These principles apply to all members of the educational community, staff as well as students. These principles serve as standards against which any proposed reform of schools should be judged.
- Learners need to be able to transfer and apply knowledge/skills across the curriculum/grade levels/community into life experiences.
- Engaged and sustained learning, a prerequisite for understanding, requires that learners constantly see the value of their work and feel a growing sense of efficacy when facing worthy challenges.
- Success at transfer depends on understanding the big ideas that connect otherwise isolated or inert facts, skills, and experiences so that new challenges can be met and new experiences understood.
- Understanding must be engineered to allow learners to discover the power of an idea and see the sense of things.
- Learners need to understand how clear, challenging goals and expectations are the means to their mastery.
- Learners require regular, timely, and useful feedback in order to understand goals, to produce quality work, and to meet high standards
- Learning requires regular reflection and self-assessment, as this is necessary to apply knowledge to new situations.
- Constructivist learning experiences will enable learners to grow and expand their knowledge and understanding in a safe and supportive environment.
- A safe and supportive environment enables learners to take intellectual risks and refine their approach in moving beyond their comfort level.
- Learning is enhanced when it is personalized – when the learners’ interests, preferences, strengths, contributions, and prior knowledge are sufficiently honored.