What type of school is right for my child?
Attributes: Learner-Driven Education
At a Learner-Driven school, the focus is on the learner - students move at their own pace, they collaborate with other students, and they are empowered to solve their own problems.
The classroom can be quite noisy and busy with learners working on their projects and constantly collaborating with each other. There is a lot of peer-to-peer learning happening and you will often see learners moving around.
In a teacher-led model, classrooms tend to be quiet with students sitting in rows of desks, listening to instruction.
In a learner-driven model, teachers don’t give answers. There are guides who ask questions and nurture curiosity. The Focus is on the learners, not a teacher.
Picking the right school
Do you want a self-paced model vs. fixed-paced instruction? In a self-paced model, learners move at their own pace. This means they will complete some topics at a much faster pace than the teacher and may take longer to master other topics. The learning is highly personalized and focused on mastery rather than a traditional grades / tests model.
Rather than grades, learners and Guides work together to reflect on each student’s learning journey on academic skills and non-academic skills. Journey discussions can often last an hour vs. a traditional parent-teacher conference that lasts 10-15 minutes.
“To look at the work of your peers, and learn how to explain with kindness and precision, the nature of their mistakes is, in fact, how you learn to diagnose your own work.”
Self-learning and Peer-to-Peer Learning vs. teacher-taught
Does your child enjoy moving around and learning at her/his own pace? Do they enjoy helping others out and wish they had more ownership / agency over their own learning? Are they motivated to self-learn (but perhaps don’t enjoy being lectured / schooled)
It’s possible that a Learner-Driven model of education may be a better fit for your child.
In a Teacher-Led model, the instructor is often at the front of the classroom and will lecture about what is important. If a Teacher-Led model is right for your child, they may really desire to learn through a lecture / textbook model rather than a self-learning model.
Learning is different than schooling. We all love to learn. we don’t like to be schooled.”
- Varun Bhatia
Succeeding in a learner-driven model
A learner-driven model can be highly rewarding for a child because it gives them ownership / agency of their own education. This leads to happiness and a desire to self-learn. With self-learning, there is no limit to what a child will want to learn.
To be successful, you must be motivated to learn. You must also recognize your role in being part of a community and that means displaying positive character traits (kindness, empathy). They must be willing to collaborate with others and work together to complete projects. And while there are no grades at Acton, learners must be willing to take feedback.
