A Unified Language for Teaching and Learning

Dream State

After the end of first period English class this morning, Terry Teacher quickly completed an update on Sammy's performance. Proctor teachers seamlessly input information on student performance into forms that reside in our database. Like all students, upon enrolling at Proctor, Sammy has a specific set of goals, areas of strength, and areas of growth that are tracked and charted throughout their high school experience. Sammy’s profile contains some learning obstacles that need to be addressed and diminished (e.g., auditory memory, processing speed, and attention to salient details). According to the frequent inputs from Terry Teacher and all of Sammy’s teachers, artificial intelligence provides an update that elaborates Sammy’s significant progress in minimizing those obstacles and identifies areas that continue to falter. The focus of Sammy’s academic program has adjusted consistently as the learning profile has evolved, allowing for targeted acquisition of both essential skills and knowledge appropriate to Sammy's academic progression.

Current Reality

Proctor’s strategic plan calls for greater attention to neurodiversity and metacognition within “an academic model rooted in a unified language for learning.” This goal represents a “doubling down” on one of Proctor’s greatest strengths and unique qualities. During the admission season (where Proctor exceeded its new student enrollment goal by fifteen), many savvy parents commented that Proctor’s integrated model sets it apart from other schools that tout their learning support programs. That is, over the decades, Proctor has ensured that learning support is pervasive throughout our demanding college prep curriculum, not sequestered to a small group of tutors.

The task of an integrated, unified educational program becomes more sophisticated and, therefore, more interesting as neuroscience begins to demystify human cognition. The challenge for Proctor is to further consolidate, among students and their teachers, an understanding of how each student’s brain learns. 

The mistake that most schools make is to wrongly define learning support as either bypassing a student’s difficult tasks or teacher-initiated accommodations and workarounds. Rather, the most effective and enduring approach is to teach students how their brains work (metacognition = to think about their thinking skills) so they can increase their learning capacities. 

Proctor’s strategic plan continues to proclaim: “Elevate Proctor’s understanding of neurodiversity and a metacognition mindset for all students and faculty in order to guide students toward agency and self-advocacy.” Attainment of this goal will require teacher engagement in the coursework of cognitive neuroscience, study groups, mentorship, class observations, and collective pursuits of effective teaching practices. As the dream state opening paragraph suggests, Proctor faculty would rivet their attention on building underlying cognitive skills in each of their students. During the leadership transition of heads of school, on many occasions, Amy Smucker and I have discussed the systems that can help Proctor accomplish these strategic initiatives.

This spring, Proctor’s Teaching and Learning Team has discussed the curriculum review process. Simultaneously, Derek Nussbaum Wagler, Dean of Teaching and Learning, and I are discussing other aspects of the Proctor academic experience that might benefit from greater clarity, analysis, tracking, and teacher training: the pedagogy, curriculum, student progress monitoring, and the student engagement curriculum. 

Derek Nussbaum Wagler, Dean of Teaching and Learning

The first step in a cyclical self-evaluative process for each academic department will be refining and clarifying the curriculum, specifically learning objectives that clearly articulate both content and skills – the “what” of teaching and learning – to establish and communicate clear expectations to students.

With a clear understanding of the “what,” our next crucial step will be leveraging neuroscience to build a robust toolbox for the “how” of learning – our pedagogy – ultimately aiming to enhance student engagement and deeper understanding. Proctor's historical emphasis on strong student-faculty relationships and experiential learning provides a strong foundation for effective learning. Building upon this, Proctor faculty will engage in ongoing work to identify, share, and practice pedagogical approaches grounded in the latest neuroscience and educational best practices to continually strengthen our model for student learning. This ongoing work is central to our commitment to educational excellence.

Read More From The Learning and the Brain Series