by Courtney Belolan

​There are many different ways an applied learning experience can look. The look and feel of any experience depends on the extent to which the elements and tenets are owned by the learners. Sometimes the driving questions are presented to learners by the teachers, other times the learners write their own and every learner works with a different one. Sometimes all the learners interact with all of the same input resources, and other times learners are given menus and options for which input resources to use. Sometimes all the learners produce a similar product with varying content, sometimes learners are tasked with deciding on their own final product. Sometimes an applied learning opportunity happens in one content area or class, in others a few content areas are in the mix. In any case, all applied learning opportunities provide the context for working towards learning targets, and all applied learning opportunities tend to follow a similar pattern of implementation.

by Courtney Belolan
One of the major underpinnings of a learner centered proficiency based system is that performance towards targets is measured through evidence of learning. Learners have to provide proof that they have reached the necessary level of understanding or ability with knowledge and skills in order to earn proficiency. Once they have proved proficiency on any given target, they move on in their learning. When the system is working, learners really do work at their readiness levels. When the system doesn’t work, it leads to a good deal of frustration for both learners and teachers. Two of the most common areas of breakdown in the proficiency based system are honesty in assessment, and preponderance of evidence.

by Courtney Belolan

Transparency is a key element of learner centered proficiency based education practices. We want learners to know what they are learning, and how and when they have learned it. In many cases this ends up looking like a class at the start of a unit during which the targets are unveiled, or maybe even “unpacked” with the learners. In many cases this is really the first thing that happens, before the rest of the learning experience or the project is introduced.

by Courtney Belolan

One of the tenets of learner centered proficiency based education is that learners work within their Zone of Proximal Development. This means using grouping and regrouping strategies to meet learners where they are and let them move at their readiness levels. While we all agree that this is what we want to be doing, the how isn't always clear. This week I lay out some possibilities for how to manage grouping and regrouping within a class.

by Courtney Belolan

The other week we looked at one possible lens to think through for grouping: targets and measurement topics. That strategy works well in a declarative knowledge based learning opportunity, like applied learning or an interdisciplinary project. This week let’s look at a grouping method that can work well with procedural knowledge. To refresh, procedural knowledge is the type of knowledge needed to do a task. It is the knowing how, and being able to do it.

By Courtney Belolan

I’ve fielded several questions lately from teachers about how to manage learners being at different readiness levels within one class. The questions are all a variation on a similar theme, and range from balancing social and independent learning, equitable time for the needs of different learners, and holding space for learners on different steps in a progression. Let’s take a look at some of the questions over the next few weeks. This week, revisit a post I wrote back in the spring of 2016.

by Courtney Belolan
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The new year is underway. New classes, new teachers, new supplies, new buildings (for some). But how new should the new year be in a learner centered proficiency based environment? Is it really a clean slate, a fresh start, a brand new year of learning? Maybe the start of a new school year should be thought of more as a resuming of the learning rather than a new start of learning.

by Courtney Belolan

It is easy, almost natural, to see these last few weeks of the year as an end, something that needs to be tied up neatly. In some ways it is. But what would happen if we stopped thinking of the last weeks as the end, and started thinking of it as something else? Instead of closing the books and cleaning out the lockers, what if we found a way to keep the books open, so to speak? I'm not talking about summer work, I'm thinking a little differently here.

by Courtney Belolan
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Do you remember hearing, perhaps back in your teacher prep program, about the study where a teacher was given a group of Special Ed students but was told that they were Gifted and Talented students, and then the learners performed at the same level as the Gifted and Talented learners would? Well, it is a thing. And it is real.

by Courtney Belolan

Including learner voice and choice is a central principle in learner-centered proficiency-based practices, and here in RSU2. For the most part, learners have ample opportunities for choice in our classrooms and schools. Learners are choosing seminars. Learners are choosing topics. Learners are choosing final products. Learners are choosing input resources, and even practice activities in some cases. Including learner voice, on the other hand, is more complicated and happens in an authentic way less often.