Domain 2: Student-Centered Culture
Description: Teachers provide students with the tools, guidance, and opportunities to take ownership of their learning journey. This involves encouraging self-directed learning, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and promoting collaboration and decision-making within teams. Teachers act as mentors and guides, supporting students as they navigate real-world challenges, apply interdisciplinary knowledge, and develop the confidence and competence to drive their own learning processes. Students can transfer their own learning beyond the classroom in a novel context.
Terms: Self-directed learning
- Ineffective
Teacher remains the decision maker and authority figure for what is researched, created, and presented. Students are solely seeking teacher approval. Teacher rarely provides resources or opportunities for self- directed learning. Opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, self-reflection and reflecting on team dynamics are limited.
- Moderately Effective
Provides students with resources and occasional opportunities to direct their own learning; encourages independence in some aspects. Uses inconsistent strategies to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Provides some opportunities for team work; facilitates decision- making processes and reflections on team dynamics. Fosters an environment where students generally feel confident; provides some opportunities for self- assessment and reflection.
- Effective
Provides students with a variety of resources and strategies to direct their own learning; encourages independence through well- structured opportunities for self- directed projects. Creates multiple structured opportunities for students to work in teams; actively facilitates decision-making processes and reflection on team dynamics. Consistently fosters an environment where students feel confident and capable; students are empowered to translate feedback into goals, next steps, and responses.
Description: Creating an inquiry-based atmosphere in the classroom in which students are responsible for constructing their own undersanding of the content. Students generate conjectures and claims, and through questioning and testing, students validate or invalidate the claim. Students understand that the process of learning comes from presenting and contesting of ideas with evidence. Questions are asked throughout the learning experience. Students continuously identify the unknown in order to learn and fill gaps in knowledge. Students are not afraid to take risk and undersand that risk taking and being okay with failure are components of a climate of inquiry and progress.
Terms: conjectures, claims, risk taking, failure
- Ineffective
Teacher models skills and concepts and primarily generates the questions. Students are asked to give answers and not arguments. Questions are perceived as demonstrating ignorance as oppose to being inquisitive about learning.
- Moderately Effective
Teachers and students find solutions through a combination of inquiry and teacher modeling. Students inconsistently present counterarguments to arguments presented by the teacher or peers. Questions are primarily used to assess current understanding but don't extend discourse or forecast.
- Effective
Questions are used as a vehicle to asesss understanding, extend current topics and forecast the evolution of the concept. Students take risk and are open to objective feedback when developing conjectures to support their position. Teacher and students routinely find solutions and create solution pathways through iterative inquiry. Students present counterarguments to arguments presented by their peers and teacher. Questions are celebrated.
Description: Students' ability to be empowered and take control of their learning by setting personal goals, making informed decisions, seeking opportunities and resources, and persisting through challenges with confidence in their capacity to succeed. They believe in their ability to influence outcomes through their actions.
Term: Student agency, self-efficacy
- Ineffective
Students rarely take ownership of their learning, often relying on others to set goals and make decisions for them. Students lack confidence in their ability to influence outcomes and demonstrate a passive attitude towards seeking out learning opportunities and resources. Students show a lack of autonomy and self- directedness, requiring significant external motivation and support.
- Moderately Effective
With prompting, students take ownership of their learning, setting and pursuing goals. Students need encouragement to believe in their ability to influence outcomes through their actions. Students need support to seek out learning opportunities and resources. Students reflect on their progress and adjust their strategies occassionally, showing some level of resilience in the face of challenges. Students engage in the learning process and contribute ideas, but their initiative and self- directedness may be inconsistent, requiring some guidance to fully develop their autonomy.
- Effective
Students take ownership of their learning, setting and pursuing personal goals, and making decisions with confidence. They believe in their ability to influence outcomes through their actions and demonstrate a proactive attitude in seeking out learning opportunities and resources. These students regularly reflect on their progress, adjust their strategies as needed, and persist through challenges with a strong belief in their capacity to succeed. They engage actively in the learning process, contribute ideas, and take initiative both in and out of the classroom, showing autonomy and self-directedness in their educational journey.
Description: Teacher creates an environment where students engage in collaborative discourse with the teacher, their peers, the content, the community, the challenge partners, etc.
Terms: think pair share, turn and talk, heads together
- Ineffective
Teacher does not incorporate strategies to engage students in purposeful and meaningful discourse. Questions are not formulated and delivered on a spectrum ranging from lower to higher levels of in depth knowledge to ensure mastery of content standard. Students are not held accountable for developing positions and do not provide feedback to their peers.
- Moderately Effective
Teacher inconsistently develops strategies to engage students in purposeful and meaningful discourse. Questions are formulated and delivered on a spectrum ranging from lower to higher levels of DoK (depth of knowledge) to support mastery of content standard. Students are held accountable for developing positions but do not consistently provide feedback to their peers.
- Effective
Teacher always develops specific and intentional strategies to engage students in purposeful and meaningful discourse. Questions are strategically formulated and delivered on a spectrum ranging from lower to higher levels of DoK (depth of knowledge) to ensure mastery of content standard. Teacher and students adjust their communication and understanding based on feedback. Students are held accountable for developing positions and providing feedback to their peers.
Description: Consistently approaching rigorous challenges with determination and resilience, viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth and proactively seeking resources and support to overcome obstacles. Dedicated to seeing tasks through to completion, they remain focused and persistent, ensuring that no challenge is left unresolved, no matter how difficult the journey may be.
Terms: Rigor, resilience
- Ineffective
Students struggle with tackling rigorous tasks and may not persist through challenges. They internalize setbacks as failures rather than opportunities for growth. Students rarely seek out resources and support independently, relying heavily on teacher intervention or not seeking help at all. They show limited interest in collaboration and prefer to work alone, missing out on the benefits of peer support. When confronted with complex challenges, students tend to settle for the status quo and avoid taking risks or exploring unconventional solutions.
- Moderately Effective
Students often approach rigorous tasks with determination and resilience, though they may occassionally need encouragement to persist through challenges. They usually view setbacks as opportunities for growth and attempt to use feedback for improvement, though their application may be inconsistent. Students occasionally seek out resources and support when needed but may rely more on easily accessible options rather than exploring all available avenues. They recognize the importancce of collaboration and engage with peers to overcome challenges, though this may not always be their first approach. While students tackle many problems with enthusiasm, they might occassionally settle for conventional solutions rather than pushing for innovative ones.
- Effective
Students consistently tackle rigorous tasks with determination and resilience. They view setbacks as opportunities for growth and learning, using feedback to iterate and improve. Students proactively seek out resources and support when needed, inside and outside of the classroom, and believe in the value of collaboration to overcome challenges. They take on even the most intractable problems and don't settle for the status quo, continually negotiating a task until its completion.