So I know many of the boarding schools focus on the Harkness table philosophy which I believe is a strong learning model. My daughter’s current school does a lot of projects and creative assignments with some assessments. This is very different from how I grew up where you read the material, take notes in class, memorize everything and get tested.
I was wondering in addition to the harkness method how the students engaged with material at some of the boarding schools.
Miss Porter’s does a lot of projects and has a mastery-based grading system where the students are evaluated and guided throughout the term and told where they are falling short of, or exceeding, etc the learning goals/rubric for the subject. Instead of final exams, they have “Demonstrations of Learning” where the girls give talks or showcase large projects that exhibit what they have learned throughout the term. They also do a lot of cross-curricular learning and making connections between subjects. They do not want to teach to a test, but rather encourage a love of learning, curiosity, and creative thinking.
Proctor Academy does traditional testing, but they also encourage lots of hands-on/experiential learning. They have five term-long off-campus programs that they encourage students to take part in (and to do more than one if they want) - Mountain Classroom in the American Southwest; European Art Classroom with a base in France, but where they travel to other European countries every two weeks; Ocean classroom, where they live on and manage a schooner for the term, traveling along the eastern seaboard, Proctor en Segovia, where students live in and take classes in Segovia, Spain; and a program for sophomores in Costa Rica. They also have a functioning metal workshop, woodshop, and more. It used to be a graduation requirement for every Proctor grad to build a full-size functioning boat. The campus is 2500 acres and they emphasize taking classes outside and utilizing the natural surroundings, even if it’s not a class you would assume would be outside. For instance, they talked about taking English classes outside and how you learn/imagine/understand/make connections differently based on your surroundings and they want to encourage the students to think about things in new ways.
Those are two school learning philosophies/styles that stuck out to us when doing research and tours.