Principles of Learning

Organizing for Effort Accountable TalkSM

• Clear and high expectations. Organizing • Accountability to the Learning Community
• Fair and credible evaluations. for Effort - Students actively participate in classroom talk.
• Recognition of accomplishment. - Listen attentively.
• Curriculum geared to standards. - Elaborate and build on each other’s ideas.
Accountable - Work to clarify or expand a proposition.

Clear Expectations
TalkSM • Accountability to Knowledge
• Standards available and discussed. Clear Expectations - Specific and accurate knowledge.
• Models of student work. - Appropriate evidence for claims and arguments.
• Students judge their own and others’ work. - Commitment to getting it right.
• Intermediate expectations specified.
• Families and community informed. • Accountability to Rigorous Thinking
- Synthesize several sources of information.
- Construct explanations and test understanding of concepts.
- Formulate conjectures and hypotheses.
Fair and Credible Evaluations
- Employ generally accepted standards of reasoning.
• Exams referenced to standards. Fair and Credible - Challenge the quality of evidence and reasoning.
• Curriculum and assessments aligned.
• Grading against absolute standards, not curve. Evaluations
• Reporting system makes clear how students are progressing toward expected standards.
• Public accountability systems and instructional assessments aligned.
Socializing Socializing Intelligence
• Beliefs
Intelligence - I have the right and obligation to understand and making things work.
Recognition of Accomplishment - Problems can be analyzed and I am capable of that analysis.
• Frequent recognition of student work.
• Recognition for real accomplishment. • Skills
• Clearly demarcated progress points. Recognition of - A toolkit of problem-analysis skills (meta-cognitive strategies) and good intuition about
• Celebration with family and community. Accomplishment when to use them.
• Employers and colleges recognize accomplishments. - Knowing how to ask questions, seek help, and get enough information to solve problems.

• Dispositions
Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum - Habits of mind.
• Commitment to a Knowledge Core - Tendency to try actively to analyze problems, ask questions, get information.
- An articulated curriculum that avoids needless repetition and progressively deepens
understanding of core concepts.
- Curriculum and instruction organized around major concepts.
- Teaching and assessment focus on mastery of core concepts.
Self-management Self-management of Learning
• High Thinking Demand of Learning • Meta-cognitive strategies explicitly modeled, identified, discussed, and practiced.
- Students expected to raise questions, to solve problems, to reason. • Students play active role in monitoring and managing the quality of their learning.
- Challenging assignments in every subject. • Teachers scaffold student performance during initial learning, gradually remove supports.
- Extended projects. Academic Rigor in a • Students become agents of their own learning.
- Explanations and justification expected.
- Reflection on learning strategies. Thinking Curriculum
• Active Use of Knowledge
- Synthesize several sources of information Learning as Apprenticeship
- Test understanding by applying and discussing concepts. Learning as • Students create authentic products and performances for interested critical audiences.
- Apply prior knowledge. • Experts critique and guide student work.
- Interpret texts and construct solutions. Apprenticeship • Finished work meets public standards of quality.
• Learning strategies are modeled.

© 2006 University of Pittsburgh