Alternative Education – An Overview

Alternative education refers to a number of approaches to learning and teaching other than traditional public or private schools. Also known as educational alternative or non-traditional education, this method can be applied to students of all ages and levels of education.

HISTORY OF ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

During the 18th up to the 21st century, alternative education grew as a response to the establishment of compulsory education. The following are the pillars of alternative education:

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (Swiss humanitarian)
• Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau (American transcendentalists)
• John Dewey, Francis Parker (founders of progressive education)
• Friedrich Frobel
• Rudolf Steiner
• Maria Montessori

They all believed that education should nurture a developing child on many levels, not just intellectually, but emotionally, psychologically, physically, morally, and spiritually as well. Ron Miller identified five elements that are common to educational alternatives:

1. Balance
2. Respect for the person
3. Noninterference among the political, cultural, and economic spheres of society
4. Decentralization of authority
5. A holistic worldview

OVERVIEW OF ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION

Alternative education is the result of education reform and is rooted in philosophies that are fundamentally different from mainstream education. Although alternative education can have scholarly or philosophical orientations, it can also be informal in nature. It can have different structures, student-teacher relationships, curriculum, and teaching methods.

Non-traditional education puts emphasis on a sense of community, small class size, and close relationships between students and teachers. It is available through alternative schools, independent schools, charter schools, and home-based learning environments. The following are the qualities that distinguish alternative education from traditional education:

• Alternative education is rooted in philosophies about life and learning, focusing more on human development. It includes the intellectual, physical, ecological, spiritual, and emotional aspects of life.

• It has a unique and long history within well-rooted philosophical foundations. Notable pioneers include Maria Montessori and Rudolph Steiner.

• Alternative education is highly diversified. It has different approaches to learning and teaching.

A “DIFFERENT” APPROACH

The most powerful influence on a student is a supportive atmosphere. Every student can find a comfortable path to facilitate learning and progress. Students involved in alternative education say that the most important characteristic of a teacher is that they care for the welfare of the student. The “heart” or center of alternative education is the teacher.

One quality that sets it apart from mainstream education is its diversity. Unlike traditional schools which are relatively similar in many aspects, alternative education does not follow a “one model fits all” approach. Alternative education is based on the following beliefs:

• All students can learn in different ways
• There are many types of structures and environments for learning to occur.
• Learning involves the cooperation students, teachers, parents, and the community.
• Alternative education develops a sense of belonging.
• Every day is a new opportunity to succeed.
• The chance for success is dependent on the student’s attitude.
• Alternative education can nurture a sense of accomplishment.
• Positive thinking will make learning easier.

ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

In the United States, alternative education aims to satisfy the needs of students who are struggling in a traditional school setting. The learning program is designed according to the student’s expectations and learning style.

The mission of alternative education is to equip students with knowledge and skills to prepare them academically, socially, and emotionally to be productive members of society.

Traditional subjects such as mathematics, reading, and writing can be integrated into the overall learning experience. Also, non-conventional subjects like environmental education or spirituality can be taken up in an open-ended learning environment.

INcompassing Education – Educators Who Care

INcompassing Education provides high-quality professional development training to schools and teachers. Our mission is to help identify the needs and promote educational growth to ensure that students achieve their maximum potential.

Our experienced educators and facilitators conduct on-site PD, off-site PD, and online PD (through our Lounge & Learn sessions). We provide educational professional development in Indiana and other states in the USA. At INcompassing Education, we work closely with school administrators and teachers to attain better outcomes for students.

For more information, visit http://incompassinged.com/.

 

 

 

Professional Development for K-12 Educators by INcompassing Education

K-12 education consists of primary and secondary education in the United States and other parts of the world such as Canada, Australia, and India. In the United States, around 87% of students attend public schools, 10% study in private schools, and the remaining 3% are home-schooled.

THE NEED FOR QUALITY EDUCATION

The US spends more on education than any other country. But despite this, the Pearson / Economist Intelligence Unit rated education in the United States only the 14th in the world. Meanwhile, the Programme for International Student Assessment ranked US high school students 40th globally in Math and 24th in Science and Reading. All these highlight the need to improve the quality of K-12 education.

INCOMPASSING EDUCATION: HIGH-QUALITY PD FOR K-12 EDUCATORS

One way to uplift K-12 education is through professional development (PD). INcompassing Education provides professional development training in Indiana and other states in the USA. Our mission is to promote growth in the educational system by guiding teachers, principals, and school administrators.

INcompassing Education offers professional development in three ways: on-site PD, off-site PD, and online PD.

1. On- site PD – Our organization can do on-site professional development at your school or educational institution. This will be conducted by experienced and highly qualified educators. INcompassing Education’s facilitators can design a customized plan according to the specific needs of your school and district.

2. Off-site PD – INcompassing Education also conducts workshops, training, and custom PD events for the entire teaching staff. We will discuss compelling topics such as teaching practices, classroom tools, and ways how to achieve better outcomes for students.

3. Online PD – Through our Lounge & Learn training sessions, you can choose the topics that you want and sign up. This high-quality PD is designed for busy educators who want to improve their teaching skills and knowledge. Participants can interact with the facilitators in real-time, regardless of location. If you are unable to attend the live sessions, you can still watch recorded Lounge & Learn sessions for a very minimal fee. Convenient, interactive, and accessible – these are the words that best describe our online PD.

ABOUT INcompassing Education

Dianne McKinley heads our team of highly motivated and experienced facilitators. She has an Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) degree from St. Thomas University and 20 years experience as a teacher, educator, building level administrator, outreach coordinator, and leadership consultant.

We cover all areas of professional development in education – Curriculum Mapping, School Turnaround, Classroom Management, Leadership Mentoring, Alternative Education, PBIS, and RTI. Our goal is to uplift the quality of education through professional development in Indiana and other states in the US.

At INcompassing Education, we share our passion for learning and teaching to our country’s educators. Please visit http://incompassinged.com/ to know more about our PD training sessions and offerings.

 

Professional Development – Mentoring Teachers in Schools

What is a mentor? A mentor is an experienced individual who takes a special interest in helping another person become successful. He or she is a teacher, adviser, role model and friend rolled into one. In education, mentoring teachers in schools is a process wherein educators with career experience provide knowledge, support, reinforcement, and advice to people who are in the teaching profession.

Mentoring in schools is relevant to the work, career, and professional development of teachers. An effective mentoring relationship involves mutual trust, respect, understanding, and empathy. Besides technical expertise, mentors also share wisdom and life experiences.

 

 

CHARACTERISTICS OF MENTORING

• Mentoring is relationship oriented – It provides an environment where the mentee can share issues that affect professional success. Aside from specific learning competencies, mentoring also includes other areas such as self-confidence and self-perception.

• Mentoring is development driven – Its purpose is to develop an individual not only for the present but also for the future. Mentoring will also enhance the leadership skills of teachers.

• Mentoring involves a design phase – This is needed to establish the strategic purpose for mentoring. Focus areas, mentoring models, and specific components that will guide the matching process will be determined.

MENTORING TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS

A college education is not enough to prepare new teachers for the real life classroom, leaving them lacking in the practical knowledge of teaching. Poorly trained teachers will impact students’ performance. Student achievement is largely dependent on the quality of instruction.

One of the primary reasons why new teachers leave the profession is the lack of support in dealing with the challenges they face. Mentoring in schools nurtures new educators through the critical years and gives them the skills and tools needed in actual practice.

Typically, it is the school that assigns a mentor. Mentoring in schools is a means to support novice teachers and other education professionals. A well-planned mentoring program developed by experienced mentors can help teachers survive their first few years in teaching.

Educators need mentors who will observe them and give them feedback. It will help them improve their interpersonal skills, written communications, and behavior management. The results – they will be better at lesson planning, grading, and classroom management.

BENEFITS OF MENTORING TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS

• Improved teaching skills
• Helps develop confidence and self-esteem
• Enhanced social skills and behavior
• Increased sense of belonging
• Improved resiliency

THE ROLES MENTORS PLAY

• Confidant – Teachers must be able to express their concerns, doubts, and fears to their mentors. Being honest and open about these feelings will make the relationship between the mentor and the mentee more relaxed and productive.

• Observer – By means of observation, mentors can pinpoint areas that need improvement and discuss it with the mentee. They will then give feedback on the teacher’s performance. To be effective, a mentor has to avoid being intimidating or overpowering.

• Confidence builder – Teachers can develop competence and capacity to make their own informed decisions. A mentor can suggest ways to improve teaching, at the same time provide emotional and moral encouragement.

About INcompassing Education

Education plays a very crucial role in today’s society. That is why our mission is to provide high-quality professional development to teachers and education professionals. We offer professional development training, customized solutions, and online Lounge and Learn sessions. For more information, please visit http://incompassinged.com/.

The Importance of Professional Development in Education

In education, professional development (PD) refers to a broad variety of specialized training, advanced professional learning, or formal education which intends to help teachers, administrators, and other educators improve their knowledge, skills, and effectiveness.

Professional development training can be funded by a district, school, foundation grant, or private sources. It may be delivered in person or online and through 1-on-1 interactions or in group situations. Read this article to learn more about the importance of professional development in education.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT?

Professional development keeps teachers up-to-date on new technological tools for the classroom, new findings on how children learn, and new curriculum resources. Professional development in education is important because what teachers do in the classroom have a huge impact on student learning.

Through professional development, educators can improve their skills and become more proficient at their jobs. School administrators should realize the advantages of further education and encourage teachers to pursue PD to achieve the best learning outcomes for students. The following are the importance and benefits of professional development in education:

1. Better Learning Outcomes for Students – Professional development transforms teachers into better educators by enabling them to create tailored and relevant course instructions for today’s students. Research done by the US Department of Education showed that student achievement could improve by up to 21 percentile points when teachers participate in professional development programs.

2. Educators learn better ways to teach – Professional development for teachers makes educators more efficient in their presentations and course evaluations by exposing them to new lecture styles and delivery methods.

3. Better organization and planning skills – Professional development training helps teachers become more organized and better at planning their time. It makes them more efficient, giving them more time to focus on students rather than the paperwork.

4. Teachers gain knowledge and insight – When teachers sign up for professional development programs, it allows them to expand their knowledge base in various subject areas. It will enable them to become experts in the subject matters they teach.

5. Continuing education – Through professional development programs, teachers can learn from education specialists and upgrade their knowledge and skills. PD provides schools with leadership resources, consultative services, and technical assistance with improved student achievement as the primary goal.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT TOPICS AND OBJECTIVES

Most teachers participate in some forms of professional development during each school year. The following are some examples of professional development topics and objectives:

• Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach that aims to promote positive behavior and create positive school environments. PBIS utilizes behavior analysis to develop school-wide and targeted interventions to improve school climate for all students in both classroom and non-classroom settings. It helps students achieve social, emotional, and academic success.

• Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach that involves the early identification and support of students with behavior and learning needs. Students are provided interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning. RTI can be used both for general education and special education.

• Developing analytical skills useful for evaluating a student’s performance, and using the findings to make modifications to teaching techniques and academic programs.

• Improving potential teaching techniques such as Classroom Management and framing questions in ways that encourage deeper thinking and more substantive responses from students.

• Training in specialized teaching techniques that can be used in many subject areas. One example is differentiation – varying teaching techniques based on a student’s learning needs and interests.

• One of the advantages of further education is learning how to teach subject area content and concepts more effectively.

• Acquiring leadership skills which can be used to develop a school improvement initiative or a community volunteer program.

• Pairing new teachers with “mentor teachers” or “instructional coaches” who expose less experienced teachers to new skills and ideas and give constructive feedback.

• Through PD, educators can develop specialized skills to teach and support certain populations of students, such as students with learning disabilities.

• Conducting action research to have a better understanding of what’s working and what’s not in a school’s academic program, and using the findings to improve educational quality.

About INcompassing Education

INcompassing Education offers professional development for teachers, educators, coaches, principals, and school administrators. Topics include strategic planning, classroom management, curriculum mapping, alternative education, leadership mentoring, and so much more. To know more about INcompassing Education, please visit http://incompassinged.com/.

Three Ways to Differentiate

Differentiation is a word that all teachers know. We hear about it in trainings, read about it in books, and see it on our evaluation rubrics. Teachers know they are supposed to differentiate to meet the needs of students. They attempt to do so with the knowledge and tools they have. Many educators do this with high levels of success, however many educators struggle with what differentiation “looks like” in their classroom and therefore feel stuck.

A question I am often asked is, “How are we expected to differentiate instruction, yet still expected to have students ready to master grade level standards by the end of the year? If I slow down for struggling students and teach them at their level, they will not be ready for state testing.” This is a huge hurdle for teachers to overcome. It is understandable why this feels counter-intuitive. What is important to note is that differentiation is not remediation. In order to differentiate, you do not slow down all learning or stop teaching grade level content to address a specific deficit in skills. Rather, differentiation allows for individual student’s needs to be met while still exposing all students to grade level standards.

There are three ways that you can differentiate in the classroom to meet students’ need. One of those ways is through content. Content refers to what students will actually learn. In order to do this, it is important to pre-assess your students to find out what they already know and what their background knowledge is. This will enable you to differentiate the amount of content you will cover with students. Using your pre-assessment data, you can group students by need. Once you have done this you will know which students need pre-teaching, which are ready to jump in at the beginning of the content, and which students need the content to be accelerated, enriched, and extended. You can do this in a multitude of ways. Instead of lecturing whole group, you can provide a mini-lesson to the whole group and then break in to small groups and allow students to interact with content that meets their needs. During that small group time, you can focus your attention on pre-teaching and supporting those with greater needs, providing structure for those on-grade level, and providing enriched content for those above grade level. Those flexible groupings will enable you to hit multiple pieces of your content that will really meet the needs of each group. You can also use learning stations, project-based learning, learning contracts which will enable you to differentiate through content.

The second way you can differentiate is through process, or how they will learn. In doing so you can enable students to be able to utilize their gifts. The way that one child might engage may look different from another student. By tapping into different modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic), you can customize learning to fit the learning style that works best for each student. You can offer multiple ways for the students to engage in their learning. For instance, you may meet the needs of a visual learner by letting them read a text, look at pictures, or view a demonstration.

For an auditory learner, it is important to allow them to listen to e-books, discuss learning in small groups, and verbally problem-solve. Tactile learners will do best when they write notes, are provided hands-on activities, or draw visual representations. Finally, kinesthetic learners need to be actively involved in their learning. It is important to build movement into their day and they prefer to “do” rather than watch or listen. As the teacher, you can differentiate process through the use of group work or individualized work and it can vary from day-to-day to meet the needs of all learning styles and modalities.

The third and final way is differentiation through product. This is how students will show what they know. To best differentiate product, it is important that you introduce student choice. Teachers need to determine what experiences are best for individual students and then give them a menu of options to choose from. Some could be required options and others could be free choice. Students response very well to choice. Some educators prefer to call it controlled choice because the options are determined by the teacher and truly allow for a great win-win situation. The educator gains the data needed to make instructional decisions and the student feels empowered and strives to do well on work that they have chosen to complete. Menu boards, tic-tac-toe sheets, and contracts are all ways to offer controlled choice in product. Schools that use project-based learning often offer great product choice for students. When offering product differentiation, it is extremely helpful to have a rubric to go along with an assignment so you can assess the product easily and so that students know the expectations prior to making a choice.

Teachers desiring to meet the needs of their students while still exposing them to grade level standards daily can differentiate through process, product, and content. Keep in mind that solid pre-assessment data will help guide you as you make instructional decisions about grouping and that groupings are flexible to best meet the needs of students. When differentiating, we enable students to grow and excel rather than grow farther behind.