Learning Goals
Big Picture Learning holds very high standards for our students. We have designed our educational program from the end-goal backwards – meaning, we have a clear vision of our graduates’ skills, knowledge, and personal qualities that will help lead them to success and fulfillment. However, we also know that to truly educate one student at a time, our goals for student learning must be flexible enough to accommodate the diversity of student needs and personal aspirations. Our assessment system is based around two sets of goals – five school-wide Learning Goals and each student’s own personal goals. Woven throughout all of the goals is the belief that learning should be authentic and meaningful, as well as a commitment that each student should become a life-long learner.
Big Picture Learning Goals are tools for problem solving and offer a framework for looking at the real-world knowledge and abilities necessary to being a successful, well-rounded person. They are not content-oriented curricula, nor are they completely distinct categories. Each goal focuses on an aspect of reasoning or community behavior. Students’ learning and project work will often incorporate many overlapping elements of the Learning Goals.
Communication: “How do I take in and express ideas?”
This goal is to be a great communicator: to understand your audience, to write, to read, to speak and listen well, to use technology and artistic expression to communicate, and to be exposed to another language.
Questions used to develop a student’s project:
- How can I write about it?
- What is the main idea I want to get across (thesis)?
- Who is my audience?
- What can I read about it?
- Who can I listen to about it?
- How can I speak about it?
- How can technology help me to express it?
- How can I express it creatively?
- How can I express it in another language?
Empirical Reasoning: “How do I prove it?”
This goal is to think like a scientist: to use empirical evidence and a logical process to make decisions and to evaluate hypotheses. It does not reflect specific science content material, but instead can incorporate ideas from physics to sociology to art theory.
Questions used to develop a student’s project:
- What idea do I want to test (essential question)?
- What has other research shown?
- What is my hypothesis?
- How can I test it?
- What information (data) do I need to collect?
- How will I collect the information?
- What will I use as a control in my research?
- How good is my information?
- What are the results of my research?
- What conclusions can I draw from my research?
- How will I present my results?
Personal Qualities: “What do I bring to this process?”
This goal is to be the best you can be: to demonstrate respect, responsibility, organization, leadership, and to reflect on your abilities and strive for improvement.
Questions used to develop a student’s project:
- How can I demonstrate respect?
- How can I empathize more with others?
- How can I look out for my health and well-being?
- How can I communicate honestly about this?
- How can I be responsible for this?
- How can I persevere at this?
- How can I better organize my work?
- How can I better manage my time?
- How can I be more self-aware?
- How can I take on more of a leadership role?
- How can I work cooperatively with others?
- How can I enhance my community through this?
Quantitative Reasoning: “How do I measure, compare or represent it?”
This goal is to think like a mathematician: to understand numbers, to analyze uncertainty, to comprehend the properties of shapes, and to study how things change over time.
Questions used to develop a student’s project:
- How can I use numbers to evaluate my hypothesis?
- What numerical information can I collect about this?
- Can I estimate this quantity?
- How can I represent this information as a formula or diagram?
- How can I interpret this formula or graph?
- How can I measure its shape or structure?
- What trends do I see? How does this change over time?
- What predictions can I make?
- Can I show a correlation?
Social Reasoning: “What are other people’s perspectives on this?”
This goal is to think like an historian or anthropologist: to see diverse perspectives, to understand social issues, to explore ethics, and to look at issues historically.
Questions used to develop a student’s project:
- How do diverse communities view this?
- How does this issue affect different communities?
- Who cares about this? To whom is it important?
- What is the history of this? How has this issue changed over time?
- Who benefits and who is harmed through this issue?
- What do people believe about this?
- What social systems are in place around this?
- What are the ethical questions behind this?
- What do I think should be done about this?
- What can I do?
