WO1992020208A2

WO1992020208A2 - Primary and secondary educational system and method

Info

Publication number: WO1992020208A2
Application number: PCT/US1992/004247
Authority: WO
Inventors: Audrey C. Cohen
Original assignee: Cohen Audrey C
Priority date: 1991-05-21
Filing date: 1992-05-20
Publication date: 1992-11-26
Also published as: AU2157892A

Abstract

The invention relates to a new educational paradigm for elementary and secondary school grades Kindergarten through 12 using a framework that focuses learning for each semester on a purpose relating to the world outside the classroom, which students achieve in a Constructive Action R, using transdisciplinary knowledge organized into Dimensions R according to curriculum guidelines, with assessment based on student attainment of dimensional outcomes in the Constructive Action R.

Description

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM AND METHOD

The invention concerns an elementary and secondary

educational system and a method for using the system as a comprehensive guide to curriculum planning, teaching, and student assessment for grades one through twelve.

Description

In a traditional primary or secondary school, learning is organized into discrete subjects in such areas as English, mathematics, social studies, and science. All the knowledge and skills that children are expected to acquire are taught as components of one or another of the standard subjects.

Depending on grade level, the curriculum may include such subjects as reading, writing, fourth-grade mathematics, beginning algebra, biology, civics, economics, etc. Student acquisition of the prescribed bodies of knowledge and skill is assessed through a separate test in each subject.

This traditional system suffers from a severe compartmentalization and isolation from the world that even the most talented and dedicated teachers are rarely able to overcome. The subjectoriented curriculum tends to conceal the extent to which the various subjects relate to, depend on, and enrich each other. It does not encourage teachers to show how the various subjects and their associated knowledge and skills relate to the real problems and issues faced by society, with the focus on textbook problems and separate tests in each discrete subject, students are not encouraged to develop the higher thinking skills involved in drawing together the knowledge associated with the various subjects, evaluating it, synthesizing it, and making appropriate use of it to solve the kinds of complex and ambiguous problems one finds in the real world.

The invention proposes a purpose-oriented educational system. This is a system that moves education out of the confines of the classroom, placing it in the context of the larger society. The purpose-oriented educational system helps students to understand the interrelatedness of the knowledge and skills they axe expected to acquire, to develop the higher thinking skills they need to make effective use of their learning, and to become purposeful in applying their learning for the benefit of society.

The College for Human Services in New York City has used a purpose-based system for educating professionals at the baccalaureate and masters level, where the education is directed toward professional career areas and more independent student action is expected. However, it was not readily apparent that a revised system would ever be applicable to primary or secondary school, where students must acquire a broad foundation of general education, a major aim is to develop citizenship skills, subjects are often mandated, and education is almost exclusively teacher-directed. Only with the present invention is a new purpose-oriented system now reduced to practice at the elementary and secondary level.

The system makes possible a total and highly integrated restructuring of traditional education, including the

curriculum, assessment, planning procedures, roles and

relationships of teachers and administrators within the school, and relationships between child, school, community, and the larger society. The result is a new educational synthesis.

The following are among the inventive features that make the system effective: each semester's curriculum focuses on a specific socially useful purpose; the traditional subjects are broken open and their content of knowledge and skills is reorganized in a way that makes them relevant to problems and issues in the real world; students have weekly internships at local businesses, cultural organizations, service agencies, and in the community at large where, under the guidance of their teachers, they strive to use their knowledge and skills to actually achieve the semester's purpose; they are assessed not simply on their acquisition of knowledge and skills, but on their ability to bring together and apply their knowledge and skills to achieve socially useful results; teachers have powerful new roles as members of educational planning teams, as creators of integrated, purpose-oriented, transdisciplinary curricula, as organizers of the community's educational resources, and as builders of collaboration between families, the school, and major organizations and key individuals in the community.

The new purpose-oriented educational system overcomes the deficiencies of the traditional subject-oriented system of primary and secondary education, which

- does not teach children how to solve real problems and work for change and improvement in the world outside the classroom;

- does not teach them to make use of higher thinking

skills to combine knowledge from many sources, evaluate its relevance, and apply it wisely to the solution of complex multi-step problems;

- does not teach children the interpersonal skills they need in a world where most occupations involve working with others;

- does not give children confidence that they can make a contribution and fill useful and satisfying roles in the world outside the classroom; - presents bodies of knowledge and skill in a fragmented way, not helping students to understand how these bodies of knowledge and skill interrelate and how they can be used in combination for problem solving in the real world;

- does not create a need or desire to learn in students so that they become self-motivating;

- does not assess students on their ability to perform the increasingly sophisticated tasks, such as making connections between abstract concepts and synthesizing information from many sources, that are increasingly called for in a fast-moving global society.

- does not assess students on their ability to use

knowledge and skills acquired in school in a purposeful manner for the benefit of society;

- does not consistently incorporate into the curriculum the use of community resources, including business enterprises, government organizations, cultural

institutions, and individual citizens, to help children to learn to be contributing members of society;

- does not encourage teachers at the same grade level to plan together and pool their resources for the benefit of children; - does not encourage teachers specializing in different subjects to plan together and develop a coordinated curriculum for the benefit of students;

- does not encourage teachers to think about how the

knowledge and skills they teach relate to new occupational needs and how the curriculum can be organized to prepare children for the rapidly changing world of work; and

- does not encourage principals and teachers to build

relationships between the school and groups outside the school, such as parents, business people, and community leaders, to help children learn how they can contribute to sustaining their community and changing it for the better.

The deficiencies of American schools have been amply

documented. Educational Testing Service (ETS), which

administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress, discusses the results of recent assessments and their

implications:

National assessments consistently reveal a weakness in higher-order thinking skills in all subjects, and there is a growing concern and determination to improve these skills. Policymakers, business leaders, and educators agree that young Americans will need these skills in the 21st century if they are to lead satisfying lives and if the national economy is to prosper (A World of

Difference. 1988).

In another report, ETS suggests that unsatisfactory scores in higher-order thinking skills indicate the need to relate education more closely to real life:

Teaching decisions were once guided by a hierarchy

suggesting that students must first learn the facts and skills and later learn to apply them. Yet many educators now recognize the limitations of this stepping-stone view of education. Educational theory and research suggest a different pattern of generative teaching and learning, where learning content and procedures and how to use this learning for specific purposes occur interactively.

Students learn information, rules, and routines while learning to think about how these operate in the context of particular goals and challenges in their own lives.

(Crossroads in American Education, 1989, p. 40).

ETS makes it clear that this recognition of the need for change does not mean that change has been forthcoming. The report

continues:

[It} is apparent that fundamental changes may be needed to help American schoolchildren develop both content knowledge and the ability to reason effectively about what they know - skills that are essential if they are to take an intelligent part in the world of life and work.

Such changes will involve reshaping current notions of the goals of instruction, the roles of teachers and

students, the language of instruction, the nature of instructional activities and materials, the signposts teachers use to know that they have been successful in their profession, and the evidence policymakers, administrators, parents, and the general public use to know that schools are doing their job and that students are learning (p. 41).

A book by Tracy Kidder, Among Schoolchildren (Avon Books,

1989), makes vivid the isolation of the classroom and compartmentalization the curriculum. Kidder talks about the isolation of the teacher and her students in the "lonely but safe and sealed-off domain of her own classroom" (p. 49). On page 115, the author speaks of the difficulty of a single teacher confronting a classroom:

One sociologist of teaching describes the situation as "dual captivity": the children have to be there, and the teacher has to take the children sent to her.

The problem is fundamental. Put twenty or more children of roughly the same age in a

little room, confine them to desks, make them wait in lines, make them behave. It is as if a secret committee, now lost to history, had made a study of children, and having figured out

what the greatest number were least disposed to do, declared that all of them should do it.

On page 52, Kidder speaks of how the insulated classroom affects the teacher:

Almost two and a half million people teach in public schools. Many of them work in

curiously insular circumstances. Most teachers have little control over school policy or

curriculum or choice of texts or special

placement of students, but most have a great

deal of autonomy inside their classrooms. To a degree shared by only a few other occupations, such as police work, public education rests

precariously on the skill and virtue of the

people at the bottom of the institutional

pyramid. Chris had nearly absolute autonomy

inside her room. In that narrow, complicated place, she was the only arbiter of her own

conduct. Sometimes she felt very lonely. "The worst thing about it," she once said, "is you

don't even know if you're doing something

wrong."

Kidder also comments on the compartmentalized teaching of subject

matter, frequently made all the more rigid through the use of workbooks (p. 30):

But almost every child hated the twenty- five minutes spent; in the basal's workbooks.

Judith, a most proficient reader, who went to another room for that period, said, "I love to read, but I hate reading-reading." Chris had many disaffected readers, and the workbooks

were not improving their attitudes. They

slumped over those workbooks, and some looked around for other things to do. She could make them behave, but from many she couldn't get

more than halfhearted efforts. Her two lower groups weren't making up the ground between

them and grade level. She couldn't quit the

basal altogether, but she knew she ought to

make the children see that there is more to

reading than workbooks.

Thus our schools are failing to provide children with the education they need to succeed in today's world. There is a need to place education in the context of the larger world outside the classroom, and to overcome the fragmentation and compartmentalization of learning.

Although the deficiencies of the schools are widely

recognized, there has been a dearth of proposals for attacking these deficiencies at their root by replacing the failing subject-oriented system with a new and more effective system.

The objective of the present invention is to provide as an alternative to our present failing system of education a new, comprehensive, totally integrated system specifically designed to meet the demands of the contemporary world. This new system is designed to link education, work, and life so that students learn how to make use of their education to live more useful and rewarding lives. The system recognizes that the agrarian and industrial society of the past has been replaced by a highly competitive, technological, globally organized service society. The typical occupations in this new society make unprecedented demands, calling for a new breadth and depth of knowledge, advanced thinking skills, the ability to work with people, creativity and the capacity for self

direction.

In this new educational system, the entire curriculum for each semester is organized around a socially useful purpose. The purpose provides an inherently motivating context for learning. The purpose is not only a goal or objective, but it is even broader, in that it is connected to major societal purposes. Each purpose embodies one of the areas of activity involved in effective citizenship. As a group, the purposes call on the student to develop the broad knowledge, the range of abilities, and the commitment to ethical action that characterize the productive, socially concerned citizens the program is intended to produce. Purposes at the elementary level include for example: working for good health, helping people through the arts, caring for living things, using inventions to make life better, improving the environment, benefiting people through technology, and working for safety. At the junior high or middle school level they include for example: taking charge of one's own learning, and at the senior high school level they include for example: taking charge of one's life and learning and joining a helping team. Other purposes can be developed.

Teachers collaborate with each other and with other resourc people to plan a curriculum that enables students to achieve the semester's purpose. As an element of this new system, th purpose gives coherence and organization to the curriculum, serves to direct students to achieve a Constructive Action^® that benefits society and themselves, encourages teachers to plan the semester's curriculum collaboratively by providing a common focus for their work, and connects knowledge to activities in the real world.

The curriculum content of knowledge and skills, which in the traditional system is divided into isolated subjects, is organized into a series of comprehensive, complementary, action oriented Dimensions^®. The weekly schedule consists of Dimension^® classes and an internship, all focused on the purpose of the semester. The Dimensions^®, as seen in the enclosed examples may include:

1. acting with purpose,

2. weighing values and ethics,

3. understanding self and others, 4. understanding system,

5. making use of skills.

The Dimension^® classes relate the curriculum content of knowledge and skills to the purpose that students will carry out in their Constructive Actions^®. Thus the knowledge and skills become resources that help students carry out the semester's purpose. As subject matter or curriculum

guidelines change, the system can be adapted to accommodate them. Further or new dimensions can also be designed, adapted and implemented into the system as need be. Communication would be a further Dimension.

The internship makes it possible for students to fulfill th semester's purpose by planning and carrying out a Constructive Action^® which has positive results for people in the context of the real challenges in the community at large. The

Constructive Action^® is at once a learning activity, an opportunity for real achievement, and the basis for assessing students. In a Constructive Action^®, students do not simply propose solutions to a standardized problem, but they plan and take action in a unique unfolding situation in which they are actively involved. In traditional education, the term "project" is sometimes used to describe activities carried out in the classroom to enable children to apply what they have learned or to learn by discovery. The Constructive Action^® differs from the traditional project in that it is carried out in the larger community, it requires the student to bring together knowledge from all Dimensions^®, and its intent is not simply to promote the academic development of the child but also to engage the child in striving for an overarching societal good. The total integrated educational experience for one

semester, including purpose, Dimension^® classes, internship, Constructive Action^®, and assessment, is sometimes called a Crystal^®.

The assessment of outcomes in the context of the

Constructive Action^® stands in contrast to assessment in traditional, subject-oriented education. In place of discret tests of isolated subject matter, there is a comprehensive assessment of each student's ability to integrate their knowledge and put it to work in a Constructive Action^®. This is done by establishing for each Dimension^® a set of outcomes that the student is expected to achieve in the process of planning and carrying out the Constructive Action^®. Thus, for example, the student's ability to make connections between abstract concepts, or to use their learning to create new solutions to real-life problems, will be assessed through the Constructive Action®. The student's achievement of these outcomes will usually be assessed by both the teacher and the student, and at times also by others involved in the

Constructive Action^®, such as family members or people in the community.

This system differs from that used at the college level in that the system identifies a set of significant, socially useful purposes that all children in grades K-12 should achieve. Taken together, the purposes describe the

characteristics of the person who has completed elementary and secondary education under the system and method of the invention. This high school graduate is caring and concerned, equipped to participate usefully in a high-technology global service economy, equipped with the skills of citizenship, and endowed with the desire and ability to participate in bringing about social improvement.

At the college level Dimensions^® focus on the overarching abilities required for particular professional careers. At the elementary-secondary level, the Dimensions^® are designed as the focus for a comprehensive general education. In the K-12 system, traditional school subjects are replaced with action-oriented Dimensions^® that embrace the areas of

knowledge and skills that all children should be exposed to. These new elementary-secondary Dimensions^® include the

knowledge and skills incorporated in the traditional school subjects. The Dimension^® of acting with purpose comprises planning, doing, and assessing the Constructive Action^®. Appropriate curriculum knowledge, skills, and activities are integrated into this dimension using time segments such as weekly time segments. The Dimension^® of weighing values and ethics comprises examining and comparing ethical values, ethical choices, citizenship, and conflict resolution skills. In values class students learn to recognize the implications of their and others' actions, to make ethical choices and to deal with value-conflicts by examining the philosophical content and value issues in such areas as literature, history, law and current events and by practicing such skills as negotiating and decision making.

The Dimension^® of understanding self and others comprises literature, interpersonal skills, and communication skills. In self and others class students improve their understanding of self and others for example as individuals, groups, and cultural entities through exploration of fiction, biography drama and poetry for example and through their own writing in such forms.

The Dimension^® of understanding systems comprises physical systems, social systems, and research and critical thinking skills. In systems class students study physical, biological, environmental and political and economic systems among others and learn to analyze them and take useful action with respect to them.

The Dimension^® of making use of skills comprises

mathematical reasoning, mathematical communication, language skills, problem solving, and other specialized skills. In skills class students learn to select, combine and apply such skills as mathematical skills, grammatical skills, athletic skills and artistic skills.

The elementary and secondary purposes are concerned with general abilities like working for good health or building a healthier environment. The purposes and Constructive Actions^® at the secondary and elementary level are acts of improvement children must engage in to enhance their knowledge and their growth as useful citizens. The purposes and Constructive Actions^® are designed to be developmentally appropriate for children in grades K-12.

The new elementary and the secondary system is used to identify outcomes that can be assessed for each child to indicate the child's mastery of one semester's dimensional content of knowledge and skills and the ability to use the content and skills effectively to achieve a significant, socially useful purpose.

The purposes, Dimensions^®, Constructive Actions^® and assessment of outcomes act to transform the knowledge and skills of the curriculum into a transdisciplinary system. The term multidisciplinary is not appropriate because this new curriculum is not simply a new rearrangement of traditional subjects or disciplines. Rather it: represents a totally new synthesis of traditional and new knowledge and skills. As an example, literature, communications skills, and interpersonal skills are integrated in the Self and Others Dimension^®.

Furthermore, the five Dimensions^® together result in a

comprehensive curriculum, in which each Dimension^®, with its broad content of knowledge and skills, complements the others. A traditional curriculum composed of an arrangement of

traditional subjects cannot be called comprehensive, because it is planned in a piecemeal way, certain important kinds of skills (problem solving and interpersonal for example) are usually not included in any systematic way, and there is no common focus on an agreed-to purpose, so that the subjects are not designed to complement each other.

This new educational system of the invention makes the child the center of a new and productive relationship between the family, the school, and the community. At the beginning of the educational process, the child moves beyond the orbit of the home into the orbit of the school. As part of the

curriculum planning process, teachers build linkages between home and school. Families are encouraged to take part in their children's education, and the children help to plan events which will draw family into the school and make them participants in the Constructive Actions^®. In the early months of kindergarten, the children begin to move into the orbit of the community, beginning with a few community service organizations such as the police, a dental clinic, etc. The community provides resources to promote the children's learning, and it provides opportunities for social improvement which the children make use of in their Constructive Actions^®. The childrens' educational and service relationships in the community are mediated by their teachers and the principal. However, as the children progress, they take on more and more of the management of these relationships. From the start, the children are the center of productive new relationships between the school, the family, and the community. Figure 1 shows, in schematic form, the position of the child as the center of an effective partnership between home, school and community.

Table 1

These are examples of the kinds of outcomes that are used for assessment in the new system of education. Those shown here are to be assessed as part of the Constructive Action^® for the first semester of grade 5.

Three major elements of this system, the purpose, the Dimensions^®, and the Constructive Action^®, can be used to create a framework or matrix on which the curriculum plan for the entire semester can be laid out on a week by week basis.

Examples of frameworks and of the resulting plans are shown in the .tables below. The system can be used for each of grades kindergarten through twelve. In the examples, the

Dimensions^®, incorporating all the semester's content of knowledge and skill, are shown on the leftmost vertical guide for each grade. The framework is laid out horizontally in weeks. The several phases of the Constructive Action^® are listed just above the top edge of the framework.

The framework can be varied in a number of ways. The lengt of time covered may vary. In the examples, some frameworks use a 16-week semester, and some a 19-week semester.

Depending on local practice, it would be possible to have a framework with one purpose cover a year.

The purposes designated for each semester may be changed from time to time so as to refresh and revitalize the system. Purposes may also be interchanged if necessary. Thus in our example for grade 10A, the curriculum was designed for

students who are just joining the program in their second year of high school, and the framework therefore borrows its

purpose from the first year of high school, grade 9B, designating it "Purpose 2." The content is 10th grade content.

The content areas embraced by the Dimensions^® may also vary Thus in the framework shown in Table 4 (grade 6A), the

Dimensions^® are related to traditional subject areas such as English, Social Studies, Science, Mathematics, and Spanish. In the framework shown in Table 2 (grade 4A), which is a more refined or developed framework than that shown in Table 4, the Dimensions^® are defined in terms of knowledge and skills; in other words, the traditional subjects have been totally integrated and transformed into the Dimensions^®.

Once the major parameters of the framework have been established, greater detail can be added. In the top row of the examples, opposite the label "Purpose" or "Acting with Purpose," a general outline of the Constructive Action^® is entered. In the upper part of the remaining rows, opposite the Dimension^® labels Values and Ethics (Weighing Values and Ethics), Self and Others (Understanding Self and Others), Systems (Understanding Systems), and Skills (Making Use of Skills), guidelines for focusing each Dimension^® on the

Constructive Action^® may be written (examples 1,2,3,6,7,8). As shown in the examples, these guidelines may take the form of major questions that will be addressed in each of the various Dimension^® classes. It sometimes happens that certain curriculum content and/or outcomes are designated or mandated by the community such as city or state. In such case, the official guidelines will be reflected in the framework. Thus the example for grade 5A was designed for a New York City school, while 6A and 6B were designed for schools in two different communities in Florida.

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the curriculum planning process in six steps. In steps a-c, the planning team gathers and studies information. In steps d-f, they use their

findings to design a new, integrated curriculum. In actual practice, the planning team may move through the steps in a different order and return to prior steps from time to time.

In using the framework for curriculum planning, teachers work together as a team. They decide who will teach each Dimension^®. Certain Dimensions® may be shared by two or more teachers. The teachers indicate in the appropriate space on the framework the particular topics they will cover in their section of the curriculum. Planning together, they share ideas and resources, and check to make sure that they are developing a comprehensive, integrated curriculum without redundancy. In elementary schools, where classroom teachers often have responsibility for teaching most of the curriculum, they plan together with other classroom teachers at the same grade level. At times, they may meet with the principal, the librarian, the school nurse, parents, business people, agency heads, civic leaders, and others from the community who may be able to help the children with their Constructive Action^®.

The principal is likely to have an expanded role as liaison person with the community and an active participant in the learning process with the children. At the elementary level, the Constructive Action^® is often performed by the children as a group.

In junior and senior high schools, all of the teachers are specialists, teaching from the perspective of one of the five Dimensions^®, and planning meetings are enriched by many points of view. As they mature, students usually go out to their internships in small groups or individually, with each student planning and carrying out a separate Constructive Action^®.

Any area of knowledge and skills can be integrated into a purpose and utilized in a variety of Constructive Actions^®. Sixth graders might work with elderly blind people at the Helen Keller Institute to prepare an oral history relating to their community. Before meeting the elderly blind, the

children would begin to study the events of the period when the senior citizens were young. Science lessons might include the study of sound, recording technology, vision, and. factors contributing to blindness. As the final step in their

Constructive Action^®, the children might put together a tape of their interviews with their own commentary, add music, play the tape to the people they interviewed and other community members, and present a copy to the public library.

Older children can have internships at such places as businesses, political offices, hospitals, museums, and day care centers. Seventh graders who have as their purpose "I help others by teaching and communicating" might be assigned to daycare centers. They could use English and art skills to assemble books for the children at day care centers. American history from the industrial revolution to the present helps them to understand the economic and social significance of day care centers, and their study of human biology helps them to understand the needs of the children. They may have each preschooler dictate a story and make an illustration to include in the book. Children at a natural history museum can study the exhibits, prepare a talk for young visitors, and see how they can improve their talk to hold their listener's attention. Thus they will develop and use essential

interpersonal and communications skills, strengthen their commitment to service, and be motivated to increase their knowledge and skills.

In a semester whose purpose is "We bring our community together," eighth graders may work together in teams to collect money and food for the homeless through a carnival. They can call on math skills to make scale drawings of the site, write short articles on the carnival for the local press, and plan booths which will educate visitors on basic ecological issues. They may research community agencies and prepare a pamphlet on community resources to pass out to visitors. As internship experiences are brought back to class to be written about and discussed, they become a resource for further learning. Thus the system builds on itself.

The following examples are presented to illustrate, not to limit, the invention. Other embodiments within the spirit and scope of the invention will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

Example 1

Table 2 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 16-week semester based on New York City curriculum guidelines for the first semester of Grade 4.

Example 2

Table 3 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 19-week semester and based on New York City curriculum guidelines for the first semester of Grade 5.

Example 3

Table 4 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 19-week semester and based on the curriculum guidelines of a Florida school district for the first semester of Grade 6.

Example 4

Table 5 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 19-week semester and based on the curriculum guidelines of a Florida school district for the second semester of Grade 6.

Example 5

Table 6 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 19-week semester and based on New York City curriculum guidelines for the first semester of Grade 7.

Example 6

Table 7 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 19-week semester and based on New York City curriculum guidelines for the first semester of Grade 8.

Example 7

Table 8 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 16-week semester and based on New York City curriculum guidelines for the first semester of Grade 9.

Example 8

Table 9 is an example of the purpose-oriented educational system using a framework incorporating a 16-week semester and based on New York City curriculum guidelines for students studying business in the first semester of Grade 10. The curriculum was planned for students just embarking on the new system in their sophomore year of high school, and it makes se of the purpose from the second semester of freshman year (grade 9).

Claims

What is claimed;

1. Method for curriculum planning, teaching, and student

assessment for grade levels kindergarten through twelve, comprising

a) cooperative preparation of an educational plan for each semester by organizing all necessary and desirable knowledge and skill and all learning activities in a

purpose-oriented framework with one socially useful purpose as the focus of each semester, and

integrating said knowledge and skill into

transdisciplinary, action-oriented Dimensions^® selected from the group of

acting with purpose.

weighing values and ethics.

understanding self and others.

understanding systems, and

making use of appropriate skills,

b) assigning specific desired outcomes for each Dimension^® for use as the basis for assessing students;

c) implementing said plan with students by teaching, coaching, and assisting them to achieve the semester's purpose by mastering and making intelligent use of the knowledge and skills relating to each Dimension^® in order to plan and carry out a socially beneficial Constructive Action^® at a regularly scheduled individual or group internship; and

d) assessing said students on their achievement of a set of outcomes which relate specifically to each of the Dimensions^® and which indicate the students' understanding of the skills and knowledge pertaining to the various

Dimensions^® and their intelligent use of said knowledge and skills to achieve the purpose of the semester in a

Constructive Action^®.

2. Primary and secondary educational system for grade levels one through twelve, comprising

a) a focus for each grade or each semester comprising a socially useful purpose;

b) an organization of all necessary and desirable

knowledge, skills, and activities for a grade into action- oriented Dimensions^® from the group consisting of

acting with purpose.

weighing values and ethics.

understanding self and others.

understanding systems, and

making use of appropriate skills;

c) means for teaching and assisting students to carry out said purpose by acquiring relevant skills and knowledge and applying them in a socially useful Constructive Action^® performed at a regularly scheduled individual or group internship;

d) means to assess students on their achievement of designated outcomes which embody both the purpose of the semester and the knowledge and skills specific to the various Dimensions^®; and

e) educational planning means using teachers as organizers of the community's educational resources, and as builders of collaboration between families, the school, and the businesses, cultural institutions, and service organizations of the community.

3. Educational system of claim 2 for grades 4A, 5A, 6A, 6B, 7A 8A, 9A, and 10A as shown in examples 1-8.

4. Educational method of claim 1 or system of claim 2 wherein the Dimension^® acting with purpose comprises planning, doing, and assessing the Constructive Action^® and wherein curriculum knowledge, skills, and activities are integrated into said Dimension^® using time segments.

5. Educational method of claim 1 or system of claim 2 wherein the Dimension^® of weighing values and ethics comprises ethical values, ethical choices, citizenship, and conflict resolution skills, and wherein curriculum knowledge, skills and activities are integrated into said Dimension^® using time segments.

6. Educational method of claim 1 or system of claim 2 wherein the Dimension^® of understanding self and others comprises literature, interpersonal skills, and communication skills, and wherein curriculum knowledge, skills, and activities are integrated into said Dimension^® using time segments.

7. Educational method of claim 1 or system of claim 2 wherein the Dimension^® of understanding systems comprises physical systems, social systems, and research and critical thinking skills, and wherein curriculum knowledge, skills, and activities are integrated into said Dimension^® using time segments.

8. Educational method of claim 1 or system of claim 2 wherein the Dimension® of making use of skills comprises

mathematical reasoning, mathematical communication, grammar, problem solving, and other specialized skills, and wherein curriculum knowledge, skills, and activities are integrated into said Dimension^® using time segments.