Our Approach
Our Approach
The cornerstone of the GEC approach is recreating schools and their systems to be future-focused in which supported and empowered teachers play a pivotal role in developing confident and happy/thriving individuals who are prepared to realize their goals and be lifelong learners.
The GEC approach is a comprehensive global model that incorporates rigorous, project-based learning using real-world issues, meaningful relationships, and community engagement. With a culture that empowers students and teachers to reach their goals, the school is a place/space where all members of the school community benefit, participate, and learn from one another in pursuit of their individual and shared goals. Our philosophy and process are tailored to the local context, serving the needs, goals, and cultures of the community.
Our Key Pillars
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We envision teachers as architects of learning relationships and catalysts for future family and societal assets development. With support from leading research institutions, milestone-driven professional development, coaching, and evaluation are augmented by artificial intelligence, enabling teachers to shape the family and community's future assets.
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Students engage in authentic learning environments, exploring real-world problem-solving with milestone performance assessments. Throughout their studies, they acquire knowledge, hone skills, enrich communication, cultivate individual character, and contribute values to both local communities and the broader human society.
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Teachers, acting as pivotal leaders, form versatile and diversified learning relationships and groups. They guide and support students to become independent and imaginative creators of knowledge, skills, and life meaning, all the while fostering critical and systems thinking abilities.
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A learning relation-based ecology and climate offer everyone in the educational ecosystem opportunities to be initiators, implementers, and recipients of knowledge, skills, and life's meanings. All members actively contribute to an effective, coordinated learning environment that extends both inside and outside the school.
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Teaching and learning outcomes become intellectual property and digital assets belonging to students, teachers, families, and schools. With an emphasis on privacy and property rights, artificial intelligence is harnessed to enhance the learning prowess of each student and the teaching effectiveness of each teacher, creating value for the community and broader society.
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The provision of rich, safe, healthy, inspiring, and sustainable learning spaces ensures equal access and opportunities for all learners. These creative and experiential environments come equipped with developmentally appropriate smart resources and facilities, supporting a dynamic range of physical spaces for individual, partner, group, team, and class learnings.
An Engaged Ecosystem
In GEC schools, every member of the school ecosystem has the possibility to become the initiator, implementer, and receiver of knowledge and skills.
All members of the School Education Community work together to provide an equitable learning ecosystem, both in and outside of school.
Compassionate Systems Framework
The Compassionate Systems Framework provides an approach to education that fuses the focus on the emotional state of students that allows them to be compassionate to oneself and others, while recognizing the systematic causes of problems and possible solutions.
This approach develops the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and global mindset of equity necessary to respond to future challenges.
Once an engaged ecosystem has been nurtured, Global Innovative Strategic Transformative schools may expect the following outcomes:
High-level competencies balanced with social emotional confidence among students.
Trusted, deep, and respectful relationships among teachers, students, and community stakeholders
Authentic learning driven by students’ interests, goals, and community contexts
Individualized instruction, after-school programming, and additional services
Opportunities for continued innovation and collaboration
Implementation
The GEC model is not a one-size-fits-all approach. We honor the unique setting, culture, aspirations, expertise,
and resources of our partners and schools. Developing an effective partnership involves learning from all stakeholders
the current strengths of the school ecosystem as well as unique opportunities for growth. Leaders from each partner
organization will work together to plan for and guide three incremental stages that will be implemented
across the entire school ecosystem.
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Aspiring GIST Schools are focused on advancement of a collaborative and inclusive school culture and the development of trusted relationships among all members of the school ecosystem. At the heart of a robust ecosystem is innovative educational practice. This stage of implementation involves targeted professional development of teachers, including inquiries into learner-centered, authentic projects; diverse types of evidence-based data to inform instruction; performance- or project-based assessments; and robust “Milestone” projects. This stage also involves identifying opportunities for growth and strengthened relationships within the ecosystem.
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While the focus on high-quality teaching and learning continues, Emerging GIST Schools are tasked with the intentional and strategic implementation of technology as a tool for continued reflection and growth. Management systems for assessment, data collection related to both students and teachers, and school-wide decision-making are introduced to ensure shared responsibility for the school’s progress and success.
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With an engaged community in place, Master GIST Schools begin to explore and integrate architectural changes to emphasize cohesion, autonomy, and authenticity in the learning environment. Master GIST Schools may put together plans for remodeling or a new building design, in which the built environment supports and enhances both human activity and natural living systems. These changes further strengthen a sense of belonging among members of the school ecosystem.
