In her research on the reasons students dropout of high school, Deborah Feldman (2017) made a surprising discovery: Most kids who walked away before graduation could track their decision to specific moments of academic challenge in middle school that caused them to stop believing in “their ability to be a student, which was their primary job in life.” Think about that for a moment: Imagine how hard it must be for students to continue to invest in school once they begin to question whether success in an academic setting is even possible.
What are the implications of Feldman’s discovery for practitioners? It is imperative that we actively build both the capacity and confidence of every learner. This session will introduce participants to the tangible steps that full-time teacher and Solution Tree author Bill Ferriter has taken to use student-centered versions of the four critical questions of learning in the PLC at Work process to do that work in his classroom.