Learning & Teaching In Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School
Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School is a vibrant and welcoming school community where kindness and respect are the core values of students and staff. We strive for appropriate excellence in all areas and develop in our students the skills, knowledge and resilience that will enable them to contribute meaningfully to their school and the wider community.
Learning takes place through active collaboration and cross curricular projects. The emphasis is on higher order learning and thinking as we move away from the traditional rote learning model, concentrating on the process as much as on the content. In doing this we move away from subject-based learning and focus on meta-cognitive skills, problem-solving and the development of the whole person. Our students are encouraged to be creative and to try new ways of learning and investigating. Our teachers and support staff are dynamic, innovative and committed to the development of learners rather than knowers.
Teaching in Stepaside ETSS is less about activity prescribed by the teacher during whole class instruction and more about activity determined by the learners themselves working in small groups. The teacher as a facilitator and mentor emerges and the students engage in peer learning and support. This learning is mediated through technology with the focus being on learning with technology rather than about it. This is crucial to preparing students for 21st century learning and working. We are very proud of our partnership with Trinity College through Bridge 21 in developing this pedagogical approach and learning model.
With the Irish second level system entering a time of profound change and with the move away from purely subject-based teaching dominated by a terminal written examination and a move towards the development of the key skills, it is impossible to imagine a learning model in which collaboration and ICT do not play a central role. We in Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School are excited to be at the forefront of these new developments in Irish education.
B21 Activity Model
Stepaside ETSS Bridge 21 Model
Our Learning model is designed with the learning process in mind. We believe that how we learn is as important as what we learn. Within our learning spaces, teachers become guides and facilitators, learning alongside the students.
In partnership with Trinity College, through Bridge 21, we learn through a model which borrows from the best of collaborative learning research that we can find. We’ve also drawn from a host of academic, social, and leadership development theorists, turning their great ideas into practice.
All our learning is designed to incorporate the following components:
- Team-based
- Technology mediated
- Project based
- Cross- curricular
Through these components our model allows for creativity, problem-solving, peer-learning and collaboration- all essential skills, we believe, for thriving in the 21st Century.
Team-based
Teamwork comprises a large part of our model. We believe it can have a positive impact on academic progress, pupil behavior and relationships between teachers and pupils and between the pupils themselves.
Project based
We enable a structured project based approach to learning. Teams are presented with challenging projects, often involving technology, and given a deadline. Through the project cycle, the team is supported with mentors to help them reach the deadline and encourage reflection on the learning process.
Technology mediated
All our students have their own Microsoft Surface devices. We do not use text books and teachers and students generate their own resources. Technology is used as a medium though which we learn rather than as an end.
Cross-curricular
Learning is approached in a cross-curricular fashion with links being highlighted between different subjects and different subject departments liaising and working together. Throughout the year we have Phenomenon Based Learning weeks where we abandon the traditional timetable to focus on a phenomenon. For example Social Justice week. During these weeks learners begin with a phenomenon, analyse the links with different concepts in a cross curricular way, identify gaps in their knowledge and learning and seek out that knowledge in order to synthesise it and develop it.