Excellent Learning
In providing an individualised educational experience, TSI focuses on the learner and their learning. We define learning as the process of modifying and developing understandings.
We believe that the learning journey starts when prior knowledge meets a new experience, allowing us to critically reflect on our current understandings. It is when we reconcile with our prior knowledge, we sort information as being relevant or irrelevant. Given our fundamental belief of how we learn, students are an active participant in constructing their own knowledge and understanding of themselves and the world. At TSI International School, student’s question, explore, acquire information, sort information and synthesize. Throughout the whole learning process students reflect on how their thinking is changing.
We believe that excellent learning is taking place at TSI International School when learners:
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have a degree of choice over what they learn, how they learn, and how they show their understanding.
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build on prior knowledge.
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extend their thinking by making it visible.
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modify their understanding and knowledge with experiences and critical reflection.
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articulate the learning process and how they reached their understanding.
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strive to make their world a better place.
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make connections of their learning across disciplines.
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actively gain new knowledge and understanding from a variety of sources and able to find the opportunity for learning in any context.
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know they can learn from anyone at any time, co constructing meaning with their peers.
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strive to challenge themselves and actively identify areas for improvement.
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cooperate, collaborate and communicate using a variety of social contexts as well as being confident to learn independently.
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share creative ideas and are innovative in solving problems.
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are encouraged and nurtured in learning environments built on supportive and mutually respectful relationships.
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are genuinely enthusiastic towards learning.
Meeting the demands of a rapidly changing society
With the exponential rate of technological advancements and globalization, education needs to be stretched to fit a new landscape. We need to prepare students for a society that is becoming unimaginable agile, faced with increasingly complex decisions. The unknown future requires students to be more collaborative, creative problem solvers, and more agile users of knowledge. To be an excellent learning community within this new landscape, we must be unrelenting in our expectations towards student learning.
We believe excellent learning is taking place at TSI when educators:
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have a clear definition of excellent learning, constantly revisited it to stay current with best practices, and provide continuous professional learning to educators in order to achieve set definition.
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articulate and deliver a challenging and dynamic curriculum that meets the needs of a rapidly changing society.
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place a stronger emphasis on the process of learning over the product of learning.
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place a stronger emphasis on conceptual understanding and skills over memorizing content.
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teach with a responsiveness approach to the classroom, catering to the student’s interest and needs, differentiating accordingly.
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strongly believe in and prepare for unlimited potential.
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embrace student agency, self-advocacy and their ability to take responsibility for their own learning.
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embrace student-led initiatives and facilitate systems that promote leadership among the student population.
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understand that guardians have an equally important role in the learning process as the students and teachers.
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provide flexible and creative physical spaces that can be adapted to the students’ changing learning needs.
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expect the learning environment to be a source of data, location of inquiry and site of inspiration.