The Best of Online Learning
. . . with proven RESULTS!
 
Pedagogy
K-12
College
Writing Lab
Pedagogy
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Overview
The social basis of learning and knowledge building (Vygotsky 1978) is a widely held construct in both the academic community and among education curriculum developers and software platform designers. The present frenzy of social media networking among young people is testimony that we hunger for an audience to observe our daily lives and mediate our decision making about issues large and small. Technology is the perfect partner for accelerating communication and has opened a ‘third space’ where important social and academic needs can be met. Social constructivism, as a theory, stipulates that learning is mediated by collaboration with peers, adults, and tools in all kinds of contexts. Bridging personal and formal knowledge is the substrate of cognitive development and academic mastery. In the culturally diverse world in which students now live and learn, e-mail and Internet resources give access to information, discussion, and debate. These interactions, in turn, lead to the personal social construction of meaning and provide motivation to remain a part of the learning community. At Grade Results, the pedagogical philosophy that overlays instructional methods includes a commitment to serving diverse student populations, and the importance of creating a learning environment in which each student is given the opportunity to excel.
Instructional Method
The key instructional practices and major program elements of our program are high quality, research-based, and designed to increase student academic achievement. Grade Results instruction is based on "The Adaptive Control of Thought - Rational", or ACTR, created by John R. Anderson (1993) and others at Carnegie Mellon University. The theory suggests that knowledge is gained through the understanding of simple principles. Once students have learned these simple principles, they can master complex tasks. Grade Results students begin by taking a criterion-referenced pretest, and then work through lessons on the subject areas they struggled with in the pretest. The students have access to a live instructor for any concepts they cannot master on their own.The sessions contain the information or declarative knowledge that the student needs to learn. As students work through the lessons, they can draw upon their knowledge of past lessons to build their skills.

Our program is based on a unique diagnostic/prescriptive methodology that aligns with:
  • National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and International Reading Association (IRA) standards, as well as to the findings of the National Reading Panel Our instructional curriculum also addresses the components of reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, and fluency through guided oral reading, silent reading, vocabulary fortification, and comprehension.