Here are the report’s solutions for expanding student-centered learning:

Help teachers take incremental steps toward student-centered learning: Administrators should offer tools and practices that are easy to learn an incorporate instruction. For example, teachers can record streamed lessons and then post them for students to review at their own pace.
Identify and support teachers who see conventional practices as “fundamentally broken”: If teachers are given latitude to experiment, they will likely flip classrooms and transition to mastery-based learning. Administrators are likely to retain these teachers as they launch laboratories for innovative practices.
Reduce the planning and preparation burden: District leaders should prioritize adopting new online curriculum and platforms. States and foundations can help district find high-quality, affordable resources for remote learning.
Seize this moment to encourage student-centered practices: Administrators should expand teachers’ access to: quality, online curriculum; adaptive learning software and assessment tools; and learning management systems that support mastery-based growth. Teachers also need PD to guide them in adopting these resources.
Consider setting up a full-time virtual school: In the short run, a virtual school will accommodate families who want more flexible asynchronous learning or who don’t feel comfortable returning in-person. In the long run, these schools can be catalysts for innovation.

“With the right conditions in place,” Arnett wrote, “district virtual schools launched during the COVID-19 pandemic could evolve over time into student-centered models of schooling that eventually replace conventional instruction.”

Instant Insights /

5 innovations for shifting toward student-centered learning

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