How are Education Unlimited’s ‘leadership programs’ different from other leadership programs for kids and teens?
Based on other camps’ and programs’ self descriptions and what I’ve learned from others over the years, most leadership focused programs are what I would call a ’survey course.’ Students are exposed to a lot of different ideas with short seminars, classes, workshops and simulations on a variety of topics. This can be worthwhile, but I don’t believe that research supports that this survey method is the most effective way to learn. Perhaps more important, if a student is trying to learn critical thinking and problem solving, and that is a class that meets for just 2 hours every other day of a week-long or 10-day program, in the end that is only 6 to 15 hours of particularized study, effectively 1 to 2 days of immersive experience (even if one believes that hour-for-hour study broken up into small increments is as effective as continuous study, which I don’t – roughly speaking in my own teaching experience I find this only ½ to 2/3 as effective as continuous long blocks of time).
Students learn best when the format facilitates rather than impedes learning and when the material is presented in a way that is experiential – that is, where the students are engaged, have interesting projects to complete, and have a hands-on learning experiences that is fun. With the focus on single immersive topics at most Education Unlimited programs, we have time for a great variety of activities, problems, student projects, and student involvement. This in turn fosters a community of like-minded students who as they become more enthused, almost engage in a race with each other to see who can accomplish the most!
At our A+ Summer critical thinking camps, students at a 6 day program spend about 50 hours in organized classroom and activity sessions learning to solve problems, research, and think critically. Given the hours common to survey-type programs, with a comparison for a comparable number of days spent students at the Education Unlimited program will receive between 3 and 8 times as much time on the core subject in question! While the focused hours spent on core curriculum speaks for itself, if you accept the proposition that immersion is the most effective learning strategy, than it is easy to see how the immersive nature of the program effectively supercharges the outcome, helping students at the Education Unlimited programs learn more in two ways – by hours spent, and also by effectiveness of method itself in terms of measurable achievement, when compared to traditional short increments of time with a standard ’school day’ type schedule.
Why are immersion approaches more effective?
Foreign language programs also typically use constructivist and student-centered approaches to learning in which students have greater roles in discovery of concepts and principles. These approaches to learning also lead to students becoming self-regulated learners, in which they are motivated by learning itself and are able to stick to a task until it is done (Slavin, 2006). Katie Kramer, University of Michigan
Similarly, for Education Unlimited’s programs, we try hard to have students learn by engaging the material at a personal level, and by learning by doing rather than being talked at in traditional lecture. For our public speaking program, for example, students learn to speak in their own authentic voice, and begin giving short speeches from outlines or on an impromptu basis from the very first day of the program. Compare this with the rote form of public speaking often taught in traditional schools which has students for the most part simply write an essay, then read it out loud for the oral presentation aspect of their work. When you contrast a rote learning experience which occurs in a short, standard class time with an interactive experience in a full week of immersive learning on public speaking, it is easy to see why the later would be far more interesting for students, more effective on its face, and doubly so when the learning is compounded by not just superior format, but more effective curricular structure as well.
Similarly, for A+ Summer critical thinking camps, the same two principals hold true. The curriculum itself is more interactive. Students engage in the full construction of a research paper. They self-select their topics of research and engage in the construction of their core thesis and argument from beginning to end. Their focus is precise in their being absorbed in the creation of this single work, however, the depth and bredth of knowledge gained by this single pursuit is expansive as they are able to steer themselves in numerous directions, learning research, citation, rhetorical stategy and argumentation all in the pursuit of a precise goal. All of these skills and more are student driven as they are the ones who have chosen, and are invested in, the research topic they have chosen and the instructors are there to support and coach them to success rather than defining a path to it for them.
As discussed above, immersion allows students to stay on task, focusing on a single subject and thus using time more effectively as little of the time spent is on ’settling down’ and ’shifting gears’ from a prior class. Immersion allows teachers to have the time to undertake any number of engaging hands-on projects and simulations, so that the students are more engaged. By putting kids interested in the same subject area all together in the same program, a sense of supportive community is fostered, and much research has found that a positive and supportive environment directly correlates with higher levels of accomplishment and achievement. The bottom line is that this theory is borne out by the research, which as reported in the University of Michigan information from above, concludes that “ immersion programs have been found to be the most effective [way to undertake the] study of foreign language in schools across the United States.”
Can immersion be effectively carried over to other subjects?
Education Unlimited has been running our unique groups of summer programs for coming up on 20 years now, and we have consistently found that the more that we model immersion language programs, regardless of the subject being taught, the more students enjoy the program, the stronger the degree of student accomplishment that is reported back by our teachers, by participant parents, and by the observations of our program directors.
Even learning other subjects through the prism of your immersive subject can lead to stronger academic results EVEN IN THOSE OTHER SUBJECTS! A January 2007 article from New Jersey noted that school district data compiled over the last five years shows that the district’s elementary immersion students have consistently outperformed their mainstream peers in both reading and math. Hsu, E., “Englewood program creates bilingual kids,” The Record (January 15, 2007).
A 2005 article by an education researcher found that foreign language study introduced to students in elementary school is associated with “increased cognitive skills, higher achievement in other academic areas, and higher standardized test scores.” Stewart, J.H., “Foreign language study in elementary schools: Benefits and implications for achievement in reading and math” Early Childhood Education Journal, 33(1), at 11-16 (2005).
Why don’t schools use immersion strategies more if they are so effective?
There are many reasons, and the truth is probably found in some amalgamation of the various likely causes.
First of all, for students of younger grades, to be immersed in a language requires a teacher who can teach the language, AND teach all the other subjects to boot. That is a rarified teacher, and clearly is a limiting factor when it comes to teaching languages immersively.
Second, for older students, the current schedule and collection of teachers at any given school is an immense impediment to wide-scale immersion – you would effectively be talking about replacing most of the teachers in the school with teachers who could teach particular subjects, and who also speak the language.
Third, costs are prohibitive for most schools, as the special skills of the instructors can be accompanied by greater staffing costs for salary as well as higher training and curricular costs.
Fourth, state standards, particularly in California, unfortunately trend increasingly in the direction of breadth over depth. Nermin Kamel, an assistant principal at Redondo Beach High School, says that “The creation of state standards has created more continuity amongst classrooms statewide, but the necessary evil of creating such a breadth of topics for teachers to cover is often times the sacrifice of DEPTH of learning. In an effort to ‘cover the standards’ teachers often times find themselves sacrificing the teaching of critical thinking, analysis, and in effect, reducing the total amount of time spent on participatory activities, all of which are vital to effective student learning and lasting retention of the material covered.”
I hope this discussion helps you consider how you can best help your child develop leadership potential. There are many ways at any given school to explore leadership by actually participating, ranging from the obvious choice of student government; to heading or even starting a club; to competing in activities like Mock Trial, Model UN, Competitive Speech and Debate; to starting a small business during middle or high school; and even joining organizations outside of school, and earning leadership roles there over time.
Education Unlimited has a number of offerings, as detailed above, which can build on the fundamental skills that can lead to future leadership roles, and to success in those roles once attained. If you are interested in any of these programs, I hope you will contact us or visit our website at www.educationunlimited.com. There are still spots at many of our programs, and we would be delighted to work with your family this summer!