GREAT LEARNING

We define educational agencies in external controls as local and national government agencies with a responsibility for education.

 

Most schools are affiliated to local and national government agencies. These agencies may provide financial, personnel, and physical resources or insist on specific methods or requirements related to these issues. Agencies may also provide or insist on curricula, educational outcomes, policies and guiding principles for schools. All of these factors can help schools to enable a culture of Great Learning. However, the factors themselves need to be positively aligned with the concept of Great Learning, in particular the educational standards required by the local and national government agencies need to be positively aligned.

 

For example, if the curriculum provided by the local or government agency is not backward planned, with the same educational objectives as the school, then it could be restrictive and probably unable to meet all of the school’s needs. Local or national agencies that stipulate that all international school students sit external national examinations is a further example of a potential negative constraint on learning. Many students enrolled at an international school are residing in the host country for a temporary period with little host country language proficiency, however, some educational agencies require all students to take local or national examinations. Therefore, time can be taken away from a curriculum focused on Great Learning and used on a national curriculum that is not aligned with Great Learning, at the request of educational agencies.