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Voyager's
Program
Educational Strategy
Core Principles
Improving Performance
Total Quality Learning
Quantum Learning
FIE Program
Student Teachers
Multi-Age Grouping
Teaching Languages
Arts in the Curriculum
Early Childhood Education
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The
Total Quality Learning Approach
Total Quality Learning (TQL) was pioneered at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, Alaska and is now utilized
in schools and school districts across the country. TQL provides methods and tools for:
- developing student responsibility
- developing students’ need and capacity to work together toward a common aim
- promoting problem solving complex thinking
- teaching students to evaluate the quality of their own work and that of others
In quality classrooms around the country, including some in Hawaii, students develop class purpose, vision,
and mission statements; work with their teachers to design curriculum units; and conduct student-led
conferences to demonstrate their progress and areas of needed improvement to their parents.
In the book Quality Fusion, Margaret Byrnes of Quality Education Associates describes a holistic approach
to utilizing a total quality approach in the classroom. These eleven points help to distinguish and describe
the "total quality" approach bing used by Voyager.
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The
teacher demonstrates leadership (facilitator instead of boss).
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The
mission, goals and academic integrity of the class are absolutely clear.
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All
work is pertinent and flows from the students.
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Course content is connected to the surrounding community and the real
world.
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The
student is not only treated as a "worker," but also as a team member of
the "research and development" department.
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Peer
teaching; small group work, and teamwork are emphasized.
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Aesthetic experience is provided to enhance learning.
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Classroom processes include reflection.
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The
teaching/learning system undergoes constant evaluation.
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New
activities constantly evolve from old activities.
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There
is an audience beyond the teacher.
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