The Student-Centered Shift: Empowered International Schools and Classrooms Through Project-Based Learning

Is your classroom setup holding your international learners back? Traditional, teacher-centered layouts often stifle the creativity, collaboration, and cultural inclusivity needed for students to thrive—especially in our international schools. Outdated setups can act as barriers, preventing meaningful learning and student engagement. In this episode, I'll share five simple shifts to redesign your...

What do you think of when you hear the term 'learner agency?' You might envisage students having some "voice" and "choice" around what they learn, or where they sit in class.  And while that's a nice start, learner agency is more than allowing students some choice in what they learn. It's about involving them in every step of the journey. Imagine a school with... 🙌🏼 Student- run electives. 🙌🏼 ...

Do you still set New Year's Resolutions? I used to—until I realized I broke nearly all of them by February. And I'm not alone. Research shows that 88% of people abandon their resolutions within the first two weeks! But there's a far more powerful, research-backed method for casting your vision for Student-Centered Learning in 2025. This method has already helped me and over 2,000 educators achieve...

"Feeling Overwhelmed by Running Your First Project with Learners?" 🎙️ You aren't alone.  Moving from a teacher-centered to student-led environment takes a lot of courage. Bu what if all it required was a few simple shifts in what you already do?  In this episode, three student-centered elementary teachers share the shifts, stories, strategies, and lessons learned from running their first student-c...

How do you develop a student-centered secondary classroom with a packed curriculum, strict assessment guidelines, and an exam based culture?  This is the dilemma Gisou Ravanbaksh faced when wanting to provide more agency to her students in her DP Psychology class.  But through a few simple shifts in the learning process and audience for student work, her classroom came alive with students research...

What happens to the classroom environment when you give students a real problem to address? That's what Dave Strudwick, former Teacher/Principal of Real School Budapest was wondering when he asked year 5 students to fuse literacy, multimedia, and fashion to "create a better world."  His classroom transformed from a teacher-centered space to a real world design studio, with students taking on roles...

What learning opportunities exist beyond our classroom doors?  That's the question that led school founder and student-centered educator Dr. Jane Shore on a community mapping expedition with her high school students in Philadelphia.  Through a simple 5-step process, they uncovered community stories, built strategic connections, and forged long term learning partnerships that would give learning in...

What do grades tell students about their learning? Are they even helpful?  Even though evidence suggests grades are a poor motivator for student learning, we still use them in our classrooms to evaluate learning. But there's a much better way to not only evaluate learning, but track learner GROWTH and PROGRESS.  In this highly engaging episode recorded live at my Book Launch Party , Gary Heidt tak...

With AI able to fill out worksheets, write five paragraph essays, craft short stories, or pen reports in seconds, the impetus for inspiring original, real-world work couldn't be greater.  How as student-centered faciltiators do we support students in producing the kind of work that they find PERSONALLY meaningful and beautiful? Helping them find THEIR unique, personal voice. In this groubreaking e...

What happens to student empowerment when we move from the the front of the classroom to a gentle facilitator on the side?  We get more self-directed learners. More student voice, opinions, and ideas.  A range of diverse work products.  Making this shift is NOT easy. It requires a mindset of trust, and the facilitator 'moves' to support this kind of student-centered environment. Andrew Faulstich, a...

If I walked into your classroom, would I find students seated neatly in rows facing the front, or in small interdependent table teams?  One of the best ways to shift from a teacher-led to a student-centered environments is to re-arrange your furniture.  In this short bonus episode, I unpack simple ideas for creating this kind of collaborative environment, strategies for developing interdependent s...

In a world with advancing AI, personalized chatbots, and ready made content at student's fingerprints, how do we engage them in work that they find personally meaningful? This short episode helps unpack the conditions necessary to engage students in this kind of work, irregardless of age or school subject. From podcasts, to state of the art green spaces, discover how to have students create profes...

What happens when we allow learning to move outside the siloes of our classrooms?  In this episode, through a real case study, we learn how to design empowering, trans-disciplinary experiences with teachers across mutiple subjects. And all it takes is a few shifts in how we approach learning design.  Take the 12 Shifts Scorecard:  https://transformschool.com/12shiftsscorecard/   Pre-Order the 12 S...

What happens when we lead learning with big questions, rather than mandated curriculum content?  Four year 7 teachers across 3 different subjects wanted to find out.  Over a seven week unit, they devised activities, lessons, and hands-on learning that helped students dive deeper into big questions around developing future societies.  As a result...agency, empowerment and engagement went through th...

Fifth grade teacher Linda Amici's most 'dreaded standards' became her favorite after making one simple shift.... She turned them over to her students.  With this new agency, students worked harder than they ever had before.   Learn about Linda's story of co-design, and simple strategies for co-designing learning experiences with your own learners in the 2024-2025 school year.   Take the 12 Shifts...

How do you design learning in your classroom/school?  Imagine inviting student input on everything from the way the timetable is organized, to the design of learning experiences, even to how they are assessed and evaluated.  That's the kind of voice and choice The Green School Bali provides its learners. And their learners are empowered as a result.  In this illuminating podcast episode, Head of t...

What is deep learning?   Is it students engrossed in semester long units or learning experiences? Inquiring, probing, investigating, and making meaning of their learning.  Perhaps. But most of us don't have that kind of time, or freedom with our curriculum. What if deeper learning didn't mean re-organizing everything we had, but simply making a few tweaks to what's already there.. Gathering studen...

Imagine a school where you take your shoes off every time you enter the classroom. You shared the space with local bugs, insects, bees, and biodiversity surrounding you. You rode a bus to school powered by used vegetable oil. The curriculum was built around the natural world surrounding you. You got to take up action projects to save the planet, whether protecting local reefs, or buidling roads ou...

How do we EMPOWER our SEN learners?  What if by accomodating for their unique needs, we were able to create a more student-centered environment for ALL learners?  Provided alternative methods of assessment. Allowed for hands-on projects. Built learning around common themes. Emphasized life skills as much as academic ones.  That's exactly what founder Ali Durban and Head Teacher Tamaryn Yatu have a...

How do we cultivate and unleash student creativity in our classrooms? Right now it's happening on the peripheries. In makerspaces, STEM projects, electives, and arts/music/drama classes. But how do we make creativity a core part of day to day learning? Building opportunities for students to tinker, build, create, and problem solve on a daily basis in ALL classrooms? In this short episode, Adam Hil...

How do we EMPOWER adolescent learners?  Anyone who works with this age group, knows that they have a unique set of needs. Adolescent learners have unique needs for increased social connections, purpose, autonomy, ownership, and real-world purpose and pursuits beyond the walls of the classroom.  As student-centered adolescent educators, how do we design experiences and environments that allow for t...

Taking the first steps 👣 into design project-based experiences can be a scary thought for a lot of teachers... It certainly was for me. How will I ensure students acquire the mandated curriculum? Assess learning? Where will I find the time to plan, scaffold the experience, and ensure students reach meaningful outcomes? Chris Bush , Economics Teacher, and Head of Student Voice and Leadership at Un...

What if you could re-imagine schooling to be student-centered? Build from the ground up?  That's what Connect Academy did when it was given carte blanche to re-imagine schooling for students in the Poway District.  It re-imagined: How we organize learning experiences, by making them interdisciplinary, and community focused.   How we organize learners, by making classes mixed grade level, and inclu...

How are you finishing off the semester before Winter Break?  While many classrooms finish with final exams, as learner-centered practitioners, we understand that it's far more POWERFUL to let our students share their learning.  Public Exhibitions are one of the best ways to do this.  Exhibitions provide the perfect platform for learners to share their learning journeys, artifacts/products and work...

How do we better include learners and learning profiles often left behind in traditional settings? What if we could custom-fit learning experiences around their unique strengths, gifts, capabilities and needs? What if understanding the brain's intracacies and high yield therapeutic approaches helped us support and empower them in the learning process?   In this episode, Cheryl, Founder and Acting...