Related Case Studies
Lumiar School, Brazil
Context:
The Lumiar School in Sao Paulo was founded in 2002 and is a small privately funded not for profit school of 68 students from 4 months to 15 years of age. Class sizes are about 20 and there are 8 full-time teachers with 28 part-time staff. The student to computer ratio is 10:1. The school conforms to the standards set by the National Council for Education, and students come from a wide range of socio-economic groups. The Lumiar School is one of the original 12 Microsoft Innovative Schools.
Innovation summary:
The school is completely centered on project-based learning (PBL). There are no traditional classrooms either in structure or in thinking and students work through projects suitable to their interest and abilities. The PBL construct is centered on the Mosaic model: a competencies matrix, a problems and projects pedagogic methodology and a learning portfolio for evaluation. Lumiar shows how a school can work within the constraints of an education system but still provide progressive, democratic and personalized learning for 21st Century students. View the PowerPoint on the right for more information.
Leading questions for reflection:
- What are the benefits of PBL?
- What are the potential difficulties with PBL in your context?
- What would be the key implications for your school if it were to try PBL?
- How could technology support a PBL curriculum model?
- How could new models of assessment support PBL?
Resources
Area of Innovation
This case study focuses on the highlighted areas below.
