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The Dalton Plan - Ascham School The Dalton Plan - Ascham School http://www.ascham.nsw.edu.au/Administration/The-Dalton-Plan/The-Da... You are here: 1. Home / 2. Administration / 3. The Dalton Plan The Dalton Plan at Ascham is a vibrant, effective and enjoyable way for students to learn. It remains the cornerstone of Ascham’s delivery of the curriculum. For students educated in this way, it brings an intellectual richness to their lives, both at school and into the future. That sense of taking responsibility, learned at school, becomes a fundamental mark of each girl’s personal, professional and intellectual maturity. How Dalton Works Introduced at Ascham in 1922, the Dalton Plan is based on the theory that students learn best when they take responsibility for their own learning, supported by teachers who guide them while they mature as learners. While this philosophy runs through Ascham from Prep, the Dalton Plan begins formally in Year 7 in the Senior School. The Dalton Plan suits students of all abilities. Girls are taught to develop habits and practices that will enable them to make the most of their individual talents. The Dalton Plan places the primary responsibility for learning with the student; this gives them confidence, the ability to articulate their learning needs, and the opportunity to become self-directed learners. They are guided to gain highly developed research and thinking skills, to meet deadlines, and to pursue lifelong learning with passion. For our girls, this leads to success in subsequent tertiary study and in their wider professional and intellectual lives. The Dalton Plan at Ascham employs five building blocks: the assignment, the lesson, the study, corrections and the form class. 1 sur 4 24/05/2015 21:31 The Dalton Plan - Ascham School http://www.ascham.nsw.edu.au/Administration/The-Dalton-Plan/The-Da... 1. The assignment is an online or printed document for each subject which allows students to navigate clearly through a topic. It gives an overview for the topic, lists the material to be covered in class, sets specific tasks for weekly completion and provides every student with the information needed to work independently on that topic. 2. Lessons are student-centred. Time is spent on some direct instruction and a variety of activities that engage students with the content and skills for the assignment and beyond. Class sizes are small to ensure individual attention and flexible timetable arrangements accommodate individual requirements. 3. The study is a period that takes the place of a formal lesson and each week students must attend a required number of studies for each subject. Attendance at studies is monitored to ensure each student attends an appropriate mix of studies. Each week it is the student herself who decides when she attends studies and how she uses them. This encourages her to learn how to use her time efficiently, effectively and independently. Because all teachers have their own classroom, whenever they are not teaching a lesson, they are available to assist students in studies. In a study a student can have one on one discussions with her teacher, work in pairs or groups or individually. At Ascham this opportunity to engage with her teacher and her peers is built in to each girl's schedule. NB In all schools, students are required to meet with their teachers on a set number of occasions each week, for example five periods of English in Year 7. At Ascham, however, while three of these periods are timetabled lessons, the other two periods are studies which are fitted into the week’s schedule by the student. 4. Students hand in set work every Tuesday morning. Teachers mark the work and students then make corrections. The teacher gives feedback to each student and guides the student to understand what is necessary to correct her own work. This enables the student to learn more effectively and helps the teacher understand how each student learns. 5. The form class places each student in a smaller community within the year group with a form teacher responsible for that class. Each girl spends several periods each week in her form class and uses this time to plan her work for the week, her attendance at studies and discuss her work habits, individually, with her form teacher. The Benefits of the Dalton Plan We know from educational research and also from our own experience that we learn best when we can receive individual feedback and mentoring and where we have the opportunity to establish a personal relationship with our teachers and fellow students. While the structures operating in most schools make these elements difficult to deliver, built into the Dalton Plan is ongoing access to teachers and resources as needed by each student. Fundamental to the Dalton Plan is the opportunity for students to learn in small class groups and to consolidate their learning in tutorial groups (studies) where they can have individual one on one time with those teachers. Studies also ensure that work is followed up and corrections are done so students do not fall behind. The interactions in studies between teacher and student and between students, enables the girls to develop a mature and enquiring approach to their learning. This creates conditions where students learn to discuss, question, argue and follow individual ideas facilitating their transition to university. 2 sur 4 24/05/2015 21:31 The Dalton Plan - Ascham School http://www.ascham.nsw.edu.au/Administration/The-Dalton-Plan/The-Da... The Dalton Plan provides girls with the opportunity to organise their week by selecting which studies to attend and the order in which they complete their work. This helps them learn to prioritise and manage their time so they can complete their work and still enjoy a wide range of extra-curricular activities. "In studies it feels like you’re learning for a reason and it makes it so valuable on so many levels." These organizational and management skills and the self-confidence and resourcefulness they engender in the girls are useful in all walks of life, both in school and in their careers. That the school is not selective and yet regularly demonstrates academic excellence and a lifting of performance throughout the cohort in the Year 12 HSC, shows that the Dalton Plan delivers its benefits for students of all abilities. In summary these benefits are achieved through the elements of Dalton viz: The Assignment An online or printed document for each subject outlining the content, skills and tasks of a topic for a four to ten week block and designating weekly work required. Its key benefits to students are: gaining a sense of ownership of the topic as Assignments are student focused clarity, through an overview providing a broad perspective, followed by detailed scoping of tasks acquiring organisational and time management skills through the regular work habits required to complete weekly work. The Study An informal learning environment where the student is in charge of her learning. The subject teacher comes to know each student well and each student’s strengths and needs can be quickly assessed and addressed. In a study each student : manages her time with access to all the resources required chooses how she works - with the teacher, with a small group of students and the teacher, independently, or in group work with other students develops skills in cooperative learning, listening and discussion and testing her understanding through socratic dialogue receives timely feedback The Form Class Builds in regular times for the Form Teacher to assist each student in balancing the time spent on academic work at home and at school with her other activities by tracking her work habits helping to develop habits of organization and planning by mapping out her week providing another teacher mentor to care for her needs Historical overview of the Dalton Plan 3 sur 4 24/05/2015 21:31 The Dalton Plan - Ascham School http://www.ascham.nsw.edu.au/Administration/The-Dalton-Plan/The-Da... Named after Roger Ascham, tutor to Queen Elizabeth 1, Ascham School was founded in 1886 by Miss Marie Wallis. The school has always provided an outstanding academic education for girls. In 1922, its Headmistress, Miss Margaret Bailey, introduced the Dalton Plan to Ascham. Its philosophy has been put into practice ever since. Helen Parkhurst developed the Dalton Plan in 1916 for use in a school in the town of Dalton, Massachusetts. It emerged from the Progressive movement, active in the United States in the early twentieth century, which focused on various types of reform, including education and social welfare. The educational philosophy also derives from the earlier pedagogy of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johann Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel. Helen Parkhurst developed what she called the ‘Laboratory Plan’. This highlighted her belief that learning is like a laboratory, where students experiment with ideas. The Dalton Plan incorporated the educational principles of John Dewey, as well as those proposed by Maria Montessori. Similar to the philosophies of Dewey and Montessori, the Dalton Plan was individualised according to the students’ abilities and needs. The Dalton Plan operates today in schools in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Japan. Each school has maintained the underlying philosophy and adapted its implementation to suit both local curricula and evolving research developments in teaching practice. For this reason, despite all being grounded in the original principle that students learn best when the responsibility for learning is returned to them, each of the Dalton schools works somewhat differently. The Dalton Plan at Ascham is a vibrant, effective and enjoyable way for students to learn. It remains the cornerstone of Ascham’s delivery of the curriculum.
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