Colegio Jacaranda - Panama

Mission: To form critical citizens, capable of self-managing according to their potentials, who are creative and able to adapt to a constantly changing world.

Vision: By the year 2025 in Panama, Jacarandá School will be recognized by the community as an active school, which delivers to the world young people prepared to be citizens who develop their own potential, with critical capacity, self-awareness, social, cultural and ecological sensitivity. We have an innovative pedagogy based on the construction of knowledge from creative and loving environments of participation, with a clear emphasis on the rights of children in the Panamanian legal framework and the human and professional quality of those who make up the educational community.

She is a fifth and sixth grade teacher. Maria also is highly involved and knowledgeable regarding the pedagogy/methodology the school employs.

Maria will work together with our consultant Jair Guevara, who has been helping us gather evidence based advocacy showing the success and impact of our methodology.

Our pedagogical approach focuses on creative thinking, offered in loving and wonderful environments that encourage questioning and problem solving.

Traditional education models, methodologies, pedagogies and general teaching and learning practices do not adequately prepare students for a future full of problems we cannot predict. At Jacaranda, our unique, innovative and alternative approach to learning, focuses on fostering questioning , collaboration, creative and critical thinking, as well as social emotional guidance and support. Through project based and experiential learning, we are confident that our program helps students cultivate the skills to be lifelong learners, and reach their full potential.  Ready to make the world a better place.

Our program is student centered and fully committed to fostering student's, curiosity, creativity and  love of learning. 

Our program helps students maintain their curiosity and discover their interest and passions.

Rather than memorizing contents to complete assignments or take test, our students focus on critical thinking, questioning, and problem solving. Through our project based learning approach, they learn how to learn.

We replace a traditional siloed approach to education with subjects, assignments, homework and test, with a Creative Thinking Pedagogy. Instead of preparing lessons for each subject area, teachers prepare a story that is presented to students over a period of six weeks. The story contains several elements that are meant to elicit questions from the students. This questioning is then guided by the teacher in order to create a structured inquiry which helps the class create a project. The students then work on the project and once they are finished they present it in order to demonstrate and share their learning.

We have had only informal internally driven evidence gathering conducted. Mostly foundational and formative research.

As we have not conducted formal research studies we don't have much to share at the moment.

Right now is the perfect time because next year our school will be expanding to high school (9th grade). We also have cohorts of students that have been with us since prekinder that will be reaching the last year of middle school. 

Gather more evidence of student centered education, project based learning. 

We are eager to have materials , evidence, to demonstrate that our alternative approach is having a positive impact on student learning.

How does the methodology impact students learning outcomes?

How does the methodology  impact teaching ?

How could we develop materials to bolster the implementation and sharing of our methodology and its success, both internally and externally.

Curriculum review - Learning Outcomes mapping as they relate to the methodology.

Docent interviews /case studies that highlight how methodology impacts the way we teach/guide inquiry.

Student interviews/case studies that highlight how the methodology impacts learning outcomes.

Methodological review, case studies of evidence gathered, of how the methodology is implemented and its outcome.

Development of teacher guidance materials (manual to implementing the methodology)

Publish and disseminate to broader public.

Create a network of alternative school by incentivizing sharing or resources, by for example providing opportunities for teacher training. 

Using materials and evidence base to attract teachers who are interested in the methodology to practice it in a school environment.

Providing support to sister schools. 

Evidence based advocacy and potential fundraising.

Sustainability of Colegio Jacaranda

Provide docents with evidence base to methodology. (Teacher Guidance)

Establish a network of alternative schools, and plan for conferences and seminars where evidence and knowledge can be shared.