Framework for Quality Learning

Executive Summary

The Framework for Quality Learning curriculum design model supports development and implementation of a system for high-quality essential curricula, authentic assessment, and engaging instruction.  In creating a coherent, user-friendly framework representative of best practices in teaching and learning, the teachers and instructional coordinators who collaboratively created this model believe that its application will lead all students to attain deep understanding of the disciplines.  Use of the Framework for Quality Learning model, classroom by classroom, brings vitality to the Division’s vision that

“All learners believe in their power to embrace learning, to excel, and to own their future.”

Standards-based

The Framework for Quality Learning design model provides a coherent framework through which best practices in teaching and learning are applied and all students attain deep understanding of the disciplines.  The model is rooted in Virginia ’s Standards of Learning (SOL). The value added by the model is a framework in which the SOL are organized around key concepts and understandings of the disciplines and grounded in real-life, relevant contexts.  Within the Framework, the Division sets rigorous expectations for how students learn, analyze information, and communicate, leading to increased student engagement, content mastery, and higher-order thinking.

Concept-centered

The Framework for Quality Learning provides a structure for teachers and students to organize knowledge around broad, interdisciplinary concepts.  The use of interdisciplinary concepts allows students to connect and apply information across areas of study.  These concepts are then articulated or defined within each discipline.  Organizing curriculum around concepts establishes a common thread as curriculum spirals with increasing complexity from kindergarten through grade twelve, providing students with scaffolding needed to reach the next level of achievement.

Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning places emphasis on results.  To develop the skills and habits associated with lifelong learning, students must: learn beyond the simple recall of facts; understand the connections to and implications of what they learn; retain what they learn; and, be able to apply what they learn in new contexts. 

The Division has identified 12 Lifelong-Learner Standards that set expectations for how students learn, analyze information, and communicate; and have implications for student work assigned by educators.  These standards are designed to provide students with a foundation for lifelong inquiry and learning, and will be assessed through local benchmark assessments.

Lifelong-Learner Standards

• Plan and conduct research;
• Gather, organize, and analyze data, evaluate processes and products; and draw conclusions;
• Think analytically, critically, and creatively to pursue new ideas, acquire new knowledge, and make decisions;
• Understand and apply principles of logic and reasoning; develop, evaluate, and defend arguments;
• Seek, recognize and understand systems, patterns, themes, and interactions;
• Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve new and increasingly complex problems;
• Acquire and use precise language to clearly communicate ideas, knowledge, and processes;
• Explore and express ideas and opinions using multiple media, the arts, and technology;
• Demonstrate ethical behavior and respect for diversity through daily actions and decision making;
• Participate fully in civic life, and act on democratic ideals within the context of community and global interdependence;
• Understand and follow a physically active lifestyle that promotes good health and wellness; and,
• Apply habits of mind and metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate one’s own work.