Advocating for Inquiry-Based Learning from Age Five
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Stamford American School in Ho Man Tin offers a top-notch American education. Ms. Rae Lang, who has over 20 years of experience in early childhood and elementary education, joined as the Principal of the Elementary School in 2023, bringing a fresh teaching perspective to Stamford.
Building Confidence Through Mistakes
Stamford’s elementary program focuses on reading and writing, utilizing Columbia University’s “Reading and Writing Workshop.” Unlike traditional methods, this approach employs small group “mini-lessons” to demonstrate various reading and writing techniques and target specific learning needs. It encourages independent learning, better knowledge retention, opportunities to learn from mistakes, and be risk takers.Teachers tailor their guidance based on students’ levels, allowing for independent or group work to connect students with content or pair them with study buddies. At the end of each unit, students share their learning results and discuss challenges, enabling teachers to understand student levels better and choose suitable material and assignments to help them grow more confident and ready for middle school.Autonomous Learning and Flexible Assessment
Stamford provides a holistic learning approach from Pre-primary to grade 12, emphasizing not just reading and writing but also setting personal learning goals. For example, fifth graders choose a UN Sustainable Development Goal for their final project, integrating STEM, creativity, humanities, maths, and language. This method allows for a comprehensive assessment of a student’s language skills and knowledge, moving away from traditional exam-based evaluations to include group reports, daily observations, and classroom assessments, thereby reducing exam pressure and broadening students’ perspectives.Prioritizing Social-Emotional Learning
Recent research indicates that emotionally healthy students tend to be more involved and perform better academically. Stamford…