A HOLISTIC CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Poughkeepsie Community SDA School follows the Curriculum Guidelines from the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists. Our focus is on academic excellence that strives to help each student learn and reach their highest potential in a safe, Christian environment. Educational field trips, hands-on learning, foreign languages and study tours enrich the classroom instruction to produce student learning, retention, and demonstration.
ADVENTIST CURRICULUM
The Adventist curriculum development process, defined by the Adventist worldview, includes four overlapping stages with accompanying essential questions. Note that the four stages of
the curriculum development process align with the four stages of A Journey to Excellence: Purpose > Worldview, Plan > Curriculum, Practice > Instruction, Product > Assessment.
- Purpose – Adventist curriculum development is defined by the Adventist worldview and based on our underlying philosophy. This Core process includes four overlapping stages: purpose, plan, practice, and product. A worldview serves as a conceptual tool or framework for perceiving and interpreting reality, which, in turn, informs the philosophy, mission/vision, and goals of an organization.
- Plan – Refers to the instructional components (essential questions, content/ big ideas, skills assessments, activities and materials) of a particular course of study.
- Practice – A natural, brain-friendly cycle of learning suggests that learners learn best when they can connect to personal experience (connect), develop a conceptual understanding (explain), practice and apply new knowledge (apply), and synthesize to create new ideas (extend).
- Product – Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching process which should be clearly aligned with the stated curriculum standards and the learning experiences. It should provide ongoing descriptive feedback that is clear, specific, meaningful and timely. Reflective teachers use a variety of appropriate assessment practices to measure learner achievement and to inform instruction.