Why We Are Here

UCEC Student- centered teaching and learning

"Who We Are"

UCEC Student-centered teaching and learning

United Colours Learning Center’s focuses on the needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles of each individual student and has many implications for the design of curriculum, course content, and interactivity in the learner’s environment. Accordingly, a prominent pedagogy will be teacher-as-coach, to provoke students to learn how to learn and thus to teach themselves, rather than the more traditional teacher-centered learning with teacher-as-deliverer-of-instructional-services, which places the teacher at its center in an active role and students in a passive, receptive role. This pedagogy acknowledges the student’s voice as central to the learning experience and requires students to be active, responsible participants in their own learning. To capitalize on this, teaching and learning should be personalized to the maximum feasible extent. Decisions about the details of the course of study, the use of students’ and teachers’ time, and the choice of teaching materials and specific pedagogies must be unreservedly placed in the hands of the staff and students.

What the Director Eryon N. McCary of UCEC think about caring

What We Care For Today's environmental and social challenges necessitate that we change behavior.

Transforming: Practice is reflected in student outcomes

Students take leadership after instruction, present their work, and facilitate groups. Students take ownership of their reading, writing, and learning to develop, test, and refine their thinking. Students engage in talk that is accountable to the text or task, the learning community, and standards of reasoning. Learning is negotiated and directed by students.
The content and delivery of instruction is culturally responsive and respects and builds on the diverse resources and experiences of the learner’s environment. UCEC’s community uses best practices in language acquisition to support diverse academic development in multiple languages.
Students work in flexible, cooperative small groupings to solve problems and analyze texts to demonstrate understanding of a task or concept through multiple perspectives.
UCEC supports the inclusion of all students, including Spanish-language learners and special needs students, in regular academic environments through the use of best practices, such as certified instructors, differentiated classroom settings, qualified aides, and individualized learning plans.
Students consistently develop their own reasoning around concepts and ideas and can articulate the processes and thinking they engaged in while grappling with a task or idea. Students listen to one another as well as to their teachers, and they exchange different ideas to build upon and apply new learning and approaches to their own understanding of a concept or idea that increase in complexity.
Students are assessed for process, group work, and product. Student voices are connected with adult allies (teachers, families, communities) toward the goal of improving student life, school culture, student communities, and students’ overall development. Examples of student-centered teaching and learning practices include advisory, service learning, and project-based learning.
Schools value the health of all students, teaching them positive ways to bring balance to life’s challenges and be proactive, is UCEC’s committed approach to the student’s overall wellness.
Student work is collected in a portfolio representing a selection of performance. A portfolio may include a student’s best pieces and the student’s evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. It may also contain one or more works-in-progress that illustrate the creation of a product such as an essay evolving through various stages of conception, drafting, and revision.
 Instructors plan the types of questions and prompts at multiple entry points throughout a lesson. This builds students’ understanding of, and engagement toward, concepts and ideas and their application to real-world scenarios. Each teacher has clear and measurable objectives for what students will know and be able to do as the result of a lesson.
Students consistently develop their own reasoning around concepts and ideas and can articulate the processes and thinking they engaged in while grappling with a task or idea. Students listen to one another as well as to their teachers, and they exchange different ideas to build upon and apply new learning and approaches to their own understanding of a concept or idea that increase in complexity.
The arts and vocational interests are included in UCEC’s academic curriculum, increasing students’ engagement, motivating students with a variety of learning styles to succeed in high school and pursue higher education, and developing students’ academic and intellectual growth.
UCEC students, talk and focus in all group interactions. Students use the physical environment to explore various concepts and apply them to different scenarios or problems.
ACTIVITIES 2023