{"id":281778,"date":"2021-07-19T10:08:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-19T08:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=281778"},"modified":"2022-01-06T10:03:46","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T08:03:46","slug":"crawford-your-voice-your-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/education\/crawford-your-voice-your-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Give Them a Voice, Give Them a Choice! Unique to Crawford."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Do you know what sets Crawford International schools apart from all other private schools in South Africa? It simply comes down to unique learning experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Crawford International has four dynamic learning pillars that all Crawford schools adhere to. These include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Local and Global Relevance,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Future Focused Skills,<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Personal Learning Journey and;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Student Agency.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">All of these offer Crawford International students an education beyond expectation. So, what is\u00a0 <em>Student Agency<\/em>, and the exciting concept of \u2018Voice and Choice\u2019?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\">What is the unique Student Agency?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The action of learning through activities that are meaningful and important to the student. These activities are often driven by the student\u2019s own interests and are initiated by the student.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">To put it simply, Student Agency is the act of a student shaping their own education by :<\/span><\/p>\n<ol style=\"list-style-type: lower-alpha;\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<em>Voicing<\/em> their ideas, designing their own projects, leading discussions, and setting goals; and<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0<em>Choosing<\/em> what and how they learn.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Voice and Choice<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Traditionally, South African schools were governed by set rules, regulations and procedures, and conformity was non-negotiable. Traditional teachers were mostly dictators with a \u2018my-way-or-the-highway\u2019 stance to learning and students were considered just a small part of a greater whole.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Crawford International schools work differently, embracing the individuality of their students and encouraging them to make important decisions for themselves in regard to their education. Choices students are encouraged to make include: choosing their own bouquet of subjects, choosing which teachers they would like to work with and even choosing how they would like to wear their uniform.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Personal Investment<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It\u2019s a fact that the concept of \u2018Voice and Choice\u2019 not only helps students to feel personally invested in their own education, but it also allows them to be actively involved in shaping their own learning experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">It\u2019s a concept that centers on the sharing of knowledge and ideas, rather than a one-way push of information.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Disengagement<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Student disengagement has long been a challenge for all schools, but it has been proven that with learning concepts such as \u2018Voice and Choice\u2019, students are naturally more engaged in lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This is because they have been given the opportunity to tap into their interests, passions and their strengths, which naturally raises their level of engagement in lessons. And with increased engagement in lessons comes increased performance overall.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Transitions<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">School leaders and world educators have said that schools that have implemented Student Agency and \u2018Voice and Choice\u2019 into their learning model have experienced a far smoother transition into hybrid learning, in the face of the current worldwide pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">This is because students participating in Student Agency learning do not need to wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. These students are able to move forward academically much more easily than others who have never had the experience of taking ownership of or shaping the path of their learning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Student Agency, featuring the concept of \u2018Voice and Choice\u2019 learning is just one of the dynamic educational pillars offered by Crawford International Schools to our students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">We will present insights into the next three pillars over the next few weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\">For more information on Crawford International<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crawfordinternational.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Visit<\/a> the website\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"h3\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you know what sets Crawford International schools apart from all other private schools in South Africa? It simply comes down to unique learning experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":281789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,957,958,959,960],"tags":[956,961,962,963],"class_list":["post-281778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-learning","category-preparatory-school","category-preschools","category-schooling","tag-crawford-international","tag-unique-learning","tag-your-choice","tag-your-voice"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}