Different Ways of Knowing begins with children's strengths, celebrating all that they can do, encouraging them to take risks as learners, and to develop trusting relationships with other children and with adults. Learners use both content knowledge and skills as tools to learn more. Different Ways of Knowing develops the intellectual tools that will serve students for a lifetime through the use of rich, cross-disciplinary research which focuses on big ideas. Learners use the world as their laboratory. Different Ways of Knowing helps students understand and appreciate their community.
Students explore resources outside the classroom and invite experts in to share information.
Learners explore their learning over multiple drafts. Different Ways of Knowing encourages children to explore, refine, and elaborate their meaning over multiple drafts and to express their evolving understandings through a variety of presentational formats which include the visual arts, dance, drama, music, science, and mathematics, as well as oral and written language. Learners learn in collaboration with others. Learners learn best when they are not isolated from others, but are part of a community of learners that invites dialogue, exchange, and collaboration. Learners never stop learning.