Responsive Classroom

The Responsive Classroom program integrates what children need to learn with what we know about how they need to learn. There are seven principles critical to the success of The Responsive Classroom approach.

• Success in the classroom requires an equal amount of attention to both social as well as academic curriculum.
• How students learn is of equal importance to what they learn, indicating a need for a balance between teacher-directed learning and student-initiated learning.
• Children learn the most when they are interacting with each other socially.
• Students need to operate within a social context that includes practicing key skills summed up by acronym CARES; cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
• In order to be successful in teaching, its critical to know as much as possible about the students; individually, culturally, and developmentally.
• As it is critical to know the students, it is as important to know the students’ families and involve them in all aspects of their children’s education.
• Good relationships between teachers, and with other academic and administrative staff, can be as important as the quality of any one teacher, because the students are constantly watching how the adults that surround them behave.