The K12 Innovation Accelerator Program

Breaking Down Silos

Jim Pedrech
London Catholic DSB
Feb. 2023

The division of learning into subjects—or siloing—has several advantages, but it also has significant drawbacks.  It is an artificial separation of a given subject from other ways of learning and expressing ideas: effective writing is confined to English class, expression is for art class, and the scientific method is limited to a school's science labs. This, in turn, can lead to forms of assessment and evaluation that focus only on those options that seem to suit these limited definitions of learning.  Year after year, students repeat the same kinds of evaluations in a given subject with little to no space to see how their learning might connect to their interests and their world.

Through Breaking Down Silos, I hope to better understand how to help teachers and learners break free of this paradigm. The goal of this program is to help teachers implement integrated approaches to learning that not only value but also promote student interests, identities, and ambitions.  By supporting teachers directly in the classroom, fostering meaningful communication and collaboration, and providing access to relevant tools and technologies, I hope we can break down those walls that have limited our thinking and our learning.