Commissioned Reports

What did you do in school today?

Transforming classrooms through social, academic and intellectual engagement

May 2009

By J. Douglas Willms, Sharon Friesen and Penny Milton
Canadian Education Association
Resources
In 2006, the Canadian Education Association (CEA) adopted a focus on adolescent learners as its core priority. After hearing some adolescent students' learning stories, the CEA decided that it needed a better understanding of the learning experiences of students from across the country. It also decided that, to make a difference, this new information should arise from collaborations among researchers, school and district leaders, teachers, and students themselves.

All those involved in the initiative, What did you do in school today?, are convinced that there are effective ways to improve the educational experiences and learning outcomes for all young people in Canada. From CEA’s standpoint, the process of transforming schools to improve learning will require a significant shift in our current designs for learning, the beliefs we hold about the purpose of schooling, and the knowledge we draw on to understand adolescent learning and development (CEA, 2006).

From these perspectives, What did you do in school today?emerged as a national initiative designed to explore the relationships among student engagement, achievement, and effective teaching. What did you do in school today?is grounded in the conviction that, in order to raise the achievement levels of all students and to narrow the gaps between students, we have to guarantee that all young people are engaged in their learning and that all receive effective and intellectually challenging instruction. More specifically, the initiative advances these four convictions:

  • Teaching practices exist that enable all students to achieve at high levels.
  • Certain teaching practices and learning processes engage students in deeper and more sustained learning.
  • The achievement gap could be narrowed, if not eliminated, by consistently using the teaching practices that we know are effective.
  • Students have a better educational experience when teachers and students actively collaborate in the process of improvement.