Formative Evaluation of Students at Quest to Learn

Abstract

Abstract Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a public school that opened in 2009 to respond to the needs of kids who are growing up in a highly networked, globally competitive and complex world. The school was designed to include a game-based pedagogy that provides a dynamic, interdisciplinary curriculum, as well as immersive, challenge -based learning experiences. The present article reports the findings from a 20-month evaluation of Q2L. This research was launched when the school opened, with the main goal to identify and assess a set of key student competencies that are relevant and important to Q2L. This student-level evaluation focused on students' development of three core skills (i.e., systems thinking, time management, and teamwork) over the 20-month time period. We found that students significantly improved their systems thinking skills over the duration of the study, and improved (albeit, not significantly) on their time management an d teamwork skills as well