GEMS Competitive Edge

The GEMS RoundTable has the competitive edge in two arenas:

SYSTEMIC CHANGE/CONTINUOUS WHOLE SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT

California schools need “systemic solutions” which “would require huge sums of money,” according to a Rand Corporation report (January 4, 2005, Los Angeles Times). The GEMS RoundTable is a systemic solution that is also low cost and user-friendly:

  • SYSTEMIC - It has the three necessary sufficient conditions to be a systemic solution. It is:
    • emancipatory: proven to increase learning, performance, and community spirit;
    • sustainable: fits into classrooms/meetings as a 30-minute weekly/monthly session;
    • comprehensive: serves K-12+ classrooms, faculty, PTA, and district meetings;
  • LOW COST - After about five coached sessions, users (e.g., students, educators, parents, etc.) run and revise their programs themselves.
  • USER-FRIENDLY - It is engaging, user-ready, and easily adaptable by users for their own more specific purposes. It is valuable for all schools -- from the very advantaged to the less advantaged.

EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION AND GROUP PROCESS METHODS

As an effective group process method, the RoundTable:

  • Develops 2 subject matters at the same time.
    • A Subject Matter of Your Choice: especially language-based subjects, for example: English, Social Studies, Science, Business, etc. In fact, a K-12 Roundtable is designed to meet or exceed many of the California Department of Education (CDE) Language Arts Standards, as well as many of the History/Social Studies Standards.
    • Communication Skills: leadership skills, shared leadership, values clarification, diversity appreciation, equity, authenticity, self-reflective listening/speaking. Also, to the CDE general intended K-12 outcomes of “reading and writing across the curriculum,” the Roundtable adds “listening and speaking across the curriculum.”
  • Offers about 1296 learning opportunities more than other whole group learning sessions! (In other words: 6 x 6 x 6 x 6 = 1296)
    • Instead of 1 ten-minute “warm-up” activity, the group reviews 6 advance organizers/review routines in your selected subject matter (agenda OR curriculum) in the same amount of time.
    • About 6 times as many participants have time to present and develop their ideas.
    • Listeners hear more than 6 times as many viewpoints.
    • Instead of 1 teacher/administrator as session facilitator, 6 people share the workload and prestige.
  • Combines the best of both directive and cooperative methods!
    • Directive methods (i.e., the lecture models) are efficient, but often alienating: efficient in that they serve large groups, but alienating as few people are able to share or develop their views.
    • Cooperative methods are engaging, but often chaotic. They are engaging for teams of 2-10, but chaotic as they cannot serve the whole class/meeting at once.
    • Dialogue is a large group cooperative model useful for retreats, weekend-, or semester-long staff development, but sessions require hours, not minutes.

Thus, the GEMS RoundTable is the first large/whole group cooperative model that fits into schools existing structures (i.e., classrooms, school meetings).