ABSTRACT
School in the Park operationalizes learning strategies that are well represented in learning theory literature, including multiple intelligences (Armstrong, 2003; Gardner, 1983/1993), constructivism (Brooks & Brooks, 1999), differentiated instruction (Tomlinson, 2003), authentic assessment (Marzano, Pickering, & McTighe, 2000), and project-and problem-based learning (Torp & Sage, 2002). It is beyond the scope of this book to trace the components of School in the Park to each of these theoretical constructs, although proponents of each should have no problem making the connections. Instead in this chapter we ground School in the Park by employing four related constructs. First, we grounded our chapter 1 discussion of School in the Park as an extension of interdisciplinary instruction (Jacobs, 1997), as we feel the program encourages students to make connections and allows students to access content via their individual skills and interests. Throughout the book readers will notice different subject area critiques reference the same instructional activities. Thus the same instructional unit covered multiple content area standards.
