On 11 May 2024, a group of faculty members of the Jezuickie Centrum Edukacji in Nowy Sącz, Poland, gathered on a Saturday to talk about the Learning by Refraction Approach to Ignatian Pedagogy.
On 19 April 2024, over 100 faculty members of St. Aloysius College in Birkirkara, Malta gathered for their professional development day. It was a day dedicated to conversations about Ignatian Pedagogy—particularly, the so-called “Learning by Refraction” approach originated by Fr. Johnny Go SJ and Ms. Rita Atienza of the Philippines.
From March 6 to 8, 2024, 38 educators from 13 schools gathered at the Archbishop Brunett Retreat Center at the Palisades for the Jesuits West Province Colloquium. This year’s colloquium—organized as always by Tim Caslin and Mike Chambers, Provincial Assistant and Associate Provincial Assistant for Secondary and Pre-Secondary Education, respectively—focused on Ignatian Pedagogy, specifically, the Learning by Refraction approach.
Fr. Johnny Go SJ, author of the book of the same title, flew in from Manila to introduce the participants to this contemporary and practical approach and to guide them in thinking and talking about concrete ways of implementing the IPP.
Fr. Go offered “conversation pieces” to provoke thinking and talking about Ignitian Pedagogy.
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St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College is a brand new Companion School in New Zealand, a historic first, a dream that took decades to fulfill! Companion schools in the Australian provinces are schools that have embraced the Ignatian charism. And what better way for St. Ignatius to prepare for its inaugural class of students than equipping its teachers with the distinctively Ignatian brand of learning and teaching: the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm?
One long weekend in Thailand, some 35 representatives from selected Catholic schools in the country gathered at the Baan Phu Waan Pastoral Training Centre in Sam Phran, Thailand for a trainers’ training workshop on Learning by Refraction (LbR). The three-and-a-half-day Read more…
In the first week of October 2023, thirty-two administrators and master teachers of the Jesuit Basic Education Commission holed up at the beautiful Mirador Jesuit Retreat House and Ecopark in Baguio City for the “Learning by Refraction” Trainers’ Training Lab.
By Elizabeth Phipps, Director of Teaching and Learning, St. Aloysius College (Sydney)
On Monday 17 July, St Aloysius’ College teaching and support & operational staff gathered for our Term III professional development program.
Consisting of two sessions, the first focused on the development of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) and considered its context in the contemporary world. After a deep dive into the idea of Reflection led by Fr Ross Jones SJ, the staff then took part in a session facilitated by Fr Johnny Go SJ, author of Learning by Refraction.
By Yuga Orita (Graduate School of Global Studies, Master’s Program – 1st Year)
The Ignatian Student Leadership Forum (ISLF) was held from March 23 to 25, 2023 for students from the four Jesuit Schools in Japan (Eiko Gakuen, Rokko Gakuin, Hiroshima Gakuin, and Sophia Fukuoka). It was planned, prepared, and organized by leaders comprising university students who had graduated from the four Jesuit schools. Also involved were individuals associated with the Sophia School Corporation Catholic Jesuit Center, priests of the Society of Jesus, and students of theology, and the event was held to welcome students from the from schools, specifically students of the 3rd year junior high to 2nd year high sections.
by Cris Gilbert Garcia, Ateneo Confucius Institute
Fr. Johnny Go, SJ introduced the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) to teachers of the Confucius Institute at the Ateneo de Manila University (CI-ADMU) on 1 July 2023. The talk by the Dean of the Gokongwei Brothers School of Education and Learning Design (GBSEALD) opened CI-ADMU’s first face-to-face faculty meeting in four years. It was attended by 20 CI-ADMU teachers, including CI Director Dr. Ellen Palanca and Chinese Director Dr. Cynthia Liang.
By Russell Fiorella, Jennie Kuenz & Greg Allen
(Jesuit High School – Portland, OR, USA)
Physics teaches us that refraction happens when light approaches a different medium from a new angle. In the case of light approaching a prism, the result is a beautiful spectrum of visible light. This phenomenon mirrors the transformation that occurs within a student when learning. Rather than bouncing content back at their teacher or allowing content to travel through them, a learner takes hold of the content and bends it, changes it, wrestles with it, pulls it apart, puts it back together in a new way and makes it their own.
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