October 30, 2009, Newsletter Issue #303: Strengths/Weaknesses of the Unit Study Approach

Tip of the Week

Strengths of the Unit Study Approach:

• All ages can learn together
• Children can delve as deeply into a subject as they like
• The family's interest can be pursued
• Students get the whole picture
• Curiosity and independent thinking are generated
• Intense study of one topic is the more natural way to learn
• Knowledge in interrelated so is learned easily and remembered longer
• Unit studies are fairly easy to create

Weaknesses of the Unit Study Approach::

• It is easy to leave educational "gaps"
• Hard to assess the level of learning occurring
• Record keeping may be difficult
• Prepared unit study curricula are expensive
• Do-it-yourself unit studies require planning
• Too-many activity-oriented unit studies may cause burnout of teacher and student
• Subjects that are hard to integrate into the unit may be neglected


Reprinted from the 2000 Elijah Company Catalog.
For a free copy of this catalog, contact:
The Elijah Company
1053 Eldridge Loop
Crossville, TN 38558
1-888-235-4524

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Sincerely

Sarita Holzmann
President
Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.