When the Dream Becomes a Reality… Part 2

Recently I had the opportunity to travel with a group of PRECE leaders at UFC students from COFAC (the Cooperative Learning program that Prof. Manoel Andrade oversees) to the city of Quixada. What is Quixada, you might be asking… and how do you pronounce that? Both are good questions. The second I still don’t know the answer to!

Quixada is the first systematized multiplication of cooperative learning and the PRECE methodology. So, what exactly does this mean? You might have read my blog a few weeks ago about PRECE receiving administrative control of a public high school/professional school set to open in August. This is PRECE’s first opportunity to use the PRECE methodology in the actual teaching of the classes and structure of the school. You also already know that the PRECE methodology of students studying together in small groups (outside the school setting) has multiplied to 18 different sites. So, what about Quixada is unique and different?

It is here, in Quixada, that the State Secretary of Education and the Federal University of Ceará have developed the first Cooperative Learning program based in a public school. This program is based on the methodology of Cooperative Learning and PRECE. There are more than 30 student leaders who help to coordinate and oversee study groups and PRECE and UFC students are helping them along the way. When visiting the students at Quixada I was amazed by their enthusiasm for learning, their dedication to improving their situation, their drive to enter the university, and most of all their passion for working cooperatively. They knew not only in their minds but they believed in their hearts that they are global citizens responsible not only for their own successful future but for the future (and present) of everyone. And, they are up for the challenge!