PROMISE's educational philosophy focuses on engaging the students. PROMISE believes that students learn best when they are active participants in the learning experience. Our courses reflect that – students are expected and encouraged to participate as much as possible. To this end, PROMISE has researched and implemented its own intellectual patent-pending methodology, in addition to incorporating the Great Books (www.greatbooks.org) methodology into our programs where appropriate.

한국어로 읽으시기 원하시면, 이곳을 누르십시요 (Please click here to read in Korean).

PROMISE Cyber School’s patent pending methodology is an innovative way of training students in English and foreign languages while they read great number of books. We believe that learning a language is about more than rote memorization of vocabulary and conjugations. We think that learning a language is a great opportunity to learn new ideas, to learn about the culture where the language is spoken, and to engage in an immersive experience with native speaking teachers. 

    While reading books the teachers will lead the students to:

    • Pre-read the text outside of class
    • Write questions or answers that they generated from the reading
    • Take a short daily quiz
    • Read aloud by taking turns during the class setting
    • Highlight or write down new words as they read
    • Learn the meaning and usage of these words through context
    • Participate in the Shared Inquiry Discussion Program of Great Books Foundation (www.greatbooks.org) or share answers to PROMISE worksheets
    • Write meaningful sentences using the new words
    • Write an essay about the text
    • Send the essay to the teacher for feedback

In courses designed for students in the sixth grade and higher, PROMISE Cyber School makes use of a method of instruction developed by the Great Books Foundation and adapted for use with ESL students. The Great Books curriculum features high caliber multinational texts with an emphasis on stylistic excellence and their ability to engage students in interpretive discussion. These texts challenge students not only to read, but to understand what they are reading..

At the heart of every Great Books program is a method of discussion called Shared Inquiry. Guided by a trained leader, students in a Shared Inquiry discussion work together to develop and share their ideas about a challenging text. The goal is to refine each student's individual understanding of an author's work through dialogue and writing. In the process, students develop their listening and speaking skills while improving their reading comprehension and critical thinking. Click here to view a Shared Inquiry discussion now.

Great Books has been extensively tested in the United States in schools where a high percentage of students are academically and economically disadvantaged. The program has been endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers, the National Staff Development Council, and the U.S. Department of Education.

In a recent Washington D.C. pilot study, students in Junior Great Books had a 14-34% improvement in SAT9 skill categories over students not in the program. The SAT9 skill categories represent writing skills (grammar and usage), sentence structure, writing mechanics, organizing and developing ideas, writing unity, and coherence. These gains translated into improved performance on the SAT9 standardized reading and mathematics exams as well. This is attributable to the Great Books focus on critical thinking, which improve reasoning abilities in any subject. For more on the effectiveness of Junior Great Books and Shared Inquiry, http://www.greatbooks.org.