Rethinking Learning for a New Generation

The traditional classroom is changing. Across Massachusetts, educators are adjusting how they teach as they confront a new generation of learners shaped by technology, shifting attention spans, and post-pandemic challenges. At Boston College High School, Alison MacDonald is leading that work.

As Vice President of Educational Strategy, a newly created position at BC High, MacDonald helps teachers rethink how students learn while keeping expectations high. “We may want the same outcomes for our students,” she said. “We want them to be deep thinkers and critical readers, but it might be that we have to change how we get them there.”

Her approach reflects a growing reality for schools. Students today are digital natives who read on screens, write in shared documents, and receive constant feedback from the world around them. “Kids are just very different today,” MacDonald said. “Traditional classroom models that worked for many years really need to be adjusted.”

At BC High, that adjustment means reshaping both classroom design and teaching methods. Desks are no longer locked in rows. Teachers move among students rather than lecturing from the front. “If we want students to construct their own knowledge and really slow down and find their own answers, then we need to give them some power in the classroom,” MacDonald said.

Project-based learning is also expanding. Students are asked to explore subjects that connect to their lives and to demonstrate what they know through research and collaboration rather than memorization. “We still expect an extremely high level of academic rigor,” MacDonald said. “What students are doing for homework may be very different than it was in the past, but the commitment is the same.”

A 2021 report by the Buck Institute for Education found that students in U.S. high school Advanced Placement courses taught using project-based learning outperformed their peers in traditional AP classes by about eight percentage points, with gains rising to ten points for teachers in their second year of using the approach.

Technology has become both a challenge and a tool in this new model. Teachers now review essays in real time, leaving comments and feedback as students write. “Technology is not the enemy,” MacDonald said. “We can use it to help students think better and more deeply.”

Artificial intelligence, though, presents a more complicated test. MacDonald supports its use for brainstorming and early research but draws a clear line against allowing it to replace thinking. “Anything that takes over the thinking from the student and has someone or something else do it for them, that is not acceptable,” she said. “If teachers help students wade through that, they can become more critical thinkers.”

As the pace of change accelerates, MacDonald says schools must also address the emotional and social pressures that students face. “We are seeing a rise in anxiety, depression, and school avoidance,” she said. “Kids today are coping with more than most of us had to because there is no escape from it. Social media and messaging apps mean that home is still an offshoot of school.”

Her response has been to promote authenticity and recognition based on real effort, not superficial praise. “Students can sense when someone is being genuine,” she said. “When kids are getting awards for things they do not actually deserve, it does not help them. What matters is celebrating true progress.”

That philosophy extends to how BC High supports neurodiverse learners. “We want our students who are neurodiverse to not have a stigma about that,” MacDonald said. “We do not change the academic standard, but we do help students reach that standard differently.” By meeting students where they are, she believes schools can both uphold excellence and nurture individual growth.

Amid these changes, BC High is also taking a broader view of its future. The school is building momentum around strategic priorities and ensuring that progress is guided by a clear plan. Administrators are working to involve teachers, families, and students in shaping what comes next—reassessing goals, measuring success, and setting direction every few years. That ongoing planning process, MacDonald believes, is essential to making sure innovation happens with purpose and unity across the community.

For MacDonald, this is not about discarding tradition but adapting it to modern realities. “We have a mission and values that are never going to change,” she said. “How we get kids to access them does need to change. We need to be on the cutting edge and know how 21st-century schools are going to operate.”