How to Destroy Education While Making a Trillion Dollars The Vietnam War produced more than its share of iconic idiocies. Perhaps the most revelatory was the psychotic assertion of an army major explaining the U.S. bombing of the provincial hamlet of Ben Tre: “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.” If only such self-extinguishing claims for intelligence were confined to military war. The U.S is ratcheting up a societal-level war on public education. Here’s a three-step recipe for how to destroy education. First, lower the costs so you can jack up the profits. Second, make the curriculum as narrow, rote, and regimented as you can. Finally, rinse and repeat five thousand times. This is the essential charter school model and the money is all the rationale its promoters need. But to really make a killing, you need not just revenues, but profits. That is what real teachers do. If America wants better education, it needs to fix the greatest force undermining education, which is poverty. So watch out.
DH |Towards a Rationale of Audio-Text Bauman 1975 Bauman, R. "Verbal Art as Performance." In American Anthropologist, New Series, 77, no. 2 (June 1975): 290-311. Bernstein 2011 Bernstein, C. Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Inventions. University Of Chicago Press, 2011. Briet 2006 Briet, S. Bryant 2002 Bryant, J. Bryant 2011 Bryant, J. Buckland 1997 Buckland, M. Buzzetti and McGann 2006 Buzzetti, D. and McGann, J. Chaudhri 2009 Chaudhri, Talat. Clement Clement, T. Clement 2011 Clement, T. Clement 2014 Clement, T. Clement et al. 2014 Clement, T., Tcheng, D. Council on Library and Information Resources and The Library of Congress 2012 Council on Library and Information Resources and The Library of Congress. DeRose et al. 1990 DeRose, S. Drucker 2002 Drucker, J. Drucker and Rockwell 2003 "Introduction; Reflections on the Ivanhoe Game." Enrst 2012 Ernst, W. Enstrom 1993 Enstrom, D. Feinberg 2010 Feinberg, M. Floyd and Renear 2007 Floyd, I. and Renear, A. Frohmann 2004 Frohmann, B. Goldfarb 1981 Goldfarb, C..
Reflection and revision opportunities: Check! PBL Guidance states that learners should be allowed two formative assessments for each summative assessment. The final product for The Octopus's Garden Project is a presentation to the Principal of the school with design ideas for a 21st century classroom that will enhance teaching and learning in the school (post on this coming soon). Learners will also have to recount their learning in a report following the presentation. To prepare for these assessments, we worked on:- - note-taking skills - writing instructions - persuasive language - organisation - effective slide-making - recount writing - report writingCheck Points: Presentations Formative 1: team presentations on areas of expertise Formative 2: draft final presentation to soundboard Summative: final presentation to SLT Every team completed a peer assessment form (on a Google Form) created from the co-constructed presentation rubric when watching the films.
The real problem with multiple-choice tests Q) What is one responsibility that modern Presidents have NOT described in the Constitution? (From the 2010 NAEP exam) a) Commanding the armed forces b) Proposing an annual budget to Congress c) Appointing Supreme Court justices d) Granting pardons One of the biggest complaints about standardized tests is that the multiple-choice questions don’t measure deep thinking skills. Heick is an educator, husband, and father of three who is interested in improved social capacity through the design of progressive learning forms. (The answer to the question above is B, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2010.) By Terry Heick The multiple-choice problem is becoming a bit of an issue. While it has been derided by educators for decades as incapable of truly measuring understanding, and while performance on such exams can be noticeably improved simply by learning a few tricks, the multiple choice question may have a larger, less obvious flaw that disrupts the tone of learning itself.
Wikipedia |Critical thinking Analysis of facts to form a judgment Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments in order to form a judgement by the application of rational, skeptical, and unbiased analyses and evaluation.[1] The application of critical thinking includes self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective habits of the mind;[2] thus, a critical thinker is a person who practices the skills of critical thinking or has been trained and educated in its disciplines.[3] Philosopher Richard W. Paul said that the mind of a critical thinker engages the person's intellectual abilities and personality traits.[4] Critical thinking presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use in effective communication and problem solving, and a commitment to overcome egocentrism and sociocentrism.[5][6] In the classical period (5th c.–4th c. Etymology and origin of critical thinking [edit] Logic and rationality Kerry S. In sum:
AfL: Golden Rules Assessment for Learning: My Golden Rules Evaluation and assessment are not the same. My husband worked with a colleague who 'assessed' final exam art-work based on the standard of the class. He was gobsmacked when, during his first 'standardisation' meeting for IGCSE art, she laid out all the pieces across the room. She had decided, subjectively and without consultation of the criteria, that 'Sue' had produced the 'best' work, therefore she got an 'A', whilst 'Peter' was the 'worst', so he got the 'U' grade. She then divided up the grades equally among the remaining learners ranged between 'Sue' and 'Peter'. Since then, I have continued to think carefully about the purpose of assessment and how we assess with particular focus on Assessment for Learning (AfL). Comment OR grade. The advice of my Principal is to choose one or the other - feedback or grade - but not both. The feedback is part of the journey, the grade is the destination. Summative before formative. Assessment is a dialogue.
A warning to college profs from a high school teacher For more than a decade now we have heard that the high-stakes testing obsession in K-12 education that began with the enactment of No Child Left Behind 11 years ago has resulted in high school graduates who don’t think as analytically or as broadly as they should because so much emphasis has been placed on passing standardized tests. Here, an award-winning high school teacher who just retired, Kenneth Bernstein, warns college professors what they are up against. Bernstein, who lives near Washington, D.C. serves as a peer reviewer for educational journals and publishers, and he is nationally known as the blogger “teacherken.” His e-mail address is kber@earthlink.net. This appeared in Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors. By Kenneth Bernstein You are a college professor. I have just retired as a high school teacher. I have some bad news for you. Troubling Assessments I mentioned that at least half my students were in AP classes. A Teacher’s Plea
Elements of Thought |How we think… How Texas Inflicts Bad Textbooks on Us by Gail Collins “What happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas when it comes to textbooks” No matter where you live, if your children go to public schools, the textbooks they use were very possibly written under Texas influence. If they graduated with a reflexive suspicion of the concept of separation of church and state and an unexpected interest in the contributions of the National Rifle Association to American history, you know who to blame. When it comes to meddling with school textbooks, Texas is both similar to other states and totally different. It’s hardly the only one that likes to fiddle around with the material its kids study in class. The difference is due to size—4.8 million textbook-reading schoolchildren as of 2011—and the peculiarities of its system of government, in which the State Board of Education is selected in elections that are practically devoid of voters, and wealthy donors can chip in unlimited amounts of money to help their favorites win. “Evolution is hooey”
UCR Physics|What is the Scientific Method'? Next: What is the difference Up: The scientific method Previous: The scientific method The scientific method is the best way yet discovered for winnowing the truth from lies and delusion. The simple version looks something like this: 1. When consistency is obtained the hypothesis becomes a theory and provides a coherent set of propositions which explain a class of phenomena. The great advantage of the scientific method is that it is unprejudiced: one does not have to believe a given researcher, one can redo the experiment and determine whether his/her results are true or false. belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence, does not determine whether a scientific theory is adopted or discarded. A theory is accepted not based on the prestige or convincing powers of the proponent, but on the results obtained through observations and/or experiments which anyone can reproduce: the results obtained using the scientific method are repeatable.
The 5 Most Overhyped Trends in Education « Looking Up For your perusal, a completely subjective list of five things happening right now in education that are getting lots of notice, energy and resources but don’t deserve it, and why I think we need to reconsider our collective love affair with them: 1. Flipping The Class: What is it? “…a form of blended Learning which encompasses any use of Internet technology to leverage the learning in a classroom, so a teacher can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. What’s The Problem? The problems with flipping are well explained in “The Flip: End of a Love Affair“. The short form is: It entrenches homeworkIt depends on lecturing, a one way transfer of information to the student from the teacher, rather than allowing the student to construct their own understandings and meaning by interacting with the information.It doesn’t account for students that don’t have the resources to learn at home (e.g. technology, family support, etc.) What is it? What’s the problem? It’s inequitable.
Wikibooks|Cognition and Instruction/Problem Solving, Critical Thinking and Argumentation We are constantly surrounded by ambiguities, falsehoods, challenges or situations in our daily lives that require our Critical Thinking, Problem Solving Skills, and Argumentation skills. While these three terms are often used interchangeably, they are notably different. Critical thinking enables us to actively engage with information that we are presented with through all of our senses, and to think deeply about such information. This empowers us to analyse, critique, and apply knowledge, as well as create new ideas. Critical thinking can be considered the overarching cognitive skill of problem solving and argumentation. With critical thinking, although there are logical conclusions we can arrive at, there is not necessarily a 'right' idea. This chapter provides a theoretical overview of these three key topics: the qualities of each, their relationship to each other, as well as practical classroom applications. Learning Outcomes: Defining critical thinking[edit] Venn Diagrams[edit]
Cognitive Tutor - Carnegie Learning Focus on individual students' needs with software that customizes feedback, hints, and prompts within each problem. With Cognitive Tutor® Software, students in grades 9-12 have all the resources they need to succeed. Lesson, key terms, and skills: Before working on problems, students can review the lesson, read, or look up the applicable key terms, and see the skills for that particular section. Try It Now in our Virtual Sample Kit Cognitive Tutor software gives each student a different experience by offering just-in-time feedback and hints. On-demand hints: Hints are contextual and oriented toward helping the student solve key steps in the problem. Technical Requirements Cognitive Tutor software requires internet access, and is supported on both Microsoft Windows and Mac operating systems. Customize Your Learning Solution Carnegie Learning provides a true hybrid solution to math education. Available Courses