Reinventing School From the Ground Up For Inquiry Learning By Thom Markham A grave miscalculation exists in the minds of many educators: That inquiry-based learning, project based learning, and 21st century competencies can flourish in industrial model schools. Under this world view, the inquiry goals of the Common Core State Standards are “strategies” to be added to the existing list of classroom techniques, while skills like collaboration, communication, or creativity can be taught despite 43-minute periods, desks in rows, and pacing guides set in stone. In other words, reaching the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy is important, but less so than maintaining regimental order. But what we know—from industry and neuroscience—is that organizational structure, environment, and human performance are deeply intertwined. It is inevitable that schools must be completely redesigned if society wants to tap the wellsprings of creativity and exploration that the industrial system subdues. This redesign issue looms large. But a historical moment has arrived. Related
How Teaching Is Changing: 15 Examples How Teaching Is Changing: 15 New Realities Every Educator Faces by Terry Heick It’s tempting to say that no matter how much technology pushes on education, every teacher will always need to know iconic teacher practices like assessment, curriculum design, classroom management, and cognitive coaching. This may end up being true–how education changes in the next 20 years is a choice rather than the inevitable tidal wave of social and technological change it’s easy to sit back and wait for. Think of the very limited change in education since 2000 compared to the automotive industry, computer industry, retail consumer industry, etc. But it’s probably going to be a bit different than that. We’ve written before about the kinds of “things” modern teachers must be able to do. (Hint: It’s no longer about classroom management, testing, and content delivery.) 1. The Old: Administer assessment, evaluate performance, report performance, then–maybe–make crude adjustments the best you can 2. Summary 3. 4.
Take aim at innovation, with students in the center In September 2012, I packed up my Prius, left my patient wife, and drove around the United States for 89 days and 10,000 miles visiting 64 schools of every flavor and size to find out how they are preparing students for a rapidly changing world. I asked questions and recorded learning with more than 600 teachers, administrators and students. In setting up the complex matrix of this trip, many of my hosts asked, “What would you like to see when you are here?” The journeys of discovery in my life have started with open goals and few preconceptions, so I left the agendas as open ended as possible, with one caveat: I was not interested in seeing a 1:1 laptop program or talking with teachers about their tablet rollouts. As others have said, technology in learning should be as ubiquitous as air, and there is nothing innovative about students and teachers breathing. Technology is not innovation What would Dewey do? Flipping the classroom is not enough But what if we really flipped learning?
Brainscape: What would you like to learn today? Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning If kids can access information from sources other than school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives, what, then happens to the role of this institution? “Our whole reason for showing up for school has changed, but infrastructure has stayed behind,” said Diana Laufenberg, who taught history at the progressive public school Science Leadership Academy for many years. Laufenberg provided some insight into how she guided students to find their own learning paths at school, and enumerated some of these ideas at SXSWEdu last week. 1. Laufenberg recalled a group of tenacious students who continued to ask permission to focus their video project on the subject of drugs, despite her repeated objections. 2. Laufenberg’s answer: Get them curious enough in the subject to do research on their own. “Rather than saying, ‘We’re going to study immigration,’ I took them through a process where they become interested in it themselves,” she said. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Related
Inquiry Learning Ideas for Math and Science With iPads Digital Tools Laurie Sullivan/Flickr By Sam Gliksman The following is the second of a series of excerpts from Gliksman’s book iPad in Education for Dummies. We tend to split science and humanities as though they were separate branches of life. Today’s interconnected world demands that the doctor, engineer, pharmacist, and scientist increasingly master skills that used to be classified within the domain of the arts. More than any other academic disciplines, science and math draw their meaning by relating to life in the “real” world outside the classroom. Granting students the freedom to inquire and explore makes them the investigators of life’s mysteries. This chapter looks at tools that can be used with the iPad to help you investigate phenomena and collect data. Whether it’s geometry, physics, or chemistry, scientific method starts with research, discussion, and the development of a hypothesis about the phenomenon being examined. Submitted by: Dr. Submitted by: Dr. Related
20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning 20 Questions To Guide Inquiry-Based Learning Recently we took at look at the phases of inquiry-based learning through a framework, and even apps that were conducive to inquiry-based learning on the iPad. During our research for the phases framework, we stumbled across the following breakdown of the inquiry process for learning on 21stcenturyhsie.weebly.com (who offer the references that appear below the graphic). What do I want to know about this topic? These stages have some overlap with self-directed learning. References Cross, M. (1996). Kuhlthau, C., Maniotes, L., & Caspari, A. (2007).
eduCanon A Must Have Google Drive App for Teachers May 8, 2014 Since the introduction of add-ons to Google Drive a few weeks ago, I tried several of these extensions on my Google Drive and I am really impressed by the great service some of them offer. Today, I am sharing with you one of my favourite apps to use on Google Sheets. This add-on is called Doctopus. Doctopus is a handy Spreadhseet script which allows teachers to make copies and hand out google Drive files to students listed in a Google Sheet. Watch the video below to learn more about how to use Doctopus on your Google Sheets.