Tag:

Headline

This if for posts to be in the featured/top section of site

Blue stylized human figures stand around a digital globe featuring binary code, symbolizing global connection and community, against a black background.

A Believer in Community-Based Accountability

by EdCircuit Staff & Dr. John Booth December 4, 2017

written by EdCircuit Staff & Dr. John Booth 3 minutes read

A next-generation of measures and assessments at DeKalb ISD Dr. John Booth, superintendent of the DeKalb Independent School District (ISD) in rural northeast Texas, believes in developing the whole child. His district is moving away from the rigid accountability standards of the past and looking at each child’s needs. Dr. Booth is tailoring learning to the student and incorporating the parents and the community. Local businesses, industry professionals, and future employers are being brought into the process. The community is best served by asking the parents and community, “What do you want? What are your aspirations for the child?” r. John Booth, superintendent of the DeKalb Independent School District (ISD), believes in community-based accountability.

“We’re in a social sector,” Dr. Booth notes. “We’re in a related sector. It has to be more about relationships. And that’s what community-based accountability does. It gets into the relationships between the school and the parent, the school and the child, and the school and the community. That’s the essence of community-based accountability.”

Dr. Booth and his district are members of TPAC, the Texas Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC). TPAC is a group of 44 Texas school districts working to build on the success of community-based accountability systems already in use in districts across the state by developing next-generation measures and assessments that would enable broader use of such systems. “Once upon a time, the school handed a parent an education plan and said, ‘This is what your child needs,’” said Dr. Booth. “That’s no longer how the world works ─ the whole world, not just education.”

According to Booth, TPAC is on the cutting edge. He says TPAC is the future of school systems. “It is a great start with TPAC. These 44 districts will set a palette, a standard out there, and some variations will occur. Ten years from now, it will look completely different. Once people get it and see it ─ and buy into it ─ then we will see them go back to their home districts and say, ‘I want some of that for my child. I want to have that kind of input in my school.’ That’s how it’s going to grow. It can’t be a mandate. It’s not going to be pushed from the top down. It’s going to be bottom up.”

Dr. Booth believes in his path and has much hope for the future. He believes that the blossoming edtech revolution is the game-changer. “We got away from teaching the individual student because, as a society, we couldn’t afford to teach each child where they were,” he said. “But technology is allowing us to do that now ─ to bring different pieces, learning styles, and methods into classrooms even in the most remote areas.”

nprEd – School Voucher Programs Should Be Clear About Disability Rights, Report Says
Education Week – How Cheap Talk Fuels Bad School Accountability
eSchool News – 5 questions to ask when rethinking accountability systems

December 4, 2017 0 comments

A stack of old, worn books sits on a surface, with a pair of round eyeglasses resting on top. Two additional aged books lie beside the stack, all against a neutral background.

Administrators edLeaders Interviews

Literacy: It’s Not Just for Language Arts

by Ian Egan November 30, 2017

written by Ian Egan 4 minutes read

Literacy is critical in math, science, social studies, robotics…

A stack of old, worn books sits on a surface, with a pair of round eyeglasses resting on top. Two additional aged books lie beside the stack, all against a neutral background. As Directors of Curriculum for the Cherry Hill Public School District in New Jersey, Dr. Farrah Mahan and Violeta Katsikis use the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) to guide their curriculum and instruction. They both feel an active responsibility in making sure that their teachers are teaching literacy in not only the language arts, but in science, math, robotics, and all the other subjects upheld in the state standards.

As Dr. Mahan notes, the new science standards demand that student present evidence to prove their hypothesis. It’s a process that promotes literacy, connecting with scientific and engineering terms while teaching students to formulate coherent arguments and presentations to support their conclusions.

The world is changing faster than curriculum can be updated. Professional development for teachers is therefore critical as teachers need to be self-reliant and motivated. The staff has an essential voice in the content of the curriculum chosen. Master instructors fine-tune the state standards and create lessons based on what kind of students are sitting in front of them each year. The teachers consider many factors including time of day, which of the 19 schools they are teaching in, and dozens of other considerations that affect the relationship between student and teacher every minute of every day.

The district must feel confident in their network of teachers to employ this method of curriculum and must supply targeted, specific, personalized and intensive professional development. As a result, everyone in the Cherry Hill district is a teacher of 21st Century skills in the classroom.

A surreal scene with glossy, reflective spheres and geometric shapes floating in a warm-toned, abstract environment. Light reflections and shadows create a futuristic, dreamlike atmosphere. The teachers are allowed significant autonomy but Dr. Mahan says for the teacher, understanding the standards is more important than understanding the curriculum. “There is always a confusion concerning ‘This program is your curriculum,” says Dr. Mahan. “This is a misnomer. You have a curriculum, and you purchase a program with supplemental materials to SUPPORT it.”

The Cherry Hill district doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all program for its K-12 instruction and curriculum; it uses several different programs based on the need, the student level of proficiency and instruction, and the teacher. There are over 11,000 students speaking 50 different languages in the district, so there isn’t a blanket program that covers all contingencies and needs. They use programs that teach strategies and skills in phonics, psychological awareness, spelling, and handwriting. The online platforms are vital because they allow the student to work from home, and they enable the student to receive feedback, so they continue to learn and improve outside of the classroom.

As both Ms. Katsikis and Dr. Mahan talk about in the interview, it’s not just the words or symbols on the page or the computer screen; they visit all 19 schools and walk through the classrooms, the spaces themselves, to look for evidence of literacy. Like Dr. Mahan says, “What gets monitored gets done.”

About Dr. Farrah Mahan and Violeta Katsikis

Dr. Farrah Mahan is the Director of Curriculum for the Cherry Hill Public School District. Prior to taking on this role, she served as an elementary principal for ten years. She has worked in the district for 14 years. She earned her undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and History as well as a Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership from Monmouth University. Dr. Mahan attended the University of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2006 where she earned her Doctor of Education.

Follow Cherry Hills Schools on Twitter

Violeta Katsikis has served the students and staff of the Cherry Hill Public School District for the past fifteen years. She has taught multiple grades, supported teachers as a Literacy Teacher Coach, and currently serves as one of the K-12 District Supervisors of Curriculum and Instruction. She holds a Masters Degree in Education and a Reading Specialist certification from Holy Family University, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Elementary Education certification from Rutgers University.

Follow Violeta Katsikis on Twitter

This interview was originally posted in the Huffington Post by Dr. Rob Berger.

AuthorDr. Berger is one of many industry education correspondents for the Mind Rocket Media Group, An educator and former school administrator. He often hosts education panel discussions and develops strategic content. As an academic Dr. Berger is a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. A former assistant principal, he has been an adjunct undergraduate professor and developer of online college courses. He is a passionate Detroit sports fan who has also adopted Nashville sports teams as his own.

Contact the Mind Rocket Media Group if you are interested in an industry interview and a placement on EdCircuit.
Further Reading

The New York Times – How to Get Your Mind to Read
edCircuit – Harnessing The Three Domains Of Reading
The Tennessean – Nashville has a long way to go on child literacy

November 30, 2017 0 comments

Two tiny figurines stand on the open pages of a book; one is sitting and the other is standing, holding a paper. The focus is shallow, highlighting the figures and the central crease of the book.

Columnists Educators K-12 Teachers

“Rigor” and “Hard” Are Not The Same Thing

by Todd Stanley November 29, 2017

written by Todd Stanley 5 minutes read

How to challenge your students with their thinking by Todd Stanley

A man sits inside a large transparent light bulb, reading a book. The bulb rests on a wooden surface, creating a surreal and imaginative scene. I have had a lot of conversations in my career where it is offered that the solution to the problem of challenging students is simply to add more rigor. It is as though a teacher could go to the spice rank and hunt amongst the dill and the Cayenne pepper to find a bottle of rigor that can simply be shaken on the class and the problem will be solved.

The major problem of simply adding rigor to the classroom is that there are a fair share of teachers who do not know what rigor actually is. They equate rigor with being harder. And how do you make the class harder? The easiest way is by giving students more things to do and less time to do them. This, my friend, is not rigor. In fact, many students resent just being given more, especially if it is the same work. The idea of rigor is to provide different work that is going to challenge students. And where is the best place to challenge a student? With their thinking.

This narrative follows into the assessment of students. How do you have rigorous assessments? By asking harder questions. But again, this is not rigor. You could ask a student to provide the name of the US Ambassador to China. It is not common knowledge that this would be Terry Branstad, but it is still just knowledge. There lies the problem. Just like giving more of the same work, asking questions that are all knowledge-based questions are not going to challenge students’ thinking no matter how difficult the question is.

An open book with a barren tree and an old carriage emerging from its pages; letters and symbols float around in a starry, dark background, with a small waterfall flowing from the book. To provide an example of different types of thinking, a teacher could ask this question: “What is your favorite book and why?” Students will not have to struggle to figure out what book is their favorite. They may have to think a little harder to determine the why of their choice. A lot of times students know they like something, they just cannot point to what exactly they liked about it. By having them break it down and analyze what elements of the book they enjoyed will access a higher level of thinking.

Some would argue such a question is not hard. Some students could talk at length about their favorite book and why they love it so much. It is not a stretch for them to share their opinion. But this is definitely rigorous. Why is it rigorous? Because the level of thinking you are asking students to access is much higher.

It all comes down to Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom divided the types of thinking students do into six levels.

Many classrooms sit firmly ensconced in the apply, understand, and remember section of the taxonomy. This means that a majority of the time students are accessing the lower levels of their thinking in order to complete the task being asked of them. This does not mean what they are doing is not hard, what it does mean is it probably is not rigorous.

In order to be rigorous, students need to be in the top half of Bloom’s chart. They need to either be analyzing, evaluating, or creating in order to access their high levels of thinking. The question becomes, how much of this is being done in the classroom? Not just your projects or performance assessments. How much higher level thinking is being asked of students on a pencil to paper test? How much of it is being done in the questions teachers ask? How much of it is being displayed in the daily work students produce to show mastery?

Does this mean every activity or lesson should be higher level thinking only? No, the lower levels of thinking have their place in the classroom. These act as the building blocks to higher thinking. Without this basic knowledge, it would be difficult to think critically because you would not have the background knowledge needed to do so. The problem comes in that many teachers stop at this lower level rather than pushing students into the higher ones.

The ratio of high to lower level thinking students are doing in class should be about 50/50. That means half of the thinking being required of students is at the analyzing, evaluation, or creating levels. How does a teacher determine whether they are achieving this ratio or not? Look at your artifacts. Artifacts are anything you give to students whether it be a worksheet, an assessment, or a homework assignment. Analyze these artifacts to determine your ratio of lower to higher level thinking. You can use a sheet such as this:

For each question indicate the level of the question according to Bloom’s taxonomy.

Total the results at the bottom of the chart.

Table with columns for 10 questions, divided into lower-level (knowledge, comprehend, application) and higher-level (analyzing, evaluating, creating) question types, all cells empty.

If you are placing all of your checks in the lower level sections, you need to ask yourself does this indicate that your class lacks rigor? If through this self-reflection you think this does indicate a lack of rigor, you might need to revise and edit the work you ask your students to complete.

You also might reflect upon the type of oral questioning you are asking students. If most of the questions you ask of your class have a definitive correct answer, you are probably asking too many lower level questions. If, however, students have several different ways they could answer the question, they are having to think critically and thus are being asked higher level questions.

Silhouettes of five people are seated facing a large blank screen, with one standing and gesturing toward the display as if presenting or explaining something. The screen shows a blue gradient background. This fundamental change in your classroom of reflecting on the level of thinking your work requires of students can immediately increase the rigor of your classroom. Some teachers might balk at this prospect because it is too hard. Keep in mind, raising the rigor in your classroom means raising the rigor on your teaching, but just like your students will be better learners, you will be a better teacher.
Further Reading

Teach Hub – 22 Ways to Add Rigor to Your Classroom
TeachThought – How To Add Rigor To Anything
The Art Of Ed – How to Develop Rigor in the Classroom

November 29, 2017 1 comment

Several wooden chairs are suspended upside down on a wire against a pale, cloudy sky, creating an unusual and artistic display.

Augmented and virtual reality Future Ed Innovation Project-based learning

Designing the Classroom for Student-Centered Learning

by Ian Egan November 29, 2017

written by Ian Egan 6 minutes read

The future of education demands space to flourish and grow
By Jason Meyer

Thinking back to my school years, class time was spent taking notes while teachers led lectures from the front of the classroom and homework was all about practicing what we learned. Now as I, and the education industry, age, I see this teacher-centric style of teaching working its way toward retirement, and that is a good thing.

Schools around the country are exploring different instructional models that are more focused on the student. These new instructional models, including blended learning, flipped instruction and project-based learning are changing both the way class time is used and the way classrooms are designed. Gone are the classrooms with desks and chairs in rows all facing forward. Now, walking into today’s most innovative classrooms can feel more like walking into a tech start-up or trendy coffee shop.

Almost everyone has a device

Even just five years ago, if you walked into a classroom and saw a student using a cellphone, he or she would most likely get in trouble. Now, it’s the new norm. Whether the school has instituted a BYOD program, a 1:1 program or a combination of the two, students are often working on devices during class. This makes it easier for students to collaborate on group projects, do research and present evidence to support their claims during class discussions.

Because of the increase in device usage, schools are upgrading their wireless capabilities to accommodate such a large number of students using devices at once and classrooms are adding charging stations and even desks with USB ports and electrical outlets so students can recharge their devices during the day.

Teachers are lecturing less

In many classrooms, the roles of class time and homework have switched. Now, the digestion of new content – the reading and taking notes – takes place at home so time in class can be spent on small group work or projects that allow students to apply the concepts they are learning. This student-centric learning style not only gives students the freedom to express their learning in different ways, it challenges them to hone important non-academic skills such as collaboration, communication, problem-solving and more.

Expanded time for group work also allows educators to check in with students who may be struggling to grasp new concepts. While the rest of the class works in small groups on activities, the teacher can work in a small group with the students who are struggling.

Teachers use tools that enable collaborative learning

The education market is full of so many new tools teachers can use to lead engaging lessons that inspire collaborative learning. There are tools that let students collaboratively create and edit documents simultaneously from different devices. Teachers can use student response systems to quickly gather opinions or test basic understanding of concepts. There are many apps that allow students to create video, drawings, songs and more to demonstrate their learning. The options are almost endless.

Classroom presentation displays also come equipped with built-in interactive software, which gives teachers the opportunity to transform their normal slideshows into interactive games. Teachers can create lessons that require drag and drop and other types of tangible interaction for virtually any subject or grade. Teachers who successfully create lessons can share them on forums and websites so their colleagues can download them.

There are also wireless collaboration tools that allow teachers to send a slide or information, say a math equation for example, from their device to all student devices in the class. From their devices, students solve the equation and annotate it to show their thought processes. Then the teacher can select students’ screens to cast onto the classroom’s display to discuss. These wireless collaboration tools, which can be used across multiple subjects and grades, foster class-wide conversations and help students see their peer’s different points of view or thought processes.

Students are no longer strictly facing the front of the classroom

Because classrooms are becoming more collaborative, the seating arrangement is changing to reflect this. Cafes offer a myriad of seating options for customers, including relaxing couches, secluded individual tables, and bigger tables for groups and many classrooms are adopting this design mindset. Classrooms are beginning to incorporate softer furniture like couches and chairs, as well as reading nook-style areas where students can work on their devices both individually or in groups. Additionally, desks and chairs with wheels are becoming more popular because they provide flexibility. If the class is participating as a whole in a lesson, students can face forward and they can quickly rearrange their desks for group work on the fly.

While classrooms still have their main display mounted at the front of the classroom for these whole-class lessons, some are installing multiple displays throughout the room. Therefore, furniture with wheels makes it easy for students to swivel and look at the closest display.

Learning is happening outside the classroom

School libraries are transforming into true media centers. The shelves of books, magazines and computers for research are now joined by collaborative and informal learning spaces. The media center is becoming a meeting place where students can work on projects. Soft furniture makes the media center more inviting and lounge-like. Some schools are even installing displays in these informal learning spaces so groups can practice presentations, view documents or websites as a whole, and more. Media centers are also expanding the tools they offer. Some rent out video cameras, green screens and even virtual reality goggles for projects.

The media center at Tampa Preparatory School in Tampa, FL has renovated one of its offices into a virtual reality creation lab, called the IDEA (Innovate, Design, Explore, Apply) Lab. What started as one VR headset on a mobile cart grew into a lab equipped with six VR workstations, a 7-foot-wide interactive display that can project from any of the creation stations and show students’ work as they are designing for VR in real time, and more. One of the first secondary VR creation labs in the nation, the IDEA Lab allows students to not just experience VR; they can invent and code VR applications, as well as explore new ways to demonstrate their learning of academic subjects through VR.

Bracing for the Future

As edtech continues to advance, classroom instruction and design will continue to change. The goal of schools is to provide students for a future career, but our workforce looks different now. Upon entering the workforce, students are expected to have foundational knowledge, as well as collaboration and critical thinking skills needed to operate in a highly skilled technical workforce. By creating educational environments that better reflect the “real world,” schools are better preparing their students.
Author

Jason Meyer is the education product manager for Epson America.

Further Reading

Edutopia – Flexible Seating and Student-Centered Classroom Redesign

THE Journal – Designing Learner-Centered Spaces

EdWeek – 5 Ways to Make Your Classroom Student-Centered

November 29, 2017 1 comment

0 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Whatsapp Copy Link Email

edLeaders Administrators Project-based learning Creativity

Countering the Stress and Anxiety of Modern Learning

by Ian Egan November 28, 2017

written by Ian Egan 6 minutes read

Helping students cope with high stress and high expectations by Matthew S. Howell

Early in my career as a principal I came across a student in our hallways that did not look well. The blood was gone from her face and she looked ghastly, standing at her locker, binders in hand, Chromebook under her left arm, musical instrument in its case lying at her feet. The bell had rung; she was late, however she was not in a hurry to make it to class. I stopped and asked if everything was alright, and her eyes immediately welled up with tears.

As she began to cry our guidance counselor came around the corner and saw us there. She interceded and asked the young lady if she wanted to go to her office so they could talk. The student began to sob uncontrollably as they turned to walk down the hall.

I closed the locker that was left ajar and offered a few words of support. I knew my counselor would let me know what going on after she made an assessment. A short time later we met to debrief. “Is everything alright?”

“Stress” the counselor told me. “She had gotten an eighty-eight on her algebra test, and the winter concert is coming. She has several projects due by the end of the week and her parents are after her to practice harder for her travel soccer team. She is afraid that she may not make honor roll this marking period too.”

Unfortunately, this is an all too common scenario. As educators, we are witness to students who are coming of age in an era of information overload. Students are often overwhelmed, anxious and restless. It is not uncommon for learners to be overscheduled as they try to navigate a do-it-all society with do-it-all perfectly expectations.

In a 2015 study conducted by New York University, nearly half (49 percent) of all high school students reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis. The source of these feelings were attributed to grades, homework and preparing for college.

This negative mindset is often associated with attachments to specific outcomes which can be at the root of these overwhelming feelings. Students often have clear-cut determinations about what it means to be a success or a failure, yet they are unclear about what brings them happiness or peace of mind. The associated anxiety can lead to thoughts of self-doubt, fear, and in the case noted above, students who are literally petrified.

The reality is that this is often the norm. While the manifestation of the root cause may vary based on the individual, the driving factors are usually very similar. I have not found a cure for this particular societal ailment; however, I would like to share three things to help students who are struggling to cope.

1.) Authenticity is Key

Unmet and unrealized expectations have serious implications for a student. When a goal is not complete, an achievement is not reached, a certain status is yet to be attained – it is often considered failure. For some the setback is genuine because the target was determined by the individual. The due course of the process allows for evaluation and adjustment. This indicates an authentic goal that is intrinsically motivated.

Unfortunately, students often operate under expectations that are not of their own design. What’s worse is that the same learner may have little or no awareness of what their own essential desires and goals are. For these students, whether they are high achievers or struggling learners, goals are foisted upon them.

Teachers can encourage students to identify their authentic nature. Allow them to remain in a state of process rather than a firmly wired pattern of starts and stops. Give your learners space to consider how certain tasks feel for them and create evaluative assessments that give pause for self-reflection. Wondrous things can happen for a person when they are able to draw direct correlations from what they do to who they are in the world.

2.) Curiosity is Essential

Beyond challenge, beyond rigor and assessment, beyond mastery and development, lies the true key to learning which is curiosity. With information at the fingertip and answers to questions seemingly accessible at the touch of a screen, the foundational element of curiosity can be lost for a student.

Modern education espouses a belief in the cultivation of lifelong learners, but that often equates to an individual who is able to gather information and synthesize concepts. Of course these are processes that are essential to learning, but they are not the seed of inspiration and creativity. If you want to help develop a lifelong learner, allow innate curiosity to thrive. Support your students in a manner that allows them to freely pursue understanding without the stress and anxiety of attainment. Spark the flames of curiosity.

When fostered and protected appropriately, curiosity can be the impetus for a never-ending pursuit of knowledge. Educators can develop this in their classroom by encouraging imagination. Students should be encouraged to seek connections between topics. Spend time teaching the skills associated with question development. The old axiom holds true; the person with the best question is the smartest person in the room, and great questions are born from curiosity.

3.) Break Free from Standardization

The more students are asked to complete standardized tasks and assessments, the more internal unrest they will have. Students are naturally intuitive. When asked to complete tasks that are counter to their own internal goals, anxiety and cognitive dissonance can arise. Even worse, high stake tasks that serve no purpose outside of data cultivation are construed as empty and void of purpose.

Educators can design programs and lessons that are free from the negative impacts of standardization. Decenter grading systems by moving to goal-oriented projects without point values. Emphasize portfolio assessments that account for the totality of a student’s efforts. Encourage self-evaluation. Rather than having students submit work in the hope that the teacher will find it acceptable, encourage learners to develop honest standards of self-scrutiny. Ask questions like, what did you get out of the project? How can you see this working in your own life? Where else have you learned similar ideas? Require students to submit these reflections with their final products.

It is great to challenge learners, as a matter of fact, it is crucial to development, but the challenge should not come at the cost of happiness. When the price of academic rigor is emotional unrest and uncertainty then the expense is too high. Finding another approach will ensure that students are productive and engaged in the near and far-term.
Author

Mr. Matthew Howell has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Montclair State University. He has also earned his Master of Arts Degree from Seton Hall University in Educational Leadership and Supervision. Mr. Howell is certified in English education and as a principal and school administrator.

Mr. Howell has served in the Oceanport School District since September of 2012. In addition to Oceanport School District, his 14 years in education include positions in Somerset, Ocean Township, Millstone and Hazlet. Mr. Howell’s professional experiences include classroom teaching, coaching, supervision, and administration. He has held positions at a number of age levels. Mr. Howell is passionate about education and he firmly believes that every child can succeed. Follow Mr. Howell on Twitter.

Further Reading

USA Today – Teens feeling stressed, and many not managing it well

NBC News – Teens More Stressed-Out Than Adults, Survey Shows

The Atlantic – High-Stress High School

November 28, 2017 0 comments

0 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Whatsapp Copy Link Email

Hidden

Teaching Beyond Knowledge

by Ian Egan November 27, 2017

written by Ian Egan 8 minutes read

Instruction plus experience equals education
By Mac Bogert

Mrs. Miller was my fifth-grade teacher. Both of my sisters had passed through her justifiably famous hands. She was an imposing, loved, and feared presence. We did okay together, even though my sisters’ reputation for politeness and manners was not present in equal measure for yours truly.

Like all my best teachers, Mrs. Miller apparently knew everything. She was sort of the internet for the 1950’s.

Much has changed since. The world seems like an increasingly equivocal place. We’ve seen huge shifts in demographics, technology, economics, politics and education. It doesn’t appear that the dust is going to settle. Our schools are struggling to adapt to more changes than I could hope to list here.

Three of these changes, however, we can deal with at the classroom level to increase our own, and our students’ capacity to learn:

First, we have practically instantaneous access to all knowledge that has ever been known and recorded.

Second, we have a huge body of new information about things like neurolinguistics, brain function, and how humans learn.

Third, we have a much more ambiguous state of affairs. It may be hard to see the advantage to this one, but my own journey as a teacher took a hard turn for the better (as in more effective learning for my customers, a.k.a. students) once I accepted my own discomfort with change and embraced the possibilities it offered.

“Knowledge without wisdom is a load of books on the back of a donkey.” – Japanese Proverb

The Promise and Perils of Instant Knowledge

I research every day for my work. I have to in order to keep current. I love researching anyhow. When has research ever been this quick and powerful? If I take a little care with what I type into my search engine (and navigate pop-ups and sites that want to redirect me), I’m in the greatest of libraries.

This ease of access is not a free lunch

When we gain our knowledge through interaction with another person, we can have a dialogue. If we trust each other, we can ask questions, push back if we disagree, ask for clarification and sources. That dialogue is enriching in many ways. It increases the vibrancy of our relationship and connects us to the habit of clarifying and listening to others’ perceptions and perspectives. These are important learnings for our intellectual growth and for our social and emotional development. I’m careful to keep in touch with a cadre of friends in the learning community. We bounce ideas. In my sessions, I encourage my fellow learners to challenge me and help me develop my ideas and my thinking—every session I deliver is different by the end of the day based on their input and feedback.

So, we who teach can make clear our role as knowledge coaches. We don’t need to know everything, but we can bring our experience to bear with our students to help them be discerning and skeptical about information. Wisdom is about managing the application of knowledge. So instead of knowledge dispensers, we can become knowledge managers and help our students develop a healthy skepticism.

A couple of quick exercises

Have your students work in teams to find as many different sources of information about a topic germane to the class, say history or government, retirement planning or music. Challenge them to generate via the Web the widest possible universe of “facts” and opinions, then to have a conversation that allows for different perspectives within a framework of fact v. opinion. As their coach, you can help them focus on their differences of opinion without judgment.

Pair your students off by differences, e.g., those who prefer a certain artist, food, or athletic team—or their stance on a topic you’re exploring. Give them a Venn diagram (two overlapping circles). This diagram has three interior spaces. Each puts her/his name on one side. The rules of the game? They list their differences on the outer sectors (Cowboys and Patriots) and must find something they agree on (both teams have top-ten quarterbacks) before they can move on. Ask them to find ten things in each sector (left, right, center). This is a great exercise to help us listen with less bias and more acceptance. When we listen with bias, we don’t learn; we merely reinforce that bias.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” -Albert Einstein

How We Learn

Much of my education took place in an industrial-model environment. Sitting in rows, grouped by age, all expected to learn at the same speed and the same way. Even today, I attend training events that, despite all the research, follow this model.

A fellow by the name of Gilbert Ryle gave an important lecture in 1945. A long time ago, I’ll admit. On the other hand, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs surfaced about the same time, and it’s still a wonderful, useful insight. Mr. Ryle suggested there are two realms of knowledge. The first he called “knowing that.” He used the example of a child knowing that a bicycle has two wheels, inflated tires, and is powered by pushing on the pedals. This kind of knowledge is factual and what he called “propositional”—it can be proven true or false. It’s valuable, yet it does not enable a child to ride a bike.

“Knowing how,” the other realm of knowledge, is experiential, skill-based, and learned through doing. Rules, he suggested, “like birds, must live before they can be stuffed.” Watch your children learn how to ride up a steep hill as they stall and figure out how to lean forward and lift their buttocks off the seat. We teachers (and I’ve fallen into this trap myself) must watch for the temptation to think that “knowing how” can be reduced to “knowing that.”

What can we do about this in the classroom?

“Knowing how” occurs through experience, and it can occur independent of instruction. So we can provide our students with a baseline of knowledge and turn them loose to round out that knowledge through their own shared research (via the internet and guided dialogue). During this stage of discovery, we can offer lots of alternative paths to help everyone (including ourselves) accept and celebrate that we each learn differently. Every topic does not lend itself to multiple learning styles — art demands visual learning, music auditory. Whenever possible, we can offer our students multiple learning avenues, e.g., in groups or individually, reading or talking, speaking to the class or passing out what they’ve discovered, mentoring, and so forth.

And we can increase opportunities for creation — making something. We know from research as well as from observation that people (children as well as tall children, aka adults) need to get their experiential brain engaged to get in the habit of tying learning to doing. Weave goals and objectives into this process; have learners work together to define how they will measure successful learning and mastery (with your guidance). When we are responsible for defining measures of achievement, we are much more highly invested in outcomes.

“The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s wicked problems. We can no longer play the music as written. Instead, we have to invent a whole new scale.” -The Designful Company, Marty Neumeier

Ambiguity and Meaning

Our instantaneous access to information is also instant access to changing information. Never before have we needed to be more discerning and skeptical. And never before have insight and meaning been more important. Sometimes it seems like what felt stable when we went to bed has morphed into chaos by dawn’s early light.

I’m a lifelong musician. I can read music, and I understand the lovely mathematics of notes and harmony. Yet I play my best when I improvise — build from a firm baseline of knowledge into an unknown and ambiguous adventure of notes, cadence and silence.

We can help our students feel comfortable generating possibilities and answers that resonate with their experience and enrich their understanding through meaning. We can acknowledge and entertain divergence as a starting point to reach agreement, e.g., You and I see this differently; let’s talk about our differences; let’s also see where we agree. Though sometimes meaning arrives through the answer (the earth revolves around the sun rather than the other way around), we can explore the divergence of meaning: It’s funny that we all talk about the sun rising and setting as if it’s moving rather than us! What does this tell us about perspective and making sense of what we experience? How we can integrate fact with perception?

It’s an exciting time to be a teacher. We needn’t fear becoming obsolete if we model foresight and courage in redefining our role: beyond knowledge.

For a brief podcast with additional insight, take a listen at
Author

Since 1994, Mac Bogert has been president of Aza Learning, providing innovative coaching and learning programs focused on leadership and creative thinking. He began teaching in 1971 after attending Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia. He’s taught in a variety of schools, from elementary to college, today providing learning support for 200 clients nationwide.

He recently published Learning Chaos: How Disorder Can Save Education, which suggests we don’t need to make people learn but to remove the barriers that prevent learning. Mac lives in Annapolis, MD, where he works, writes, sails and plays blues guitar, though not all at the same time.

Follow Mac on Twitter.

Further Reading

Philosopher’s Take – ‘Know How’ or ‘Know That’?

Time.com – The Key To Learning: Knowing How Learning Works

Wall Street Journal – Most Students Don’t Know When News Is Fake, Stanford Study Finds

November 27, 2017 1 comment

0 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linkedin Whatsapp Copy Link Email

Newer Posts

Older Posts