"Produced as part of the Higher Education Academy-funded Enhancing Learning and Teaching through the use of Technology Synthesis Project. A wiki all about digital storytelling
I like Doll's reference to curriculum being inclusive of all purposefl activity in the classroom, as opposed to just the content that is "covered". Purposeful activity, meaningful experiences, all ring strong within quality educational practice...successful implementation seems to be the next desired component.
The most desirable skills: work ethic, collaboration, social responsibility, and critical thinking and problem-solving. Employers also see creativity and innovation as being increasingly important in the future.
Here it is... what our goals are for our students to be successful in life, not just on the high stakes tests. I think that if we are teaching these critical skills that "... the rest will follow" and we will see big gains in student proficiency.
Collaborative... this is significant,no longer focusing on individual student performance, but the performance of a team, a collaborative group. How do we educate the parents of the 21st century to adapt to this new model?
What makes up a productive design team?
How do we capitalize on everyone’s skills?
In today’s workforce, individuals with various skill sets typically work together in teams on specific projects or challenges. During this team formation stage, it is important to consider roles and responsibilities and discuss the developmental nature of teams.
This was another aspect that I found crucial in my attempt at collaborative teams and challenge questions this year. The make-up of the teams was very crucial. Careful observation of accountable talk, engagement, and student roles through the use of observation charts helped me group the students in more appropriate groups and still give them some choice as to who they could work with. Heterogeneous vs. homogeneous groups were key. I hope to explore this in more depth through this challenge based model.
Today, the NCTE definition of 21st century literacies makes it clear that further evolution of curriculum, assessment, and teaching practice itself is necessary.
"Extended interviews with educators on the meaning of "21st century literacies," recommendations for using new technologies, and ideas for updating lesson plans to support 21st century learning. "
My quandry is with the approach that our legislators take on pitting public and private schools against each other when what we should be doing is working cooperatively to build a better, stronger community of learners that will lead us into a successful future for all.
How can we participate better in this dialogue? How do we participate now? What do we envision our participation being, lets say in the reauthorization of NCLB?
I believe that the creation of teams of teachers, principals, researchers, students, and parents to review, give feedback, and design changes to NCLB would serve as a more successful approach to problem solving the current educational "crisis". When I have a problem to solve I take the grass roots approach, go to the source, research and reflect on the information, I never pretend to know it all. First hand accounts and dialogue are crucial in developing productive change.
creating a complete picture of our students and our schools with standardized testing being one aspect, but no the only measurement tool.
This is an important point you make. It relates to one of our guiding quesitons: What are the impacts of standardized testing? My hunch is more negative than positive.
Interesting NPR program on the effects on high NCLB
How do we break this cycle? If this is true, then wouldn't it be reasonable to say that the future teachers in our classes would continue this, I mean besides those of us in this class, aren't we just preparing a new wave of teachers to continue following our bad models.
Good point. When our only references are those based in our own learning experiences how do we get away from that? I guess constant reflection on our own process and close attention to our students.
Yes, Jen. I think reflection is the key. And hopefully that is what we are doing here. Through reflection, you'll be able to gather some new knowledge to move your own classroom toward better alternatives to test preparation.
How might we meet the needs of the system and the needs of the learners
Great picture. The first thing that came to my mind however was what does this look like at a high school setting where students are competitive or on the other extreme, just going through the motions. How do we bring the enjoyment of learning to the high schools and continue a model of creativity?
Through collaboration, creativity, exploration, and sharing students can be assessed in a real world way.
I think you are right, this is a good summation of your ideas, we need to continue rewarding those who go outside the box of the traditional testing model and recognize the possibilities of engaging students at a new level and making assessment just a brief stop and a progression in a longer journey of learning the 'big ideas'.
You mentioned "negative" modes of testing. If assessment is a valuable part of learning - I believe it is...valuable feedback - what are the postive ways we assess student learning?
Wow....amazing. And obviously "tests" of the wrong kind.
As a AP US History teacher I constantly find myself pitted in a struggle against content memorization versus using 21st century skills within the classroom
I think this is the one of the challenges we hope to address in this course - do we see the challenge as an opportunity to change what we do, or do we feel like vicitims.
I agree, it's that cross between covering the material versus really learning it, or in the case of history living it.
College Board recently changed their policy of letting students know what the topic of the DBQ would be, students going into the DBQ had no idea what it would be the day of the test students had to complete a DBQ on the Puritans, a subject last covered in 8th grade. I found myself asking how well students possibly could do on a question like this, a question which was covered before students were even accepted into the honors track
This is the secrecy that Reeves talks about in the article we read yesterday. I wonder what the Board's rationale is for this decision. Clearly, a bunch of dusty academics feel they need to impose their outdated definition of learning on high school students.
Bring technology to every student, closing the digital divide needs to be a national goal, it can't be a program that waits five years. Forget about immigration, partisan divisions, tax policy, gays in the military, and healthcare, our national needs to make it a priority that by August every student will have access to technology and every teacher will get the training to use that technology effectively within the classroom.
I am always amazed at how little our country cares about education. We focus too much on reacting to problems instead of attacking root causes. If we developed a world-class education system, we would be able to solve more of our problems, in better time.
Great challenge. I was thinking after my article review this morning about how this can be achieved in a national way. There must be a way to incorporate a measurement of authentic knowledge into the measurement of our school and student success. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as just creating test questions it would involve other means of data collection
Nice outline of the challenges we face with developing skills and balancing requirements of assessment. It's our problem. So what will we do about it? Hopefully we'll develop some potential answers.
They are also cut and dry, right or wrong, no in between. The assessments I think we will be looking at examine not only what students know but what they don't and see learning as a progression.
Like the teacher I talked about who went into the filing cabinet and pulled out the same numbered tests every year without changing the ways because 'it worked in the past.'
This is the greatest challenge, administrators understanding the disconnect between what is going on in the class and what alternatives are out there. How to demonstrate how more effective teaching and alternative assessments can best prepare students for these standardized tests.
the very skills that the world is demanding of our students and the very skills that adults in our current society are required to utilize every day in order to survive in their own workplace
I think you hit the nail on the head, that there is a huge disconnect between the priorities that schools place on students and the skills that will be necessary for students to do well after school.
Interesting NPR program on the effects on high NCLB
Is there a link for this? Overall, I think your view that the effects of NCLB have yet to be evidenced as a whole. Are there any studies available yet? One must wonder what NCLB version 2.0 will look like or if our country goes to an entirely new operating system for education.
I am always struck by how political leaders who haven't been in the classroom think the answer to making education better is to test more, then punish those schools which perform poorly. The focus has too much been on the test and not the learning going on in the class.
an education that respects individual talents and does not dictate what students learn or how teachers teach.
how is it that success has now been reduced to what we can prove we know on paper versus what we are creatively able to produce? Standardized testing certainly has been around for my entire education but there was not so much pressure on student performance, school performance, etc.. For some students, our 8th graders for example, it determines honors placement. Standardized test should be a measurement, a snapshot, not the whole picture. Li
reward schools for offering a diverse set of opportunities
“Most importantly, we need to instill confidence – restore confidence – in our teachers and in our schools, because right now the accountability rhetoric in essence is telling us we don’t trust our educators – that they are not good enough, they are lazy, and that’s not the case.”
"America's increasing reliance on standardized testing as a yardstick for educational success is a flawed policy that threatens to undermine the nation's strengths of creativity and innovation, according to a provocative new book from a Michigan State University scholar."