Skip to main content

Home/ Pennsylvania Coaches/ Group items tagged think

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Mardy McGaw

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:21st Century Skills: The Challenge... - 1 views

  • But in fact, the skills students need in the 21st century are not new.
  • What's actually new is the extent to which changes in our economy and the world mean that collective and individual success depends on having such skills.
  • This distinction between "skills that are novel" and "skills that must be taught more intentionally and effectively" ought to lead policymakers to different education reforms than those they are now considering. If these skills were indeed new, then perhaps we would need a radical overhaul of how we think about content and curriculum. But if the issue is, instead, that schools must be more deliberate about teaching critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving to all students, then the remedies are more obvious, although still intensely challenging.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • To complicate the challenge, some of the rhetoric we have heard surrounding this movement suggests that with so much new knowledge being created, content no longer matters; that ways of knowing information are now much more important than information itself. Such notions contradict what we know about teaching and learning and raise concerns that the 21st century skills movement will end up being a weak intervention for the very students—low-income students and students of color—who most need powerful schools as a matter of social equity.
  • What will it take to ensure that the idea of "21st century skills"—or more precisely, the effort to ensure that all students, rather than just a privileged few, have access to a rich education that intentionally helps them learn these skills—is successful in improving schools? That effort requires three primary components. First, educators and policymakers must ensure that the instructional program is complete and that content is not shortchanged for an ephemeral pursuit of skills. Second, states, school districts, and schools need to revamp how they think about human capital in education—in particular how teachers are trained. Finally, we need new assessments that can accurately measure richer learning and more complex tasks.
  • Why would misunderstanding the relationship of skills and knowledge lead to trouble? If you believe that skills and knowledge are separate, you are likely to draw two incorrect conclusions. First, because content is readily available in many locations but thinking skills reside in the learner's brain, it would seem clear that if we must choose between them, skills are essential, whereas content is merely desirable. Second, if skills are independent of content, we could reasonably conclude that we can develop these skills through the use of any content. For example, if students can learn how to think critically about science in the context of any scientific material, a teacher should select content that will engage students (for instance, the chemistry of candy), even if that content is not central to the field. But all content is not equally important to mathematics, or to science, or to literature. To think critically, students need the knowledge that is central to the domain.
  • Because of these challenges, devising a 21st century skills curriculum requires more than paying lip service to content knowledge.
  • Advocates of 21st century skills favor student-centered methods—for example, problem-based learning and project-based learning—that allow students to collaborate, work on authentic problems, and engage with the community. These approaches are widely acclaimed and can be found in any pedagogical methods textbook; teachers know about them and believe they're effective. And yet, teachers don't use them. Recent data show that most instructional time is composed of seatwork and whole-class instruction led by the teacher (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2005). Even when class sizes are reduced, teachers do not change their teaching strategies or use these student-centered methods (Shapson, Wright, Eason, & Fitzgerald, 1980). Again, these are not new issues. John Goodlad (1984) reported the same finding in his landmark study published more than 20 years ago.
  • Why don't teachers use the methods that they believe are most effective? Even advocates of student-centered methods acknowledge that these methods pose classroom management problems for teachers. When students collaborate, one expects a certain amount of hubbub in the room, which could devolve into chaos in less-than-expert hands. These methods also demand that teachers be knowledgeable about a broad range of topics and are prepared to make in-the-moment decisions as the lesson plan progresses. Anyone who has watched a highly effective teacher lead a class by simultaneously engaging with content, classroom management, and the ongoing monitoring of student progress knows how intense and demanding this work is. It's a constant juggling act that involves keeping many balls in the air.
  • Most teachers don't need to be persuaded that project-based learning is a good idea—they already believe that. What teachers need is much more robust training and support than they receive today, including specific lesson plans that deal with the high cognitive demands and potential classroom management problems of using student-centered methods.
  • Without better curriculum, better teaching, and better tests, the emphasis on "21st century skills" will be a superficial one that will sacrifice long-term gains for the appearance of short-term progress.
  • The debate is not about content versus skills. There is no responsible constituency arguing against ensuring that students learn how to think in school. Rather, the issue is how to meet the challenges of delivering content and skills in a rich way that genuinely improves outcomes for students.
    • Mardy McGaw
       
      "ensuring that students learn how to think" You would think that this is the essence of education but this is not always asked of students. Memorize, Report and Present but how often do students think and comment on their learning?
  • practice means that you try to improve by noticing what you are doing wrong and formulating strategies to do better. Practice also requires feedback, usually from someone more skilled than you are.
    • Mardy McGaw
       
      Students need to be taught how to work as part of a group. The need to see mistakes and be given a chance to improve on them. Someone who already knows how to work as a team player is the best coach/teacher.
  •  
    A very interesting article. Lots of good discussion points.
Jason Christiansen

Free Technology for Teachers: Computational Thinking Lessons from Google - 6 views

  •  
    "Through Dan Meyer's blog I just learned that Google has recently released dozens of lessons for exploring computational thinking through the use of Python programming. Now if you're wondering, "what the heck does that mean?" don't worry, I wondered the same. But since Dan Meyer is one of the people in the edu-blog-o-sphere that I have great respect for, and since he wrote one of the lessons, I had to investigate exploring computational thinking through Python. Python is a programming language. Exploring computational thinking through Python is a series of lessons in which middle school and high school students use Python to try to put mathematics and science concepts to use."
Michelle Krill

Blooming Orange: Bloom's Taxonomy Helpful Verbs Poster - 8 views

  •  
    "Here's another poster to help get you thinking about how you can apply Bloom's higher-order thinking skills in your classroom. This poster shows the segments of an orange with each segment relating to a thinking skill and some helpful verbs to serve as prompts."
Michelle Krill

Exploratree - Exploratree by FutureLab - 8 views

  •  
    Thinking Guides are tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue and considering different aspects or perspectives. They can help to develop thinking skills.
Darcy Goshorn

Critical Thinking Tool Kit for Faculty - 4 views

  •  
    "This guide provides information and resources available to faculty to help improve the critical thinking and information literacy skills of students. This page was created specifically for the Barton School of Business, but many of the links are applicable to all disciplines."
anonymous

Think Insights with Google - 3 views

  •  
    "Forward thinking and rooted in data, Think Insights offers you a one-stop shop for consumer trends, marketing insights and industry research. Stay updated and join the conversation:" Try the search stories section. It won't raise a test score, but it IS fun.
Michelle Krill

Foundation for Critical Thinking: Books, Conferences and Academic Resources for Educato... - 0 views

  •  
    The Foundation and Center for Critical Thinking aim to improve education in colleges, universities and primary through secondary schools. We present publications, conferences, workshops and professional development programs, emphasizing instructional strategies, Socratic questioning, critical reading and writing, higher order thinking, assessment, research, quality enhancement, and competency standards.
Darcy Goshorn

Learning through ICT Resources. Thematic Units, Lesson Plans, Rich Topics, Educational ... - 5 views

  •  
    in2edu.....unique resources prepared by a currently teaching ICT teacher. Featuring: ICT exemplars, integrated thematic units that focus on thinking, thinking resources, mindmapping tools (including downloadable Inspiration mindmaps), awards and banners in colour/blackline master form that you can view and download.
Darcy Goshorn

ICOT - 2 views

  •  
    "The ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT) (XML) provides you with a convenient platform for recording observations of technology use in classrooms. Checkboxes and pull-down menus allow you to easily record and time a variety of classroom characteristics. ICOT automatically aggregates your data into a table for analysis and presentation. You can work with your records right in ICOT or export them to any software that can read tabular data. Use ICOT to record information on classroom groupings, teacher roles, time and types of technology use, and the NETS for Students. The ICOT is a macro-enabled Excel workbook that automates many data recording and management tasks. The Visual Basic macros work with most versions of Microsoft Office for Windows and with Office 2011 for Macintosh. Users of eCOVE observation software can obtain a toolset that will allow them to record ICOT NETS and Computational Thinking items on iPad, iPhone, and Android devices. Contact eCOVE directly for information on the NETS/CT toolset. The ICOT methodology has been successfully adapted for use in a variety of contexts, including projects involving mathematical thinking and cyberinfrastructure research skills. For information on how ISTE evaluation might meet your needs, contact research@iste.org."
Anne Van Meter

Ed schools vs. education - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - 5 views

  • "The achievement gap between the U.S. and the world's top-performing countries can be said to be causing the equivalent of a permanent recession," Mr. Hanushek wrote for Education Next.
    • anonymous
       
      What are your thoughts on this?
  • Today we lead the world only in how much we spend per pupil.
    • anonymous
       
      There are many reasons for this, of course. But, why do you suppose we're not getting the achievement?
    • Jimbo Lamb
       
      Is it because we are forcing all kids to fit the same standards rather than develop different standards for different needs of the students?
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      Not in % of GDP we spend... Of course, those other countries spend on pupil support: extended parental leave, full health care...
  • Far and away the most important factor in student learning is the quality of teachers. If we got rid of just the bottom 5 percent to 7 percent of teachers, that alone would lift our kids to Canadian levels, Mr. Hanushek calculates.
    • anonymous
       
      This is a delicate subject. But, we all know folks who don't put forth the effort that they should. What IF we did this?
    • Jimbo Lamb
       
      How do you compare this? In my school, I will have 183 students in my classes this year, and none will be considered advanced math students. Our calc teacher will have a majority of the advanced students and his enrollment numbers are at 93. How does this compare?
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      I only teach the lower level students (no complaints about that, I'm good at what I do) but they will not hit "advanced"!!
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Our teachers "do not know anything," according to Terrence Moore, who teaches history at Hillsdale College. That's largely because most have degrees in education rather than in the subjects they teach.
    • anonymous
       
      This statement just TICKS.ME.OFF!
    • anonymous
       
      Teachers are constrained by many different influences. Creativity is stifled, we teacher to the lowest common "core" denominator. Schools are not bold but old. We are rewarded by passing many useless measures, which unfortunately this article is based off of. Standardized test scores have blinded the public to what is important. Being able to problem solve and to be creative has always been the mark of an American, but that is being stripped of this generation b/c of the drive to wards testing.
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      And what are elementary teachers supposed to have degrees in? Do you really want a second grade teacher with a major in history? Or chemistry? In college, I took engineering and business calculus classes, business statistics and accounting, in addition to my education math classes. Does it matter that I didn't get a degree in math? Isn't it better that I also have courses in ancient near eastern history? And Arthurian legends? And American and English literature and American government?
  • "Future teachers are better served by getting good grounding in academic subject matter."
    • anonymous
       
      Is that true? Or, is it better to learn how to teach and to use technology for what its capable of doing, etc etc?
  • Ed schools seem to think knowing stuff isn't important.
    • anonymous
       
      Humbug!
  • "If you confront [teachers] with the fact that they, just as their students, can tell you nothing about the first 10 presidents or the use of the gerund, they will blithely respond that it is not so important for them to know things as to know 'how to know things,' " said Mr. Moore.
    • anonymous
       
      What do you think?
  • The reform needed is to remove state "certification" requirements. The reason for them, we're told, is to guarantee that only the qualified teach. Their real purpose is to keep the knowledgeable out of the classroom.
    • anonymous
       
      This is sounding more and more like a rant instead of a thoughtful argument.
  • "Yet these education schools," Mr. Moore points out, "not only do not impart real knowledge of academic subjects; they are actively hostile to it."
    • anonymous
       
      I need to see facts to support this.
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      The first three out of four years in college were spent taking more non-education courses than education related. We all had to take the full math/English/history/science core courses, then added psychology and sociology in addition to the education courses and several internships as well.
  • If instead of being forced to hire the certified, schools were free to hire the qualified, colleges of education would wither away -- and learning would blossom.
    • anonymous
       
      Many qualified folks lost their positions when they weren't deemed 'highly qualified.' 
    • Jimbo Lamb
       
      Isn't that what certification is? An official statement that the person is indeed qualified?
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      But, wasn't he just complaining several paragraphs ago that 60% of teachers are certified in their subjects? And he wants to add more uncertified teachers?
  • Students learn a lot from the teacher who knows a lot," Mr. Moore said. "They learn nothing from the teacher who knows nothing."
    • anonymous
       
      Now, that's profound.
  • they aren't allowed to teach.
    • anonymous
       
      Why would they? The work is difficult, the pay is terrible and everyone outside of education thinks you're lazy.
    • Jimbo Lamb
       
      A medical doctor teaching in HS? What, around their appointments with patients? 
    • Anne Van Meter
       
      And politicians take cushy jobs as lobbyists. I can't think of many teachers who only need to teach civics. It's only a small part of the full curriculum.
  • Not so many years ago, our schools were the best in the world
    • Jimbo Lamb
       
      I'd like to see the supporting evidence on this.
  •  
    An interesting article, and certainly not without other opinions.
  •  
    An interesting article, and certainly not without other opinions.
Vicki Barr

Thinkport - 9 views

  •  
    Maryland Public Television and Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education developed some interactive media that are very engaging and promote critical thinking. You really need to check out this site and find resources that you can use in your classroom. Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters! Linked to both national and state mathematics standards, the game gives students a chance to actually think like mathematicians. I worked on some of the puzzles, and I'm sure this would extend to high school age students as well! Also, students don't have to play the full game. You can choose a puzzle that correlates to what you're teaching and just do that puzzle. Math by Design (MbD) gives students a highly creative experience in seeing geometry and measurement come alive. Under Educator Resources, check out some of the Math In Action videos! I loved the one on cake decorating. Bayville was developed for middle school students studying life sciences, ecology, and the environment. Under school or district, just choose Other States.
Dianne Krause

Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Videos All Educators Should Watch - 12 views

  •  
    "Summer is a time when many of us are thinking about and planning professional development workshops for our schools and for other schools. I've always found that a short 3-5 minute video can be a good introduction to a PD sessions and or make for a nice thought-provoking break during a PD session. Here are seven videos that I think serve those purposes well."
Virginia Glatzer

artseducator20 - home - 1 views

  •  
    From Mara Linaberger: Great discussion on the iPad everyone! Next Friday we will be launching an iPad pilot with 48 art, music and theatre teachers at IU1 as part of our ArtsEducator 2.0 project. You can read about our inquiry and preparation done this summer to get some practice in, and to think through some of the logistics these folks might face this fall with their own pad here: http://artsedtech.wordpress.com/ Our thinking was to have the teachers use the iPad as a personal tool first, then move to them as a tool for instruction. The logical step for some may be to then take the tool into student use while others may stick to it as an instructional tool. We'll be documenting our project online here.
Jason Christiansen

Google: Exploring Computational Thinking - 5 views

  •  
    "Easily incorporate computational thinking into your curriculum with these classroom-ready lessons, examples, and programs. For more resources, including discussion forums and news, visit our ECT Discussion Forums. Note: Lessons include complete teacher editions, student worksheets, and any applicable Python programs. Examples include short exercises from core subjects with key CT concepts to consider. Programs include Python examples and exercises for teachers to enhance their existing lessons. All lessons, examples, and programs are based on California K-12 state standards."
Michelle Krill

http://www.mywebspiration.com/index.php - 0 views

  •  
    Webspiration™ is the new online visual thinking tool that helps you capture ideas, organize information, diagram processes and create clear, concise written documents whether working individually or collaboratively. With integrated diagram and outline views you can think visually, structure your work effectively and express your ideas in the ways that communicate best.
Ty Yost

Impact Games - Play the News - 0 views

  •  
    It combines an element of fantasy sports where you predict the future with great background information (maps, opinions of world leaders, and video clips) as well as the higher-order thinking required to say not just what you think WILL happen, but what SHOULD happen.
anonymous

Educational Leadership:Teaching for the 21st Century:What Would Socrates Say? - 0 views

  • The noted philosopher once said, "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." My fear is that instead of knowing nothing except the fact of our own ignorance, we will know everything except the fact of our own ignorance. Google has given us the world at our fingertips, but speed and ubiquity are not the same as actually knowing something.
  • Socrates believed that we learn best by asking essential questions and testing tentative answers against reason and fact in a continual and virtuous circle of honest debate. We need to approach the contemporary knowledge explosion and the technologies propelling this new enlightenment in just that manner. Otherwise, the great knowledge and communication tsunami of the 21st century may drown us in a sea of trivia instead of lifting us up on a rising tide of possibility and promise.
  • A child born today could live into the 22nd century. It's difficult to imagine all that could transpire between now and then. One thing does seem apparent: Technical fixes to our outdated educational system are likely to be inadequate. We need to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Every day we are exposed to huge amounts of information, disinformation, and just plain nonsense. The ability to distinguish fact from factoid, reality from fiction, and truth from lies is not a "nice to have" but a "must have" in a world flooded with so much propaganda and spin.
  • For example, for many years, the dominant U.S. culture described the settling of the American West as a natural extension of manifest destiny, in which people of European descent were "destined" to occupy the lands of the indigenous people. This idea was, and for some still is, one of our most enduring and dangerous collective fabrications because it glosses over human rights and skirts the issue of responsibility. Without critical reflection, we will continually fall victim to such notions.
  • A second element of the 21st century mind that we must cultivate is the willingness to abandon supernatural explanations for naturally occurring events.
  • The third element of the 21st century mind must be the recognition and acceptance of our shared evolutionary collective intelligence.
  • To solve the 21st century's challenges, we will need an education system that doesn't focus on memorization, but rather on promoting those metacognitive skills that enable us to monitor our own learning and make changes in our approach if we perceive that our learning is not going well.
  • Metacognition is a fancy word for a higher-order learning process that most of us use every day to solve thousands of problems and challenges.
  • We are at the threshold of a worldwide revolution in learning. Just as the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the wall of conventional schooling is collapsing before our eyes. A new electronic learning environment is replacing the linear, text-bound culture of conventional schools. This will be the proving ground of the 21st century mind.
  • We will cease to think of technology as something that has its own identity, but rather as an extension of our minds, in much the same way that books extend our minds without a lot of fanfare. According to Huff and Saxberg, immersive technologies—such as multitouch displays; telepresence (an immersive meeting experience that offers high video and audio clarity); 3-D environments; collaborative filtering (which can produce recommendations by comparing the similarity between your preferences and those of other people); natural language processing; intelligent software; and simulations—will transform teaching and learning by 2025.
  • So imagine that a group of teachers and middle school students decides to tackle the question, What is justice? Young adolescents' discovery of injustice in the world is a crucial moment in their development. If adults offer only self-serving answers to this question, students can become cynical or despairing. But if adults treat the problem of injustice truthfully and openly, hope can emerge and grow strong over time. As part of their discussion, let's say that the teachers and students have cocreated a middle school earth science curriculum titled Water for the World. This curriculum would be a blend of classroom, community, and online activities. Several nongovernmental organizations—such as Waterkeeper, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Water for People—might support the curriculum, which would meet national and state standards and include lessons, activities, games, quizzes, student-created portfolios, and learning benchmarks.
  • The goal of the curriculum would be to enable students from around the world to work together to address the water crisis in a concrete way. Students might help bore a freshwater well, propose a low-cost way of preventing groundwater pollution, or develop a local water treatment technique. Students and teachers would collaborate by talking with one another through Skype and posting research findings using collaborative filtering. Students would create simulations and games and use multitouch displays to demonstrate step-by-step how their projects would proceed. A student-created Web site would include a blog; a virtual reference room; a teachers' corner; a virtual living room where learners communicate with one another in all languages through natural language processing; and 3-D images of wells being bored in Africa, Mexico, and Texas. In a classroom like this, something educationally revolutionary would happen: Students and adults would connect in a global, purposeful conversation that would make the world a better place. We would pry the Socratic dialogue from the hands of the past and lift it into the future to serve the hopes and dreams of all students everywhere.
  • There has never been a time in human history when the opportunity to create universally accessible knowledge has been more of a reality. And there has never been a time when education has meant more in terms of human survival and happiness.
  • To start, we must overhaul and redesign the current school system. We face this great transition with both hands tied behind our collective backs if we continue to pour money, time, and effort into an outdated system of education. Mass education belongs in the era of massive armies, massive industrial complexes, and massive attempts at social control. We have lost much talent since the 19th century by enforcing stifling education routines in the name of efficiency. Current high school dropout rates clearly indicate that our standardized testing regime and outdated curriculums are wasting the potential of our youth.
  • If we stop thinking of schools as buildings and start thinking of learning as occurring in many different places, we will free ourselves from the conventional education model that still dominates our thinking.
  •  
    Some very interesting points in this article. Why not add your coments?
  •  
    A VERY interesting article. If you've got Diigo installed, why not add your comments
Donald Burkins

Dangerously Irrelevant: Top 10 K12 Online 2008 podcasts for busy school administrators - 0 views

  •  
    Scott McLeod, Dangerously Irrelevant, sorts summer "reading" for us in two lists - this and the TED talks list.
  •  
    Here are my top 10 2008 K12 Online Conference podcasts for busy principals and superintendents (in no particular order). These are the K12 Online presentations that I think are most likely to interest, educate, and entertain administrators as well as make them think!
Donald Burkins

Dangerously Irrelevant: Top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy school administrators - 0 views

  •  
    Here are my top 20 TED Talks podcasts for busy principals and superintendents (in no particular order). These are the TED presentations that I think are most likely to interest, educate, and entertain administrators as well as make them think!
1 - 20 of 216 Next › Last »
Showing 20 items per page