Group items tagged

NSTA:  National Science Teachers Association is a teaching organization that progressively acts to education teachers and allow them to share ideas.

A brief (11-page) summation of a new way of teaching called Learning in Depth, created by Kieran Egan. The general idea is that in first grade a child will be given a simple, broad topic such as spiders or rocks. Then, that child will study and do projects on that subject for the next 12 years of their school career. It's quite radical, but I think it has a chance of revolutionizing the way we learn. Some of the benefits that they mention are its capacity to build a community of scholars and experts, its emphasis on individual responsibility through independent research, and the fact that it gives the students something to be proud of (their expansive knowledge). I'm especially interested in this idea because I have begun to question the depth of the learning we receive in school and this seems to be at least a STEP in the right direction.

This is a poem written in the 1960's that I thought fit in well with what we were talking about. Shows how long the issue of standardization has been an issue. Makes me think about how school teaches kids that there is always a right and wrong way to do things, when thats not necessarily true.

While we are trying so hard to have Chinese test scores and mimic hard core education, highly standardized test curriculum--they are trying to mimic ours.

A Montessori school is a type of school that implements the idea of alternative learning. This type of learning is embraced on 6 continents and all over the United States. The ideology behind this system encourages an environment with more freedom and individuality.

I found this article quite helpful in helping me develop my thesis and overall theme of my paper. The article did a great job exploring what the purpose of an american education is, and while i disagree with the author, I found that way he organized his thoughts was clear and effective. The comments to the article however, are what warranted the diigo. There is a rich conversation in the comments, filled with great evidence.

This essay discusses the value of a discussion based education. It argues that class discussions teach students how to learn as opposed to a lecture based class which emphasizes the regurgitation of content. Especially relevant to seniors as the article also touches on the economics of college and the value of small classes over large lectures.

While the author, Tom DeWeese, goes a bit overboard in his effort to bash our public education system, he is very thorough. I found this interesting because he rejects the usual view that our schools need smaller class sizes and more money, and he includes the evidence to back up his claims. He offers no real solution, however I think that leaves our minds to think about how we would change education, which is exactly what our paper is about.

A discussion starter (ish?) Basically a counter-argument on the homework pressure expressed in the movie.