Skip to main content

Home/ MVIFI Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation/ Group items tagged School

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
6More

Following the lessons of learning science in schools isn't convenient - The Hechinger R... - 0 views

hechingerreport.org/cience-schools-isnt-convenient learning neuroscience schools #mvifishares
shared by Meghan Cureton on 28 Feb 18 - No Cached
  • Following the lessons of learning science in schools isn’t convenient
  • “The mind is a sheet of paper for a professor to write on.” But that’s the wrong way to think about education, he said. The right way, he argued, is to think of a human as a plant to which educators offer fertilizer and water and sunlight when it needs it, or wants it, most. “This is a very different model,” Sarma said, “but it’s so inconvenient we ignore it.”
  • cognitive load theory posits that working memory is limited. Students who hear new information store it first in working memory, but this is short-term memory, and all short-term memories will be forgotten. There’s no way around it. The key, according to Sarma, is reinforcing that information and getting it into long-term memory, where it will last. Students can only focus on new information for eight to 14 minutes before their minds start to wander, Sarma said, so the best method of instruction is to offer such new information in bite-sized chunks.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • information is stored in memories created by a chemical connection between neurons in the brain, Sarma said. Over time, that chemical dries up and the memory disappears. But if reminded of that information before the original memory disappears, the brain creates a new connection and one that is long-term. The best way to retain knowledge, according to memory research, is to learn about it once, wait until you’re about to forget it, and then learn it again.
  • Also in contrast to standard scheduling patterns in schools is the idea of interleaved learning. Sarma said the brain looks for contrast. Learning one thing and then jumping to another topic and back again is helpful for long-term retention,
  • Sarma sees the future of learning as blended, individuated, fluid and hands-on. Learning science supports his vision. The question is whether schools can be reorganized to do the same.
4More

Equipping Young Leaders to Take on the 32 Most Important Issues of Our Time - Vander Ar... - 0 views

blogs.edweek.org/...ortant_issues_of_our_time.html PBL Challenge_Based_Learning curriculum school model School Change #MustRead
shared by Bo Adams on 22 Aug 17 - No Cached
  • If we take citizenship preparation seriously, we should be encouraging young people to engage with the world’s most important issues by helping them frame projects around these goals. Here are six reasons:
  • Extended and integrated challenges are the best way to promote deeper learning and develop readiness for the automation economy. The goals include interesting and timely causes that many young people will find motivating. Making a contribution toward a goal they care about may be the best way to develop student agency. Goal focused projects get kids into the community and connected with local resources (see #PlaceBasedEd) It’s also a chance to shift the paradigm from “prepare for a career 10 years from now” to “make a difference right here, right now.” Taking on real challenges will promote creative and effective uses of technology from collaboration to production.
  • Integrate projects into existing courses. The Global Goals site has useful project resources for 16 of these goals. Plan an integrated unit between two courses. Most of the goals combine science, sociology, research, problem-solving and writing. Capstone projects in the last two years of high school are a good place to start. Each academy at Reynoldsburg High School in Ohio and Chavez Schools in Washington, D.C., engage in a capstone project. Students at Singapore American School are required to conduct a capstone project.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • To engage millions of students in local projects connected to global goals, it would be helpful to have: More content associated with each goal (GlobalGoals.org is a start); Templates for local projects; A microcredential system that could help pack projects full of valuable learning (i.e, science, math, communication and collaboration); Access to data sources, data tools and project tools (mentors would be really helpful); and A project gallery for completed contributions.
4More

The Past, Present and Future of School Design | EdSurge News - 0 views

www.edsurge.com/...nt-and-future-of-school-design mvdesign edtech schooldesign learning environment
shared by Bo Adams on 08 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • untapped opportunities involve further personalization of the curriculum, teaching, and assessment.
  • Schools will no longer be just free-standing buildings but will be more integrated into community life.
  • Segregating students by age will become less prevalent within learning spaces.
  • Bo Adams on 08 Jul 15
     
    Tweet from @akytle: @jbrettjacobsen @boadams1 Here's part 2 #mvdesign The Past, Present and Future of School Design https://t.co/TQe1qbMklL #edtech via @EdSurge HT @akytle
4More

School of the Future: Initiative > Expertise - Basecamp - 0 views

basecampschool.com/...future-initiative-gt-expertise School Change #mvifishares transformation PBL initiative
shared by Meghan Cureton on 27 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • Department-based faculty tell kids what they’re supposed to study, then use grades to signal how far they are from “expertise.”
  • That design principle may be great for teachers who return to school year after year (and therefore become more and more “expert”). But what about the students? They graduate into an increasingly VUCA world.
  • But what if departments shifted focus from expertise to initiative?
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • In an age of accelerations, expertise may still matter, but initiative matters even more. Schools of the Future will design accordingly.
9More

What's Worth Learning in School? | Ed Magazine - 0 views

www.gse.harvard.edu/...whats-worth-learning-school
shared by Meghan Cureton on 04 Feb 18 - No Cached
  • What’s worth learning in school?
  • “Conventional curriculum is chained to the bicycle rack,” he says. “It sits solidly in the minds of parents: ‘I learned that. Why aren’t my children learning it?’ The enormous investment in textbooks and the cost of revising them gives familiar elements of the curriculum a longer life span than they might perhaps deserve. Curriculum suffers from something of a crowded garage effect: It generally seems safer and easier to keep the old bicycle around than to throw it out.” As a result, “the lifeworthiness of the multitudinous facts and ideas in the typical curriculum is spotty,” he says. “It seems not to have been thought through very carefully.”
  • “Knowledge is for going somewhere,” Perkins says, not just for accumulating. But too often, we tend to focus on short-term successes — scoring well on a quiz, acing a spelling test. Unfortunately all of that test knowledge, all of that accumulated knowledge we thought was worth knowing, becomes useless if not used.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • The achievement gap asks if students are achieving X. Instead, it might be more useful to look at the relevance gap, which asks if X is going to matter to the lives students are likely to lead.
  • And then there’s what Perkins calls “the Holy Grail” of learning in school: becoming an expert. The typical math curriculum is a good example of how we want learners to move toward expertise in a subject, with little regard for usefulness. Arithmetic leads to algebra, including many “hardly used twists and turns” of advanced algebra, then to geometry and calculus, “an entire subject that hardly anyone ever uses,”
  • Perkins is very clear that expertise in a specific field is not bad; in fact, he encourages it and assumes it will happen at the college or university level. But he advocates that in today’s world, younger students need to first master the fundamentals of key learning and then decide where they want to specialize.
  • Instead, he does know that the encyclopedic approach to learning that happens in most schools that focuses primarily on achievement and expertise doesn’t make sense.
  • And to do that, Perkins says we need to rethink what’s worth learning and what’s worth letting go of — in a radical way.
  • “As the train started up and Gandhi tossed down his second sandal, he showed wisdom about what to keep and what to let go of,” Perkins says. “Those are both central questions for education as we choose for today’s learners the sandals they need for tomorrow’s journey.”
12More

3 Principles to Follow for Competency-Based Education | GOA - 1 views

globalonlineacademy.org/...based-school-culture-look-like learning CompetencyBased schoolreform mastery assessment
shared by Meghan Cureton on 09 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • When it comes to competency-based learning (CBL), we must tend to our school cultures as deeply and thoughtfully as we tend to our classrooms.
  • Adopting CBL means more than a shift in pedagogy; it means committing to a mindset and system that prioritize learning over time, skills over content, and relevant, holistic assessment over high-stakes testing.
  • To build this culture, they focus on three essential elements.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • 1. Learning is a Positive, Inclusive Experience
  • Students set and pursue individualized learning goals and have in-person and online academic support options.
  • Reassessment is an academic norm.
  • Students pursue their passions.
  • Conflict resolution is built on restorative justice, not traditional disciplinary techniques.
  • 2. Students Lead Learning
  • A common thread: Culture and program should be deeply connected, specifically in how communities support student agency.
  • Every student and adult in the community creates, pursues, and updates a Learning Plan; every student has an advisor; and public exhibitions of learning that involve school and community members are the standard summative assessments.
  • 3. Professional Culture is the Foundation of School Culture
1More

A Plan to Kill High School Transcripts … and Transform College Admissions - 0 views

www.insidehighered.com/...itional-transcripts-and-change MTC Mastery Transcript Consortium transcripts admissions education reform college admissions #LiquidNetworkSpill assessment School Change
shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 14 May 17 - No Cached
  • Jim Tiffin Jr on 14 May 17
     
    Top private high schools start campaign to kill traditional transcripts and change college admissions
6More

How to Design a School That Prioritizes Kindness and Caring | MindShift | KQED News - 1 views

ww2.kqed.org/...rioritizes-kindness-and-caring advisory kindness character
shared by Meghan Cureton on 10 Jul 17 - No Cached
  • You can’t just snap your fingers, and show a video, and it’s done,” she said. Rather, the school needed to adopt a philosophy of kindness that was “infused and woven through
  • initiatives had to seem to come from within, organically
  • They also do a “mix-it-up” exercise, borrowed from Borba’s book, that moves students around in advisory groups to blend grade levels. And to get teacher buy-in, select students attend occasional faculty meetings to share what excites them about their project and how their classmates are responding.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Simple changes can have an outsized effect. Knowing the names of all the students in school, being generous with “hellos,” and encouraging teachers to greet every student by name in class, for example, are low-burden but powerful exercises,
  • “kindness strategies” are short and focused, rooted in relationships, carried out repeatedly, and related to actual events in school,
  • Two of the most fruitful exercises Carrollwood Day embraced, both borrowed from the Harvard project, were “Circle of Concern” and “Relationship Mapping.”
7More

Why we should bring back vocational training | MNN - Mother Nature Network - 0 views

www.mnn.com/...bring-back-vocational-training
shared by T.J. Edwards on 25 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • College isn't for everyone.
  • That's 59 out of 100 students whose high school program (or life situations) didn't prepare them for the type of work they'll be doing for the rest of their lives
  • The demise of vocational education at the high school level has bred a skills shortage in manufacturing today, and with it a wealth of career opportunities for both under-employed college grads and high school students looking for direct pathways to interesting, lucrative careers."
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Because my high school offered auto mechanics as part of a region-wide vocational program, I thought I could add that onto my course load with some careful maneuvering of classes. The problem was, I was a strong student academically. And the part of New York where I'm from, like many other places, separated students into academic versus vocational training tracks — and never the twain shall meet
  • just because someone studies to be a car mechanic doesn't mean they won't love Shakespeare or calculus is just as silly as assuming that someone headed to college doesn't need to know how to fix a car.
  • but I never really "use" trigonometry either
  • vocational programs for everyone would allow academically oriented kids to find new hobbies or new ways to solve problems, and would also destigmatize the jobs that they're connected to — which are necessary, interesting and challenging. There's more than one path to success
1More

School Traditions and Intentions Advancing Student Success | Getting Smart - 0 views

gettingsmart.com/...traditions-and-intentions School Change transformation tradition
shared by Meghan Cureton on 16 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Meghan Cureton on 16 Oct 16
     
    Great piece to help facilitate convos about school traditions and intended vs unintended messages they send
6More

Educational Leadership:Science in the Spotlight:How Do You Change School Culture? - 0 views

www.ascd.org/...ange-School-Culture%C2%A2.aspx leadership change transformation School Change
shared by Meghan Cureton on 22 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • Cultural change, although challenging and time-consuming, is not only possible but necessary
  • First, define what you will not change
  • Second, recognize the importance of actions.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Staff members are not seduced by a leader's claim of “collaborative culture” when every meeting is a series of lectures, announcements, and warnings.
  • Third, use the right change tools for your school or district.
  • Fourth, be willing to do the “scut work.”
1More

What Is School? - Bright - Medium - 1 views

medium.com/...what-is-school-a6cd3a92606e School Change schools of the future schooldesign schoolreform #mvifishares
shared by Bo Adams on 26 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Bo Adams on 26 Apr 16
     
    HT @jbrettjacobsen
1More

Reflection: The possible, essential work of redesigning the High-School Experience - Th... - 0 views

whiteboard.stanford.edu/...rqi0zyaahsg3ric6cz5hq91f0fuplb d.school story fromTwitter redesign Protopalooza student perspective Whiteboard reflection
shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 23 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Jim Tiffin Jr on 23 Jul 15
     
    Reflection of a student's participation in the d.school's Protopalooza in which the redesign of high school was the topic. She shares valuable takeaways from the experience, particularly around the ideas of prototyping and expanding the ways in which she views learning can occur...beyond what her previous educational experiences had lead her to believe.
1More

Laurene Powell Jobs Commits $50 Million to Create New High Schools - The New York Times - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...o-create-new-high-schools.html XQAmerica jobs schools School Change
shared by Bo Adams on 16 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Bo Adams on 16 Sep 15
     
    HT Education Reimagined
6More

Redmond High School's Build-It-Yourself Education - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...396548 School Change schoolreform
shared by T.J. Edwards on 28 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Bullock and his kitchen-table colleagues wanted to build a program that was loose enough to encourage each student to work in their own way to best suit their own learning. This means that students have great liberty to choose the classes they want, even to show up at class or not, to find a groove of learning they’re comfortable with, and to have their success be measured in terms of proficiency or mastery for the content and skills.
  • weekly podcasts
  • not attending class can have consequences.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • There are also safety nets built into the system, including January and June terms, which offer a chance to make up uncompleted work, but also offer the opportunity to pursue some of the many electives the school offers. These range from wilderness preparedness and “remote first aid,” to the science of breadmaking.
  • Teachers at RPA have a tremendous amount of flexibility to design their courses. For example, an ex-policeman teaches history through the lens of his passion, which is the evolution of mobs and gangs in the U.S.; his class is called “mobology.”
  • I commented that this kind of teaching sounded like it involved more individual attention than could be done in traditional public schools. He replied, with a small chuckle, if it would be possible to say it took about 10,000 percent more individual attention.
16More

Let 'Em Out! The Many Benefits of Outdoor Play In Kindergarten | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views

ww2.kqed.org/...f-outdoor-play-in-kindergarten #LiquidNetworkSpill MindShift play kindergarten executive function blog article child development outdoors learning
shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • With no explicit math or literacy taught until first grade, the Swiss have no set goals for kindergartners beyond a few measurements, like using scissors and writing one’s own name. They instead have chosen to focus on the social interaction and emotional well-being found in free play.
  • With many parents and educators overwhelmed by the amount of academics required for kindergartners — and the testing requirements at that age  — it’s no surprise that the forest kindergarten, and the passion for bringing more free play to young children during the school day, is catching on stateside.
  • “So much of what is going on and the kind of play they do, symbolic play, is really pre-reading,” Molomot said. “It’s a very important foundation for reading.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Donnery notices that the gross motor skills of many of her kindergartners are underdeveloped, noting that usually means that fine motor skills are also lacking. “Developing those gross motor skills is just critical, can impact so much of later learning,” she said.
  • Scenes of rosy-faced children building forts in the snow are presented in sharp contrast to the academic (and mostly indoor) kindergarten in New Haven, Connecticut, where a normal day is packed full of orderly activities: morning meeting, readers’ workshop, writers’ workshop, a special activity (like art, gym, and music), lunch and recess, storytime, “choice” (a fancy word for play), math centers, then closing meeting.
    • Jim Tiffin Jr
      Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16
       
      I would like to see this movie.
  • You’d be surprised at the importance of play.
  • lacking in the attention needed to learn, with more than 10 percent of the school population diagnosed with some kind of attention disorder.
  • occupational therapist Angela Hanscom opined in the Washington Post that there’s good reason our kids are so fidgety: more and more students come to class without having enough core strength and balance to hold their bodies still long enough to learn.
  • “In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.”
    • Jim Tiffin Jr
      Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16
       
      But this has to be more than just a wiggle stool or yoga ball... HMW get greater movement into Kindergarten? (and it need not just be in the Kindergarten classroom)
  • A recent study by psychologists at the University of Colorado shows an even stronger reason for free play: children who experienced more undirected free play showed signs of stronger executive function, a strong predictor of success in school. “The more time that children spent in less-structured activities,” wrote researchers, “the better their self-directed executive functioning.”
  • Reading and recess are important enough that we need to do both.
  • While this kind of adult-led movement is a far cry from the nearly unstructured free play of a forest kindergarten, it does serve the school’s purpose of high academic standards for their kindergartners, in hopes this prepares them for future academic success.
    • Jim Tiffin Jr
      Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16
       
      Note that it says "hope"...
  • Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16
     
    Article contrasting two different approaches to Kindergarten - one outdoor-based and one indoor-based. Full of links to the research regarding the claims made in the article. Additionally, more language around executive function, and its importance for students, is used.
11More

Stop telling us it's not about the points | thebloggerina - 1 views

thebloggerina.wordpress.com/...ng-us-its-not-about-the-points grades learning #MustRead School Change #mvifishares
shared by Bo Adams on 13 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • If I focused on just learning all of the material instead of playing for points, I would fail.
  • If I learn now, I’m denied a bright future of learning later.
  • Even though I have good grades, my academic confidence is very low.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • As far as I know, the people judging our transcript will always win.
  • Instead, I would introduce a system of portfolios to let schools judge your real work and see you as a person, not as an average of numbers and letters.
  • If I had to put a date on when points became my main priority, I would say it was my first day of high school.
  • You could be wondering “Why doesn’t she want to focus on simply learning?” My answer is very easy. No one has time for that. Just as my day is split into 7 periods, so is my time after school. There is only so much I can do and only so much that I can handle.
  • If I learn now, I’m denied a bright future of learning later.
  • When I hear the frustration of my teachers about the desperation students have for points, I feel two things: guilt and a longing to be able to say that I don’t live on points and I fully submerge myself in my subjects. But that possibility seems untouchable, a million miles away.
  • Meghan Cureton on 13 Jan 16
     
    #stuvoice
  • Bo Adams on 13 Jan 16
     
    HT @MeghanCureton
‹ Previous 21 - 40 of 230 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page