If you really want to see how innovative a school is, inquire about its thinking and practices regarding assessment.
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Assessment, Choice, and the Learning Brain | Edutopia - 0 views
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students who develop mastery goals are motivated by the actual learning experiences. Their rewards arise from the challenges of acquiring and applying new knowledge and skills.
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students who are motivated by mastery goals are more likely to persevere in the face of such challenges. Difficult tasks or setbacks do not diminish their motivation or self-esteem
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Finally, studies suggest that marking answers right or wrong (as in multiple choice tests) has little effect on learning. However, providing the correct response only after a student has spent time "struggling" to find the correct answer significantly increases retention of the material
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having students reconstruct what they know through alternative assessments leads to deeper understanding and consolidates learning in more powerful ways than traditional testing
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While students manage to keep enough dates, facts, and formulas in their head to pass the test, this knowledge never made it to long-term declarative memory, it was never truly learned at all (only memorized in the short term).
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shared by Bo Adams on 13 Jan 16
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Learning's Not a River - Dan Cristiani - Medium - 0 views
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The overwhelming bulk of our personal growth happens in open environments, without constraints or schedules, and often without guidance.
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Scholarly research on implicit learning and anecdotal studies of self-taught experts (musicians, chefs, athletes, and more) speak to the power of unstructured study.
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Perhaps schools would do well to offer up learning experiences rather than formalized courses in all grades
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how can we create space for students who need more time to consolidate their learning, to master a curriculum or set of skills?
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Administration and faculty should be willing to acknowledge that courses offer venues for intellectual and personal growth but do not have a monopoly on it.
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shared by Bo Adams on 24 Mar 19
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Four Design Parameters for Rethinking Professional Learning | GOA - 0 views
globalonlineacademy.org/...thinking-professional-learning
professional learning professional development professional_development professionaldevelopment
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Paradigm shift: from solo-teacher to teaching team - anne knock - 1 views
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My professional focus is the future of learning and learning environments. I see that the design of the spaces where learning occurs, plays a significant part in providing the context for the education our students need today. The innovative learning environment (ILE) enables an array of opportunities for student learning, supporting a variety of learning modes and pedagogical approaches.
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Where there are multiple classes in shared spaces, maximising the opportunities afforded is dependent on the collective values held and the connectedness of the teachers co-located.
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“The label, ‘team’, may hold a certain mystique but this mystique, we suggest, must first be earned. . . Teams need time and opportunity to mature; they are not simply created by the application of the label or by a managerial fiat” (Fisher, Hunter & Macrossan, 1997).
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It takes time to reach optimum performance stage, as team development passes through defined phases: forming, storming, norming and performing, before they can really ‘hum’. It may feel easier for teachers to just stay on their own, the stages of team development can be difficult, but the advantages are worth it, for the teachers themselves, as well as their students.
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How Do You Teach to the Standards When Doing Project-Based Learning? - 4 views
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People often debate about whether we should be process-driven or product-driven in project-based learning. But I think there’s a third option. We can be learning-driven. In other words, we should start with the question, “What do we want students to learn?” and let that drive the process and the product.
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#1: Inquiry-DrivenInquiry-driven PBL begins with a state of curiosity and wonder. It might be as simple as the sentence stem “I wonder why _________” or “I wonder how _________.” Students then have the opportunity to research, ideate, and create.
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#4: Problem-DrivenProblem-driven PBL begins with a specific problem or challenge that students must solve. An example is our maker challenges that present a specific scenario that leads students into research, problem-solving, ideation, and a final product that solves the initial challenge.
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#3: Product-DrivenPBL experts often say, “Students should focus on the process and not the product.” But there’s also a time and a place for projects that challenge students to focus on developing a quality product. In these projects, the product has tighter parameters but the process is more flexible.
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#5: Empathy-Driven (Design Thinking)Empathy-driven PBL can have elements of the previous four PBL approaches.
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shared by Meghan Cureton on 16 Nov 16
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Why Empathy Holds the Key to Transforming 21st Century Learning | MindShift | KQED News - 2 views
ww2.kqed.org/...sforming-21st-century-learning
#mvifishares empathy designthinking idiploma PBL transformation School Change
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Empathy has the potential to open up students to deeper learning, drive clarity of thinking, and inspire engagement with the world—in other words, provide the emotional sustenance for outstanding human performance.
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Empathy lies at the heart of 21st century skillfulness in teamwork, collaboration and communication in a diverse world.
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The frontal lobes of the brain, at least as much as we know now, are the seat of planning, execution, problem solving and creativity—and when the frontal lobes are working well, so are we.
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Empathy is now identified as the first step in the design process, whether crafting new software for a user or creating form-factors that inherently please the consumer.
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empathy is described as ‘step.’ But that easy designation belies a very deep process in which a designer must, for lack of a better term, ‘sink into the mind of another and take on their persona’. That is a deep descriptor of an ultimate form of empathy—and it may be a necessary component of an educational system increasingly tilted toward design and inquiry.
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Ready or not, education is entering an age in which social learning is the new norm. Pure academics are giving way to increased opportunities for students to work together; teachers increasingly take on the role of co-learner and facilitator; listening, learning, and teaming are the new core skills. At the heart of this new skillfulness for everyone is the ability to forge deep connections lead to creative problem solving and positive pursuits. Taken all together, this makes empathy critical to schools. In fact, very soon we will need to invent a new taxonomy of learning that makes empathy the base of the learning pyramid.
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How Can Schools Prioritize For The Best Ways Kids Learn? | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views
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if the changes to education are all in the service of doing the same thing better, they may be missing the point.
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examples of schools and districts that are asking themselves difficult questions to propel change. The successful ones are letting the answer to the question, “How do kids learn best?” drive everything they do in schools.
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education that is student-initiated, interdisciplinary and co-planned by students and teachers together
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“It’s about doing work that matters,” Richardson said. “It’s about connections. It’s about play. It’s about cultures where kids and teachers are learners.” When schools have a set of beliefs about learning and enact those beliefs through practice, but don’t anchor what they are doing in today’s context, they may be doing something progressive, but also a little irrelevant. Beliefs and contexts without practice leads to ineffective teaching. The sweet spot for a very different type of education system lies in the Venn diagram of all three: beliefs, context and practice.
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It can be difficult to interrogate longstanding policies and choices, but if districts, schools and individual educators can’t reflect on what’s working and what isn’t, articulate a change, and begin doing it, the education system as a whole will become irrelevant.
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shared by Bo Adams on 23 Dec 15
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Students Design, Tinker, Create and Discover through Maker-based Learning | NextGen Lea... - 1 views
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Maker makered makereducation agency #MustRead badging
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The nature of maker-based learning actively engages students, nurtures their agency, improves efficacy, and develops a creator or producer identity instead of a (passive) consumer one.
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In Thomas’ experience, too many people fail to reflect on WHY they’re choosing certain tools, and HOW those tools will be integrated into the curriculum and culture of school.
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Sometimes the impetus for making is a practical problem. Other times, play, curiosity and imagination are the motivators. Regardless, researchers from Harvard's Project Zero agree, "maker experiences help students learn to pursue their own passions and become self-directed learners, proactively seeking out knowledge and resources on their own" (Agency by Design, p. 3). HT Parker Thomas
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shared by Meghan Cureton on 02 Nov 18
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The Case For Competency-Based Education | Getting Smart - 0 views
www.gettingsmart.com/...for-competency-based-education
competency CompetencyBased CBE mastery mtc assessment transformation School Change
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transformed schools that feature tasks and projects that challenge young people in authentic ways to build design, collaboration, and communication skills that prepare young people for navigating new and complex situations.
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Quality preparation. Much of the corporate training world has shifted from participation to demonstrated skills in order to improve job readiness.
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Equity. If gap-closing equity is a stated goal, then structures, schedules, and supports can be aimed at struggling learners that need more time and assistance to accelerate their learning
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Learning science. As Harvard’s Todd Rose notes, there is no average; each of us has a “jagged profile.” He and others argue that we should address the individual needs of learners.
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innovation is required in five dimensions: More innovative learning models and networks, particularly for high schools (XQ, NewSchools, and NGLC grantees are a good start); Competency-based learning platforms, gradebooks, badge and portfolio systems; Quality guidance systems that ensure equity and access. Mastery-based transcripts that allow students to more fully share their capabilities with postsecondary institutions and employers; State policy that advances a relevant graduate profile, makes room for innovation pilots, and articulates a quality outcome framework (see the CompetencyWorks report Fit for Purpose).
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shared by Bo Adams on 06 Dec 17
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Education innovator advocates for transdisciplinary 'StudioLab' | Cornell University Co... - 1 views
as.cornell.edu/...ry-%E2%80%98studiolab%E2%80%99
designthinking transdisciplinary humanities communication media
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“Design thinking is a collaborative, interdisciplinary problem-solving approach to social innovation, organizational change, and product development that has been used in design, engineering, and education industries,” he says.
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"A 21st century learning approach requires more than rows of fixed seats, says Jon McKenzie. In a new transdisciplinary pedagogy that encourages active learning, McKenzie has combined the kinds of conceptual, aesthetic, and technical learning found in seminar, studio, and lab spaces into an approach he calls "StudioLab.""
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shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 19 Aug 16
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'Maker' movement inspires hands-on learning | The Seattle Times - 0 views
www.seattletimes.com/...ent-inspires-hands-on-learning
maker Maker Movement tinkering pedagogy learning constructionism article #LiquidNetworkSpill #mvifishares School Change
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Tinkering is being promoted on college campuses from MIT to Santa Clara University, as well as in high schools and elementary schools.
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The blending of technology and craft in tools like 3-D printers and laser cutters has made it possible for ordinary people to make extraordinary things. And many ordinary people, living as they do, more and more in their heads and online, are yearning to do something with their hands.
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Constructionist Approach
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“You’re exploring creativity, you’re exploring design thinking, you’re developing a sense of persistence,” she says. Building something new requires planning, trying and, yes, failing, and then trying again. “These are incredibly important mind-set for today’s world,” she says.
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talks excitedly about students who have designed child prostheses. “That’s what they’re going to remember their entire life,” she says. “They aren’t going to remember sitting in an electronics lecture.”
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Alexandra Garey, who graduated from Rutgers last year, credits tinkering with changing the course of her studies, and life: “I went from somebody who was majoring in Italian and European studies to someone who was designing and prototyping products and realizing any product that came into my head.”
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“U.S. schools are very good at finding the brain-smart people,” he says. “They are also very good at finding the best athletes.” But they are not so good at finding and nurturing people who, he said, describing himself, think with their fingers.
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A fabulous article full of stories about the impact of maker-centered learning experiences, and the growing number of places that provide them - elementary schools, high school, colleges, public. Perhaps most gratifying is the use of distinctly maker-centered AND educational terminology in the same article. A great sign of things to come!
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shared by Meghan Cureton on 19 Aug 16
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Assessment in Making | Edutopia - 1 views
www.edutopia.org/...g-stephanie-chang-chad-ratliff
#mvifishares makerspace learning deeperlearning eportfolios assessments
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Jim Tiffin Jr liked it
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Traditional direct instruction focuses on content knowledge, while maker-centered learning orients around the learner's context.
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Perhaps some memorization of key facts is necessary, but we must set our sights beyond box checking and move toward connection with peers, toward empathy, problem solving, and working through frustrations in pursuit of a deeper, richer understanding of both content and self.
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Currently, the common form of assessment focuses on only one learning outcome type: content. Practices, ways of thinking, and 21st-century skills often fall by the wayside
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Portfolios can showcase a student's abilities, interests, voice, and thinking in a way that test scores and grades cannot.
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shared by Bo Adams on 08 Nov 16
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Unstoppable Learning: Making Room For Students' Passions - 1 views
www.teachingchannel.org/...unstoppable-learning
passion-based-learning learner-driven learnercentered Reflection
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This always happens, I reflected. I get the best ideas when I have more time to listen, to read, to run. I always learn the most when I have space just to think. As a new mother and a classroom teacher, lead teacher, mentor, fellow, friend, and wife, my days are jam packed. Further, my time is often completely scheduled. The time and space to read and think is few and far between. But making space for it is so, so important.
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“As your teacher, my job is not only to help you learn and master our objectives and standards, but much more importantly, to help you become lifelong learners. In order to be those kinds of scholars, I need to give you space and time to ask yourself, ‘What am I curious about? What do I want to pursue?'”
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But I think we can do even better. I feel strongly that it’s my responsibility to foster curiosity, and give my students MANY opportunities throughout the day to choose, to make responsible choices for themselves, because they are thinking actively about what they are curious about, and making a plan about how to pursue those interests.
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shared by Bo Adams on 19 Jan 17
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Cognition switch: What employers can do to encourage their workers to retrain | The Eco... - 1 views
www.economist.com/...ployers-can-do-encourage-their
designthinking idiploma growth mindset professional learning
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“learning velocity”—the process of going from a question to a good idea in a matter of days or weeks
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amended its performance-review criteria to include an appraisal of how employees have learned from others and then applied that knowledge
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is it possible for firms to screen candidates and employees on the basis of curiosity, or what psychologists call “need for cognition”?
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too early to know whether traits such as curiosity can be taught. But it is becoming easier to turn individuals into more effective learners by making them more aware of their own thought processes
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Education Experts Explain the Role Teachers Would Play for Students in Classrooms in a ... - 0 views
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With so many different learning styles and students at different places in their learning within a grade and within subjects, students and schools will benefit greatly from co-teaching models.
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Individual teachers will not be responsible for individual students as much as the team of teachers will be responsible for the learning outcomes of each student they touch within the school day.
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The notion of “teacher” will change significantly in the future. The growing number of formal and informal learning options is causing an unbundling of the teacher role.
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In the future, we will see teachers choose among a variety of options, including:Content experts who focus on developing curriculum Small-group leaders who provide direct instruction Project designers to supplement online learning with hands-on application Mentors who provide wisdom, social capital, and guidance Evaluators to whom other educators can give the responsibility of grading assignments and, in some cases, designing assessments Data experts
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shared by Meghan Cureton on 07 Apr 17
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Learning and the Brain Stories, #2 - Learning and the Brain blogLearning and the Brain ... - 1 views
www.learningandthebrain.com/...arning-and-the-brain-stories-2
learning brain curiosity neuroscience growthmindset #mvifishares
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the role of education is to help our children become who they are meant to be instead of working towards an average which testing promotes.
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We take this narrowed, biased model of success and try to replicate it in schools; yet these models further reduce diversity of thought, experience and creativity among our students.
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If we are to support our children to become creative problem-solvers, then we need to move away from pursuing averages that are based on a single prescribed profile for all learners.
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By creating norms and averages we are drawn to comparison and rank–rather than to our children’s curiosities about what they want to learn, become or aspire to be.
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If praise is tied to the child’s perception of success, and success is tied to narrow definitions of achievement, then children work towards that common standard against which Zhao cautioned us. If they are less likely to take risks then they will seek a single right answer rather than embrace both creativity and curiosity. The standardized test will always be the measure of success.
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shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 28 Feb 16
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Let 'Em Out! The Many Benefits of Outdoor Play In Kindergarten | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views
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#LiquidNetworkSpill MindShift play kindergarten executive function blog article child development outdoors learning
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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lacking in the attention needed to learn, with more than 10 percent of the school population diagnosed with some kind of attention disorder.
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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.
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“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.”
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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.”
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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.
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shared by Bo Adams on 02 Dec 15
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One Small Step…in Time - 0 views
modernlearners.com/one-small-stepin-time
School Change transformation #MustRead innovation schoolreform
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High Tech founding principal Larry Rosenstock realised if he wanted a more collaborative project-based pedagogy across the school in line with their beliefs about learning, then he would have to make time for his teachers to work together.
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He also knew that after school, at the end of a long day is never a good time, so he rescheduled his school day …and school year to provide his teachers with time to meet in teams for at least one hour for planning and staff development every day before school