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Deron Durflinger

Will · "We Prepare Children to Learn How to Learn" - 0 views

willrichardson.com/...children-to-learn-how-to-learn

iPad vanmeter transformation education Finland reform willrichardson

shared by Deron Durflinger on 06 Sep 11 - No Cached
  • At the core, it’s about caring for kids, doing what’s right by them not what’s easy for us. That’s the piece we seem to be missing, and that’s the piece that should be motivating all of us start screaming about a meaningful overhaul of the system
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 06 Sep 11
       
      If we really want to change our system, we must not let what makes adults uncomfortable dictate what our system looks like (or doesn't look like)
Deron Durflinger

Niall Ferguson: How American Civilization Can Avoid Collapse - The Daily Beast - 0 views

www.thedailybeast.com/...zation-can-avoid-collapse.html

History collapse ferguson america US education skills pay vanmeter van meter

shared by Deron Durflinger on 03 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • The Work Ethic
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 03 Nov 11
       
      This is the one I feel has lost the most traction at many levels. For sure not just with our students either.
  • these killer apps were essentially monopolized by Europeans and their cousins who settled in North America and Australasia
  • the great divergence
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • They also grew more powerful
  • 20th century, just a dozen Western empires—-including the United States—controlled 58 percent of the world’s land surface and population, and a staggering 74 percent of the global economy.
  • tendency of Western societies to delete their own killer apps.
  • But there is a second, more insidious cause of the “great reconvergence,” which I do deplore—and that is the
  • Ask yourself: who’s got the work ethic now? The average South Korean works about 39 percent more hours per week than the average American. The school year in South Korea is 220 days long, compared with 180 days here. And you don’t have to spend too long at any major U.S. university to know which students really drive themselves: the Asians and Asian-Americans
  • Yet life expectancy in the U.S. has risen from 70 to 78 in the past 50 years, compared with leaps from 68 to 83 in Japan and from 43 to 73 in China.
  • On no fewer than 15 of 16 different issues relating to property rights and governance, the United States fares worse than Hong Kong. Indeed, the U.S. makes the global top 20 in only one area: investor protection
  • The future belongs not to them but to today’s teenagers
  • The latest data on “mathematical literacy” reveal that the gap between the world leaders—the students of Shanghai and Singapore—and their American counterparts is now as big as the gap between U.S. kids and teenagers in Albania and Tunisia.
  • Yet statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization show that already more patents originate in Japan than in the U.S., that South Korea overtook Germany to take third place in 2005, and that China is poised to overtake Germany too
  • the United States’ average competitiveness score has fallen from 5.82 to 5.43, one of the steepest declines among developed economies. China’s score, meanwhile, has leapt up from 4.29 to 4.90.
  • Perhaps more disturbing is the decline of meaningful competition at home, as the social mobility of the postwar era has given way to an extraordinary social polarization. You don’t have to be an Occupy Wall Street leftist to believe that the American super-rich elite—the 1 percent that collects 20 percent of the income—has become dangerously divorced from the rest of society, especially from the underclass at the bottom of the income distribution.
  • Far more than in Europe, most Americans remain instinctively loyal to the killer applications of Western ascendancy, from competition all the way through to the work ethic. They know the country has the right software. They just can’t understand why it’s running so damn slowly.
  • What we need to do is to delete the viruses that have crept into our system: the anticompetitive quasi monopolies that blight everything from banking to public education; the politically correct pseudosciences and soft subjects that deflect good students away from hard science; the lobbyists who subvert the rule of law for the sake of the special interests they represent—to say nothing of our crazily dysfunctional system of health care, our overleveraged personal finances, and our newfound unemployment ethic
  • And finally we need to reboot our whole system.
  • If what we are risking is not decline but downright collapse, then the time frame may be even tighter than one election cycle
  • Western Civilization's Killer Apps
  • COMPETITION
  • THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
  • THE RULE OF LAW
  • MODERN MEDICINE
  • THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
  • THE WORK ETHIC
Deron Durflinger

Educational Insights From Shanghai - Top Performers - Education Week - 0 views

blogs.edweek.org/...what_we_saw_in_shanghai.html

insights shanghai performers meter van innovative effectiveness learning vanmeter transformation

shared by Deron Durflinger on 05 Aug 16 - No Cached
  • he schools were joyous places.  This, he said, seemed to be the foundation for everything else he observed
  • ecause the lessons were beautifully crafted, clearly designed to be as engaging as possible. 
  • were lined with other teachers who were collaborating in the design of these lessons.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • worked together over months to build the most effective lessons they could, critiquing each version, adding new ideas, testing them out, until the whole group was satisfied that the lesson was as good as it could be.
  • ratio between prep time and teaching time in the Shanghai schools we visited.  In the U.S., she said, teachers typically have one hour to prepare for five classes.  In the Shanghai schools, they have four hours to prepare for two hours of teaching. This, she said, makes all the difference.  Teachers can use this time to collaborate with other teachers to craft great lessons, to talk with other teachers about particular students' learning needs and how they might work together to address them, or to do the research needed to get ready to do another improvement project. 
  • All teachers are expected to do it, and getting good at is it one of the criteria for moving up the career ladder
  • hat fascinated our team was the way teachers were expected to write short papers about the research they had done and to publish these research papers in a range of juried journals, some published by universities.
  • Of course they did not do well this way.  How could they do well in language and mathematics without a balanced curriculum, without a faculty that showed that they loved them, without music, art and PE?
  • his whole enormous system was on pretty much the same page for the same reasons, not because they had been told to do something in particular, but because the discussions they had been involved in had led them to the same conclusions about the goals and the most effective ways to achieve the
  • One was the clarity of the system's curriculum expectations.  There is a core curriculum that accounts for about 70 percent of the available time that is required for all students. The courses are spelled out and the system approves the textbooks that will be used. 
  • hat it had clearly been honed and then honed again to remove everything that was not essential and to give the connections in the logic of the instruction an air of inevitability that seemed, as he put it, simply elegant.
  • he common thread, he said, was the way teachers were treated, in every way, as professionals.
  • The Shanghai Municipal Education Commission clearly views its teachers, not university researchers, as the main drivers of improvements in student performance. 
  • teachers talked about the importance of constantly getting better, which meant improving their own skills and improving the curriculum and instruction and therefore improving student performance.  Like doctors, engineers and attorneys in the United States, they saw keeping up with the latest developments in their field and changing their practice in the light of those advancements as a core part of their responsibility.  That is why professional development and school improvement are thought of as synonymous by Shanghai officials. 
  • hey accepted the idea that they were not functioning autonomously in their classrooms, but accountable to their peers and colleagues for the quality of their own work and for their contribution to the common enterprise.   These are all hallmarks of a true profession. 
Deron Durflinger

Waukee parents frustrated with grading system | The Des Moines Register | desmoinesregi... - 0 views

www.desmoinesregister.com/...ents-frustrated-grading-system

sbg Competency-Based grading learning waukee

shared by Deron Durflinger on 30 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • There used to be a huge focus on teaching, and now we’re focused on learning,” he said. “Now it’s a simple statement but has huge implications for the classroom.”
  • The top three reasons for advocating the traditional letter grade among parents were: “like the old way,” “afraid kids won’t be prepared” and “can’t compare students.”
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 30 Aug 12
       
      Parents focus is on ranking. Teacher focus is on individualized instruction. Student focus is on learning. Which is most important?
  • 91 percent said they agree or strongly agree with the phrase “overall I have an understanding of where I am in my learning and the areas that I need to continue to learn.”
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 30 Aug 12
       
      Should be enough proof that it is better for students right there.
Deron Durflinger

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success - Anu Partanen - National -... - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...250564

finland Education edreform reform transformation van meter vanmeter jason glass learning

shared by Deron Durflinger on 30 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Instead, the public school system's teachers are trained to assess children in classrooms using independent tests they create themselves. All children receive a report card at the end of each semester, but these reports are based on individualized grading by each teacher.
  • There's no word for accountability in Finnish,"
  • "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • what matters is that in Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility.
  • If a teacher is bad, it is the principal's responsibility to notice and deal with it.
  • And while Americans love to talk about competition, Sahlberg points out that nothing makes Finns more uncomfortable
  • There are no lists of best schools or teachers in Finland. The main driver of education policy is not competition between teachers and between schools, but cooperation.
  • school choice is noticeably not a priority, nor is engaging the private sector at all.
  • In Finland parents can also choose. But the options are all the same."
  • It was equity
  • the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.
  • schools should be healthy, safe environments for children. This starts with the basics. Finland offers all pupils free school meals, easy access to health care, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance.
  • Educational policy, Abrams suggests, is probably more important to the success of a country's school system than the nation's size or ethnic makeup.
  • When Finnish policymakers decided to reform the country's education system in the 1970s, they did so because they realized that to be competitive, Finland couldn't rely on manufacturing or its scant natural resources and instead had to invest in a knowledge-based economy. 
  • is to preserve American competitiveness by doing the same thing. Finland's experience suggests that to win at that game, a country has to prepare not just some of its population well, but all of its population well, for the new economy. To possess some of the best schools in the world might still not be good enough if there are children being left behind
  • Finland's dream was that we want to have a good public education for every child regardless of where they go to school or what kind of families they come from, and many even in Finland said it couldn't be done."
  • Finland's experience shows that it is possible to achieve excellence by focusing not on competition, but on cooperation, and not on choice, but on equity.
  • The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad.
Deron Durflinger

Barriers to competency-based innovation aren't just coming from above | Christensen Ins... - 0 views

www.christenseninstitute.org/n-arent-just-coming-from-above

barriers innovation coming institute cbg competency-based learning cbe vanmeter transformation van meter change

shared by Deron Durflinger on 08 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Districts’ and schools’ organizational structures and long standing policies built around traditional seat-time metrics may be inhibiting their ability to move toward competency-based models. For example, bell schedules, grading policies, academic department structures, fixed sense of course scope and sequence, and familiarity with whole-group instruction may all be exerting the tug of status quo bias. As such, transforming districts and schools to competency-based systems is not a simply policy change: it’s a fundamental reconfiguration of teams and structures inside schools, that allows for students to progress at their own pace and demonstrate mastery in a variety of ways. In New Hampshire’s example, for those schools that have yet to move to fully competency-based systems, getting unstuck from the organizational structures and processes that guide them appears just as potent a barrier to innovation in some schools as the state’s policies are a gateway to innovation.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 08 Nov 13
       
      Sound familiar:)?
Deron Durflinger

When differentiating instruction makes little sense | Clayton Christensen - 0 views

disruptingclass.mhprofessional.com/...instruction-makes-little-sense

instruction differentiating leadership blended hybrid learning

shared by Deron Durflinger on 05 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • content-rich guaranteed curriculum that is consistently well delivered and clear lessons that have frequent checks for understanding.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 05 Nov 10
       
      Frequent check for understanding of clear expectations
  • The best online learning works on a mastery-based system—where students do not advance until they have mastered a concept (as opposed to the current system where everyone moves on no matter if they have mastered the concept) and thus there are frequent check-ins to see how much a student understands and to cycle back into more learning opportunities where appropriate
Deron Durflinger

Governments cut computing costs in the cloud - USATODAY.com - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...1

governments cloud costs 21stcenturylearning learning edtech vanmeter van meter

shared by Deron Durflinger on 30 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • "Technology allows them to become more productive and effective serving citizens with scarcer resources," says Andrew Bartels, analyst at Forrester Research.
  • Still, White House chief information officer Vivek Kundra last February announced an initiative to consolidate hundreds of redundant federal government databases. Kundra also called for stepping up the federal government's reliance on cloud-based systems to deliver public services.
  • "The longer-term effect is that this will help spur economic activity by creating governments that better facilitate commerce," says Rubel. He says tech-savvy government services "create better public policy outcomes for citizens."
Deron Durflinger

What Does It Mean to Be a "Change Leader" in Education? - 0 views

getideas.org/...e-a-change-leader-in-education

change leader 21stcenturylearning transformation vanmeter learning education van meter #edchat Competency-Based blended

shared by Deron Durflinger on 16 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • First, successful change leaders clearly articulate the need for change to a variety of audiences in ways that are intellectually coherent and emotionally compelling. The ability to do this requires that change leaders immerse themselves into radically different worlds
  • nderstand deeply is the world for which they are preparing their students
  • what skills, what habits of mind, and what dispositions
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • ommoditization of knowledg
  • how much students know, but rather what they can do with what they know
  • second world effective change leaders understand is the world of students
  • the importance of students’ intrinsic motivation for learning and achievement. Finally, they seek out and listen carefully to students to better understand their classroom and school experiences.
  • They engage them in adult learning about a changing world and how students learn best
  • adults in the community also deeply understand the need for change, and so these leaders sponsor readings, talks by local experts, and discussions
  • The best change leaders I know bring their understanding of these two worlds into the classroom every single day
  • know what good teaching looks like, and they are relentless in their expectations. They understand that their job is, first and foremost, to be an instructional leader and coach.
  • “isolation is the enemy of improvement,”
  • Teachers must be given the working conditions that will enable them to improve and to be successful. They need time to learn and to collaborate
  • Finland, which has the highest-performing education system in the world, teachers spend an average of only 600 hours a year in the classroom teaching lessons; in the US, the number is closer to eleven hundred hours.
  • Finally, the most effective change leaders I know take calculated risks
  • Managers do not take risks. Leaders do
  • They model the behaviors of learning, collaboration, effective teaching, and risk taking that they expect of their teachers.
    • Deron Durflinger
      Deron Durflinger on 16 Jan 13
       
      What can I do to improve my leadership skills?
Deron Durflinger

Cheating Students: How Our Schools Fail the Humanistic Vision of Education | The Humanist - 0 views

thehumanist.org/...humanistic-vision-of-education

sbg standards-based grading cbg learning competency-based cheating students schools vision education transformation

shared by Deron Durflinger on 01 May 13 - No Cached
  • agreed with him, and emphasized that my condemnation was not of cheating as an isolated problem, but rather as one of many symptoms of a system that throws learning under the bus and turns testing into a kind of religion. Instead of proving academic worth, grades too often just tell us who’s willing to hustle, who’s willing to cheat, who’s willing to pull an all-nighter in order to memorize atomized facts that are quickly forgotten. And what does this do for our moral education, our character?
  • ndeed, it’s essentially common knowledge that school isn’t fun. So why do we make kids attend? If it’s for the sake of learning, then the school mandate isn’t working. Learning is an organic, thought-provoking, individual and collaborative process that requires more than copying off of a classmate during a fill-in-the-blank assessment.
  • “If you can make a lot of money, do whatever you can to get it” and “It’s okay to cheat on your tax forms or induce a subprime mortgage meltdown if you can get rich and get away with it.” Look how much cheating has brought our economy to near ruin. To bring about a real change in the way we approach work and economic life, the nature of schooling must be drastically altered so as to make true learning the number one priority.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • he rampant cheating in high schools across the United States not only threatens intellectual honesty and integrity, but also the legitimacy of our economy and politics. The cheating epidemic reflects a bizarre and unhealthy obsession with testing and the obsolete industrial-era authoritarianism that takes the joy out of learning. But, ironically, so much group cheating shows us a way out by giving us a glimpse, although in a deformed version, of the cooperative modes of learning that could take over if we ever get beyond the prevalent use of standardized testing and competition-based grading.
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