Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘21st century learning’

In Defense of Knowing Things

Posted in Assessment, tagged , , on June 18, 2018| 12 Comments »

Here is a quick quiz, put these in order from most to least important for students to be focused on in school:

  • collaboration
  • critical thinking
  • creativity
  • problem solving
  • knowledge
  • communication
  • flexibility
  • leadership

This is a quiz I was given recently in a room full of Superintendents.  We started with our #1 answer.  I selected creativity.  It was a popular choice, but so was critical thinking and problem solving.  We were then asked to give our last place answer.  As we went around the room, everyone was saying knowledge, until it came to me.  I said flexibility.  I had knowledge in 4th of the 8.  Basically everyone else had it in 8th.

Two thoughts.  One – this is a terrible quiz.  You cannot take any of these items in isolation, their power is how they work and connect together. Two – knowledge is unfairly getting a bad name.

The quiz bugged me.

I appreciate the sentiment that goes into activities like this.  The goal is for everyone to say “knowledge” is the least important and to think about if this is true, is it reflective of the systems they are leading.

There is a version of this 21st century learning talk I have given before. It goes something like this , “Particularly with changes in technology, we all have access to facts at our finger tips, so school becomes less about the transmitting of facts, and more about the making sense of them.”  This has been some of the exciting shifts in schooling over the last couple decades.  We no longer need to spend classes recording notes in our binders off the overhead, instead we can engage in activities that allow us to work with the facts that we all have access to and go deeper with notions of collaboration, creativity, problem solving and the others attributes that are on the list above.  The growth and value given to core competencies in British Columbia is part of this positive trend.

That said, knowing stuff is still important.  And while Jeopardy-style knowledge may be less important now and schools should rightly spend less time on memorizing dates and reciting poems from memory than when I was a high school student, you cannot do all the other things on the list without knowledge.  The amazing growth in inquiry-based learning has been a phenomenal development in schools – but inquiry is nothing without knowledge.

I have become particularly attune to this lately, with the craziness over fake news, and the like, which is mostly coming from the United States, but also in pockets here in Canada and other places around the world.  I still think it is important to know stuff.  When my kids read the paper or watch the news, I want them to have the knowledge of what has happened in the past, so they can be critical of what is happening today.

I am definitely not advocating we go back to our system of events 20 years ago.  The progress of schooling has been great.  I am wanting to be sure as we rightly shine a light on the range of talents we want for our children we don’t diminish the value of knowledge.  Knowing stuff is still cool.

Read Full Post »

Find 15 Minutes – Born to Learn

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning, Technology, tagged , , , , , on March 26, 2011| 14 Comments »

Over the last five years, opening a conversation with a provocative video has been a common approach in discussions regarding the need to evolve our K-12 education system.  The Did You Know? approach — in which we show a five-minute video and use it at a springboard for conversation — often soaks up the first 15 or 20 minutes of a meeting.  There are a lot of wonderful videos —  Justin Tarte recently compiled a great list of twenty-seven of these videos — great for staff workshops, parent meetings, or any other sessions  as a conversation starter on education.

I find myself using the video approach less often these days. The videos still do make a strong case for change, but most people get this now and want the specifics on what we can do. In April, I plan to open several meetings with a new video that tackles the issue of reform from what we have learned about our brain.

From our board office staff meetings, meeting with all administrators, to several PAC meetings I am scheduled to attend, I will be using Born to Learn, which is described as ” the first animation in a fascinating series aimed to provide easy-access to the exciting new discoveries constantly being made about how humans learn!”

The video comes from the 21st Century Learning initiative, resident to John Abbott, and it is often referenced around the personalized learning discussion in BC.

After showing the video, I will be looking at the following points for discussion:

  • What stands out?
  • What are the key messages for parents of young children and early childhood educators?
  • How does the “earthquake in the brain” manifest itself in our schools?  How do we respond?  How could we respond differently/better?
  • How do we honour risk-taking from the upper intermediate grades through graduation?  How do we stifle it?
  • How should what we have learned about the brain (from this video and other research) change our structures/approaches with students in early learning? in their teenage years?

I am interested in what others think of the video, and how it might be used it in their contexts.

Of course, these 15-minute conversation teasers — where we use a video to spur on discussion, may help to shift thinking, but are most valuable when followed up with concrete action.  I know many people I work with will say, “Great, we know this.”  So, why don’t we do a better job to match what we do to what we know?

The video is clearly part of a larger initiative and is linked to a new website Born to Learn (it is going live on March 28th — after this post’s publication date). Whatever the “New” looks like in education and schooling, it needs to be absolutely in sync with the latest developments in evolving our understanding of brain research and how we learn.

Read Full Post »