The idea of deeper learning has been kicking around for a couple of decades. Various authors and groups have presented their version. Here is one that I have discovered in some past writing: Collen Carmean and Jeremy Haefner (2002), scholars from the western United States, suggested that curriculum and instruction in the 21st century will Read More
The rationale to approach the curriculum as integrated content is grounded in the observation that few problems encountered—and little of the information use in—the real-world conforms to the boundaries that delimit subjects in schools. Herrenkohl and Polman (2018) reason, “people do not experience the world from a singular disciplinary perspective” (p. 108), and they conclude Read More
Psychologists and others who study multitasking and its effects on human attention, learning, and cognition have yet to decide if the effects are “good” or “bad.” Much of the difficulty comes from the differences between the observations made in the highly controlled environments of the laboratory and the observations that are made in the real Read More
143: The Paradox of Moving Goals Goals seem a natural part of human organizations and design; we define what we want, then take steps to achieve what we want. Those who have been involved with defining or achieving goals are likely familiar with the phenomenon of “moving goals.” We observe this when a goal is Read More
156: On Social and Technology-Rich Education Education. Ever since there have been humans, they have invented methods of teaching. The need to teach arises from our nature as social and technology-using creatures. Humans need to teach the young how to survive (what to eat and how to find it, how to modify the world for Read More
The brain functions associated with learning occur when neurons communicate with each other by the release and uptake of neurotransmitters. Many chemicals are known to function as neurotransmitters, and also many chemicals are known to influence the functioning of neurotransmitters. Further, cognitive scientists have identified several environmental factors that are associated with the production and Read More
Over the course of my career, I have maintained an obsessive focus on teaching and learning. My office at home is filled with books and magazines in which I have taken copious notes. I maintain notebooks (both pencil and paper notebooks and multiple digital notebooks) with thoughts and about how “something” can become a lesson Read More
The publicly funded schools for young people, commonly called K-12 schools in the United States are an example of general purpose schools. Modeled after liberal arts education, we can trace the history of these schools to one-room school houses maintained in villages and towns early in the nation’s history. Ostensibly, these schools were places where Read More
Schools are organizations in which consensus is very difficult to achieve; the probability of sustaining commitment to any decision reached through consensus is lower still. Those decisions tend to be overturned when leadership changes or in response to other political influences. This is a source of real and reasonable frustration for teachers; it is unavoidable. Read More
In the 2006 edition of a popular textbook for courses designed for educators learning to create technology-rich classrooms, Robyler (2006) defined integrating educational technology as “the process of determining which electronic tools and which methods of implementing them are appropriate responses to given classroom situations and problems” (p. 9). This idea had been a staple Read More