John Dewey, the American philosopher is often credited with differentiating traditional from progressive education. In general, traditional education approaches the curriculum as a known collection of content, and teachers select a path through the content, ensuring students learn by rewarding expected answers and correcting inaccurate answers. Progressive education, on the other hand, is designed to Read More
As educators, we have our students’ future in mind. I am resisting the urge to write about the misguided strategy of adults looking to their past to predict students’ future. I am writing instead about the timelines wise educators use when they are looking towards students’ futures. We really should be concerned with three futures. Read More
Educators seem to view their practice as one of two evolutionary processes (here I am using evolution in the sense of change in a recognized direction). It is either: Those who have been in the field for more than a few years, will point out that these two often happen in cycles. The same change Read More
Expertise arises from both knowing about the field and experience solving real-world problems in the field. In traditional classrooms, the teacher is the individual who has the greatest expertise in the field, and hence is the community’s expert. Increasingly, educators are sharing the role of the foremost expert in the classroom community.
Philosopher and scientist Michael Polanyi used the term tacit knowledge to describe understanding that is implicit and difficult to state with precision. For this reason, tacit knowledge cannot be stated as an algorithm, so it cannot be downloaded to digital devices. According to Polanyi, tacit knowledge is necessary to frame a problem, to develop a Read More
I posted on social media recently: Can educators devise assessments that can predict how students will develop rather than what they did? I was pushed to explain myself and that got me thinking what exactly I meant. So, here goes! We all know the culture of assessment in education. We are charged with documenting what Read More
Cognitive load theorists recognize three types of cognitive load: Intrinsic cognitive load is associated with the learner thinking about the information and the task. Intrinsic load does increase as the task becomes more complex, but steps to break the task down into parts and the use graphic organizers (for example) to help store and organize Read More
“Those who can do. Those who can’t teach.” We have all seen this quote and observed (accurately) that it doesn’t show the great wit that many who toss it around think. Poems have been written about it; keynote speeches have been given about it. Books and articles have been written about it. We all despise Read More
Because education and schools are technologies, they are not neutral. What happens in school is politically relevant, it matters to humans. This may seem a silly statement, but frequently, adults in schools proceed with their work and appear to be ignorant of this. The effect is especially observed in those classrooms in which the goal Read More
• curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge • the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated • educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains • the most efficient instruction occurs from simple Read More