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On Intelligence

Education is based on a simple idea: We want to make people smart. “Smart” is the general term that we use to describe an individual who has greater than usual cognitive skill and knowledge; public education is intended to ensure a minimal level of “smart” for each individual in our society. As we understand it, Read More

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Why Testing is Meaningless in Schools

It is widely known inside education (but much less so outside of education), that we really don’t know what to teach or how to measure learning. Educational researchers will dispute this, as they spend their entire careers defining learning and measuring it. In science that is allowed, and we accept the conclusions of studies, but Read More

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Whose Perspectives Affect School Decision?

It has been observed by many that school decisions tend to be made by those who were successful in school. A positive feed-forward loop has resulted. Individuals who were successful in school become educators and create schools like those they experienced. Another group involved with school decision-making are those who were not successful in school, Read More

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What it Means to Learn

Since I was a teenager, I’ve been interested in teaching and learning. My adult life has been spent as an educator in many roles and in several types of institutions. I’ve taught, led, researched, read and studied, written… and learned.   One unquestionable conclusion about learning (in my opinion) is that we use one single term Read More

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Project-Based Learning

For many faculty (and students) anything that is not a test or a worksheet that is homework. As digital technologies have become more widely available, projects have included presentations and similar work. In the education literature, however, project-based learning has a very specific meaning.   Project-based learning typically begins with a question that is defined by Read More

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On Problem-Based Learning

Most scholars and practitioners trace the origins of problem-based learning to changes in medical school teaching in the 1960’s. At the time, traditional lecture was deemed insufficient to prepare physicians for the field which was characterized by rapidly expanding field of knowledge and the emergence of new medical technologies. It was reasoned physicians’ capacity to Read More