In rejecting the Standard Model of Education, we are rejecting the definition of learning that aligns with students as vessels to be filled with information. Some faculty and other educators might interject at this point and ask, “Wait. What’s wrong with that kind of education?” That question will be followed by holding themselves and their Read More
Category: Learning
Lets’ Be Clear: Schools are Not Business
We often hear that schools should be run as businesses are run. We also hear we should support school choice as it will increase competition, thus improve quality for all. Those who advocate these stances appear to misunderstand the realities of schools that make them different from businesses. The practices used to make business successful Read More
Teaching Via Technology
Teaching via technology describes teaching in which the lesson could be done with or without the technology. The technology may increase the efficiency of some activities, but IT does not influence what students do or how they think about the material being presented. Consider, for example, a mathematics classroom in which students solve problems on paper. When Read More
Thinking About Motivation
Self-determination theory has been particularly useful in explaining and predicting the motivations and actions of adult learners in educational setting. (Rothes, Lemos, and Goncalves, 2017). According to this theory, motivation arises from either autonomous regulation, which arises within the individual and decisions to initiate and continue engagement are made by the individual, or controlled regulation, Read More
Thinking About Trusting Students
Early on my teaching career, my middle school team and I attended wildly popular institutes for middle level educators in Vermont. My team and I joined team from dozens of other schools for a week of intense (and fun) learning and program development. We had amazing presentations, reflected on what we had learned, and integrated Read More
Elevator Pitch on Brains and Stress
Stress can be either good for brains or bad for brains, the effect depends on the level of stress that is experienced. What is true for physical stress (exercise) is true of psychological stress: none is bad, some is good, but too much is bad. Stress results in the release of a chemical called cortisol Read More
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
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
Thinking About ChatGPT
If the news about ChatGPT had broken at anytime other than less than a month before the end of the fall academic term, the handwringing about it would have been more obvious. There have been a few articles and blog posts describing how this will upend everything and make education and certain jobs obsolete. My Read More
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