kitchen table math, the sequel: Why Students Don't Like School is here!

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Why Students Don't Like School is here!

Speaking of cognitive flexibility, Dan Willingham's book is out!

I've got it!

We all need to buy it, read it, and write 5-star comments on Amazon.
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5 comments:

LynnG said...

I've become a fan of Dan Willingham's blog posts. Did you see his series criticizing 21st Century Skills?

"It’s not that the ideas are bad, but they clearly are not workable in the way that seems obvious: we want students to be able to do X in the world, so stick more X in the classroom. If it were that easy, it would have worked by now, because it has been tried many times before. That is the great danger of the P21 movement. To those unfamiliar with the history of education, the ideas sound compelling, and in fact, obvious. In the classroom, they are anything but."

I feel that way about so many things in education. It all sounds good, but most of it has been tried before. Rather than think about how better to teach the things we want learned, schools spend mega-$ buying re-branded and re-marketed ideas that have failed in the past.

April 3, 2009 at 5:51 AM
concernedCTparent said...

This book is fantastic. If you've been following Willingham, the arguments may be familiar. However, this book is very much directed to teachers who for the most part have not been exposed to the wisdom Willingham has to impart. Wisdom based on piles and piles of cognitive science research. Wisdom that is lacking in far too many classrooms.

If you're wondering what you should give your child's teacher as an end-of-year gift, stop wondering. The search for the perfect gift is over. Why Students Don't Like School is the gift that will keep on giving.

April 3, 2009 at 8:07 AM
concernedCTparent said...

Bought it. Read it. Gave it 5 stars!

April 3, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Catherine Johnson said...

I still haven't read the P21 post!

I love this: we want students to be able to do X in the world, so stick more X in the classroom

Ed schools flatly reject the concept of step-by-step learning or stages.

That's why we've got Kindergarten kids here doing "research" and high school classes with "learning stations."

April 5, 2009 at 1:20 PM
Catherine Johnson said...

re-branding & re-marketing, for sure

April 5, 2009 at 1:21 PM

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