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.
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.
I've become a fan of Dan Willingham's blog posts. Did you see his series criticizing 21st Century Skills?
ReplyDelete"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.
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.
ReplyDeleteIf 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.
Bought it. Read it. Gave it 5 stars!
ReplyDeleteI still haven't read the P21 post!
ReplyDeleteI 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."
re-branding & re-marketing, for sure
ReplyDelete