Endorsing Solutions that Don’t Work

This hot take isn’t so hot and perfectly describes why public education will always have to deal with standardized testing mandates and measures from the government.

“You might ask why politicians endorse solutions that don’t work. The answer is not complicated: because they can legislate them; because they are in a hurry; because the remedies can be made to appeal superficially to the public; because (and unkindly on our part) some of them really don’t care about the public education system, preferring that education be taken over by the private sector; and (more kindly) because they do not know what else to do.” (Michael Fullan, Joanne Quinn, Coherence)

"You might ask why politicians endorse solutions that don’t work. The answer is not complicated: because they can legislate them; because they are in a hurry; because the remedies can be made to appeal superficially to the public; because (and unkindly on our part) some of them really don’t care about the public education system, preferring that education be taken over by the private sector; and (more kindly) because they do not know what else to do."
Sale
Coherence: The Right Drivers in Action for Schools, Districts, and Systems
  • Fullan, Michael (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 168 Pages – 08/24/2015 (Publication Date) – Corwin (Publisher)


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A Study In…

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Diving into more authentic learning topics, I’ll share some insights from Jay McTighe’s book “Teaching for Deeper Learning” which has some great ideas for making learning more meaningful.

One of the first concepts McTighe discusses is framing learning around big ideas. Curriculum experts advise prioritizing a smaller number of conceptually larger, transferable ideas because there is too much information to cover everything (which is why essential standards are important), and trying to do so results in superficial learning. Focusing on larger ideas enhances knowledge retention and application, which is crucial in our rapidly changing world.

One way to reimagine how we plan units is to think of them as “A Study In…” some concept or big idea. McTighe gives these examples:

  • Argument Writing: A Study in Craftsmanship
  • Impressionism: A Study in Revolution
  • The Four Seasons: A Study in Change
  • The Pentagon Papers: A Study in Deception
  • Four Films by Hitchcock: A Study in Obsession
  • Weight Training: A Study in Proper Technique
  • Whole Numbers: A Study in Rules and Relationships

This is a very different way of thinking about unit planning, and it would be a great conversation for teachers, coaches, and principals as we begin another school year.



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Are you cheating if you use AI? Workforce leaders may not think so

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The debate about AI usage in schools rages as some educators want to block all AI access, and some want to embrace the new technology and leverage it for learning.

A core tension has emerged: Many teachers want to keep AI out of our classrooms, but also know that future workplaces may demand AI literacy.

What we call cheating, business could see as efficiency and progress.

A new book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, aims to help teachers discover how to harness and manage AI as a powerful teaching tool.

AI is a fabulous tool for getting started or unstuck. AI puts together old ideas in new ways and can do this at scale: It will make creativity easier for everyone.

Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning
  • C. Edward Watson (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 280 Pages – 04/30/2024 (Publication Date) – Johns Hopkins University Press (Publisher)

Where are you on the AI in schools debate? Fan or foe?



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Moving from “doing school” to “learning”

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I love learning—I really do. But my dreadful experience with “school” still influences much of my work in education.

I hated “school.” It was pointless for me, as it is for so many other students.

From John Warner:

One of the distinctions I often draw in thinking about engagement and education is that there is a difference between “learning” and “doing school.”

Learning is, you know, learning. Doing school is engaging in the behaviors that result in satisfying the demands of a system built around proficiencies as determined by assessing the end products of a process. You can successfully do school without learning much of anything. At least that was my experience through many periods of my own schooling.

My belief is that organizing schooling around doing school is part, a big part, of the current problem of student disengagement. When classwork is purely an instrument for getting a grade and moving on to the next check box, learning becomes incidental. It may happen, but it doesn’t have to happen.

Warner interviews Susan Blum, author of I Love Learning; I Hate School and Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), on her new book Schoolishness: Alienated Education and the Quest for Authentic, Joyful Learning

JW: One of my personal obsessions is thinking about the difference between “learning” and “doing school” where doing school is essentially just a series of behaviors designed to achieve the desired grade with the minimal necessary effort. This seems counterproductive on its face, but you say it’s even deeper than that.

SB: Given how much time, energy, and money nearly everyone in our world spends in school, this “doing school,” as Denise Pope called it, is tragic. Students have learned to imitate learning; to provide a performance, a facsimile of whatever each teacher demands as evidence of learning. So much of what we do in schools doesn’t work, whether by “work” we mean learn or thrive or prepare for a competent, meaningful life beyond school. The central organizing concept for me was a contrast between alienation, brought about by numerous sorts of disconnections, such as doing things only because of coercion, and authenticity, which is connection, meaning, genuineness, and even use.

Read the full interview here



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Meta will work with researchers to study Instagram’s impact on teens

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The Atlantic reports that a group of researchers will get access to Instagram’s data to study how the platform affects the mental health of teens and young adults.

Now, after years of contentious relationships with academic researchers, Meta is opening a small pilot program that would allow a handful of them to access Instagram data for up to about six months in order to study the app’s effect on the well-being of teens and young adults. The company will announce today that it is seeking proposals that focus on certain research areas—investigating whether social-media use is associated with different effects in different regions of the world, for example—and that it plans to accept up to seven submissions. Once approved, researchers will be able to access relevant data from study participants—how many accounts they follow, for example, or how much they use Instagram and when. Meta has said that certain types of data will be off-limits, such as user-demographic information and the content of media published by users; a full list of eligible data is forthcoming, and it is as yet unclear whether internal information related to ads that are served to users or Instagram’s content-sorting algorithm, for example, might be provided. The program is being run in partnership with the Center for Open Science, or COS, a nonprofit. Researchers, not Meta, will be responsible for recruiting the teens, and will be required to get parental consent and take privacy precautions.

It’s a much-needed step forward from Meta to participate in research like this. While I’m no fan of blocking access to social media or smartphones for teens, there is no question about the effects social media can have on teens.



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Meta wants to put students and teachers in Quest VR headsets

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Meta plans to make Quest VR headsets a key tool for classroom learning, offering students immersive educational experiences. The push for VR in education raises questions about the future of learning and student engagement. Despite concerns like cybersickness and limited accessibility, Meta sees VR technology as a promising avenue for transforming education.

  • Meta will release a suite of visually engrossing education apps for teachers to use with students ages 13 and older in time for the fall 2024 semester.
  • Teachers will be able to manage multiple Quest devices at once without preparing and updating each device individually.


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There is no audience

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Stop worrying about what you think other people think of you and what you do. They don’t care. They’re too busy worrying about themselves.

Teachers and students, this is your call to get busy doing your own thing, and don’t worry about what anyone thinks.



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Random Links 4-3-2024



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