Sunday, May 5, 2013

Teaching Smart

Parker, Linda

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Resnick, L. B. (1999). Making America smarter. Education Week, 18(40), 38-40.

     Although this article is a little older, it looks at what's needed to teach cognitive skills associated with intelligence so that learners are held to a new standard of excellence as compared to being held to old standards of aptitude or performance where learners are compared to one another.  In reading Resnick's article, I found it foundational as a precursor to what was needed in the classroom of the future to enable and equip students for higher learning.  For example, the author discusses a core of principles (which made me think of the Common Core) to guide the work, allowing extra time for those students who need it (differentiation), engaging students in thinking (inquiry and problem-based learning), meeting or exceeding the expectation of a higher performance level and holding students accountable based upon their own application and investment in the subject (Constructivism).  

     Amazingly, we are just now seeing the implementation of those types of skills throughout classrooms in our nation - some fourteen years later!  On one hand, it seems as though times are changing so fast (i.e. technology) and, yet on the other hand, it seems as though change can't come fast enough (i.e. education).  


     

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