Education is fundamentally an endeavor grounded in guesses. Well, that may be hyperbole, but our curriculum is a guess at what our students may need to know for their future. We really can’t know what they are going to do, how things are going to change, or what we missed that we should have taught. Read More
Category: Learning
On Declarative Knowledge
Information that a learner remembers and can restate comprises their declarative knowledge. Having learned a large body of declarative knowledge adds to individuals’ efficiency with answering questions and applying that information. For this reason, many teachers facilitate students’ learning facts in classes. The default approach to learning facts has been memorization and teachers introduce mnemonics Read More
On “Good Teaching”
Educators seem to view their practice as one of two evolutionary processes (here I am using evolution in the sense of change in a recognized direction). It is either: Those who have been in the field for more than a few years, will point out that these two often happen in cycles. The same change Read More
Tacit Knoweldge
Philosopher and scientist Michael Polanyi used the term tacit knowledge to describe understanding that is implicit and difficult to state with precision. For this reason, tacit knowledge cannot be stated as an algorithm, so it cannot be downloaded to digital devices. According to Polanyi, tacit knowledge is necessary to frame a problem, to develop a Read More
On Test and Assessments… A Meandering Response to a Social Media Push
I posted on social media recently: Can educators devise assessments that can predict how students will develop rather than what they did? I was pushed to explain myself and that got me thinking what exactly I meant. So, here goes! We all know the culture of assessment in education. We are charged with documenting what Read More
Cognitive Load Theory: Brief Definition
Cognitive load theorists recognize three types of cognitive load: Intrinsic cognitive load is associated with the learner thinking about the information and the task. Intrinsic load does increase as the task becomes more complex, but steps to break the task down into parts and the use graphic organizers (for example) to help store and organize Read More
Assumptions That Are Likely False
• curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge • the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated • educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains • the most efficient instruction occurs from simple Read More
On Learning
Fink (2003) suggests learning how to learn comprises three types of activities. First, learning how to be a learner by becoming more competent at the activities such as reading, listening, questioning, and writing that are necessary for success in classrooms. Second, learning how to construct knowledge. This work is facilitated in the conceptual and thematic Read More
Is Speech a Technology?
I recently made a seemingly obvious observation in a tweet: “Every technological innovation become obsolete.” (Yup, that is what I tweeted… I’m the worst copy editor of social media posts.) A follower (whom I also follow and with whom I occasionally interact) replied “Is speech a technology?” Realizing the response was to be too long Read More
On Problem Solvers
Good problem solvers recognize three realities: