Young educators are enthusiastic. They spend years preparing: They learn the content they will teach, they learn how brains work, they learn pedagogical theory, and they practice various strategies. Of course, the details of what they learn depends on the specific regulatory agencies to which their teacher preparation program reports, but they learn in classrooms Read More
Category: Teaching & Learning
On Grading on 100-Point Scales
Quantification of knowledge has a dubious history. Stephen Jay Gould’s book The Mismeasure of Man described the disturbing history of intelligence testing in the 20th century, the rocky science upon which it is based, and the on-going unjustified application of it in education and public policy. In this post, I consider the quantification of knowledge Read More
#edtech for #edleaders: Appropriate Design
Schools are places where learning is supposed to occur. Educators, including teachers and curriculum leaders, are the professionals who are responsible for defining what should be taught. They are also responsible for deciding how it will be taught. These comprise curriculum and instruction decisions. While many curriculum and instruction decisions are made for lessons that Read More
Elevator Pitch: Learning Outcomes
Curriculum and assessments leaders recommend beginning lesson and curriculum plans with a list of learning outcomes. What knowledge will students develop and what skills will students develop during the lesson or the unit. Many also advocate for clear and measurable outcome to be articulated. It is reasoned without these, the data deemed necessary for making Read More
Most Favored Pedagogy
Educators have preferences for how they teach. Some argue these arise from the structure of the subject they teach. While that is an important consideration, it is also true that some of that structure is imposed by tradition in the fields and the teachers’ preference for the methods they experienced. Regardless of the age of Read More
Elevator Pitch on Cognitive Scaffolding
Some scaffolds are introduced to share the cognitive load or to draw attention to specific aspects of the work. Reiser & Tabak (2014) suggest scaffolding can be introduced to facilitate thinking in several ways. Especially when dealing with complex situations early in their studies, students may focus on irrelevant aspects of the problem or they Read More
On Collaboration in Learning
For several decades, cognitive scientists and anthropologists have been studying two opposing hypotheses to explain of the anatomical and behavioral differences between the brains of humans and the brains of other primates. According the social brain hypothesis, social factors are the primary force driving the development of the human brain; according to the ecological brain Read More
On Design in Education
On occasion, one finds a piece of writing that brings captures and consolidates their thinking about important ideas. This post shares such a discovery for me. The concept of design has captured my attention in recent years. Specifically, I have come to understand that planning is an inadequate approach finding solutions—effective solutions—to most problem we Read More
On Perceptual Learning
As learners become more skilled at observation, they become more capable of perceiving and interpreting important aspects of situations. When presented with a new situation, strong perceptual learners are able to understand it by attending to important and relevant elements. Those who have more deeply developed perceptual learning will be able to identify relevant patterns Read More
The Realities of Teaching
It is assumed the instructional methods are known to result in the intended lessons being learned. We have all seen many teachers act with authority in the front of a classroom (or a clinic or a laboratory or shop or another place where school happens) and tell students what and how to learn the curriculum. Read More