I just finished "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink for our book club. I’ve participated in conferences, read books, and watched TED videos that talk about bringing creativity and innovation back to the classroom. My last post was about how Piaget explains that schools were designed to train our factory workers and where that model isn’t working anymore. From Pink’s book, Piaget’s explanation, and so many other sources that I am learning about, we are in the midst of CHANGE, if we like it or not.
Educators created a system, just like the QWERTY keyboard, ... more...
Comments: 2
Last Comment By Barbara Bray January 25, 2010 -- 05:38 PM
Today's schools are not much different than schools in the early 1900s. Most schools in the US continue to have a 180 day schedule with almost 3 months off in the summer. Schools are open about 6 hours a day. Teachers usually work isolated in their classrooms behind closed doors. Schools were designed to complement our factory model. We needed factory workers who would follow orders and not think on their own. Anyway, that's what we got: a passive education. A few of us (including me) didn't fit in this model very well. I tried but found that I wanted to go in a different direction or had a better ... more...
Comments: 1
Last Comment By Cheri July 26, 2010 -- 06:33 PM
What students do in the classroom is what they learn (as Dewey would say) . . . Now, what is it that students do in the classroom? Well, mostly, they sit and listen to the teacher. . . . Mostly, they are required to remember. . . . It is practically unheard of for students to play any role in determining what problems are worth studying or what ... more...