jeffery heil's List: Teaching

• American students are the most tested and the least examined of any in the world
• No country tests its children as often as the United States: The highest achieving often have few or no tests until the end of high school.
• The Smarter Balanced tests will replace California's existing English language arts and math tests in grades three through eight, and grade 11 with new computer-assisted assessments that include more written responses from students, plus tasks that require them to engage in research, solve more complex problems and use technology. T
• California can replace up to 18 of its tests with a smaller number of these new assessments.

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• Helping students construct their own ideas is considered by some educators a subversive idea that runs counter to the present impetus of the Race to the Top and NCLB Waivers.
• The theory of learning that underlies these Federal reform efforts is behaviorism.  It’s a theory that is very good if you want to teach behaviors.
• But because we insist that we measure student’s learning with bubble tests based on a set of behavioral statements (we call these standards), we find that many teachers are teaching to the test.  
• students build up their knowledge through active engagement, inquiry, problem-based learning, and experiential learning.
•  In the NCLB/Race to the Top “reform model,” there is no regard for differences in the way students learn stuff, nor when they are ready to learn new ideas.
• provided a framework to understand how students acquired knowledge.
•  There is no reason that we have to throw out the standards in order for teachers to take a constructivist approach.  
• • knowledge is not passively received but actively built by the learner;
   
  • the function of cognition is adaptive and serves to organize our experiences.

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• Define group success.
• Define individual success.
• Teach students how to plan.
• Teach students to self-evaluate.
• Assess collaborative skills.

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• The textbook, The lecturer and the classroom are three pillars of modern-day schooling that date back hundreds of years.
• There’s just one catch – these problems don’t exist anymore. In the 21st Century, the Internet has ushered in an online learning environment where information is abundant, teachers are plentiful and learning is global.
• To put it simply – we need new pillars for learning.
• Pillar #1: “I’m only one of my students’ teachers, but I’m the most important because I teach them to connect to all the others.” Implication area: Instruction
• Pillar #2: “My students should learn from me how to learn without me.” Implication area: Curriculum
• Pillar #3: “My students’ knowledge lies not only in their minds but in their networks.” Implication area: Assessment

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