“In a joint statement, they said that they were responding to the diminished utility of AP courses and the desirability of developing our own advanced courses that more effectively address our students’ needs and interests. Collectively, we believe a curriculum oriented toward collaborative, experiential, and interdisciplinary learning will not only better prepare our students for college and their professional futures, but also result in more engaging programs for both students and faculty. We expect this approach will appeal to students’ innate curiosity, increase their motivation, and fuel their love of learning.”
“Vermont’s experiment in experiential learning goes back a number of years, but it took off in 2013, when the legislature passed a law that lets students meet state graduation standards through work-based experiences.”
“Bostyn wonders if people who are presented with standard trolley hypotheticals give biased answers because they’re worried about their reputations. They might think that if they told the experimenter they’d flip the switch or push the stranger off the bridge, it would make them seem cold and calculating. To avoid that outcome, they tilt their responses in the opposite direction. But when they’re confronted with a real-life version of the same dilemma, and one with real-life stakes, they might ignore that social anxiety and enact their truer, more utilitarian moral judgment.”
“In my research, no matter whether I was interviewing a painter, a chef, or a songwriter, I’d eventually hear some variation of the same story. Painters show up at numerous art exhibits. Chefs eat at cutting-edge restaurants, visit farms, and travel to food shows. Songwriters are constantly listening to music, new and old.”
“They all say generously that we ought to listen to the students, especially when the students seem to be looking out for each other, and we should not simply assume that they are opposed to freedom.”
“Through an analysis of a longitudinal data set collected from more than 6,000 students and their teachers nationwide, Lee found that students who were taught by a succession of teachers who majored or minored in mathematics had better success in short-term math achievement. In the long term, the students also were more likely to graduate from college.”
“Content matters. But the main focus should be on the way of thinking.”
“Perhaps, none… [but] If we do want algorithms, a wide spectrum of approaches is possible: … unplugged: algorithms with no programming, no computers… integrated: algorithms fully integrated with programming and maths.”
“Research should inform education policy and practice, but it shouldn’t dictate it. Common sense, practical experience, personal relationships, and old-fashioned wisdom have a crucial role to play in determining when and how research can be usefully applied. The researchers who play the most constructive roles are those who understand and embrace that messy truth.”
Copyright
Every week I send out articles I encounter from around the web. Subject matter ranges from hard knowledge about teaching to research about creativity and cognitive science to stories from other industries that, by analogy, inform what we do as educators. This breadth helps us see our work in new ways.
Readers include teachers, school leaders, university overseers, conference organizers, think tank workers, startup founders, nonprofit leaders, and people who are simply interested in what’s happening in education. They say it helps them keep tabs on what matters most in the conversation surrounding schools, teaching, learning, and more.
– Peter Nilsson