- I was very moved by Ken Robinson's thoughts on revolutionizing education. In a world where standards and standardized testing seems to drive education, Robinson asserts that education should not be a linear set of steps that students follow in order to be successful. Just like each human must create meaning in his or her life by exploring the different systems at work around them, students should create meaning in their education by exploring the various knowledge bases in schools. District 6's move to introduce a PBL mindset aligns directly with these goals because it recognizes that learning cannot be a "one-size-fits-all" philosophy. The very definition of PBL lends itself to student-centered, student-created products where the teacher is a facilitator in the classroom. PBL means that a set of standards can no longer be our main driving force when planning activities for our students.
- Ken Robinson's challenge tells me that I cannot set up a "fast-food" environment in my classroom where students are expected to regurgitate facts for a standardized test. While I think most teachers are guilty in some way of "batching" students in order to fit the perfect mold we have created, the PBL classroom should be an environment where student ideas take precedent over worksheets, homework, and tests. Personally, my goal this year is to take a lot of the project-based work I've already done with my students and tweak it to fit Ken Robinson's paradigm. This will make me a more effective educator and my students more purposeful learners.
Monday, July 25, 2016
Jonathan Terry: Day 1
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I love the statement that your classroom will not be set up to turn out "batches" of students who have spent the year learning for the purpose of regurgitating on standardized tests. I like the term purposeful learners!
ReplyDeleteI love the statement that your classroom will not be set up to turn out "batches" of students who have spent the year learning for the purpose of regurgitating on standardized tests. I like the term purposeful learners!
ReplyDeleteI wish that standardized testing wasn't just a scenario where students DID have to regurgitate facts! I'm thinking of SS in particular, but the test is all recall and no problem solving, and if the test were modified to include more questions that included critical thinking, teachers would be more likely to include it in their classrooms as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that the Ted Talk was beneficial to you in reinforcing the pbl concepts we discovered and discussed today. The points Sir Ken Robinson made about the organic nature of learning and the implications this should have on revolutionizing education were powerful to me as well. I agree with you, we don't want to turn out batches of students in an assembly line fashion with cookie cutter experiences. This doesn't work and doesn't promote inquiry or innovation. I look forward to our work this course and throughout this year to create more purposeful learning experiences through pbl.
I like the thoughts that student ideas and learning takes precedence over worksheets. I do think that learning experiences need to be individualized to better accommodate the many learners in our classrooms. I agree with your approach to the situation of tweaking already created units to make them more student centered and PBL based.
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