Structuring for Learning, the What or the Way?

Clearly the field of learning is at a precipice, whether one supports or rejects the current platform of educational reform, things are changing and moving. Both nationally and internationally, the expectations for educational systems and the needs from educational systems are changing. The world that many of us entered school in is simply not the world our current students need to graduate from. If this is true, then why are we still organized and assessed by through the same framework as students were 20, 50, and 70 years ago.

When one walks into most classrooms, anywhere throughout the land, on the board their is a schedule. While the order may vary based on the teacher, the school, and the students, the contents have not changed. The schedule contains Reading, Mathematics, and Writing. As the children get older, it may specifically break out Social Studies and Science. The state mandates each classroom have a certain allotment of instructional time in these areas. The state assesses in some of these areas. The vocabulary itself - instruction a) a statement that describes how to do something b) an order or command c) the act or process of teaching: the act of instructing someone, is focused on "the what". "The what," simple content knowledge and procedural outcomes. The fabric of our educational system. Based on an age old idea, the more you know the more successful you will be. The problem with this, and perhaps most of the focus of most reform efforts, is that the what itself is no longer something of limited access. The Internet has changed this. Mobile technology has changed this. Knowledge is everywhere. Simply framing school around knowledge silos is preparing children for a world that no longer exists. Framing learning standards and assessments around knowledge silos is standardizing education for generations past not generations forward.

Education is on the precipice. On one side of the field is that of the standards-based reform movement, learning experiences based on thorough knowledge and reasoning based on content. On the other side of the field is a group focused on the way, an innovation-based reform platform. This group of technological and instructional reformers are focused on innovation, passion-projects, and genius hours. This group or reformers seeks engagement of students in a variety of activities that encourages children to research concepts, explore ideas, create new paths, and present their ideas. Regardless of the content knowledge, they are focusing on the practice. 

In here lies the question, do we as leaders look at how we will be measured in the short-term through Common Core assessments like PARCC and Smartbalanced? Do we look at our student products in the long-term creating innovators, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and scientists? Is the learning about the content knowledge and application within a limited, but rigorous, assessment or in cultivating the products of a longer thoughtful process? Depending on what we choose, the very frame of how we schedule each day and the learning experiences within the day change. Is the schedule centered on the 3R's or are the 3R's embedded into some greater learning? In Mike Meyer's old SNL routine, Coffee Talk, he stated the following "The Romanesque Church design was based on the Roman Basilica, discuss." The key question for educators, is it the knowledge of Romanesque church design or the discuss that is the fundamental outcome.

Carpe Diem

Oh Captain, My Captain