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In a time of drastic change it is the learners who
inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a
world that no longer exists. -- Eric Hoffer |
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January, 2007 |
Number 1 |
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In this issue: Part
One: Reframing the meaning of a ‘rigorous’ education Like it? Send
an email and sign up. Not for you? Feel
free to unsubscribe and clear out that email! Either
way, give me my instructions at: Web resources associated with this issue: Marc Prensky: Social-emotional learning |
Dear Colleague:
In my view it’s
time to forward a worldwide conversation about education that has not yet
taken place much in public, but which has begun to rumble through every
country like a mega earthquake. I label the conversation ‘educating from
within.’ At the core of the conversation is a basic fact: 50% of the world’s
population is under age 25 and they will come to adulthood in a
technological, globally linked world that the current generation of adults can
barely foresee. Mostly, we respond to this millennial wave of youth using
outdated assumptions, including the beliefs that children won’t learn unless
subjected to a set of rigid standards, that schools exist to teach students
to compete in a global economy, and that harnessing children to an
ever-improved curriculum will finally, at last, force them to learn what they
need to know. None of this
will work, or is working. I’m not the first to note this, but I do sense a
new storyline emerging. First, we have learned that love, respect, and
communication are better motivators than fear, meaning that educators must
find ways to engage youth through personalized appeals to their dreams and
aspirations. Second, youth want to cooperate, not compete. Hammering them
with grim statistics about “losing the competitive edge” will yield little in
the way of performance; if we want high achievement, we need to help them
become skillful, knowledgeable, and passionate collaborators. And third,
given the swirl of forces surrounding their lives, the children
themselves—their very nature and being—is changing in ways we do not understand,
meaning we had better inquire within about their state of mind and heart. I invite you to
join me in some occasional thinking about the millennial generation and how
adults respond to a worldwide shift that requires us to customize learning for
a global, transforming world. -- Thom Markham, Ph.D. |
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Reframing the Meaning
of a Rigorous Education Part One: Rigor as Personal Mastery Does language shape thought—or thought shape language? Either
way, a word and its perceived meaning can block the way to change. In his
book, Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things,
George Lakoff makes the point that metaphors have an amazing power to channel
our thinking in one direction—a form of what’s known in science as “paradigm
blindness.” The term rigor is
a prime example. It brings to mind a rather industrial image. I see John
Henry-like characters, hammering glowing iron into shapes that are suited to
machines and buildings. There’s a tensile feeling to the word as well—as if
anything that’s rigorous must be as strong and reliable as steel. And as hard.
This image, while exaggerated, is what’s happening in many
schools today—where a “rigorous” education is one that follows the
industrial-age paradigm. That is, use a dense, fact-filled curriculum to drum
information into students and mold them into educated “products.” Test
productivity by reducing knowledge to discrete units of information, and
count the bits like newly made railroad spikes. This paradigm takes us in the
direction of writing “better” curriculum, increasing time on task, adding
more tests, and implementing similar solutions. However, I believe it points us in the wrong direction, and
groups of progressive educators around the world are recognizing this as
well. More and more conversations about rigor in education focus on fostering
habits of mind, teaching skills and competencies, and encouraging positive
attitudes in students. A colleague in The growing conversation about rigor—and the scramble to
learn how to connect with students—reflects what I see as a much deeper shift
in the world. Call it the shift to a post-industrial society, a global
information-driven world, or a ‘disintermediated,’ technologically rich environment—the
shift has happened. The emerging redefinition of rigor, which focuses
schooling on human performance and personal mastery, is necessary because
young people today swim in a 24-7 wired environment in which they learn
constantly. In a sense, they absorb information, from all directions. Knowing
how to organize and apply information effectively and wisely will be the key
to their success. But that requires skills and judgment—almost a kind of
wisdom—that schools can help them practice and master. As the new metaphor for rigor in education takes form, I
believe the following themes will emerge: ·
“Hard” will be redefined. A 12th grader with a 4.2
GPA once told me that the Academy in which I was teaching wasn’t hard, it was
just “really challenging.” I’ve never forgotten her insight. Developing
personal mastery is challenging—memorizing facts or doing repetitive problem
sets is hard. It’s become clear in recent psychology research that challenge
plus efficacy equals passion, even joy. If you don’t believe that or haven’t
seen it in your classes recently, watch a gamer immersed in an X-Box game. Along
these lines, o To Do: Identify
core skills and habits of mind that can be taught and assessed in a defined
curriculum. ·
Being rigorous will involve more
than providing a cognitive challenge. Though schools claim in mission statements to graduate
“lifelong learners,” there usually is no system in place to encourage
lifelong learning. If we want to support a student’s journey toward becoming
a rigorous adult, then we need to begin at the beginning—in the interior of
human beings. Training the brain alone is not enough. Today’s students are
well versed in their emotional lives, but they need support. This territory,
also associated with motivation and engagement, is where schools often tend
to fumble. However, schools around the globe are beginning to address the issues
of motivation, relationship, communication, and fulfillment, and they are
accepting the new technologies of personal growth. To Do: Accelerate
programs that help students develop emotional literacy. The term “at-risk”
will fade as educators recognize that all students need tools for emotional
self-management and optimal learning. ·
Rigor and relationship will be
intertwined. Research
on youth development and resiliency, which should be required reading for all
educators, shows unequivocally that positive relationships between teachers
and students lead to better performance and happier students—markers for the
coming definition of rigor. More sophisticated use of empathic, active
communication will be necessary in the classroom. Because this is a new area
of professional development for teachers, it is likely to meet with
resistance. But in the long run, such training will be standard issue, just
as it is in high-performance corporations today. To Do: Place
greater emphasis on the relationship skills of teachers in the hiring process
and in awarding tenure. Include role-playing with students in interviews to
assess attitudes and skills in relationship to students. ·
The new approach to rigor will
force educators to redefine curriculum. The new definition of rigor must go beyond a ‘student-centered’
approach. Young people are still required to know as well as do. But it’s difficult in this new world to
decide which information is essential to students. What facts are truly
necessary to teach? What concepts are critical? And, what tasks should we
still require of students? Answering these questions requires a meaningful
conversation with students, where we ask for their help in shaping the
appropriateness and relevance of the curriculum. That’s why the current worldwide
trend toward relationship-driven, personalized learning environments is not a
transitory urge—it’s the new way of doing business in schools. To continue to
prescribe curriculum without talking with students is the path of failure, ignoring
the crucial point of determining what young people need to learn today. This
requires educators to admit, “We don’t know.” If you doubt this, read Marc
Prensky’s book, Don’t Bother Me Mom—I’m
Learning, to understand how little adults fathom about the new world. To Do: Be
humble and engage young people in as much dialogue as possible. At the same
time, maintain the role of adult. We are in this change together, and young
people need the best guidance we can give them. Next month: Part Two: How do we teach rigor? How do we measure it?
Thom Markham resides in
© 2007, by Thom Markham, all rights
reserved. Permission is granted by
the author to copy and forward and distribute this via email. Subscriptions to receive The |
