Darling-Hammond, in her closing chapter of The Flat World and Education, lays out five key elements that must be included in a wise, deep, lovely reform of education in the United States. Of the five elements, three of them resonate the most soundly for me in light of my past and present teaching contexts.
Meaningful Learning Goals “Higher achieving countries have much learner standards; teacher fewer topics more deeply each year; focus more on inquiry, reasoning skills, and applications of knowledge, rather than mere coverage; and have a more thoughtful sequence of expectations based on developmental learning progressions within and across domains.” Just this change alone, leaner standards with a mile deep rather than a mile wide approach, would make the culture of any classroom richer and more enjoyable. Feeling a sense of “leisure” to learning, allowing exploration, deep discussion, questioning and student-driven tangents (relevant ones), all of this fosters a community where students and teachers alike WANT to be. I had a principal who used to say that learning cannot take place in the midst of anxiety and frustration, a relaxed, friendly environment must be in existence. The challenge of this form of deep learning calls upon a teacher’s expertise of content area and knowledge of the full spectrum of skills and developmental abilities of her students. In my own experience, when I have had the freedom to engage in this kind of teaching, I needed more time to prepare myself to teach. I needed to reread material, investigate the best pedagogy to design lessons designed to bring the students into the learning, I had to consider my audience and their current skills and backgrounds so I could build on what they already knew and could do, I needed time to collect realia and stage learning centers in my room. When I did this well and thoroughly the results were nothing short of amazing. Students were observably enthusiastic, engaged, and their performance tasks reflected their increased learning. Too, I myself would walk away feeling satisfied and fulfilled as a teacher and more likely to succeed on the next learning unit design. Strong Professional Standards and Supports Designing this type of deep study underscores the need for teachers to be fully trained and supported. Not only does a teacher need a full command of subject content and pedagogy, as mentioned above, a teacher needs time to think deeply and plan masterfully. It calls to mind Darling-Hammond’s comparison between U.S. teachers and teachers in more successful countries. U.S. teachers spend more time actively teaching and little time in planning and collaboration whereas the teachers in the most successful countries spend less time actively teaching and more time in lesson, curriculum, and professional planning and learning. My experience from teaching in a private school highlights this use of time. On some days I was with students all day without a single break - including monitoring recess and lunch time. I was lucky to get 2 or three prep periods of about 30 minutes to 45 minutes each for the entire week. For most of these, I relied upon parent volunteers to teach P.E., Art, Music, or Gardening. If they didn’t show up, well, I was just out of luck. The flip side was that I was allowed the freedom to set my own pacing and design my own learning units in most subjects. Very exciting and very time consuming. But the allure of crafting deep learning like that… well, to be continued while I segue into the third key element of education reform that struck a chord with me. Schools organized for student and teacher learning So there I was with little prep-time (and incidentally, no formal training as a teacher as I acquired my teaching credential eight years into my career)... but it was a school setting structured for personalization. It was the essence of what Darling-Hammond called a communitarian school - smaller class size, looping the teachers to stay with kids, teams of teachers who collaborate and share students, and involving students’ parents. It had most of the structures for personalization: a close advisory system for the students; reduced pupil loads for teachers; intellectually challenging and relevant instruction; flexible supports in the form of individualized tutoring and high teacher accessibility; multiple instructional strategies; community service; performance-based assessments; and weekly whole-staff collaboration time which was highly student-focused. In this environment, you not only come to know your students personally, but you also come to love them, truly, and want the very best for them. As a teacher, you will dig deeper for them, almost as if they were your own children. Near to what John Dewey describes, you are like the best and wise parent, wanting something lovely and deep for your children. And so you work harder and perhaps (even if you have little provided for you in the way of ongoing teacher supports, such as training in meaningful pedagogy and adequate prep time) longer. That allure of loving WHAT you teach, HOW you are given permission to teach, and WHO you teach will offset many other less desirable considerations - like staying several hours after school every day to get it done, not having an intelligent, reciprocal accountability system, or a lack of resources.
4 Comments
I found so much of this book profound, but really focusing in on meaningful learning something that always strikes a cord with me. The idea that teachers must be deeply rooted in their content so that students can have meaningful and deep learning is crucial. We cannot expect students to learn things that stay with them if we are just graze the surface. This was a thoughtful look at that, and I found myself agreeing with so much of it.
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Nai Saelee
3/22/2017 07:19:54 pm
Nancy,
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James
3/23/2017 06:37:05 pm
Nancy,
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Dan Parker
3/26/2017 10:21:16 am
Hi Nancy,
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