Data presented by Dr. Mark McDaniel, professor of psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, showed us that memorization and repetition don’t support long-term retention, but these are the methods we’re most likely to pursue as individuals when it comes time to try to learn. For example, when we first learn addition, we’ll practice that particular skill with a series of exercises of increasing complexity. This is also true for subtraction, multiplication and division. But it’s also true of art history: we learn to recognize the styles of great masters by looking at their work as a collection. We approach learning in blocks and it’s organized and straightforward. But this organized state might actually be hurting us. Learning to add against other mathematical equations may help us craft a story or experience that we can draw on later. A mixed approach allows us to be better at contextualizing real world examples that aren’t as clearly defined as our textbooks. Falling back to ordered approaches is a reasonable response to problem-solving—and that’s essentially what we’re asking students to do. One of McDaniel’s more salient’s points is that educators spend a great deal of time prepping students to learn, but then send them out to engage in learning on their own. If learning were a sport, students would have coaches, much as they do if they play baseball or basketball, but when it comes to learning there are no coaches. This isn’t due to a question of resources or efficiency although it’s easy to make that argument; instead, this seems seated in the social value placed in individual agency.
Education isn’t a team endeavor. While all students face the same curriculum, their performance is judged against each other; a diploma is an outcome that leads to a job. Education is separated from life—which perhaps is why working students sometimes struggle. This sense of the individual permeates almost everything touched by Western culture. Science, too, doesn’t always celebrate teams, though there seems to be a shift occurring in this area. It feels like a very singular, lonely pursuit. It’s the means to an outcome in the form of a job. But citizen science initiatives are showing us a different way: science and learning can happen outside of the laboratory and can connect people in novel ways. In these arenas, STEM emerges as a life skill, and excites passion and discussion in wider groups. Tapping into this conversation, will mean breaking pedestals—are we comfortable with that?
Backlash over the common core demonstrates how unsettling changes can be, but as Dr. Julia Phelan, Senior Researcher and Project Director at UCLA/CRESST said, “we’re living in the sandbox.” It would be ideal if we had a place to test methodology, but there is only the here and now, so we have to be willing to try. What does that mean? Beyond the usual complaints about laptops in the classroom, we have to look to use technology in new ways. For example, Arizona State University piloted a math ............
What Will The Future Of Education Look Like? Scientific America
by frankiespeakin 1 Replies latest social current
-
frankiespeakin
-
frankiespeakin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEM_fields
STEM is an acronym referring to the academic disciplines of science , technology , engineering , and mathematics . [1] The term is typically used in the USA when addressing education policy and curriculum choices in schools from k-12 through college to improve competitiveness in technology development. It has implications for workforce development, national security concerns and immigration policy. [1]