Do you remember those handheld games, that didn’t have to be recharged. You hold it in your hand, and beneath the clear plastic, there are these little bee-bee looking balls rolling around on the face of a clown, and there are holes in the clown’s eyes, ears, and his bow tie. You task is to tilt the the game in order to get the bee-bees to roll into the holes. Well this is how my brain works. If you want me to come up with a good answer, you have to give me some time to roll the balls around, so that they will find their holes.
Chris Walsh asked, during our Saturday CUE conference webcast interview, “How do we reconcile today’s technologies with the accountability and high-stakes testing environment?” As I reported yesterday from the airport, I gave the standard good teaching, staff development, and appropriate technologies routine. I also explained that we have three basic questions that we address in the process of educating.
- What do we teach?
- How do we teach it?
- How well have we taught?
In recent years, we have been focused on the third question, “How Well?” It’s an essential concern, and it’s universal. However, it is a premature question. At this moment in history, when technology has taken a major leap forward, the nature of information has changed, and nearly every other aspect of how we live seems in flux; it seems that the “What?” question is where our focus should be. What do children need to be learning to adapt and prosper in a time of rapid change.
When we have figured that out, then we determine the “How?” question. In what kind of classrooms will students learn, from what kind of teachers, and within what kind of learning experiences?
When we have answered those questions, then we can come back to, “How Well?”
I guess I should have said, “Would you mind rephrasing that question, Chris?”
I would ask Chris to look at his/her class, any class. Who’s the brightest kid? Who’s best at your subject? Who’s the worst? Who needs to spend more time doing tasks? Who needs to work on writing down their thoughts? The answers to all these questions will come straight to any good teacher. Do they need test scores to know it? Not at all.
I have spent this morning talking through a new Teaching and Learning strategy with the Director of Education in one Local Authority here in Scotland where it is indeed the processes of how students learn that is important. In two and a half hours we did not once mention grades, although we did talk about assessment for learning nearly all the time.
Take the argument to your leaders – high stakes and accountability will be the downfall of US students in relation to other Western countries where we are looking at the creative processes in learning. And if you doubt me, read a bit of Daniel Pink 😉
The first question is: “What should the students know or be able to do?” not “What do we teach?”
Fair point, Tom.
There has been a bit of buzz regarding this issue over the last few weeks. This is some of the better thinking that I’ve seen. You suggest that we have been stuck on the third question, and that this is premature. Not sure I agree with that. I would further suggest that there is a segment in the blogosphere (I hate that term, but . . .) that has been stuck on the second question. Your good suggestion is that we need to revisit the first question, with Tom’s refinement of course. I muse, when we consider the “What” question, doesn’t that by necessity influence our thinking on the “How well” question, but not necessarily the “How” question? Just wondering.
Matthew