Last week I posted a few questions about what is important for graduating high school students to know… This question is, to me, the most succinct way to try to look at what should be in a curriculum. I suppose I could express some amazement, but the fact of the matter is that this topic (as covered by the education industry, that is, the teachers unions and various state and federal bureaucracies) has been mostly focused upon the politics of this issue…sigh. This link from Ed Week is typical: ‘Curriculum’ Definition Raises Red Flags.
I’ve previously covered some initiatives IBM attempted in the early 90’s to try to help develop deeper (and more effective) use of technology in schools. For today, I have a link from Microsoft presenting their perspectives on much of the same issues.
New Research Shows Students Not Getting the Right Skills for Work and Life
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2011/jan11/01-09WorkSkillsPR.mspx
LONDON — Jan. 10, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the preliminary findings of its multicounty Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research, which shows that students can get the skills they need for work and life in the 21st century through school, but in practice, they rarely do. While education leaders consistently call for change, educational policies and systems in most countries have not yet provided clear definitions of 21st century skills, or guidance to teachers on how to teach and assess these skills.
I wrote a series of blog posts (a year ago) presenting a more personal account of some of these issues, and how they affect all of us. The fact is that it is difficult to describe what is important, after the fact…we all have some things we may have learned in school which turned out to be of value. I imagine that these skills and knowledge are different for almost everyone.
What is important to know? (Part II)
What is important to know? (Part III)
What is important to know? (Part IV)
When I was in college to become a teacher I spent a lot of time focusing on these issues, and found that what I was being presented with in the education classes I took had little real value…to help make me an effective teacher. With this in mind, I found an interesting link:
The writing on the chalkboard: Teacher training needs to be more practical
http://skills-test.blogspot.com/2011/03/writing-on-chalkboard-teacher-training.html
SEATTLE Hemant Mehta’s formal training taught him how to write a lesson plan and how public schooling began in the U.S., but it was useless when it came to keeping order in the classroom and getting students to pay attention.
To get through his first year teaching math to high school students in Naperville, Ill., the 27-year-old needed help from Twitter, math blogs on the Internet, TV sitcoms, and experienced teachers down the hall.
"The ideas there are so much better than my formal training," Mehta said. For example, he discovered that students learn a lot more math when they’re having fun, playing games, or watching video clips.
Critics say few colleges provide adequate nuts-and-bolts teaching skills such as public speaking, classroom management and dealing with the class goof-off.
"It’s complicated in the United States because we don’t as a country agree that teachers need much preparation," said Suzanne Wilson, chair of teacher education at Michigan State University. "We’re deeply divided on this as a country."
Educators say much is being left out of teachers’ lesson plan from keeping kids engaged to leading a meaningful class discussion and using student test data to assess when students are ready to move on.
My question for today is much simpler than trying to get a handle upon a set of curriculum standards… If you examine some of these quotes, you may start to that there may be some correlation between the quality of education and preparation we provide for entry level teachers…and the resulting quality of education and preparation in high school graduates…
Is it important to address this as a prerequisite to dealing with the larger questions of what is important in the classroom?
