http://edge.ascd.org/service/getFeed.kickAction?mediaType=BLOG&quantity=25&as=127586 New blogs from Thom_Markham on ASCD EDge Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:11:10 GMT Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:11:10 GMT website@ascd.org (ascdAdmin) website@ascd.org (ascdAdmin) KickApps Feed Builder 2013-04-23T17:11:10Z 29 http://edge.ascd.org/service/searchEverything.kickAction?as=127586&sortType=recent&tags=null 0 http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Keys-to-High-Performance-Teams/blog/6521418/127586.html Not every student needs to prepare for a Google-like workplace. And, as popular as STEM is presently, most students don’t want to become software engineers or scientists. But every student, in any job, will collaborate as a member of a team. I once talked with a student who told me he wanted to be a Fed Ex driver. “Just drive around and deliver things,” he said, “No teamwork there.” I urged him to look at the handheld device carried by every driver—the one that communicates with a worldwide network and plugs the driver into a global team.   Every student needs to be prepared for that environment, partly for employment opportunity, but mainly because the deeply embedded mental model of learning and creating as an individual process is obsolete. No one, any longer, can isolate themselves from someone else’s knowledge base, and collaboration has shifted from its earlier incarnation as a social networking skill into the chief way in which we talk to one another in order to get things done. Powerful collaboration is driven by incisive communication—and out of that process come the very best expressions of innovation, creativity, and critical inquiry. In other words, collaboration is now the foundational 21st century skill.   Thinking that students are ‘naturals’ at this is a fallacy. High performance collaboration requires training and the development of key personal skills. For teachers, two initial steps will help launch this process. First, reframe the conversation by using the terminology of ‘teams,’ not group work. Think of your favorite sports team and now call them a ‘group.’ Feel the difference? Teams focus on accountability and commitment; they form for a purpose and operate through norms and shared expectations.   Second, import and adapt the high performance principles common in the work world to teams in the classroom. This requires time, good coaching skills, a relentless focus on the quality of interaction between students, and a set of team tools, including contracts, rubrics, and exercise. But the payoff is noticeable. Once students form teams over an extended period and begin to collaborate well, they learn more, get better at teaching others, produce more powerful products, and enjoy the process. Here are ten principles that can help you design high performance teams:   Examine individual strengths within collaborative context. Teams form through an intentional process. One starting point is to have members begin by sharing their individual strengths. Who will need help on certain aspects of the task ahead? Use simple tools, such as a basic Myers-Briggs test, to have students individually assess themselves. Have them share results using respectful communication. In this early phase, always debrief the process. Were we fair? Straightforward? Inclusive? Are we on the way to becoming a team? The goal is not to judge differences, but open up the discussion so students make room for everyone to participate.   Speak the language of commitment and character. Groups fail because members don’t pull their weight, aren’t accountable, and don’t really collaborate at all. Have a thorough discussion about the meaning of teamwork. What do students see in their sports experience that translates? Have them grapple with the question: How will we, as a team and individually, hold ourselves accountable for deadlines, shared products, and overall quality?   Set the rules. In the adult world, full participation in the team is the expectation (although not always the reality.) Students, however, need support for learning to be a good team member. After a thorough preview of who we are as a team, have members agree on norms or a contract, define their roles, and design specific remedies for situations in which members do not live up to agreements. For students who seem incapable of participating in a team, you might have to make special arrangements. But this should be the exception, not the norm.   Prepare teams to fall apart.  The old formula for ‘forming, storming, norming, and performing’ is a great comfort to anyone working in a team or on a project—because it is a constant. Teams may start off feeling inspired and unified; by week two, personalities emerge, agreements get broken, and—suddenly—everything’s off. Prepare your teams for the process; help them notice when productivity is breaking down. Reserve time in the teaching schedule for teams to sort out differences, regroup, reassess, and renorm.   See conflict as opportunity. No one likes conflict, but this is the exact point when students in teams learn the ways of non-judgment and conflict resolution they will need in the future. Teach the language of constructive feedback and the golden rule of good listening: Are you listening—or just waiting to respond? Often, you can head off issues by having teams practice this at the beginning of a project.   Stress design and prototype thinking. After teams become cohesive, the focus turns to work quality. First, make sure teams understand why they are a team. Their goal is to mind-meld themselves into a high-functioning set of individuals focused on creating and crafting the best product they can. Allow time for brainstorming. Encourage failure as a step to eventual success. Give them time to mull, share, and redo. Make sure every idea goes through the filter of feedback.   Schedule critical thinking. A very powerful training tool is to use protocols, such as a critical friends protocol, visible thinking routines, or other tools for inquiry, to encourage and teach focused communication that uses the vocabulary and terms of the discipline. Early in the team process, teach them to respond to ideas with a “I like…I wonder…I suggest” approach. Once they have the basics, mix and match. Break the teams into pairs to come up with an idea, then pair-share. Have teams present ideas to each other, then debrief. Keep it in motion and, as they proceed, expect teams to get better at questioning and constructive feedback.   Reward innovation. Teams are designed to produce top quality work, but often they exceed that standard. The team process is inherently creative—and they very well might deliver a product that earns an ‘A” but goes beyond the requirements of the assignment. In our standardized system, we desperately need a way to recognize and acknowledge out of the box thinking. I suggest using individual and team assessment rubrics that contain a breakthrough column. This is a blank column that rewards innovation and invites inspiration.   Use online collaborative tools.  Collaboration and invention have moved online, but the same high performance standards are in effect. Teams should be able to show rich interactions, critical inquiry, and clear communication in their online collaboration. They should hold each other accountable. In this case, teachers need to be part of collaborative teams by being online as much as students. No more hiding behind statements like, “I don’t know much about Edmodo, but my students are really good at it.”   Reflect and move on. Before teams disperse, close the circle of learning. Allow a class period to debrief and reflect on the experience. Reinforce high level collaboration by using a formal debrief process. What did we learn? How did we function as a team? What gaps were there? What did we learn individually and collectively? How was the quality of our work, and how do we improve it?   Thom Markham is a psychologist, school redesign consultant, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. To download the tools mentioned in the blog, go to the PBL tools page on the website, www.thommarkham.com. If you can’t find what you need, contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Not every student needs to prepare for a Google-like workplace. And, as popular as STEM is presently, most students don’t want to become software engineers or scientists. But every student, in any job, will collaborate as a member of a team. I once talked with a student who told me he wanted to be a Fed Ex driver. “Just drive around and deliver things,” he said, “No teamwork there.” I urged him to look at the handheld device carried by every driver—the one that communicates with a worldwide network and plugs the driver into a global team.   Every student needs to be prepared for that environment, partly for employment opportunity, but mainly because the deeply embedded mental model of learning and creating as an individual process is obsolete. No one, any longer, can isolate themselves from someone else’s knowledge base, and collaboration has shifted from its earlier incarnation as a social networking skill into the chief way in which we talk to one another in order to get things done. Powerful collaboration is driven by incisive communication—and out of that process come the very best expressions of innovation, creativity, and critical inquiry. In other words, collaboration is now the foundational 21st century skill.   Thinking that students are ‘naturals’ at this is a fallacy. High performance collaboration requires training and the development of key personal skills. For teachers, two initial steps will help launch this process. First, reframe the conversation by using the terminology of ‘teams,’ not group work. Think of your favorite sports team and now call them a ‘group.’ Feel the difference? Teams focus on accountability and commitment; they form for a purpose and operate through norms and shared expectations.   Second, import and adapt the high performance principles common in the work world to teams in the classroom. This requires time, good coaching skills, a relentless focus on the quality of interaction between students, and a set of team tools, including contracts, rubrics, and exercise. But the payoff is noticeable. Once students form teams over an extended period and begin to collaborate well, they learn more, get better at teaching others, produce more powerful products, and enjoy the process. Here are ten principles that can help you design high performance teams:   Examine individual strengths within collaborative context. Teams form through an intentional process. One starting point is to have members begin by sharing their individual strengths. Who will need help on certain aspects of the task ahead? Use simple tools, such as a basic Myers-Briggs test, to have students individually assess themselves. Have them share results using respectful communication. In this early phase, always debrief the process. Were we fair? Straightforward? Inclusive? Are we on the way to becoming a team? The goal is not to judge differences, but open up the discussion so students make room for everyone to participate.   Speak the language of commitment and character. Groups fail because members don’t pull their weight, aren’t accountable, and don’t really collaborate at all. Have a thorough discussion about the meaning of teamwork. What do students see in their sports experience that translates? Have them grapple with the question: How will we, as a team and individually, hold ourselves accountable for deadlines, shared products, and overall quality?   Set the rules. In the adult world, full participation in the team is the expectation (although not always the reality.) Students, however, need support for learning to be a good team member. After a thorough preview of who we are as a team, have members agree on norms or a contract, define their roles, and design specific remedies for situations in which members do not live up to agreements. For students who seem incapable of participating in a team, you might have to make special arrangements. But this should be the exception, not the norm.   Prepare teams to fall apart.  The old formula for ‘forming, storming, norming, and performing’ is a great comfort to anyone working in a team or on a project—because it is a constant. Teams may start off feeling inspired and unified; by week two, personalities emerge, agreements get broken, and—suddenly—everything’s off. Prepare your teams for the process; help them notice when productivity is breaking down. Reserve time in the teaching schedule for teams to sort out differences, regroup, reassess, and renorm.   See conflict as opportunity. No one likes conflict, but this is the exact point when students in teams learn the ways of non-judgment and conflict resolution they will need in the future. Teach the language of constructive feedback and the golden rule of good listening: Are you listening—or just waiting to respond? Often, you can head off issues by having teams practice this at the beginning of a project.   Stress design and prototype thinking. After teams become cohesive, the focus turns to work quality. First, make sure teams understand why they are a team. Their goal is to mind-meld themselves into a high-functioning set of individuals focused on creating and crafting the best product they can. Allow time for brainstorming. Encourage failure as a step to eventual success. Give them time to mull, share, and redo. Make sure every idea goes through the filter of feedback.   Schedule critical thinking. A very powerful training tool is to use protocols, such as a critical friends protocol, visible thinking routines, or other tools for inquiry, to encourage and teach focused communication that uses the vocabulary and terms of the discipline. Early in the team process, teach them to respond to ideas with a “I like…I wonder…I suggest” approach. Once they have the basics, mix and match. Break the teams into pairs to come up with an idea, then pair-share. Have teams present ideas to each other, then debrief. Keep it in motion and, as they proceed, expect teams to get better at questioning and constructive feedback.   Reward innovation. Teams are designed to produce top quality work, but often they exceed that standard. The team process is inherently creative—and they very well might deliver a product that earns an ‘A” but goes beyond the requirements of the assignment. In our standardized system, we desperately need a way to recognize and acknowledge out of the box thinking. I suggest using individual and team assessment rubrics that contain a breakthrough column. This is a blank column that rewards innovation and invites inspiration.   Use online collaborative tools.  Collaboration and invention have moved online, but the same high performance standards are in effect. Teams should be able to show rich interactions, critical inquiry, and clear communication in their online collaboration. They should hold each other accountable. In this case, teachers need to be part of collaborative teams by being online as much as students. No more hiding behind statements like, “I don’t know much about Edmodo, but my students are really good at it.”   Reflect and move on. Before teams disperse, close the circle of learning. Allow a class period to debrief and reflect on the experience. Reinforce high level collaboration by using a formal debrief process. What did we learn? How did we function as a team? What gaps were there? What did we learn individually and collectively? How was the quality of our work, and how do we improve it?   Thom Markham is a psychologist, school redesign consultant, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. To download the tools mentioned in the blog, go to the PBL tools page on the website, www.thommarkham.com. If you can’t find what you need, contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Tue, 23 Apr 2013 17:11:10 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Keys-to-High-Performance-Teams/blog/6521418/127586.html Thom_Markham 2013-04-23T17:11:10Z ASCD EDge Not every student needs to prepare for a Google-like workplace. And, as popular as STEM is presently, most students don’t want to become software engineers or scientists. But every student, in any job, will collaborate as a member of a team. I once talked with a student who told me he wanted to be a Fed Ex driver. “Just drive around and deliver things,” he said, “No teamwork there.” I urged him to look at the handheld device carried by every driver—the one that communicates with a worldwide network and plugs the driver into a global team.   Every student needs to be prepared for that environment, partly for employment opportunity, but mainly because the deeply embedded mental model of learning and creating as an individual process is obsolete. No one, any longer, can isolate themselves from someone else’s knowledge base, and collaboration has shifted from its earlier incarnation as a social networking skill into the chief way in which we talk to one another in order to get things done. Powerful collaboration is driven by incisive communication—and out of that process come the very best expressions of innovation, creativity, and critical inquiry. In other words, collaboration is now the foundational 21st century skill.   Thinking that students are ‘naturals’ at this is a fallacy. High performance collaboration requires training and the development of key personal skills. For teachers, two initial steps will help launch this process. First, reframe the conversation by using the terminology of ‘teams,’ not group work. Think of your favorite sports team and now call them a ‘group.’ Feel the difference? Teams focus on accountability and commitment; they form for a purpose and operate through norms and shared expectations.   Second, import and adapt the high performance principles common in the work world to teams in the classroom. This requires time, good coaching skills, a relentless focus on the quality of interaction between students, and a set of team tools, including contracts, rubrics, and exercise. But the payoff is noticeable. Once students form teams over an extended period and begin to collaborate well, they learn more, get better at teaching others, produce more powerful products, and enjoy the process. Here are ten principles that can help you design high performance teams:   Examine individual strengths within collaborative context. Teams form through an intentional process. One starting point is to have members begin by sharing their individual strengths. Who will need help on certain aspects of the task ahead? Use simple tools, such as a basic Myers-Briggs test, to have students individually assess themselves. Have them share results using respectful communication. In this early phase, always debrief the process. Were we fair? Straightforward? Inclusive? Are we on the way to becoming a team? The goal is not to judge differences, but open up the discussion so students make room for everyone to participate.   Speak the language of commitment and character. Groups fail because members don’t pull their weight, aren’t accountable, and don’t really collaborate at all. Have a thorough discussion about the meaning of teamwork. What do students see in their sports experience that translates? Have them grapple with the question: How will we, as a team and individually, hold ourselves accountable for deadlines, shared products, and overall quality?   Set the rules. In the adult world, full participation in the team is the expectation (although not always the reality.) Students, however, need support for learning to be a good team member. After a thorough preview of who we are as a team, have members agree on norms or a contract, define their roles, and design specific remedies for situations in which members do not live up to agreements. For students who seem incapable of participating in a team, you might have to make special arrangements. But this should be the exception, not the norm.   Prepare teams to fall apart.  The old formula for ‘forming, storming, norming, and performing’ is a great comfort to anyone working in a team or on a project—because it is a constant. Teams may start off feeling inspired and unified; by week two, personalities emerge, agreements get broken, and—suddenly—everything’s off. Prepare your teams for the process; help them notice when productivity is breaking down. Reserve time in the teaching schedule for teams to sort out differences, regroup, reassess, and renorm.   See conflict as opportunity. No one likes conflict, but this is the exact point when students in teams learn the ways of non-judgment and conflict resolution they will need in the future. Teach the language of constructive feedback and the golden rule of good listening: Are you listening—or just waiting to respond? Often, you can head off issues by having teams practice this at the beginning of a project.   Stress design and prototype thinking. After teams become cohesive, the focus turns to work quality. First, make sure teams understand why they are a team. Their goal is to mind-meld themselves into a high-functioning set of individuals focused on creating and crafting the best product they can. Allow time for brainstorming. Encourage failure as a step to eventual success. Give them time to mull, share, and redo. Make sure every idea goes through the filter of feedback.   Schedule critical thinking. A very powerful training tool is to use protocols, such as a critical friends protocol, visible thinking routines, or other tools for inquiry, to encourage and teach focused communication that uses the vocabulary and terms of the discipline. Early in the team process, teach them to respond to ideas with a “I like…I wonder…I suggest” approach. Once they have the basics, mix and match. Break the teams into pairs to come up with an idea, then pair-share. Have teams present ideas to each other, then debrief. Keep it in motion and, as they proceed, expect teams to get better at questioning and constructive feedback.   Reward innovation. Teams are designed to produce top quality work, but often they exceed that standard. The team process is inherently creative—and they very well might deliver a product that earns an ‘A” but goes beyond the requirements of the assignment. In our standardized system, we desperately need a way to recognize and acknowledge out of the box thinking. I suggest using individual and team assessment rubrics that contain a breakthrough column. This is a blank column that rewards innovation and invites inspiration.   Use online collaborative tools.  Collaboration and invention have moved online, but the same high performance standards are in effect. Teams should be able to show rich interactions, critical inquiry, and clear communication in their online collaboration. They should hold each other accountable. In this case, teachers need to be part of collaborative teams by being online as much as students. No more hiding behind statements like, “I don’t know much about Edmodo, but my students are really good at it.”   Reflect and move on. Before teams disperse, close the circle of learning. Allow a class period to debrief and reflect on the experience. Reinforce high level collaboration by using a formal debrief process. What did we learn? How did we function as a team? What gaps were there? What did we learn individually and collectively? How was the quality of our work, and how do we improve it?   Thom Markham is a psychologist, school redesign consultant, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. To download the tools mentioned in the blog, go to the PBL tools page on the website, www.thommarkham.com. If you can’t find what you need, contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. nonadult false Ten Keys to High Performance Teams text blog 742 0 0.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6521418 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Sustaining-PBL-at-Your-School/blog/6517426/127586.html Recently a colleague asked me a question that made me pause and reflect. “How successful is PBL, really?” He’s an advocate for PBL, like I am, so the question wasn’t designed to nitpick or argue against PBL. He was reflecting on his own experience, and asking if mine had been similar.   I began to look back on the nearly 175 workshops I’ve presented and the large number of schools I’ve coached that have taken on PBL in hopes of changing the culture of teaching and learning. All of them wanted to move toward more depth and inquiry, and away from direct instruction, pacing guides, coverage, and the general lethargy that pervades schools as they labor under outmoded rules of engagement. Most of all, they hoped to sustain PBL year over year to power their school into 21st century learning.   How successful have they been? There are two answers to the question. For schools designed from the ground up to support integrated instruction, an inquiry-based culture, and a relentless focus on 21st century skills, the answer is clear: Extraordinarily successful. When the organizational philosophy supports student-driven inquiry, the natural outcome is great projects. These schools are the lights across the land—the Envision Schools, High Tech High, or the New Technology High Schools—that have become well known , as well a growing number of similar schools in every state. The students at these schools perform at world class levels, in some cases leading the world.   I’ve worked with many teachers, principals and superintendents who have toured leading-edge schools. They return to their own campus, wanting the same results. So they plunge into PBL. How successful are they? The answer, unfortunately: Not very.   Mostly, the schools start well. A core number of teachers implement projects that begin to show results. Students get excited; teachers feel satisfied; principals report a turning point. But that’s the first year. By the second year, typically after a strong start in the fall, PBL fades. The effort is not sustained. Why? It’s the well known rubber band effect. The industrial system can stretch to accommodate new viewpoints, but over time the constraints—mainly in-the-box thinking about tests scores and the lack of a collaborative culture committed to change—take their toll. Everyone settles back down into the routine.         This same dynamic, by the way, now drives the debate over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Will they transform schools or become a new and improved laundry list? Here, the lessons of PBL are instructive. More than anything, it tells me that grafting an inquiry-based culture onto an industrial framework is an impossible dream, unless the effort is accompanied by a innovative focus on organizational change and high performance. This is a holistic endeavor, requiring a crucial brew of synergistic elements that work together to create a seamless system for sustainable change.   What are the key ingredients? For those schools that did transition successfully to PBL, I can think of six essentials that enabled them to power through tough barriers and emerge at the other end of the tunnel. I suspect the list for the CCSS will be the same:   Extraordinary Leadership. Leadership means everyone. It helps to have a Principal who is on fire about new forms of education, and whose focus is relentless. But the distinguishing marks between administrators and teachers disappear in a school trying to reorganize itself. No one is an expert on the 21st century yet; everyone is a teacher and learner. That means exploring the why together, committing to experimentation, and sharing observations constantly. The most important attitude leaders can communicate is: Let’s problem solve this. If leadership doesn’t convey possibility, teachers eventually walk the halls with a deflated look. The tone of I’ve been here before creeps in. PBL may last a few more months, but it’s gone off life support.   Collaborative Culture. The best activity at the beginning of the PBL journey? Sit in a circle and talk. Embed the core mission in each person’s mind and heart. Agree on steps. Hold each other accountable. Be kind, because it’s hard work. And then move the collaboration forward by getting on Edmodo or Google+ and start talking to one another. If the school schedule doesn’t provide collaboration time, change the schedule. Start where you need to start—and remember that most problems originate upstream. You have to go to the headwaters for solutions. The takeaway here is that redoing your school is too big a job for just a few minds. As Machiavelli once said, “The times are too big for our brains.” That applies here.   Tools and Methods. PBL is really two different things. It’s a philosophy of student-focused inquiry that incorporates skillful behaviors and authentic work. It’s also a discrete method, a set of procedures and tools that operationalize projects into powerful experiences that can be replicated, documented, and assessed. By now, these methods have been field tested and refined; they work. To use PBL methods, all teachers should have the opportunity to get to know the tools. (Just as a note: the CCSS and PBL intersect here, but it is the philosophy of PBL that drives the new standards. Not everything needs to be a project.)   A system wide commitment to reflection. I’ll call this the ‘failure before success’ approach. System-wide, the leadership must build a recurring, reflection process into the schedule that allows for capturing learning and successes. The reflection must be protocol-driven, not a discussion about how ‘great that project was.’ Take time to look deeply at the outcomes. Notice differences in student behaviors. Share the debriefs broadly across the staff, including different departments.   Agreements on testing. Testing is like the smog in Beijing: It’s in the air and it’s not going away. It’s such a pervasive discussion these days that it acts like an anchor to keep PBL from moving forward. Sit down together and find a common message on testing. Figure out a way to keep it in the conversation without making it so prominent. If your school is doing more projects, but life stops mid-March to prepare for testing, then be able to explain that to yourselves and to your students. The competing demands of test results and API scores versus inquiry-based education must be resolved through an elegant synthesis that puts both in proper perspective. Take time at a staff meeting to discuss this challenge; then craft an elevator speech for leadership (that’s everyone again) to use with parents, students, and among each other.   Critical Mass. Here’s the basic problem with sustaining PBL at your school: 40% of the staff agrees with you, 40% disagrees, and 20% doesn’t think about it. The goal for sustainability is to develop critical mass—a core of committed teachers who tip the balance and set the direction for the school. Every good PBL effort starts with the champions, the few who by way of foresight or dissatisfaction enter the fray first. They can take a school through year one, but after that the process must be intentionally fed by relentless marketing. Take every opportunity to discuss and debrief projects. Show case projects to parents and the community. Always reflect and be open to refinement. Set up critical friends groups in your PLC’s. And, finally, adopt the mindset of a start-up in Silicon Valley: It will take you three years to get off the ground and start flying. It’s an exciting journey, but a long haul.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for Inquiry and Innovation for K-12 educators and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: Make your mind bigger than your brain. Download tools for project based learning on his website, www.thommarkham.com, or contact him by e-mail at thom@thommarkham.com. .   Recently a colleague asked me a question that made me pause and reflect. “How successful is PBL, really?” He’s an advocate for PBL, like I am, so the question wasn’t designed to nitpick or argue against PBL. He was reflecting on his own experience, and asking if mine had been similar.   I began to look back on the nearly 175 workshops I’ve presented and the large number of schools I’ve coached that have taken on PBL in hopes of changing the culture of teaching and learning. All of them wanted to move toward more depth and inquiry, and away from direct instruction, pacing guides, coverage, and the general lethargy that pervades schools as they labor under outmoded rules of engagement. Most of all, they hoped to sustain PBL year over year to power their school into 21st century learning.   How successful have they been? There are two answers to the question. For schools designed from the ground up to support integrated instruction, an inquiry-based culture, and a relentless focus on 21st century skills, the answer is clear: Extraordinarily successful. When the organizational philosophy supports student-driven inquiry, the natural outcome is great projects. These schools are the lights across the land—the Envision Schools, High Tech High, or the New Technology High Schools—that have become well known , as well a growing number of similar schools in every state. The students at these schools perform at world class levels, in some cases leading the world.   I’ve worked with many teachers, principals and superintendents who have toured leading-edge schools. They return to their own campus, wanting the same results. So they plunge into PBL. How successful are they? The answer, unfortunately: Not very.   Mostly, the schools start well. A core number of teachers implement projects that begin to show results. Students get excited; teachers feel satisfied; principals report a turning point. But that’s the first year. By the second year, typically after a strong start in the fall, PBL fades. The effort is not sustained. Why? It’s the well known rubber band effect. The industrial system can stretch to accommodate new viewpoints, but over time the constraints—mainly in-the-box thinking about tests scores and the lack of a collaborative culture committed to change—take their toll. Everyone settles back down into the routine.         This same dynamic, by the way, now drives the debate over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Will they transform schools or become a new and improved laundry list? Here, the lessons of PBL are instructive. More than anything, it tells me that grafting an inquiry-based culture onto an industrial framework is an impossible dream, unless the effort is accompanied by a innovative focus on organizational change and high performance. This is a holistic endeavor, requiring a crucial brew of synergistic elements that work together to create a seamless system for sustainable change.   What are the key ingredients? For those schools that did transition successfully to PBL, I can think of six essentials that enabled them to power through tough barriers and emerge at the other end of the tunnel. I suspect the list for the CCSS will be the same:   Extraordinary Leadership. Leadership means everyone. It helps to have a Principal who is on fire about new forms of education, and whose focus is relentless. But the distinguishing marks between administrators and teachers disappear in a school trying to reorganize itself. No one is an expert on the 21st century yet; everyone is a teacher and learner. That means exploring the why together, committing to experimentation, and sharing observations constantly. The most important attitude leaders can communicate is: Let’s problem solve this. If leadership doesn’t convey possibility, teachers eventually walk the halls with a deflated look. The tone of I’ve been here before creeps in. PBL may last a few more months, but it’s gone off life support.   Collaborative Culture. The best activity at the beginning of the PBL journey? Sit in a circle and talk. Embed the core mission in each person’s mind and heart. Agree on steps. Hold each other accountable. Be kind, because it’s hard work. And then move the collaboration forward by getting on Edmodo or Google+ and start talking to one another. If the school schedule doesn’t provide collaboration time, change the schedule. Start where you need to start—and remember that most problems originate upstream. You have to go to the headwaters for solutions. The takeaway here is that redoing your school is too big a job for just a few minds. As Machiavelli once said, “The times are too big for our brains.” That applies here.   Tools and Methods. PBL is really two different things. It’s a philosophy of student-focused inquiry that incorporates skillful behaviors and authentic work. It’s also a discrete method, a set of procedures and tools that operationalize projects into powerful experiences that can be replicated, documented, and assessed. By now, these methods have been field tested and refined; they work. To use PBL methods, all teachers should have the opportunity to get to know the tools. (Just as a note: the CCSS and PBL intersect here, but it is the philosophy of PBL that drives the new standards. Not everything needs to be a project.)   A system wide commitment to reflection. I’ll call this the ‘failure before success’ approach. System-wide, the leadership must build a recurring, reflection process into the schedule that allows for capturing learning and successes. The reflection must be protocol-driven, not a discussion about how ‘great that project was.’ Take time to look deeply at the outcomes. Notice differences in student behaviors. Share the debriefs broadly across the staff, including different departments.   Agreements on testing. Testing is like the smog in Beijing: It’s in the air and it’s not going away. It’s such a pervasive discussion these days that it acts like an anchor to keep PBL from moving forward. Sit down together and find a common message on testing. Figure out a way to keep it in the conversation without making it so prominent. If your school is doing more projects, but life stops mid-March to prepare for testing, then be able to explain that to yourselves and to your students. The competing demands of test results and API scores versus inquiry-based education must be resolved through an elegant synthesis that puts both in proper perspective. Take time at a staff meeting to discuss this challenge; then craft an elevator speech for leadership (that’s everyone again) to use with parents, students, and among each other.   Critical Mass. Here’s the basic problem with sustaining PBL at your school: 40% of the staff agrees with you, 40% disagrees, and 20% doesn’t think about it. The goal for sustainability is to develop critical mass—a core of committed teachers who tip the balance and set the direction for the school. Every good PBL effort starts with the champions, the few who by way of foresight or dissatisfaction enter the fray first. They can take a school through year one, but after that the process must be intentionally fed by relentless marketing. Take every opportunity to discuss and debrief projects. Show case projects to parents and the community. Always reflect and be open to refinement. Set up critical friends groups in your PLC’s. And, finally, adopt the mindset of a start-up in Silicon Valley: It will take you three years to get off the ground and start flying. It’s an exciting journey, but a long haul.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for Inquiry and Innovation for K-12 educators and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: Make your mind bigger than your brain. Download tools for project based learning on his website, www.thommarkham.com, or contact him by e-mail at thom@thommarkham.com. .   Fri, 22 Mar 2013 22:27:09 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Sustaining-PBL-at-Your-School/blog/6517426/127586.html Thom_Markham 2013-03-22T22:27:09Z ASCD EDge Recently a colleague asked me a question that made me pause and reflect. “How successful is PBL, really?” He’s an advocate for PBL, like I am, so the question wasn’t designed to nitpick or argue against PBL. He was reflecting on his own experience, and asking if mine had been similar.   I began to look back on the nearly 175 workshops I’ve presented and the large number of schools I’ve coached that have taken on PBL in hopes of changing the culture of teaching and learning. All of them wanted to move toward more depth and inquiry, and away from direct instruction, pacing guides, coverage, and the general lethargy that pervades schools as they labor under outmoded rules of engagement. Most of all, they hoped to sustain PBL year over year to power their school into 21st century learning.   How successful have they been? There are two answers to the question. For schools designed from the ground up to support integrated instruction, an inquiry-based culture, and a relentless focus on 21st century skills, the answer is clear: Extraordinarily successful. When the organizational philosophy supports student-driven inquiry, the natural outcome is great projects. These schools are the lights across the land—the Envision Schools, High Tech High, or the New Technology High Schools—that have become well known , as well a growing number of similar schools in every state. The students at these schools perform at world class levels, in some cases leading the world.   I’ve worked with many teachers, principals and superintendents who have toured leading-edge schools. They return to their own campus, wanting the same results. So they plunge into PBL. How successful are they? The answer, unfortunately: Not very.   Mostly, the schools start well. A core number of teachers implement projects that begin to show results. Students get excited; teachers feel satisfied; principals report a turning point. But that’s the first year. By the second year, typically after a strong start in the fall, PBL fades. The effort is not sustained. Why? It’s the well known rubber band effect. The industrial system can stretch to accommodate new viewpoints, but over time the constraints—mainly in-the-box thinking about tests scores and the lack of a collaborative culture committed to change—take their toll. Everyone settles back down into the routine.         This same dynamic, by the way, now drives the debate over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Will they transform schools or become a new and improved laundry list? Here, the lessons of PBL are instructive. More than anything, it tells me that grafting an inquiry-based culture onto an industrial framework is an impossible dream, unless the effort is accompanied by a innovative focus on organizational change and high performance. This is a holistic endeavor, requiring a crucial brew of synergistic elements that work together to create a seamless system for sustainable change.   What are the key ingredients? For those schools that did transition successfully to PBL, I can think of six essentials that enabled them to power through tough barriers and emerge at the other end of the tunnel. I suspect the list for the CCSS will be the same:   Extraordinary Leadership. Leadership means everyone. It helps to have a Principal who is on fire about new forms of education, and whose focus is relentless. But the distinguishing marks between administrators and teachers disappear in a school trying to reorganize itself. No one is an expert on the 21st century yet; everyone is a teacher and learner. That means exploring the why together, committing to experimentation, and sharing observations constantly. The most important attitude leaders can communicate is: Let’s problem solve this. If leadership doesn’t convey possibility, teachers eventually walk the halls with a deflated look. The tone of I’ve been here before creeps in. PBL may last a few more months, but it’s gone off life support.   Collaborative Culture. The best activity at the beginning of the PBL journey? Sit in a circle and talk. Embed the core mission in each person’s mind and heart. Agree on steps. Hold each other accountable. Be kind, because it’s hard work. And then move the collaboration forward by getting on Edmodo or Google+ and start talking to one another. If the school schedule doesn’t provide collaboration time, change the schedule. Start where you need to start—and remember that most problems originate upstream. You have to go to the headwaters for solutions. The takeaway here is that redoing your school is too big a job for just a few minds. As Machiavelli once said, “The times are too big for our brains.” That applies here.   Tools and Methods. PBL is really two different things. It’s a philosophy of student-focused inquiry that incorporates skillful behaviors and authentic work. It’s also a discrete method, a set of procedures and tools that operationalize projects into powerful experiences that can be replicated, documented, and assessed. By now, these methods have been field tested and refined; they work. To use PBL methods, all teachers should have the opportunity to get to know the tools. (Just as a note: the CCSS and PBL intersect here, but it is the philosophy of PBL that drives the new standards. Not everything needs to be a project.)   A system wide commitment to reflection. I’ll call this the ‘failure before success’ approach. System-wide, the leadership must build a recurring, reflection process into the schedule that allows for capturing learning and successes. The reflection must be protocol-driven, not a discussion about how ‘great that project was.’ Take time to look deeply at the outcomes. Notice differences in student behaviors. Share the debriefs broadly across the staff, including different departments.   Agreements on testing. Testing is like the smog in Beijing: It’s in the air and it’s not going away. It’s such a pervasive discussion these days that it acts like an anchor to keep PBL from moving forward. Sit down together and find a common message on testing. Figure out a way to keep it in the conversation without making it so prominent. If your school is doing more projects, but life stops mid-March to prepare for testing, then be able to explain that to yourselves and to your students. The competing demands of test results and API scores versus inquiry-based education must be resolved through an elegant synthesis that puts both in proper perspective. Take time at a staff meeting to discuss this challenge; then craft an elevator speech for leadership (that’s everyone again) to use with parents, students, and among each other.   Critical Mass. Here’s the basic problem with sustaining PBL at your school: 40% of the staff agrees with you, 40% disagrees, and 20% doesn’t think about it. The goal for sustainability is to develop critical mass—a core of committed teachers who tip the balance and set the direction for the school. Every good PBL effort starts with the champions, the few who by way of foresight or dissatisfaction enter the fray first. They can take a school through year one, but after that the process must be intentionally fed by relentless marketing. Take every opportunity to discuss and debrief projects. Show case projects to parents and the community. Always reflect and be open to refinement. Set up critical friends groups in your PLC’s. And, finally, adopt the mindset of a start-up in Silicon Valley: It will take you three years to get off the ground and start flying. It’s an exciting journey, but a long haul.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for Inquiry and Innovation for K-12 educators and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: Make your mind bigger than your brain. Download tools for project based learning on his website, www.thommarkham.com, or contact him by e-mail at thom@thommarkham.com. .   nonadult false Sustaining PBL at Your School text blog 180 0 0.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6517426 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Only-Whole-Children-Can-Make-Schools-Safe/blog/6514093/127586.html In the long term, there is just one answer to the problem of school safety: More love. The short term solution, on the other hand, lies in the unhealthy mix of force, fear, guns, security, locks, and other devices meant to barricade our children from a small, but obviously lethal, subset of the population.   I’ll leave the short-term answers to parents and politicians. Instead, let’s support advances in education that take us closer to the ultimate goal of raising, nurturing, and educating children who feel psychologically safe. That, really, is the sole purpose of whole child education.   The formula is simple. Feeling safe is the central feature of feeling secure. Secure people do not feel afraid, except in the face of dire circumstances. In the absence of fear, positive emotions bloom. When positivity reigns, the brain responds by becoming more expansive, creative, and open to ideas. Emotions stabilize. The terrible effects of isolation, loneliness, depression, withdrawal, and other outcomes of emotional dysfunction disappear or are resolved. Many fewer people feel compelled to murder a child. Those who do receive compassionate help from a greatly enlarged safety net of understanding, emotionally mature adults.   The foundation for this transformation is love. However, I don’t mean a kind of greeting card, Valentine’s version of love, as in, “Oh, aren’t little children just the sweetest little souls? I just love all of them!” Rather, I suggest that it’s overdue to recognize the hard science informing us that care counts. It’s time, really, to get out of our own way by integrating the most recent evidence-based findings about positive emotional development into schools and make healthy emotional development the centerpiece of learning.   Until society is willing to turn that corner, unsafety will plague us. With that in mind, here’s my list of simple ideas for educators to embrace that reflect the science of the second decade of the 21st-century. These findings point us toward designing schools as havens of safety and seedbeds for stable individuals who can be beacons of love throughout society and the global village:   Emotions and thinking are not separate. The 200-year misconception that emotions and cognition are separate has been disproven. The brain is an integrated organ that processes thoughts and emotions simultaneously. In fact, positive emotions help power the frontal cortex. Rather than an academic downside, a greater focus on the emotional health of young people will result in better performance, particularly in areas like 21st century skills and critical thinking. See Barbara Frederickson’s book on Positivity for the evidence.   The brain changes with the culture. There is no greater story at the moment that brain plasticity. Neurons change every millisecond, and the neural pathways work as fast as they can (and they’re fast) to adapt to new surroundings and the incoming culture. Everything about schools should be reviewed in this light. What messages do the hallways and the classrooms send to the brain? What is the atmosphere and climate of the school? Is nurturing the norm or the exception?   Let go of the brain. Now for the flip side. Not everything occurs from the neck up. Recent science shows intricate connections between the heart, gut, and the brain. Fear registers in the heart before the brain, and then communicates via the vagal nerves. The body acts as a sensory organ for safety—and the brain follow the lead. More fear equals less activity in the prefrontal cortex, the favorite part of the brain for any teacher (that’s where attention and learning take place.) In other words, holism is a reality, not a wish.   Emotions and physiology are one conversation. When you see a child in emotional distress, that means the child’s body is not working optimally. For example, stress is an over-mobilization of the natural resources of the body (too many hormones, at abnormal levels, and a high octane sympathetic nervous response.) The good news is that by calming the physiology of the body, we also alter emotional states.   Emotions are good, not bad. Research into positive emotions is shaping up as the next big advance in science. The old model of emotions, focused solely on survival mode, is a legacy from the caveman days. We’ve evolved; now science has confirmed that humans who generate and experience emotions such as contentment, joy, inspiration, and love respond by becoming more fulfilled, higher achieving people.   Relationships change emotional states. The connections between us and others alter emotional states. The mind, in fact, is not just within us any longer; it’s somewhere in that space between us, as Daniel Siegel in Mindsight shows us. The constant interplay takes place subconsciously, either through mirror neurons in the brain or energetic exchange. Regardless of the mechanism, it’s now clear that humans communicate in real time, at all times, on an emotional level. Every message from teachers, conveyed through facial expression, body language, words, or hidden assumption, carries weight.    Stress and challenge differ. Love does not preclude challenge, meaning you can still test children to figure out what they’ve learned. But it does tell us that removing the unnecessary stress of learning is a good thing. Constant testing invokes stress; a few meaningful exams pitched as a way to understand the gaps in your knowledge stirs up challenge. Here’s one clue to the difference: Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing the armpits to perspire and one set of muscles in the face to contort; challenge brings a blended response of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems—and a genuine smile.   Mindfulness works. Whether you choose mindfulness, meditation, or heart-focused breathing, they all work. Each dissolves stress and liberates a calm, safe feeling that leads to positive health and better learning. It would be interesting to see the results on high stakes testing if every school day in America began with a five-minute meditation!   Love, compassion, and gratitude make you smarter. Some of the most powerful research recently shows the impact of gratitude on brain function and physiology in the body. Love calms, and the simple, yet profound, act of appreciation seems to have forceful consequences. As we move forward in schools and society, it is the job of adults to create a world in which children have ample reason to feel appreciative. If that happens, we’ll all feel safe.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: The return of the heart. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. In the long term, there is just one answer to the problem of school safety: More love. The short term solution, on the other hand, lies in the unhealthy mix of force, fear, guns, security, locks, and other devices meant to barricade our children from a small, but obviously lethal, subset of the population.   I’ll leave the short-term answers to parents and politicians. Instead, let’s support advances in education that take us closer to the ultimate goal of raising, nurturing, and educating children who feel psychologically safe. That, really, is the sole purpose of whole child education.   The formula is simple. Feeling safe is the central feature of feeling secure. Secure people do not feel afraid, except in the face of dire circumstances. In the absence of fear, positive emotions bloom. When positivity reigns, the brain responds by becoming more expansive, creative, and open to ideas. Emotions stabilize. The terrible effects of isolation, loneliness, depression, withdrawal, and other outcomes of emotional dysfunction disappear or are resolved. Many fewer people feel compelled to murder a child. Those who do receive compassionate help from a greatly enlarged safety net of understanding, emotionally mature adults.   The foundation for this transformation is love. However, I don’t mean a kind of greeting card, Valentine’s version of love, as in, “Oh, aren’t little children just the sweetest little souls? I just love all of them!” Rather, I suggest that it’s overdue to recognize the hard science informing us that care counts. It’s time, really, to get out of our own way by integrating the most recent evidence-based findings about positive emotional development into schools and make healthy emotional development the centerpiece of learning.   Until society is willing to turn that corner, unsafety will plague us. With that in mind, here’s my list of simple ideas for educators to embrace that reflect the science of the second decade of the 21st-century. These findings point us toward designing schools as havens of safety and seedbeds for stable individuals who can be beacons of love throughout society and the global village:   Emotions and thinking are not separate. The 200-year misconception that emotions and cognition are separate has been disproven. The brain is an integrated organ that processes thoughts and emotions simultaneously. In fact, positive emotions help power the frontal cortex. Rather than an academic downside, a greater focus on the emotional health of young people will result in better performance, particularly in areas like 21st century skills and critical thinking. See Barbara Frederickson’s book on Positivity for the evidence.   The brain changes with the culture. There is no greater story at the moment that brain plasticity. Neurons change every millisecond, and the neural pathways work as fast as they can (and they’re fast) to adapt to new surroundings and the incoming culture. Everything about schools should be reviewed in this light. What messages do the hallways and the classrooms send to the brain? What is the atmosphere and climate of the school? Is nurturing the norm or the exception?   Let go of the brain. Now for the flip side. Not everything occurs from the neck up. Recent science shows intricate connections between the heart, gut, and the brain. Fear registers in the heart before the brain, and then communicates via the vagal nerves. The body acts as a sensory organ for safety—and the brain follow the lead. More fear equals less activity in the prefrontal cortex, the favorite part of the brain for any teacher (that’s where attention and learning take place.) In other words, holism is a reality, not a wish.   Emotions and physiology are one conversation. When you see a child in emotional distress, that means the child’s body is not working optimally. For example, stress is an over-mobilization of the natural resources of the body (too many hormones, at abnormal levels, and a high octane sympathetic nervous response.) The good news is that by calming the physiology of the body, we also alter emotional states.   Emotions are good, not bad. Research into positive emotions is shaping up as the next big advance in science. The old model of emotions, focused solely on survival mode, is a legacy from the caveman days. We’ve evolved; now science has confirmed that humans who generate and experience emotions such as contentment, joy, inspiration, and love respond by becoming more fulfilled, higher achieving people.   Relationships change emotional states. The connections between us and others alter emotional states. The mind, in fact, is not just within us any longer; it’s somewhere in that space between us, as Daniel Siegel in Mindsight shows us. The constant interplay takes place subconsciously, either through mirror neurons in the brain or energetic exchange. Regardless of the mechanism, it’s now clear that humans communicate in real time, at all times, on an emotional level. Every message from teachers, conveyed through facial expression, body language, words, or hidden assumption, carries weight.    Stress and challenge differ. Love does not preclude challenge, meaning you can still test children to figure out what they’ve learned. But it does tell us that removing the unnecessary stress of learning is a good thing. Constant testing invokes stress; a few meaningful exams pitched as a way to understand the gaps in your knowledge stirs up challenge. Here’s one clue to the difference: Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing the armpits to perspire and one set of muscles in the face to contort; challenge brings a blended response of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems—and a genuine smile.   Mindfulness works. Whether you choose mindfulness, meditation, or heart-focused breathing, they all work. Each dissolves stress and liberates a calm, safe feeling that leads to positive health and better learning. It would be interesting to see the results on high stakes testing if every school day in America began with a five-minute meditation!   Love, compassion, and gratitude make you smarter. Some of the most powerful research recently shows the impact of gratitude on brain function and physiology in the body. Love calms, and the simple, yet profound, act of appreciation seems to have forceful consequences. As we move forward in schools and society, it is the job of adults to create a world in which children have ample reason to feel appreciative. If that happens, we’ll all feel safe.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: The return of the heart. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:54:04 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Only-Whole-Children-Can-Make-Schools-Safe/blog/6514093/127586.html Thom_Markham 2013-02-28T14:54:04Z ASCD EDge In the long term, there is just one answer to the problem of school safety: More love. The short term solution, on the other hand, lies in the unhealthy mix of force, fear, guns, security, locks, and other devices meant to barricade our children from a small, but obviously lethal, subset of the population.   I’ll leave the short-term answers to parents and politicians. Instead, let’s support advances in education that take us closer to the ultimate goal of raising, nurturing, and educating children who feel psychologically safe. That, really, is the sole purpose of whole child education.   The formula is simple. Feeling safe is the central feature of feeling secure. Secure people do not feel afraid, except in the face of dire circumstances. In the absence of fear, positive emotions bloom. When positivity reigns, the brain responds by becoming more expansive, creative, and open to ideas. Emotions stabilize. The terrible effects of isolation, loneliness, depression, withdrawal, and other outcomes of emotional dysfunction disappear or are resolved. Many fewer people feel compelled to murder a child. Those who do receive compassionate help from a greatly enlarged safety net of understanding, emotionally mature adults.   The foundation for this transformation is love. However, I don’t mean a kind of greeting card, Valentine’s version of love, as in, “Oh, aren’t little children just the sweetest little souls? I just love all of them!” Rather, I suggest that it’s overdue to recognize the hard science informing us that care counts. It’s time, really, to get out of our own way by integrating the most recent evidence-based findings about positive emotional development into schools and make healthy emotional development the centerpiece of learning.   Until society is willing to turn that corner, unsafety will plague us. With that in mind, here’s my list of simple ideas for educators to embrace that reflect the science of the second decade of the 21st-century. These findings point us toward designing schools as havens of safety and seedbeds for stable individuals who can be beacons of love throughout society and the global village:   Emotions and thinking are not separate. The 200-year misconception that emotions and cognition are separate has been disproven. The brain is an integrated organ that processes thoughts and emotions simultaneously. In fact, positive emotions help power the frontal cortex. Rather than an academic downside, a greater focus on the emotional health of young people will result in better performance, particularly in areas like 21st century skills and critical thinking. See Barbara Frederickson’s book on Positivity for the evidence.   The brain changes with the culture. There is no greater story at the moment that brain plasticity. Neurons change every millisecond, and the neural pathways work as fast as they can (and they’re fast) to adapt to new surroundings and the incoming culture. Everything about schools should be reviewed in this light. What messages do the hallways and the classrooms send to the brain? What is the atmosphere and climate of the school? Is nurturing the norm or the exception?   Let go of the brain. Now for the flip side. Not everything occurs from the neck up. Recent science shows intricate connections between the heart, gut, and the brain. Fear registers in the heart before the brain, and then communicates via the vagal nerves. The body acts as a sensory organ for safety—and the brain follow the lead. More fear equals less activity in the prefrontal cortex, the favorite part of the brain for any teacher (that’s where attention and learning take place.) In other words, holism is a reality, not a wish.   Emotions and physiology are one conversation. When you see a child in emotional distress, that means the child’s body is not working optimally. For example, stress is an over-mobilization of the natural resources of the body (too many hormones, at abnormal levels, and a high octane sympathetic nervous response.) The good news is that by calming the physiology of the body, we also alter emotional states.   Emotions are good, not bad. Research into positive emotions is shaping up as the next big advance in science. The old model of emotions, focused solely on survival mode, is a legacy from the caveman days. We’ve evolved; now science has confirmed that humans who generate and experience emotions such as contentment, joy, inspiration, and love respond by becoming more fulfilled, higher achieving people.   Relationships change emotional states. The connections between us and others alter emotional states. The mind, in fact, is not just within us any longer; it’s somewhere in that space between us, as Daniel Siegel in Mindsight shows us. The constant interplay takes place subconsciously, either through mirror neurons in the brain or energetic exchange. Regardless of the mechanism, it’s now clear that humans communicate in real time, at all times, on an emotional level. Every message from teachers, conveyed through facial expression, body language, words, or hidden assumption, carries weight.    Stress and challenge differ. Love does not preclude challenge, meaning you can still test children to figure out what they’ve learned. But it does tell us that removing the unnecessary stress of learning is a good thing. Constant testing invokes stress; a few meaningful exams pitched as a way to understand the gaps in your knowledge stirs up challenge. Here’s one clue to the difference: Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing the armpits to perspire and one set of muscles in the face to contort; challenge brings a blended response of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems—and a genuine smile.   Mindfulness works. Whether you choose mindfulness, meditation, or heart-focused breathing, they all work. Each dissolves stress and liberates a calm, safe feeling that leads to positive health and better learning. It would be interesting to see the results on high stakes testing if every school day in America began with a five-minute meditation!   Love, compassion, and gratitude make you smarter. Some of the most powerful research recently shows the impact of gratitude on brain function and physiology in the body. Love calms, and the simple, yet profound, act of appreciation seems to have forceful consequences. As we move forward in schools and society, it is the job of adults to create a world in which children have ample reason to feel appreciative. If that happens, we’ll all feel safe.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the forthcoming book, Redefining Smart: The return of the heart. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. nonadult false Only Whole Children Can Make Schools Safe text blog 157 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6514093 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Teacher-Effectiveness-and-Newtown-CT/blog/6488518/127586.html   The debates go on about value-added ratings for teachers, teacher quality, teacher effectiveness, teacher tenure, teacher unions, and teacher this and that. Many powerful forces in society have taken aim at teachers and schools, dwelling on mediocrity, resistance to change, an easy work day, and outdated methods. In no small way, it’s been open season on the education profession.   I share concerns about the adequacy of the teaching profession. But I always am brought back to one constant about teachers: Mostly, they love children. Sometimes I see teachers as more of a problem than a solution, but even in those who frustrate me, or disagree, or prefer the safety of the old ways, a certain light and commitment shines through. They have put their lives, their working days, and their ambitions to work on behalf of young people. They believe.   Never has this been more apparent than in Newtown, where teachers defended students with their own lives. How many of our elected officials, the critics who can’t seem to find sufficient funding for schools, or work on behalf of offering teachers solid middle class wages, or imagine any model of measuring teacher effectiveness other than test scores, would stand between children and a shooter?   Every discussion about teachers should begin with one fact: In over 100,000 schools, private and public, this nation is honored to have a corps of people who go to work every day to make society a better place now—and a generation from now—by trying to figure out what makes children tick and what they need to learn. Very few people can make this claim. And until many more of us—including those who move money for a living or exploit workers overseas or persist in rancorous attacks on American education—step up and show that they are willing to do as much as teachers, its time for teachers to stay proud, stiffen their spine, and say to all: Care counts, and that’s what makes me an effective teacher.       The debates go on about value-added ratings for teachers, teacher quality, teacher effectiveness, teacher tenure, teacher unions, and teacher this and that. Many powerful forces in society have taken aim at teachers and schools, dwelling on mediocrity, resistance to change, an easy work day, and outdated methods. In no small way, it’s been open season on the education profession.   I share concerns about the adequacy of the teaching profession. But I always am brought back to one constant about teachers: Mostly, they love children. Sometimes I see teachers as more of a problem than a solution, but even in those who frustrate me, or disagree, or prefer the safety of the old ways, a certain light and commitment shines through. They have put their lives, their working days, and their ambitions to work on behalf of young people. They believe.   Never has this been more apparent than in Newtown, where teachers defended students with their own lives. How many of our elected officials, the critics who can’t seem to find sufficient funding for schools, or work on behalf of offering teachers solid middle class wages, or imagine any model of measuring teacher effectiveness other than test scores, would stand between children and a shooter?   Every discussion about teachers should begin with one fact: In over 100,000 schools, private and public, this nation is honored to have a corps of people who go to work every day to make society a better place now—and a generation from now—by trying to figure out what makes children tick and what they need to learn. Very few people can make this claim. And until many more of us—including those who move money for a living or exploit workers overseas or persist in rancorous attacks on American education—step up and show that they are willing to do as much as teachers, its time for teachers to stay proud, stiffen their spine, and say to all: Care counts, and that’s what makes me an effective teacher.     Sun, 16 Dec 2012 06:54:28 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Teacher-Effectiveness-and-Newtown-CT/blog/6488518/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-12-16T06:54:28Z ASCD EDge   The debates go on about value-added ratings for teachers, teacher quality, teacher effectiveness, teacher tenure, teacher unions, and teacher this and that. Many powerful forces in society have taken aim at teachers and schools, dwelling on mediocrity, resistance to change, an easy work day, and outdated methods. In no small way, it’s been open season on the education profession.   I share concerns about the adequacy of the teaching profession. But I always am brought back to one constant about teachers: Mostly, they love children. Sometimes I see teachers as more of a problem than a solution, but even in those who frustrate me, or disagree, or prefer the safety of the old ways, a certain light and commitment shines through. They have put their lives, their working days, and their ambitions to work on behalf of young people. They believe.   Never has this been more apparent than in Newtown, where teachers defended students with their own lives. How many of our elected officials, the critics who can’t seem to find sufficient funding for schools, or work on behalf of offering teachers solid middle class wages, or imagine any model of measuring teacher effectiveness other than test scores, would stand between children and a shooter?   Every discussion about teachers should begin with one fact: In over 100,000 schools, private and public, this nation is honored to have a corps of people who go to work every day to make society a better place now—and a generation from now—by trying to figure out what makes children tick and what they need to learn. Very few people can make this claim. And until many more of us—including those who move money for a living or exploit workers overseas or persist in rancorous attacks on American education—step up and show that they are willing to do as much as teachers, its time for teachers to stay proud, stiffen their spine, and say to all: Care counts, and that’s what makes me an effective teacher.     nonadult false Teacher Effectiveness and Newtown, CT text blog 785 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 1 0 6488518 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_STEM-STEAM-and-PBL/blog/6469179/127586.html STEM education—the focus on science, technology, engineering, and math—is rapidly becoming a national priority. Having helped start several successful STEM schools, I like the trend. But as I read the national conversation about STEM, I see educators falling into the same traps that keep education from truly becoming a 21st century enterprise.     One sign of the confusion is the newest acronym, STEAM, a push to include the arts in STEM programs. I like this trend, also. But it misses the point. Art and design thinking permeate the adult workspace these days; similarly, every class and program should be partly aimed at teaching a design and problem solving approach. It’s takes imaginative thinking to design a better widget; so does solving the problems of the Middle East.   The larger issue with STEAM, however, is that it reinforces an old notion: That STEM is a collection of math, engineering, and science classes that students ‘take.’ Line up the required classes in the proper sequence, graduate more students with additional math and science seat time, revive the science fair, schedule in an honors class in molecular genetics, and from that emerges a STEM program. Add an Art class down the hall in 5th period—and call it a STEAM program.   As I’ve written previously, most people don’t know the history of STEM education. The term was first coined in the 1890’s by the Committee of Ten at Harvard, charged with the task of reforming an agrarian school system. In their view, STEM described the attributes of a good industrial school system that would raise the standards of excellence for modern students.   Whether we choose STEM or STEAM, if we remain wedded to the view that school is simply a collection of classes and activities, I believe we’ll get the same result envisioned in 1890:  Better education for an industrial world. STEM will take its place as a place marker for more math and engineering classes. But if we want to turn STEM into a transformative idea that can fuel fundamental change in schools, I think the following ideas are important:   Use PBL as the primary teaching method. Great STEM education arises out of the process of teaching and learning, not coverage of a specific curriculum. The most powerful STEM programs adopt an inquiry-based, student-centered, skill-driven approach to teaching and learning. Most use high quality project based learning to achieve their curriculum outcomes. The Common Core is taking all subjects in this direction; but I believe that STEM courses will be among the first beneficiaries.   Make STEM and innovation indistinguishable. Thinking in terms of STEAM isn’t necessary if a STEM program values and teaches innovation. I italicize that sentence because many values we hold in education never get explicitly taught. Use creativity rubrics with breakthrough categories, teach students to follow a design rubric, turn student teams into peer evaluators, allow time for prototyping, failure, reflection, and redesign—all these train students in innovative thinking and spur creativity. Of course, as the Committee of Ten recognized, this is good training for life as well.   Don’t confuse technology with STEM education. Hopefully, we have matured on this subject. In the early 2000’s, STEM programs started up with all the digital, gee-whiz tools available. Then programs failed. The reason: Technology is a tool for good education, but not a substitute for the personal skills necessary to be a good investigator or competent engineer, such as attention to detail, willingness to redraft, and perseverance in pursuit of perfection. At its heart, STEM is a way of systematically examining the world and identifying critical elements that lead to great change or improvement. This is a human factors subject, and good STEM programs start with building a culture of engagement, excellence, mastery, and effective collaboration prior to turning students loose on their iPads.   Attend to core content. Certain disciplines rely on argument and the exchange or development of deep ideas. STEM courses are not exempt, but they usually have more rigorous core content requirements and greater cognitive demand. Even a 9th grade Biology class, for example, introduces more new vocabulary than a Spanish 1 class. Good STEM programs blend inquiry with traditional teaching and core content methodology. They also sequence and scaffold the balance between student-centered inquiry and adult-facilitated instruction through the grade levels, expecting their 12th graders to be far more inquiry-driven and self-managing in terms of information than 9th graders. The goal is to have STEM students exit with an excellent command of the material, plus the skills to apply it, use it, and demonstrate it.   Trade in groups for teams and cohorts. Helping students move beyond FaceBook posts of their faves is essential to educating young people to work as effective collaborators. We can start by letting go of outdated concepts of group work and cooperative learning, and teaching the values and language of teams. Use contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, individual work ethic rubrics, and protocols to train and assess students on their ability to create a quality product through teamwork, as well as teach them about the accountability and commitment required for teams to operate at a high level. For STEM students, who may end up working in medical and engineering design teams, this training is vital. To give students practice in collaborative communication, as well as promote individual achievement within a team environment, have students form cohorts that help them track and refine their individual products during a project. Cohorts rely on careful analysis, precise feedback, and shared observation. This will make for better learners and products—and better scientists   Welcome the challenge of STEM. I have yet to see a good STEM program compatible with the existing rules and structures of traditional schooling. STEM teachers, if they’re doing their job, should bump up against grading systems, scheduling issues, teacher evaluations, curriculum requirements, collaboration time, graduation requirements, course sequencing mandates, pacing guides, and just about everything else associated with industrial methods. A good STEM system reflects the operating values of a tech-driven, design-oriented, can-do, entrepreneurial society. Schools can get there, and STEM can help.   Thom Markham is a PBL consultant and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or for more information on STEM contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     STEM education—the focus on science, technology, engineering, and math—is rapidly becoming a national priority. Having helped start several successful STEM schools, I like the trend. But as I read the national conversation about STEM, I see educators falling into the same traps that keep education from truly becoming a 21st century enterprise.     One sign of the confusion is the newest acronym, STEAM, a push to include the arts in STEM programs. I like this trend, also. But it misses the point. Art and design thinking permeate the adult workspace these days; similarly, every class and program should be partly aimed at teaching a design and problem solving approach. It’s takes imaginative thinking to design a better widget; so does solving the problems of the Middle East.   The larger issue with STEAM, however, is that it reinforces an old notion: That STEM is a collection of math, engineering, and science classes that students ‘take.’ Line up the required classes in the proper sequence, graduate more students with additional math and science seat time, revive the science fair, schedule in an honors class in molecular genetics, and from that emerges a STEM program. Add an Art class down the hall in 5th period—and call it a STEAM program.   As I’ve written previously, most people don’t know the history of STEM education. The term was first coined in the 1890’s by the Committee of Ten at Harvard, charged with the task of reforming an agrarian school system. In their view, STEM described the attributes of a good industrial school system that would raise the standards of excellence for modern students.   Whether we choose STEM or STEAM, if we remain wedded to the view that school is simply a collection of classes and activities, I believe we’ll get the same result envisioned in 1890:  Better education for an industrial world. STEM will take its place as a place marker for more math and engineering classes. But if we want to turn STEM into a transformative idea that can fuel fundamental change in schools, I think the following ideas are important:   Use PBL as the primary teaching method. Great STEM education arises out of the process of teaching and learning, not coverage of a specific curriculum. The most powerful STEM programs adopt an inquiry-based, student-centered, skill-driven approach to teaching and learning. Most use high quality project based learning to achieve their curriculum outcomes. The Common Core is taking all subjects in this direction; but I believe that STEM courses will be among the first beneficiaries.   Make STEM and innovation indistinguishable. Thinking in terms of STEAM isn’t necessary if a STEM program values and teaches innovation. I italicize that sentence because many values we hold in education never get explicitly taught. Use creativity rubrics with breakthrough categories, teach students to follow a design rubric, turn student teams into peer evaluators, allow time for prototyping, failure, reflection, and redesign—all these train students in innovative thinking and spur creativity. Of course, as the Committee of Ten recognized, this is good training for life as well.   Don’t confuse technology with STEM education. Hopefully, we have matured on this subject. In the early 2000’s, STEM programs started up with all the digital, gee-whiz tools available. Then programs failed. The reason: Technology is a tool for good education, but not a substitute for the personal skills necessary to be a good investigator or competent engineer, such as attention to detail, willingness to redraft, and perseverance in pursuit of perfection. At its heart, STEM is a way of systematically examining the world and identifying critical elements that lead to great change or improvement. This is a human factors subject, and good STEM programs start with building a culture of engagement, excellence, mastery, and effective collaboration prior to turning students loose on their iPads.   Attend to core content. Certain disciplines rely on argument and the exchange or development of deep ideas. STEM courses are not exempt, but they usually have more rigorous core content requirements and greater cognitive demand. Even a 9th grade Biology class, for example, introduces more new vocabulary than a Spanish 1 class. Good STEM programs blend inquiry with traditional teaching and core content methodology. They also sequence and scaffold the balance between student-centered inquiry and adult-facilitated instruction through the grade levels, expecting their 12th graders to be far more inquiry-driven and self-managing in terms of information than 9th graders. The goal is to have STEM students exit with an excellent command of the material, plus the skills to apply it, use it, and demonstrate it.   Trade in groups for teams and cohorts. Helping students move beyond FaceBook posts of their faves is essential to educating young people to work as effective collaborators. We can start by letting go of outdated concepts of group work and cooperative learning, and teaching the values and language of teams. Use contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, individual work ethic rubrics, and protocols to train and assess students on their ability to create a quality product through teamwork, as well as teach them about the accountability and commitment required for teams to operate at a high level. For STEM students, who may end up working in medical and engineering design teams, this training is vital. To give students practice in collaborative communication, as well as promote individual achievement within a team environment, have students form cohorts that help them track and refine their individual products during a project. Cohorts rely on careful analysis, precise feedback, and shared observation. This will make for better learners and products—and better scientists   Welcome the challenge of STEM. I have yet to see a good STEM program compatible with the existing rules and structures of traditional schooling. STEM teachers, if they’re doing their job, should bump up against grading systems, scheduling issues, teacher evaluations, curriculum requirements, collaboration time, graduation requirements, course sequencing mandates, pacing guides, and just about everything else associated with industrial methods. A good STEM system reflects the operating values of a tech-driven, design-oriented, can-do, entrepreneurial society. Schools can get there, and STEM can help.   Thom Markham is a PBL consultant and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or for more information on STEM contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     Mon, 19 Nov 2012 03:54:42 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_STEM-STEAM-and-PBL/blog/6469179/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-11-19T03:54:42Z ASCD EDge STEM education—the focus on science, technology, engineering, and math—is rapidly becoming a national priority. Having helped start several successful STEM schools, I like the trend. But as I read the national conversation about STEM, I see educators falling into the same traps that keep education from truly becoming a 21st century enterprise.     One sign of the confusion is the newest acronym, STEAM, a push to include the arts in STEM programs. I like this trend, also. But it misses the point. Art and design thinking permeate the adult workspace these days; similarly, every class and program should be partly aimed at teaching a design and problem solving approach. It’s takes imaginative thinking to design a better widget; so does solving the problems of the Middle East.   The larger issue with STEAM, however, is that it reinforces an old notion: That STEM is a collection of math, engineering, and science classes that students ‘take.’ Line up the required classes in the proper sequence, graduate more students with additional math and science seat time, revive the science fair, schedule in an honors class in molecular genetics, and from that emerges a STEM program. Add an Art class down the hall in 5th period—and call it a STEAM program.   As I’ve written previously, most people don’t know the history of STEM education. The term was first coined in the 1890’s by the Committee of Ten at Harvard, charged with the task of reforming an agrarian school system. In their view, STEM described the attributes of a good industrial school system that would raise the standards of excellence for modern students.   Whether we choose STEM or STEAM, if we remain wedded to the view that school is simply a collection of classes and activities, I believe we’ll get the same result envisioned in 1890:  Better education for an industrial world. STEM will take its place as a place marker for more math and engineering classes. But if we want to turn STEM into a transformative idea that can fuel fundamental change in schools, I think the following ideas are important:   Use PBL as the primary teaching method. Great STEM education arises out of the process of teaching and learning, not coverage of a specific curriculum. The most powerful STEM programs adopt an inquiry-based, student-centered, skill-driven approach to teaching and learning. Most use high quality project based learning to achieve their curriculum outcomes. The Common Core is taking all subjects in this direction; but I believe that STEM courses will be among the first beneficiaries.   Make STEM and innovation indistinguishable. Thinking in terms of STEAM isn’t necessary if a STEM program values and teaches innovation. I italicize that sentence because many values we hold in education never get explicitly taught. Use creativity rubrics with breakthrough categories, teach students to follow a design rubric, turn student teams into peer evaluators, allow time for prototyping, failure, reflection, and redesign—all these train students in innovative thinking and spur creativity. Of course, as the Committee of Ten recognized, this is good training for life as well.   Don’t confuse technology with STEM education. Hopefully, we have matured on this subject. In the early 2000’s, STEM programs started up with all the digital, gee-whiz tools available. Then programs failed. The reason: Technology is a tool for good education, but not a substitute for the personal skills necessary to be a good investigator or competent engineer, such as attention to detail, willingness to redraft, and perseverance in pursuit of perfection. At its heart, STEM is a way of systematically examining the world and identifying critical elements that lead to great change or improvement. This is a human factors subject, and good STEM programs start with building a culture of engagement, excellence, mastery, and effective collaboration prior to turning students loose on their iPads.   Attend to core content. Certain disciplines rely on argument and the exchange or development of deep ideas. STEM courses are not exempt, but they usually have more rigorous core content requirements and greater cognitive demand. Even a 9th grade Biology class, for example, introduces more new vocabulary than a Spanish 1 class. Good STEM programs blend inquiry with traditional teaching and core content methodology. They also sequence and scaffold the balance between student-centered inquiry and adult-facilitated instruction through the grade levels, expecting their 12th graders to be far more inquiry-driven and self-managing in terms of information than 9th graders. The goal is to have STEM students exit with an excellent command of the material, plus the skills to apply it, use it, and demonstrate it.   Trade in groups for teams and cohorts. Helping students move beyond FaceBook posts of their faves is essential to educating young people to work as effective collaborators. We can start by letting go of outdated concepts of group work and cooperative learning, and teaching the values and language of teams. Use contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, individual work ethic rubrics, and protocols to train and assess students on their ability to create a quality product through teamwork, as well as teach them about the accountability and commitment required for teams to operate at a high level. For STEM students, who may end up working in medical and engineering design teams, this training is vital. To give students practice in collaborative communication, as well as promote individual achievement within a team environment, have students form cohorts that help them track and refine their individual products during a project. Cohorts rely on careful analysis, precise feedback, and shared observation. This will make for better learners and products—and better scientists   Welcome the challenge of STEM. I have yet to see a good STEM program compatible with the existing rules and structures of traditional schooling. STEM teachers, if they’re doing their job, should bump up against grading systems, scheduling issues, teacher evaluations, curriculum requirements, collaboration time, graduation requirements, course sequencing mandates, pacing guides, and just about everything else associated with industrial methods. A good STEM system reflects the operating values of a tech-driven, design-oriented, can-do, entrepreneurial society. Schools can get there, and STEM can help.   Thom Markham is a PBL consultant and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or for more information on STEM contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     nonadult false STEM, STEAM, and PBL text blog 459 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6469179 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-PBL-is-Good-for-the-Brain/blog/6380083/127586.html The news coming in about neuroplasticity—the finding that the brain changes dramatically in response to experience—continues to amaze scientists and intrigue the general public. But the news hasn’t yet impacted education, partly because the gap between teaching methods and neuroscience can’t yet be bridged, and partly because our profession, though relying on the brain more than any other, can’t quite fit a standardized curriculum into a new paradigm that has made obsolete the old view of the brain as hard wired and immutable, or even as the repository of a fixed IQ.   However, maybe we need to take a leap of faith and make best guesses about the relationship between brain function and classroom instruction. My guess is this: Based on preliminary findings in neuroscience, I suggest that PBL fits perfectly with what we can surmise about encouraging optimal brain function.   Just to clarify, I’m not talking about cognitive studies showing that working memory—the ability to manage facts and short term responses—can be marginally improved with practice. These studies aim us at better test taking, but little else. The real prize is increasing creativity, problem solving, and fluid intelligence, which is the ability to adapt to new experience. This ability to innovate in response to environment, in fact, seems to be the main message of today’s brain science. It’s what we do as humans. For example, imagine our Neanderthal ancestors around the fire 200,000 years ago. Somewhere in their brains lurked the ability to do AP Calculus, program an Android phone, or parse a presidential debate. What’s lurking in the minds of the 1.5 billion children alive today that can help them manage their adult world? Inquiring teachers should want to know.   So, teaching students in a brain-friendly way is crucial. Here are reasons that I believe PBL supports the brain:   Rich experiences create dense neural networks. Of course, walking alone down a deserted street at 3 a.m. in a dangerous city is a rich experience, especially if you’re being followed. But in the classroom, PBL is designed to offer an educationally rich experience: A complex problem to be solved; multiple inputs and potential solutions; a team-based environment that relies on extensive collaboration; adult interactions; and exhibitions that stretch students. Contrast that with coverage, front of the room instruction, and even low level activities aimed at solving known problems. In workshops, I urge teachers to aim for the top of the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, the sections focused on critical inquiry and creativity. The brain is drawn to those sections as well.   Neural development depends on feedback loops.  The brain has an intelligent system for improving itself. Neural development takes place in areas of the brain most useful to solving the problem at hand. Most of the research these days focuses on understanding the pre-frontal cortex—the site of execution, planning, and problem solving. This is a tricky area, because if you present a problem to a student that is too difficult, it activates the hind brain and the stress response. But an appropriate, engaging, manageable challenge is exactly what the brain likes. The brain, in fact, loves novelty. PBL is an excellent method for inviting novel solutions to authentic problems—a combination that feeds the brain and speeds connections.   Risk and failure feeds the brain. Neuroplasticity tells us that neurons form alliances, hook up, unhook, and reform their networks in milliseconds, always on the hunt for the right response or a new solution. In fact, it seems apparent that without challenge, or in the presence of low level facts, the brain gets bored. Working memory is crucial to us on a daily basis, but if that’s all we used, life would be a monochrome. On the other hand, using a design mentality, with the constant goal of getting better, more thoughtful, and finding more elegant solutions, is second nature to the brain. Quality PBL makes failure, risk, and improvement an integral part of the process of learning. No wonder that, with PBL, teachers see extremely high levels of student engagement.   Integrating thinking and feeling fits with the design of the brain.  The old view that cognition—the ability to think—is separate from the ability to feel is not supported by current neuroscience. The brain operates as an integrated organ, processing emotions and thinking together in the amygdale, limbic system, and other parts of the brain still under investigation. Significant evidence also exists that the heart drives brain function through nervous connections to the hind brain and cortex. This is close to the frontiers of science, so we don’t know much yet as to the exact mechanisms. But it is well established that love, care, and personal mentorship increase educational achievement. In PBL, this is critical. Basically, a teacher won’t get performance in a PBL environment without creating a culture of care and connection. In my view, this sets up the brain for learning. Without the care, the brain says, “No.”   The power of reflection. Studies show that mindfulness increases neural density as much as a multi-stimulus environment. This tells us that the brain doesn’t just respond to massive amounts of information or a super-interesting problem; in some way, it also benefits from stillness and a meditative look at its own performance. In quality PBL, reflection is critical. This includes reflective pauses in the process of a project, as students review and assess their progress in solving a problem, as well as more in depth reflection at the end of a project. The end of the project reflection encourages students to power down and probe their development. Evidently, the brain thinks this is a good idea, too.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. The news coming in about neuroplasticity—the finding that the brain changes dramatically in response to experience—continues to amaze scientists and intrigue the general public. But the news hasn’t yet impacted education, partly because the gap between teaching methods and neuroscience can’t yet be bridged, and partly because our profession, though relying on the brain more than any other, can’t quite fit a standardized curriculum into a new paradigm that has made obsolete the old view of the brain as hard wired and immutable, or even as the repository of a fixed IQ.   However, maybe we need to take a leap of faith and make best guesses about the relationship between brain function and classroom instruction. My guess is this: Based on preliminary findings in neuroscience, I suggest that PBL fits perfectly with what we can surmise about encouraging optimal brain function.   Just to clarify, I’m not talking about cognitive studies showing that working memory—the ability to manage facts and short term responses—can be marginally improved with practice. These studies aim us at better test taking, but little else. The real prize is increasing creativity, problem solving, and fluid intelligence, which is the ability to adapt to new experience. This ability to innovate in response to environment, in fact, seems to be the main message of today’s brain science. It’s what we do as humans. For example, imagine our Neanderthal ancestors around the fire 200,000 years ago. Somewhere in their brains lurked the ability to do AP Calculus, program an Android phone, or parse a presidential debate. What’s lurking in the minds of the 1.5 billion children alive today that can help them manage their adult world? Inquiring teachers should want to know.   So, teaching students in a brain-friendly way is crucial. Here are reasons that I believe PBL supports the brain:   Rich experiences create dense neural networks. Of course, walking alone down a deserted street at 3 a.m. in a dangerous city is a rich experience, especially if you’re being followed. But in the classroom, PBL is designed to offer an educationally rich experience: A complex problem to be solved; multiple inputs and potential solutions; a team-based environment that relies on extensive collaboration; adult interactions; and exhibitions that stretch students. Contrast that with coverage, front of the room instruction, and even low level activities aimed at solving known problems. In workshops, I urge teachers to aim for the top of the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, the sections focused on critical inquiry and creativity. The brain is drawn to those sections as well.   Neural development depends on feedback loops.  The brain has an intelligent system for improving itself. Neural development takes place in areas of the brain most useful to solving the problem at hand. Most of the research these days focuses on understanding the pre-frontal cortex—the site of execution, planning, and problem solving. This is a tricky area, because if you present a problem to a student that is too difficult, it activates the hind brain and the stress response. But an appropriate, engaging, manageable challenge is exactly what the brain likes. The brain, in fact, loves novelty. PBL is an excellent method for inviting novel solutions to authentic problems—a combination that feeds the brain and speeds connections.   Risk and failure feeds the brain. Neuroplasticity tells us that neurons form alliances, hook up, unhook, and reform their networks in milliseconds, always on the hunt for the right response or a new solution. In fact, it seems apparent that without challenge, or in the presence of low level facts, the brain gets bored. Working memory is crucial to us on a daily basis, but if that’s all we used, life would be a monochrome. On the other hand, using a design mentality, with the constant goal of getting better, more thoughtful, and finding more elegant solutions, is second nature to the brain. Quality PBL makes failure, risk, and improvement an integral part of the process of learning. No wonder that, with PBL, teachers see extremely high levels of student engagement.   Integrating thinking and feeling fits with the design of the brain.  The old view that cognition—the ability to think—is separate from the ability to feel is not supported by current neuroscience. The brain operates as an integrated organ, processing emotions and thinking together in the amygdale, limbic system, and other parts of the brain still under investigation. Significant evidence also exists that the heart drives brain function through nervous connections to the hind brain and cortex. This is close to the frontiers of science, so we don’t know much yet as to the exact mechanisms. But it is well established that love, care, and personal mentorship increase educational achievement. In PBL, this is critical. Basically, a teacher won’t get performance in a PBL environment without creating a culture of care and connection. In my view, this sets up the brain for learning. Without the care, the brain says, “No.”   The power of reflection. Studies show that mindfulness increases neural density as much as a multi-stimulus environment. This tells us that the brain doesn’t just respond to massive amounts of information or a super-interesting problem; in some way, it also benefits from stillness and a meditative look at its own performance. In quality PBL, reflection is critical. This includes reflective pauses in the process of a project, as students review and assess their progress in solving a problem, as well as more in depth reflection at the end of a project. The end of the project reflection encourages students to power down and probe their development. Evidently, the brain thinks this is a good idea, too.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Thu, 04 Oct 2012 00:32:25 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-PBL-is-Good-for-the-Brain/blog/6380083/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-10-04T00:32:25Z ASCD EDge The news coming in about neuroplasticity—the finding that the brain changes dramatically in response to experience—continues to amaze scientists and intrigue the general public. But the news hasn’t yet impacted education, partly because the gap between teaching methods and neuroscience can’t yet be bridged, and partly because our profession, though relying on the brain more than any other, can’t quite fit a standardized curriculum into a new paradigm that has made obsolete the old view of the brain as hard wired and immutable, or even as the repository of a fixed IQ.   However, maybe we need to take a leap of faith and make best guesses about the relationship between brain function and classroom instruction. My guess is this: Based on preliminary findings in neuroscience, I suggest that PBL fits perfectly with what we can surmise about encouraging optimal brain function.   Just to clarify, I’m not talking about cognitive studies showing that working memory—the ability to manage facts and short term responses—can be marginally improved with practice. These studies aim us at better test taking, but little else. The real prize is increasing creativity, problem solving, and fluid intelligence, which is the ability to adapt to new experience. This ability to innovate in response to environment, in fact, seems to be the main message of today’s brain science. It’s what we do as humans. For example, imagine our Neanderthal ancestors around the fire 200,000 years ago. Somewhere in their brains lurked the ability to do AP Calculus, program an Android phone, or parse a presidential debate. What’s lurking in the minds of the 1.5 billion children alive today that can help them manage their adult world? Inquiring teachers should want to know.   So, teaching students in a brain-friendly way is crucial. Here are reasons that I believe PBL supports the brain:   Rich experiences create dense neural networks. Of course, walking alone down a deserted street at 3 a.m. in a dangerous city is a rich experience, especially if you’re being followed. But in the classroom, PBL is designed to offer an educationally rich experience: A complex problem to be solved; multiple inputs and potential solutions; a team-based environment that relies on extensive collaboration; adult interactions; and exhibitions that stretch students. Contrast that with coverage, front of the room instruction, and even low level activities aimed at solving known problems. In workshops, I urge teachers to aim for the top of the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, the sections focused on critical inquiry and creativity. The brain is drawn to those sections as well.   Neural development depends on feedback loops.  The brain has an intelligent system for improving itself. Neural development takes place in areas of the brain most useful to solving the problem at hand. Most of the research these days focuses on understanding the pre-frontal cortex—the site of execution, planning, and problem solving. This is a tricky area, because if you present a problem to a student that is too difficult, it activates the hind brain and the stress response. But an appropriate, engaging, manageable challenge is exactly what the brain likes. The brain, in fact, loves novelty. PBL is an excellent method for inviting novel solutions to authentic problems—a combination that feeds the brain and speeds connections.   Risk and failure feeds the brain. Neuroplasticity tells us that neurons form alliances, hook up, unhook, and reform their networks in milliseconds, always on the hunt for the right response or a new solution. In fact, it seems apparent that without challenge, or in the presence of low level facts, the brain gets bored. Working memory is crucial to us on a daily basis, but if that’s all we used, life would be a monochrome. On the other hand, using a design mentality, with the constant goal of getting better, more thoughtful, and finding more elegant solutions, is second nature to the brain. Quality PBL makes failure, risk, and improvement an integral part of the process of learning. No wonder that, with PBL, teachers see extremely high levels of student engagement.   Integrating thinking and feeling fits with the design of the brain.  The old view that cognition—the ability to think—is separate from the ability to feel is not supported by current neuroscience. The brain operates as an integrated organ, processing emotions and thinking together in the amygdale, limbic system, and other parts of the brain still under investigation. Significant evidence also exists that the heart drives brain function through nervous connections to the hind brain and cortex. This is close to the frontiers of science, so we don’t know much yet as to the exact mechanisms. But it is well established that love, care, and personal mentorship increase educational achievement. In PBL, this is critical. Basically, a teacher won’t get performance in a PBL environment without creating a culture of care and connection. In my view, this sets up the brain for learning. Without the care, the brain says, “No.”   The power of reflection. Studies show that mindfulness increases neural density as much as a multi-stimulus environment. This tells us that the brain doesn’t just respond to massive amounts of information or a super-interesting problem; in some way, it also benefits from stillness and a meditative look at its own performance. In quality PBL, reflection is critical. This includes reflective pauses in the process of a project, as students review and assess their progress in solving a problem, as well as more in depth reflection at the end of a project. The end of the project reflection encourages students to power down and probe their development. Evidently, the brain thinks this is a good idea, too.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. nonadult false Why PBL is Good for the Brain text blog 2111 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 1 0 6380083 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_7-Essentials-for-Master-PBL-Teachers/blog/6335161/127586.html Master teachers are usually measured by their ability to deliver high quality instruction and manage classrooms so that every child learns. These basics apply to project based learning (PBL) as well, but I have found that successful PBL teachers must possess a more diverse—and demanding—set of skills to make project based work effective.   I call these skills the seven essentials for PBL teachers. The skills can be parsed separately, as I’m going to do, but they only work synergistically. Designing and executing engaging projects that move students to a new level of learning and self-awareness—which should be the goal of every project—derives from seeing PBL as a set of moving parts that mesh to create a powerful experience for students. Partly, PBL is an instructional process powered by teacher knowledge; partly, it’s a facilitated process that draws heavily on people management skills; and partly, it’s an intuitive process that relies on open communication between students and teachers.   Some of the essential PBL skills can be taught or learned, and some, frankly, are more personality driven. But every PBL teacher should think about becoming skillful in these seven areas:   Know world-class PBL methodology. Project based learning and ‘projects’ are two different worlds. Over the last decade, PBL teachers in many countries have developed high quality methods that work. The methods begin with organizing a project around a central, vital, and engaging question, moving students through a deliberate process that requires them to think, inquire, share, reflect, and perfect their products and reasoning, and concluding with a meaningful demonstration of their learning that surfaces content acquisition, conceptual understanding, and application of 21st century skills. Getting results from PBL is not serendipitous; it comes from using thoughtful, replicable methods.   Create a culture of care.  You might prefer to call this a ‘student-centered’ culture, but I believe that the underlying dynamic that drives better performance in PBL is a personalized classroom culture in which every student feels known, respected, and communicated with. This isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s the known result of years of youth development research that demonstrates that a culture of care allows you, as the teacher, to assume a mentor role. The mentor role allows you to both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ students through the ups and downs of the PBL process. If you’re not in that role, you will find it difficult to move from a classroom manager to a project manager, a crucial shift for successful PBL.   Shift from teacher to coach. In a traditional classroom, human variation is muted by rows, a standardized lesson, and the teacher’s ability to keep an eye on every student. In PBL, personalities bloom, tendencies—good or disruptive—emerge, and students often confuse the freedom to inquire with the license to mess around. The messiness can be cured only by coaching individual students to perform better—by speaking to their strengths, helping them see their challenges, and returning at all times to the standards and norms for top performance. In a traditional classroom, the end product is paramount. In PBL, the process of learning assumes equal weight as an outcome. Success on the journey often entails what I term the art of ‘ruthless compassion.’ Give every student maximum support; require every student to perform at their best.   Use the tools of people management. Like the methods for world class PBL, a set of tools has been developed, largely in industries outside of education, that help people stay on task, achieve goals, and work harmoniously. In PBL, nearly everything you do has people management ramifications. This begins with norms and performance expectations, agreements on behavior, and clear directions. But other elements contribute just as much: (1) A clearly stated Driving Question that captures imagination and starts the project in the right direction; (2) a consistent explanation of the why behind the project; (3) an air of experiment, problem solving, and discovery; and (4) a promise that, at the end of the project, the results will matter to someone besides the teacher or the test designers.   Make teamwork productive. PBL is a group based form of learning. But an essential step is to move from the language of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teamwork and to teach team members to think deeply together. To achieve high quality work in PBL, there can be no, “Well, she’s sick today and she has all the stuff and we don’t know what to do.” Or, “I did all the work and I got a ‘C’ because my group slacked off?” In teams, everyone is committed to each other’s success and everyone assumes accountability. PBL teachers have developed tools to spur this process, including work ethic and collaboration rubrics, contracts, and bonus point systems to reward initiative and empathetic behavior. If you’re not using these tools, you’re not taking advantage of methods that work. And, most important, if your teams don’t work, neither will your projects.   Know how to teach and assess 21st century skills. PBL is the best method we have for teaching students how to solve complex problems. But to get to a meaningful solution, students need to master the skills of collaboration and self-management. And, to show us how they arrived at a conclusion or created a product, they need to communicate effectively. That’s a short version of why PBL is central to teaching 21st century skills. But PBL teachers face a challenge: Nothing has been standardized in regard to teaching or assessing these skills. Solid performance rubrics have been developed, but are rarely used school wide. I urge PBL teachers at every school to band together and agree on rubrics and methods for assessing 21st century skills (this is a prime topic for PLC work), as well as sharing ideas on how to teach these skills.   Value reflection and revision. Finally, educators can learn from the slow food movement. High quality PBL requires a different time frame and expectation, primarily because problem solving is not a linear, 50-minute period experience. This means not just being flexible (one of the prime qualities of the successful PBL teacher), but also making reflection and revision, in pursuit of excellence, central to the process of learning. This takes several forms. First, during a project, encourage drafts and prototypes, then structure time for peer debriefs, jig saws, or other disciplined ways for students to share and exchange ideas. At the end of a project, reflect and debrief thoroughly. Make excellence a standard for your projects.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       Master teachers are usually measured by their ability to deliver high quality instruction and manage classrooms so that every child learns. These basics apply to project based learning (PBL) as well, but I have found that successful PBL teachers must possess a more diverse—and demanding—set of skills to make project based work effective.   I call these skills the seven essentials for PBL teachers. The skills can be parsed separately, as I’m going to do, but they only work synergistically. Designing and executing engaging projects that move students to a new level of learning and self-awareness—which should be the goal of every project—derives from seeing PBL as a set of moving parts that mesh to create a powerful experience for students. Partly, PBL is an instructional process powered by teacher knowledge; partly, it’s a facilitated process that draws heavily on people management skills; and partly, it’s an intuitive process that relies on open communication between students and teachers.   Some of the essential PBL skills can be taught or learned, and some, frankly, are more personality driven. But every PBL teacher should think about becoming skillful in these seven areas:   Know world-class PBL methodology. Project based learning and ‘projects’ are two different worlds. Over the last decade, PBL teachers in many countries have developed high quality methods that work. The methods begin with organizing a project around a central, vital, and engaging question, moving students through a deliberate process that requires them to think, inquire, share, reflect, and perfect their products and reasoning, and concluding with a meaningful demonstration of their learning that surfaces content acquisition, conceptual understanding, and application of 21st century skills. Getting results from PBL is not serendipitous; it comes from using thoughtful, replicable methods.   Create a culture of care.  You might prefer to call this a ‘student-centered’ culture, but I believe that the underlying dynamic that drives better performance in PBL is a personalized classroom culture in which every student feels known, respected, and communicated with. This isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s the known result of years of youth development research that demonstrates that a culture of care allows you, as the teacher, to assume a mentor role. The mentor role allows you to both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ students through the ups and downs of the PBL process. If you’re not in that role, you will find it difficult to move from a classroom manager to a project manager, a crucial shift for successful PBL.   Shift from teacher to coach. In a traditional classroom, human variation is muted by rows, a standardized lesson, and the teacher’s ability to keep an eye on every student. In PBL, personalities bloom, tendencies—good or disruptive—emerge, and students often confuse the freedom to inquire with the license to mess around. The messiness can be cured only by coaching individual students to perform better—by speaking to their strengths, helping them see their challenges, and returning at all times to the standards and norms for top performance. In a traditional classroom, the end product is paramount. In PBL, the process of learning assumes equal weight as an outcome. Success on the journey often entails what I term the art of ‘ruthless compassion.’ Give every student maximum support; require every student to perform at their best.   Use the tools of people management. Like the methods for world class PBL, a set of tools has been developed, largely in industries outside of education, that help people stay on task, achieve goals, and work harmoniously. In PBL, nearly everything you do has people management ramifications. This begins with norms and performance expectations, agreements on behavior, and clear directions. But other elements contribute just as much: (1) A clearly stated Driving Question that captures imagination and starts the project in the right direction; (2) a consistent explanation of the why behind the project; (3) an air of experiment, problem solving, and discovery; and (4) a promise that, at the end of the project, the results will matter to someone besides the teacher or the test designers.   Make teamwork productive. PBL is a group based form of learning. But an essential step is to move from the language of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teamwork and to teach team members to think deeply together. To achieve high quality work in PBL, there can be no, “Well, she’s sick today and she has all the stuff and we don’t know what to do.” Or, “I did all the work and I got a ‘C’ because my group slacked off?” In teams, everyone is committed to each other’s success and everyone assumes accountability. PBL teachers have developed tools to spur this process, including work ethic and collaboration rubrics, contracts, and bonus point systems to reward initiative and empathetic behavior. If you’re not using these tools, you’re not taking advantage of methods that work. And, most important, if your teams don’t work, neither will your projects.   Know how to teach and assess 21st century skills. PBL is the best method we have for teaching students how to solve complex problems. But to get to a meaningful solution, students need to master the skills of collaboration and self-management. And, to show us how they arrived at a conclusion or created a product, they need to communicate effectively. That’s a short version of why PBL is central to teaching 21st century skills. But PBL teachers face a challenge: Nothing has been standardized in regard to teaching or assessing these skills. Solid performance rubrics have been developed, but are rarely used school wide. I urge PBL teachers at every school to band together and agree on rubrics and methods for assessing 21st century skills (this is a prime topic for PLC work), as well as sharing ideas on how to teach these skills.   Value reflection and revision. Finally, educators can learn from the slow food movement. High quality PBL requires a different time frame and expectation, primarily because problem solving is not a linear, 50-minute period experience. This means not just being flexible (one of the prime qualities of the successful PBL teacher), but also making reflection and revision, in pursuit of excellence, central to the process of learning. This takes several forms. First, during a project, encourage drafts and prototypes, then structure time for peer debriefs, jig saws, or other disciplined ways for students to share and exchange ideas. At the end of a project, reflect and debrief thoroughly. Make excellence a standard for your projects.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:08:10 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_7-Essentials-for-Master-PBL-Teachers/blog/6335161/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-09-12T06:08:10Z ASCD EDge Master teachers are usually measured by their ability to deliver high quality instruction and manage classrooms so that every child learns. These basics apply to project based learning (PBL) as well, but I have found that successful PBL teachers must possess a more diverse—and demanding—set of skills to make project based work effective.   I call these skills the seven essentials for PBL teachers. The skills can be parsed separately, as I’m going to do, but they only work synergistically. Designing and executing engaging projects that move students to a new level of learning and self-awareness—which should be the goal of every project—derives from seeing PBL as a set of moving parts that mesh to create a powerful experience for students. Partly, PBL is an instructional process powered by teacher knowledge; partly, it’s a facilitated process that draws heavily on people management skills; and partly, it’s an intuitive process that relies on open communication between students and teachers.   Some of the essential PBL skills can be taught or learned, and some, frankly, are more personality driven. But every PBL teacher should think about becoming skillful in these seven areas:   Know world-class PBL methodology. Project based learning and ‘projects’ are two different worlds. Over the last decade, PBL teachers in many countries have developed high quality methods that work. The methods begin with organizing a project around a central, vital, and engaging question, moving students through a deliberate process that requires them to think, inquire, share, reflect, and perfect their products and reasoning, and concluding with a meaningful demonstration of their learning that surfaces content acquisition, conceptual understanding, and application of 21st century skills. Getting results from PBL is not serendipitous; it comes from using thoughtful, replicable methods.   Create a culture of care.  You might prefer to call this a ‘student-centered’ culture, but I believe that the underlying dynamic that drives better performance in PBL is a personalized classroom culture in which every student feels known, respected, and communicated with. This isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s the known result of years of youth development research that demonstrates that a culture of care allows you, as the teacher, to assume a mentor role. The mentor role allows you to both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ students through the ups and downs of the PBL process. If you’re not in that role, you will find it difficult to move from a classroom manager to a project manager, a crucial shift for successful PBL.   Shift from teacher to coach. In a traditional classroom, human variation is muted by rows, a standardized lesson, and the teacher’s ability to keep an eye on every student. In PBL, personalities bloom, tendencies—good or disruptive—emerge, and students often confuse the freedom to inquire with the license to mess around. The messiness can be cured only by coaching individual students to perform better—by speaking to their strengths, helping them see their challenges, and returning at all times to the standards and norms for top performance. In a traditional classroom, the end product is paramount. In PBL, the process of learning assumes equal weight as an outcome. Success on the journey often entails what I term the art of ‘ruthless compassion.’ Give every student maximum support; require every student to perform at their best.   Use the tools of people management. Like the methods for world class PBL, a set of tools has been developed, largely in industries outside of education, that help people stay on task, achieve goals, and work harmoniously. In PBL, nearly everything you do has people management ramifications. This begins with norms and performance expectations, agreements on behavior, and clear directions. But other elements contribute just as much: (1) A clearly stated Driving Question that captures imagination and starts the project in the right direction; (2) a consistent explanation of the why behind the project; (3) an air of experiment, problem solving, and discovery; and (4) a promise that, at the end of the project, the results will matter to someone besides the teacher or the test designers.   Make teamwork productive. PBL is a group based form of learning. But an essential step is to move from the language of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teamwork and to teach team members to think deeply together. To achieve high quality work in PBL, there can be no, “Well, she’s sick today and she has all the stuff and we don’t know what to do.” Or, “I did all the work and I got a ‘C’ because my group slacked off?” In teams, everyone is committed to each other’s success and everyone assumes accountability. PBL teachers have developed tools to spur this process, including work ethic and collaboration rubrics, contracts, and bonus point systems to reward initiative and empathetic behavior. If you’re not using these tools, you’re not taking advantage of methods that work. And, most important, if your teams don’t work, neither will your projects.   Know how to teach and assess 21st century skills. PBL is the best method we have for teaching students how to solve complex problems. But to get to a meaningful solution, students need to master the skills of collaboration and self-management. And, to show us how they arrived at a conclusion or created a product, they need to communicate effectively. That’s a short version of why PBL is central to teaching 21st century skills. But PBL teachers face a challenge: Nothing has been standardized in regard to teaching or assessing these skills. Solid performance rubrics have been developed, but are rarely used school wide. I urge PBL teachers at every school to band together and agree on rubrics and methods for assessing 21st century skills (this is a prime topic for PLC work), as well as sharing ideas on how to teach these skills.   Value reflection and revision. Finally, educators can learn from the slow food movement. High quality PBL requires a different time frame and expectation, primarily because problem solving is not a linear, 50-minute period experience. This means not just being flexible (one of the prime qualities of the successful PBL teacher), but also making reflection and revision, in pursuit of excellence, central to the process of learning. This takes several forms. First, during a project, encourage drafts and prototypes, then structure time for peer debriefs, jig saws, or other disciplined ways for students to share and exchange ideas. At the end of a project, reflect and debrief thoroughly. Make excellence a standard for your projects.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators. Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       nonadult false 7 Essentials for Master PBL Teachers text blog 2662 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6335161 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Teaching-PBL-Teams-to-Think/blog/6298573/127586.html Recently, a 7th grade teacher told me a story that thrilled her. She had passed a team of four students in the quad at lunchtime and overheard them having a spirited debate about what they had learned in their latest project in her class. They were exchanging cogent ideas, using the vocabulary of the discipline, and listening carefully to each other’s arguments. That was all the evidence she needed to know that her project had met its goals.   If you’re a PBL teacher, using high quality project based learning methods should lead to these kinds of results. PBL promotes curiosity, purposeful engagement, and—quite often—a noticeable shift in student attitudes. Students begin to demonstrate that they care about their learning—and they talk about it.     But it is also a fact that often PBL teachers feel dissatisfied with the intellectual outcomes of a project. I believe the reason behind this is that we as educators are in the early stages of learning how to use teamwork to achieve high performance. This is an issue in PBL, which relies on teams to solve problems, but it’s also a challenge for all 21st century educators. In today’s world, collaborative groups in schools must step up to meet the requirements of the global age, a process in which teams routinely focus on a problem, design solutions, and navigate differences to achieve a result, with members using a variety of thinking tools to brainstorm and improve their ideas, and relying on evidence, facts, persuasive arguments, and knowledge of the subject to succeed. We haven’t yet built these new skills into team routines in the classroom.   I also believe that promoting quality interactions among student teams has a larger purpose: Preparing students for the rise of a networked, collective intelligence. Whether it’s putting a ‘like’ on a Facebook post, retweeting an idea, or blogging an opinion and receiving feedback, it is now the norm for individuals to bring their singular gifts to a communal discussion, assimilate information from multiple sources, and sample each other’s ideas before passing judgment or deciding a course of action. We’re all getting smarter together—and this is the environment in which our students will come to adulthood.   This means that it is vital that educators help students move from a Facebook culture to a thinking Facebook culture. The ultimate promise of good teamwork is that young people may learn collective ways to think more deeply about their world and design a better future. In fact, I’ll pause and put the term ‘depth’ in the context of another global age trend: Our knowledge of brain plasticity. What we know is that in the presence of attention and purposeful engagement, the brain is working very hard. Thousands of synapses every second are formed and reformed. The goal of teaching teams to think is to take advantage of the brain as a dynamic enterprise by having students exchange ideas in ways that promote a high level of engagement with each other, require the intentional use of appropriate terms and vocabulary, and challenge inattention and mediocrity.   This is a work in progress for all of us, but here are several ideas on how to make teamwork more effective. If you have other methods that are working, I’d love to hear from you.   Move to the vocabulary of teams. We’re doing much more collaborative learning in schools, but the group work strategies of the last twenty years are aimed at cooperating, not necessarily at quality of thinking. A good first step is to move from the terminology of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teams. The concept of a team—a focused, committed set of individuals operating as a cohesive unit in search of a solution or attempting innovative thinking—raises the bar by replacing the old notion of having children circle a desk and exchange information with the idea that students team for a purpose.   Use a three step process to train your teams. Moving from groups to high performing teams is a three step process. The first step is to establish a collaborative culture by setting norms for teams and scaffolding essential skills like listening, eye contact, body posture, voice tone, and empathic responses. (These are best taught early in the year, before launching a full scale project.)   The second step is to form your teams intentionally. Balance your teams based on individual strengths and challenges, a profile of their creativity or critical thinking skills, or their personality traits. With younger students, this works best if teachers choose team members. But older high school students can be taught how to choose their own teammates—a valuable lesson in self-awareness and self-management.   The third step is to use PBL team tools. Three basics tools will do the job: A high quality collaboration rubric; a work ethic rubric; and a team contract that defines their operating agreements.   Grade teamwork. Teamwork should not be a serendipitous byproduct of a project. You can mix and match between grading individual students in a team, overall team performance, or a mix of both, but teamwork must be graded and show up in the final project grade. Depending on the time of year, age of students, and your goals in establishing solid teams, the grade percentage can change with each project.   Challenge your teams. We treat 21st century skills, such as communication and collaboration, as isolates. But at a deep level they emanate from one place—from some inner dialogue, vision, stimulation, exchange, wondering, surprise, validation, and joyful recognition of a new idea. A new idea may start with an individual, but we know they gain exponential power in the presence of a team. The kick start for this process is an engaging, powerful challenge that liberates ideas and draws teams together for the common purpose of solving an important problem. Without this challenge, you won’t get far on deep thinking.   Use protocols for thinking. A variety of tools exist to help teams learn to inquire, contribute, comment, share, respond, listen, and revise ideas. Use the visible thinking tools developed at Harvard, protocols that force attentiveness and careful responses, or team to team and peer to peer exchanges, with a clear goal and prompts, at every opportunity. Make the students do the heavy lifting and hard thinking. Have them track and report out on their discussions.   Create a design mentality. Drafting, critiquing, and revising are what teams do best. From the beginning of a project, expect students to think in engineering terms: As designers of a prototype that needs to be reviewed and tested for quality and specifications. The product may be a written piece, a media presentation, a drawing, or a gas-powered boat. It doesn’t matter. The objective of teams, in Ron Berger’s words, is to build a culture of craftsmanship.   Use the power of reflection. A project is never over until a one to two day reflection takes place after the products are delivered or the exhibition is complete, with probing questions to be answered by the student teams regarding their performance, quality of work, and overall learning. This is an excellent time to use thinking tools to explore good thinking—a proven metacognitive approach. Your goal is to help the teams move through a two-stage process: From the So What? (What did we learn?) to the Now What? (How can we improve, think deeper, and move forward?).   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, where you can find more information on PBL teams. You can also download team rubrics and other PBL tools from his website, www.thommarkham.com. Contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     Recently, a 7th grade teacher told me a story that thrilled her. She had passed a team of four students in the quad at lunchtime and overheard them having a spirited debate about what they had learned in their latest project in her class. They were exchanging cogent ideas, using the vocabulary of the discipline, and listening carefully to each other’s arguments. That was all the evidence she needed to know that her project had met its goals.   If you’re a PBL teacher, using high quality project based learning methods should lead to these kinds of results. PBL promotes curiosity, purposeful engagement, and—quite often—a noticeable shift in student attitudes. Students begin to demonstrate that they care about their learning—and they talk about it.     But it is also a fact that often PBL teachers feel dissatisfied with the intellectual outcomes of a project. I believe the reason behind this is that we as educators are in the early stages of learning how to use teamwork to achieve high performance. This is an issue in PBL, which relies on teams to solve problems, but it’s also a challenge for all 21st century educators. In today’s world, collaborative groups in schools must step up to meet the requirements of the global age, a process in which teams routinely focus on a problem, design solutions, and navigate differences to achieve a result, with members using a variety of thinking tools to brainstorm and improve their ideas, and relying on evidence, facts, persuasive arguments, and knowledge of the subject to succeed. We haven’t yet built these new skills into team routines in the classroom.   I also believe that promoting quality interactions among student teams has a larger purpose: Preparing students for the rise of a networked, collective intelligence. Whether it’s putting a ‘like’ on a Facebook post, retweeting an idea, or blogging an opinion and receiving feedback, it is now the norm for individuals to bring their singular gifts to a communal discussion, assimilate information from multiple sources, and sample each other’s ideas before passing judgment or deciding a course of action. We’re all getting smarter together—and this is the environment in which our students will come to adulthood.   This means that it is vital that educators help students move from a Facebook culture to a thinking Facebook culture. The ultimate promise of good teamwork is that young people may learn collective ways to think more deeply about their world and design a better future. In fact, I’ll pause and put the term ‘depth’ in the context of another global age trend: Our knowledge of brain plasticity. What we know is that in the presence of attention and purposeful engagement, the brain is working very hard. Thousands of synapses every second are formed and reformed. The goal of teaching teams to think is to take advantage of the brain as a dynamic enterprise by having students exchange ideas in ways that promote a high level of engagement with each other, require the intentional use of appropriate terms and vocabulary, and challenge inattention and mediocrity.   This is a work in progress for all of us, but here are several ideas on how to make teamwork more effective. If you have other methods that are working, I’d love to hear from you.   Move to the vocabulary of teams. We’re doing much more collaborative learning in schools, but the group work strategies of the last twenty years are aimed at cooperating, not necessarily at quality of thinking. A good first step is to move from the terminology of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teams. The concept of a team—a focused, committed set of individuals operating as a cohesive unit in search of a solution or attempting innovative thinking—raises the bar by replacing the old notion of having children circle a desk and exchange information with the idea that students team for a purpose.   Use a three step process to train your teams. Moving from groups to high performing teams is a three step process. The first step is to establish a collaborative culture by setting norms for teams and scaffolding essential skills like listening, eye contact, body posture, voice tone, and empathic responses. (These are best taught early in the year, before launching a full scale project.)   The second step is to form your teams intentionally. Balance your teams based on individual strengths and challenges, a profile of their creativity or critical thinking skills, or their personality traits. With younger students, this works best if teachers choose team members. But older high school students can be taught how to choose their own teammates—a valuable lesson in self-awareness and self-management.   The third step is to use PBL team tools. Three basics tools will do the job: A high quality collaboration rubric; a work ethic rubric; and a team contract that defines their operating agreements.   Grade teamwork. Teamwork should not be a serendipitous byproduct of a project. You can mix and match between grading individual students in a team, overall team performance, or a mix of both, but teamwork must be graded and show up in the final project grade. Depending on the time of year, age of students, and your goals in establishing solid teams, the grade percentage can change with each project.   Challenge your teams. We treat 21st century skills, such as communication and collaboration, as isolates. But at a deep level they emanate from one place—from some inner dialogue, vision, stimulation, exchange, wondering, surprise, validation, and joyful recognition of a new idea. A new idea may start with an individual, but we know they gain exponential power in the presence of a team. The kick start for this process is an engaging, powerful challenge that liberates ideas and draws teams together for the common purpose of solving an important problem. Without this challenge, you won’t get far on deep thinking.   Use protocols for thinking. A variety of tools exist to help teams learn to inquire, contribute, comment, share, respond, listen, and revise ideas. Use the visible thinking tools developed at Harvard, protocols that force attentiveness and careful responses, or team to team and peer to peer exchanges, with a clear goal and prompts, at every opportunity. Make the students do the heavy lifting and hard thinking. Have them track and report out on their discussions.   Create a design mentality. Drafting, critiquing, and revising are what teams do best. From the beginning of a project, expect students to think in engineering terms: As designers of a prototype that needs to be reviewed and tested for quality and specifications. The product may be a written piece, a media presentation, a drawing, or a gas-powered boat. It doesn’t matter. The objective of teams, in Ron Berger’s words, is to build a culture of craftsmanship.   Use the power of reflection. A project is never over until a one to two day reflection takes place after the products are delivered or the exhibition is complete, with probing questions to be answered by the student teams regarding their performance, quality of work, and overall learning. This is an excellent time to use thinking tools to explore good thinking—a proven metacognitive approach. Your goal is to help the teams move through a two-stage process: From the So What? (What did we learn?) to the Now What? (How can we improve, think deeper, and move forward?).   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, where you can find more information on PBL teams. You can also download team rubrics and other PBL tools from his website, www.thommarkham.com. Contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     Sat, 25 Aug 2012 01:06:38 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Teaching-PBL-Teams-to-Think/blog/6298573/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-08-25T01:06:38Z ASCD EDge Recently, a 7th grade teacher told me a story that thrilled her. She had passed a team of four students in the quad at lunchtime and overheard them having a spirited debate about what they had learned in their latest project in her class. They were exchanging cogent ideas, using the vocabulary of the discipline, and listening carefully to each other’s arguments. That was all the evidence she needed to know that her project had met its goals.   If you’re a PBL teacher, using high quality project based learning methods should lead to these kinds of results. PBL promotes curiosity, purposeful engagement, and—quite often—a noticeable shift in student attitudes. Students begin to demonstrate that they care about their learning—and they talk about it.     But it is also a fact that often PBL teachers feel dissatisfied with the intellectual outcomes of a project. I believe the reason behind this is that we as educators are in the early stages of learning how to use teamwork to achieve high performance. This is an issue in PBL, which relies on teams to solve problems, but it’s also a challenge for all 21st century educators. In today’s world, collaborative groups in schools must step up to meet the requirements of the global age, a process in which teams routinely focus on a problem, design solutions, and navigate differences to achieve a result, with members using a variety of thinking tools to brainstorm and improve their ideas, and relying on evidence, facts, persuasive arguments, and knowledge of the subject to succeed. We haven’t yet built these new skills into team routines in the classroom.   I also believe that promoting quality interactions among student teams has a larger purpose: Preparing students for the rise of a networked, collective intelligence. Whether it’s putting a ‘like’ on a Facebook post, retweeting an idea, or blogging an opinion and receiving feedback, it is now the norm for individuals to bring their singular gifts to a communal discussion, assimilate information from multiple sources, and sample each other’s ideas before passing judgment or deciding a course of action. We’re all getting smarter together—and this is the environment in which our students will come to adulthood.   This means that it is vital that educators help students move from a Facebook culture to a thinking Facebook culture. The ultimate promise of good teamwork is that young people may learn collective ways to think more deeply about their world and design a better future. In fact, I’ll pause and put the term ‘depth’ in the context of another global age trend: Our knowledge of brain plasticity. What we know is that in the presence of attention and purposeful engagement, the brain is working very hard. Thousands of synapses every second are formed and reformed. The goal of teaching teams to think is to take advantage of the brain as a dynamic enterprise by having students exchange ideas in ways that promote a high level of engagement with each other, require the intentional use of appropriate terms and vocabulary, and challenge inattention and mediocrity.   This is a work in progress for all of us, but here are several ideas on how to make teamwork more effective. If you have other methods that are working, I’d love to hear from you.   Move to the vocabulary of teams. We’re doing much more collaborative learning in schools, but the group work strategies of the last twenty years are aimed at cooperating, not necessarily at quality of thinking. A good first step is to move from the terminology of groups to the more powerful vocabulary of teams. The concept of a team—a focused, committed set of individuals operating as a cohesive unit in search of a solution or attempting innovative thinking—raises the bar by replacing the old notion of having children circle a desk and exchange information with the idea that students team for a purpose.   Use a three step process to train your teams. Moving from groups to high performing teams is a three step process. The first step is to establish a collaborative culture by setting norms for teams and scaffolding essential skills like listening, eye contact, body posture, voice tone, and empathic responses. (These are best taught early in the year, before launching a full scale project.)   The second step is to form your teams intentionally. Balance your teams based on individual strengths and challenges, a profile of their creativity or critical thinking skills, or their personality traits. With younger students, this works best if teachers choose team members. But older high school students can be taught how to choose their own teammates—a valuable lesson in self-awareness and self-management.   The third step is to use PBL team tools. Three basics tools will do the job: A high quality collaboration rubric; a work ethic rubric; and a team contract that defines their operating agreements.   Grade teamwork. Teamwork should not be a serendipitous byproduct of a project. You can mix and match between grading individual students in a team, overall team performance, or a mix of both, but teamwork must be graded and show up in the final project grade. Depending on the time of year, age of students, and your goals in establishing solid teams, the grade percentage can change with each project.   Challenge your teams. We treat 21st century skills, such as communication and collaboration, as isolates. But at a deep level they emanate from one place—from some inner dialogue, vision, stimulation, exchange, wondering, surprise, validation, and joyful recognition of a new idea. A new idea may start with an individual, but we know they gain exponential power in the presence of a team. The kick start for this process is an engaging, powerful challenge that liberates ideas and draws teams together for the common purpose of solving an important problem. Without this challenge, you won’t get far on deep thinking.   Use protocols for thinking. A variety of tools exist to help teams learn to inquire, contribute, comment, share, respond, listen, and revise ideas. Use the visible thinking tools developed at Harvard, protocols that force attentiveness and careful responses, or team to team and peer to peer exchanges, with a clear goal and prompts, at every opportunity. Make the students do the heavy lifting and hard thinking. Have them track and report out on their discussions.   Create a design mentality. Drafting, critiquing, and revising are what teams do best. From the beginning of a project, expect students to think in engineering terms: As designers of a prototype that needs to be reviewed and tested for quality and specifications. The product may be a written piece, a media presentation, a drawing, or a gas-powered boat. It doesn’t matter. The objective of teams, in Ron Berger’s words, is to build a culture of craftsmanship.   Use the power of reflection. A project is never over until a one to two day reflection takes place after the products are delivered or the exhibition is complete, with probing questions to be answered by the student teams regarding their performance, quality of work, and overall learning. This is an excellent time to use thinking tools to explore good thinking—a proven metacognitive approach. Your goal is to help the teams move through a two-stage process: From the So What? (What did we learn?) to the Now What? (How can we improve, think deeper, and move forward?).   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, where you can find more information on PBL teams. You can also download team rubrics and other PBL tools from his website, www.thommarkham.com. Contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     nonadult false Teaching PBL Teams to Think text blog 945 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6298573 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Tips-for-Better-PBL/blog/6275699/127586.html Meeting Common Core Standards requires more emphasis on inquiry and project based learning (PBL.) Increasingly, in the 2012 -2013 school year, teachers will be asked to design and implement high quality, student-focused projects that help students go deeper into subjects, think harder, and perform better.   Teachers with experience in ‘doing projects’ often feel that they know how to do this, but delivering high quality PBL that yields ‘visible greatness,’ in the words of a teacher I talked with recently, is not easy work. Effective PBL begins with mastering a design methodology that combines discovery with accountability. After that, the power of PBL is harnessed when teachers employ a set of tools and principles aimed at engaging students in a powerful learning experience—the kind that directs them toward deeper thinking, and that often permanently shifts their behaviors and attitudes in a positive direction. That’s the standard we now seek in our schools.   That standard can be met through PBL, but not without overcoming certain pitfalls and gaps in PBL by letting go of ingrained practices in education that actually retard deeper thinking. What should you look for, either to use or avoid?   First, I’ve found that high quality projects begin well before students ever see them. This is the stage in which you are conceptualizing a project and working on a design idea that will engage students in solving an important, relevant, open ended problem. What do those problems look like, and how do you get there? Here are ten tips:   Start with a challenge, not a predetermined outcome. Letting go of predetermined outcomes sounds simple, but industrial education is built on the premise that we teach students what we believe they ought to know. That’s why we have standards. But PBL aims at getting students to know and apply the standards. If you know the answer to the problem already, it’s not a good project idea. Here’s a good test: Can the answer be Googled?   Think of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, which emphasizes creating and evaluating, rather than remembering and understanding, is a helpful tool in the early stages of project planning. Your goal is not ‘awareness’ or ‘recall’ or even ‘analyzing’ in the academic sense; your goal is to direct students into the deeper domains of learning, in which they struggle with ideas, draft conclusions, weigh alternatives, and create solutions. Stay away from project ideas that result in students listing, defining, or categorizing. If the products of the project sound too conventional to you, they probably are.    Commit to inquiry. As you plan out the teaching and learning on a project schedule, commit to keeping the inquiry alive. It’s easy to default to teaching the curriculum rather than allowing students to think for themselves. Use lots of triads, pairs, and teams to get students to brainstorm and trade solutions. Given time constraints, this is tricky territory for PBL, so you probably will need to decide how to balance direct instruction with think time. But err on the side of thinking, and as you plan out the schedule, allow the time necessary for students to work their way through a complex problem.   Refine the DQ. The challenge needs to be captured in a solid Driving Question for the project. This question is not an essential or thematic question; it’s designed to tell students what they need to learn in the project. At the end of the project, they will have answered this question, either through the products they prepare or the reflection at the end of the project. Getting to the right question is hard work. Think of it as an editing process. You’re trying to identify exactly what you want out of this project. Often, the right question emerges when you investigate the purpose of the project. Recently, I discussed a cell structure project with a 9th grade biology teacher. Once he realized that the purpose was not to teach the parts of the cell (that’s Googleable), he moved onto how the structure of a cell compares to a virus, and how students can use this knowledge to probe diseases and their cures.   Beware the PowerPoint and the tri-fold brochure. It’s hard to design projects with products that matter. The usual suspects—such as a PowerPoint or a brochure—rarely invigorate students. Your first objective is to plan for products that mirror what professionals would do. For example, in a recent health/fitness project, students design a Personal Fitness plan that matched the form used by a local health club. Similarly, in Biology, students designed a zoo, and in Algebra, students created a chart that matched school attendance to District revenue—and placed the chart in the front hall for all students to see every day (attendance went up.)   Use a protocol to tune your project. There is one key best practice that has emerged at schools that succeed at PBL: Teachers review their project plan with colleagues prior to launching the project. This process works very well if teachers use a Critical Friends Protocol to analyze the project plan. Discussions alone (“I have an idea I’d like to run by you.”) aren’t sufficient. PBL is complex, and benefits from multiple viewpoints and detailed feedback.   Grade work ethic. Good rubrics are essential to defining performance in PBL, both for assessing the application of content and 21st century skills. However, good performance is very dependent on training students to work hard. A work ethic rubric is your most essential tool here. It is a flexible rubric that can be adapted to different grade levels, defines expectations for students, and grades them on the kinds of skills and attitudes that employers seek today. In many schools, work ethic is now ten percent or more of the final grade on a project.   Design a breakthrough column. Ideally, PBL doesn’t result in ‘A’ work; it encourages something better. Every well designed project offers the opportunity for students to go beyond mastering concepts, facts, and skills—and to demonstrate ‘break-through thinking. This is the kind of insight captured in the top of the pyramid on the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, but in a strict standards-based environment, that kind of thinking is not encouraged or supported. But any rubric can be adapted to this vital goal by having a breakthrough column. What do you write in this column? Nothing, leave it blank. Let students show you what insightful solutions look like.   Use visible thinking routines. I’m will elaborate on this in a coming blog, but the most pressing issue for PBL teachers is how to encourage students to talk intelligently in teams about problems that matter. Moving from groups to the language of teams is a first step. A second step is to require protocols that train students to share prototypes, probe each other’s thinking, share and evaluate solutions, and use the vocabulary of the discipline they are studying. The Visible Thinking routines developed at Harvard are ideal tools for your PBL teams.   Plan to reflect. Follow this rule: Your project does not end until you have led students in a reflection on what they have learned. Use a systematic approach to reflection, with key prompts that review student performance, the project outcomes, and your contribution to the project plan. The general approach is to get at three elements of reflection: (1) Encouraging deep learning and retention; (2) Focusing on quality and excellence; and (3) Developing a ‘growth’ mindset.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download the rubrics and protocols mentioned above, and other Tools for PBL, on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.         Meeting Common Core Standards requires more emphasis on inquiry and project based learning (PBL.) Increasingly, in the 2012 -2013 school year, teachers will be asked to design and implement high quality, student-focused projects that help students go deeper into subjects, think harder, and perform better.   Teachers with experience in ‘doing projects’ often feel that they know how to do this, but delivering high quality PBL that yields ‘visible greatness,’ in the words of a teacher I talked with recently, is not easy work. Effective PBL begins with mastering a design methodology that combines discovery with accountability. After that, the power of PBL is harnessed when teachers employ a set of tools and principles aimed at engaging students in a powerful learning experience—the kind that directs them toward deeper thinking, and that often permanently shifts their behaviors and attitudes in a positive direction. That’s the standard we now seek in our schools.   That standard can be met through PBL, but not without overcoming certain pitfalls and gaps in PBL by letting go of ingrained practices in education that actually retard deeper thinking. What should you look for, either to use or avoid?   First, I’ve found that high quality projects begin well before students ever see them. This is the stage in which you are conceptualizing a project and working on a design idea that will engage students in solving an important, relevant, open ended problem. What do those problems look like, and how do you get there? Here are ten tips:   Start with a challenge, not a predetermined outcome. Letting go of predetermined outcomes sounds simple, but industrial education is built on the premise that we teach students what we believe they ought to know. That’s why we have standards. But PBL aims at getting students to know and apply the standards. If you know the answer to the problem already, it’s not a good project idea. Here’s a good test: Can the answer be Googled?   Think of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, which emphasizes creating and evaluating, rather than remembering and understanding, is a helpful tool in the early stages of project planning. Your goal is not ‘awareness’ or ‘recall’ or even ‘analyzing’ in the academic sense; your goal is to direct students into the deeper domains of learning, in which they struggle with ideas, draft conclusions, weigh alternatives, and create solutions. Stay away from project ideas that result in students listing, defining, or categorizing. If the products of the project sound too conventional to you, they probably are.    Commit to inquiry. As you plan out the teaching and learning on a project schedule, commit to keeping the inquiry alive. It’s easy to default to teaching the curriculum rather than allowing students to think for themselves. Use lots of triads, pairs, and teams to get students to brainstorm and trade solutions. Given time constraints, this is tricky territory for PBL, so you probably will need to decide how to balance direct instruction with think time. But err on the side of thinking, and as you plan out the schedule, allow the time necessary for students to work their way through a complex problem.   Refine the DQ. The challenge needs to be captured in a solid Driving Question for the project. This question is not an essential or thematic question; it’s designed to tell students what they need to learn in the project. At the end of the project, they will have answered this question, either through the products they prepare or the reflection at the end of the project. Getting to the right question is hard work. Think of it as an editing process. You’re trying to identify exactly what you want out of this project. Often, the right question emerges when you investigate the purpose of the project. Recently, I discussed a cell structure project with a 9th grade biology teacher. Once he realized that the purpose was not to teach the parts of the cell (that’s Googleable), he moved onto how the structure of a cell compares to a virus, and how students can use this knowledge to probe diseases and their cures.   Beware the PowerPoint and the tri-fold brochure. It’s hard to design projects with products that matter. The usual suspects—such as a PowerPoint or a brochure—rarely invigorate students. Your first objective is to plan for products that mirror what professionals would do. For example, in a recent health/fitness project, students design a Personal Fitness plan that matched the form used by a local health club. Similarly, in Biology, students designed a zoo, and in Algebra, students created a chart that matched school attendance to District revenue—and placed the chart in the front hall for all students to see every day (attendance went up.)   Use a protocol to tune your project. There is one key best practice that has emerged at schools that succeed at PBL: Teachers review their project plan with colleagues prior to launching the project. This process works very well if teachers use a Critical Friends Protocol to analyze the project plan. Discussions alone (“I have an idea I’d like to run by you.”) aren’t sufficient. PBL is complex, and benefits from multiple viewpoints and detailed feedback.   Grade work ethic. Good rubrics are essential to defining performance in PBL, both for assessing the application of content and 21st century skills. However, good performance is very dependent on training students to work hard. A work ethic rubric is your most essential tool here. It is a flexible rubric that can be adapted to different grade levels, defines expectations for students, and grades them on the kinds of skills and attitudes that employers seek today. In many schools, work ethic is now ten percent or more of the final grade on a project.   Design a breakthrough column. Ideally, PBL doesn’t result in ‘A’ work; it encourages something better. Every well designed project offers the opportunity for students to go beyond mastering concepts, facts, and skills—and to demonstrate ‘break-through thinking. This is the kind of insight captured in the top of the pyramid on the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, but in a strict standards-based environment, that kind of thinking is not encouraged or supported. But any rubric can be adapted to this vital goal by having a breakthrough column. What do you write in this column? Nothing, leave it blank. Let students show you what insightful solutions look like.   Use visible thinking routines. I’m will elaborate on this in a coming blog, but the most pressing issue for PBL teachers is how to encourage students to talk intelligently in teams about problems that matter. Moving from groups to the language of teams is a first step. A second step is to require protocols that train students to share prototypes, probe each other’s thinking, share and evaluate solutions, and use the vocabulary of the discipline they are studying. The Visible Thinking routines developed at Harvard are ideal tools for your PBL teams.   Plan to reflect. Follow this rule: Your project does not end until you have led students in a reflection on what they have learned. Use a systematic approach to reflection, with key prompts that review student performance, the project outcomes, and your contribution to the project plan. The general approach is to get at three elements of reflection: (1) Encouraging deep learning and retention; (2) Focusing on quality and excellence; and (3) Developing a ‘growth’ mindset.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download the rubrics and protocols mentioned above, and other Tools for PBL, on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.         Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:15:16 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Tips-for-Better-PBL/blog/6275699/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-08-13T21:15:16Z ASCD EDge Meeting Common Core Standards requires more emphasis on inquiry and project based learning (PBL.) Increasingly, in the 2012 -2013 school year, teachers will be asked to design and implement high quality, student-focused projects that help students go deeper into subjects, think harder, and perform better.   Teachers with experience in ‘doing projects’ often feel that they know how to do this, but delivering high quality PBL that yields ‘visible greatness,’ in the words of a teacher I talked with recently, is not easy work. Effective PBL begins with mastering a design methodology that combines discovery with accountability. After that, the power of PBL is harnessed when teachers employ a set of tools and principles aimed at engaging students in a powerful learning experience—the kind that directs them toward deeper thinking, and that often permanently shifts their behaviors and attitudes in a positive direction. That’s the standard we now seek in our schools.   That standard can be met through PBL, but not without overcoming certain pitfalls and gaps in PBL by letting go of ingrained practices in education that actually retard deeper thinking. What should you look for, either to use or avoid?   First, I’ve found that high quality projects begin well before students ever see them. This is the stage in which you are conceptualizing a project and working on a design idea that will engage students in solving an important, relevant, open ended problem. What do those problems look like, and how do you get there? Here are ten tips:   Start with a challenge, not a predetermined outcome. Letting go of predetermined outcomes sounds simple, but industrial education is built on the premise that we teach students what we believe they ought to know. That’s why we have standards. But PBL aims at getting students to know and apply the standards. If you know the answer to the problem already, it’s not a good project idea. Here’s a good test: Can the answer be Googled?   Think of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, which emphasizes creating and evaluating, rather than remembering and understanding, is a helpful tool in the early stages of project planning. Your goal is not ‘awareness’ or ‘recall’ or even ‘analyzing’ in the academic sense; your goal is to direct students into the deeper domains of learning, in which they struggle with ideas, draft conclusions, weigh alternatives, and create solutions. Stay away from project ideas that result in students listing, defining, or categorizing. If the products of the project sound too conventional to you, they probably are.    Commit to inquiry. As you plan out the teaching and learning on a project schedule, commit to keeping the inquiry alive. It’s easy to default to teaching the curriculum rather than allowing students to think for themselves. Use lots of triads, pairs, and teams to get students to brainstorm and trade solutions. Given time constraints, this is tricky territory for PBL, so you probably will need to decide how to balance direct instruction with think time. But err on the side of thinking, and as you plan out the schedule, allow the time necessary for students to work their way through a complex problem.   Refine the DQ. The challenge needs to be captured in a solid Driving Question for the project. This question is not an essential or thematic question; it’s designed to tell students what they need to learn in the project. At the end of the project, they will have answered this question, either through the products they prepare or the reflection at the end of the project. Getting to the right question is hard work. Think of it as an editing process. You’re trying to identify exactly what you want out of this project. Often, the right question emerges when you investigate the purpose of the project. Recently, I discussed a cell structure project with a 9th grade biology teacher. Once he realized that the purpose was not to teach the parts of the cell (that’s Googleable), he moved onto how the structure of a cell compares to a virus, and how students can use this knowledge to probe diseases and their cures.   Beware the PowerPoint and the tri-fold brochure. It’s hard to design projects with products that matter. The usual suspects—such as a PowerPoint or a brochure—rarely invigorate students. Your first objective is to plan for products that mirror what professionals would do. For example, in a recent health/fitness project, students design a Personal Fitness plan that matched the form used by a local health club. Similarly, in Biology, students designed a zoo, and in Algebra, students created a chart that matched school attendance to District revenue—and placed the chart in the front hall for all students to see every day (attendance went up.)   Use a protocol to tune your project. There is one key best practice that has emerged at schools that succeed at PBL: Teachers review their project plan with colleagues prior to launching the project. This process works very well if teachers use a Critical Friends Protocol to analyze the project plan. Discussions alone (“I have an idea I’d like to run by you.”) aren’t sufficient. PBL is complex, and benefits from multiple viewpoints and detailed feedback.   Grade work ethic. Good rubrics are essential to defining performance in PBL, both for assessing the application of content and 21st century skills. However, good performance is very dependent on training students to work hard. A work ethic rubric is your most essential tool here. It is a flexible rubric that can be adapted to different grade levels, defines expectations for students, and grades them on the kinds of skills and attitudes that employers seek today. In many schools, work ethic is now ten percent or more of the final grade on a project.   Design a breakthrough column. Ideally, PBL doesn’t result in ‘A’ work; it encourages something better. Every well designed project offers the opportunity for students to go beyond mastering concepts, facts, and skills—and to demonstrate ‘break-through thinking. This is the kind of insight captured in the top of the pyramid on the new Bloom’s Taxonomy, but in a strict standards-based environment, that kind of thinking is not encouraged or supported. But any rubric can be adapted to this vital goal by having a breakthrough column. What do you write in this column? Nothing, leave it blank. Let students show you what insightful solutions look like.   Use visible thinking routines. I’m will elaborate on this in a coming blog, but the most pressing issue for PBL teachers is how to encourage students to talk intelligently in teams about problems that matter. Moving from groups to the language of teams is a first step. A second step is to require protocols that train students to share prototypes, probe each other’s thinking, share and evaluate solutions, and use the vocabulary of the discipline they are studying. The Visible Thinking routines developed at Harvard are ideal tools for your PBL teams.   Plan to reflect. Follow this rule: Your project does not end until you have led students in a reflection on what they have learned. Use a systematic approach to reflection, with key prompts that review student performance, the project outcomes, and your contribution to the project plan. The general approach is to get at three elements of reflection: (1) Encouraging deep learning and retention; (2) Focusing on quality and excellence; and (3) Developing a ‘growth’ mindset.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download the rubrics and protocols mentioned above, and other Tools for PBL, on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.         nonadult false Ten Tips for Better PBL text blog 5926 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 6 0 6275699 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Teach-But-Also-Inspire/blog/6260441/127586.html At the start of any new venture, it’s a good idea to set some goals. I suggest one overriding goal for every teacher for the 2012- 2013 school year is to inspire students as well as teach them.    In an NCLB-crazed world, this sounds almost quaint. 95% of the discussion about education revolves around curriculum—what to teach, how to teach, and how to test the impact of curriculum delivery. A generation of teachers has grown up on a daily diet of one message: If information can just be packaged properly and turned into a list of standards, and then relayed to students in the proper dosage, test scores will rise and all will be well.     I’m a fan of standards as general guidelines and organizing tools that help us form a consensus on what an educated person ought to know—or, at least, what we currently think that person should know. So teaching facts, concepts, and academic skills are very much part of the job.     But life has its tidal flows. Arguably, it was necessary for the accountability movement, NCLB, and high stakes testing to rush in to fill the gaps left from the 1990s, when too little attention was paid to outcomes and all students were not taught and supported equally. With the advent of Common Core Standards, project based learning, and a renewed emphasis on inquiry, creativity, whole child education, and 21st century skills, however, the tide is moving the opposite direction. The packaged curriculum will no longer work—and neither will teaching that lacks inspiration.   I say this for two reasons. First, education has moved swiftly in direction of expecting students to practice and master skillful behaviors related to life management and workplace requirements. Teaching behavior and peak performance rather than facts and concepts requires the services of a skillful coach who can motivate and inspire. Many educators, including top leadership, cling to the notion that skills can be boxed up and taught like the causes of the Civil War or the elements of the photosynthesis cycle. Nothing is further from reality, as companies (which spend millions of dollars trying to get employees to talk successfully with one another) or marriage therapists (who patiently guide spouses through repeated attempts to ‘actively listen’ to one another) will attest. In fact, so-called ‘soft’ skills are really the ‘hard’ skills in life—much harder, as most people know, than preparing for multiple choice tests or writing a short essay.   To succeed in teaching skills, teachers now need to address issues such as personal values, attitude, and intrinsic elements of students’ personalities. For example, teaching students to collaborate in teams sounds easy—until one realizes that it’s difficult to succeed in groups unless one has a healthy attitude toward diversity. That’s called empathy, and it’s not something we ordinarily teach. Similarly, effective interpersonal communication is rooted in self confidence, assertiveness, and self-awareness.    This is doubly important because education persists in mislabeling personal strengths—or ‘dispositions’, as psychologists define them—as ‘skills’ or ‘habits of mind.’ Resiliency, curiosity, and perserverance are commonly included in this category. These truly are the internal assets necessary to sail through an increasingly non-linear, surprising world. But they originate deep within a person, a product of genes, experience, and willpower. None are easily accessible—and they do not respond to direct instruction.    So how do you, as a teacher, adjust to the new goal of tapping the inner strengths of your students? The good news is that the ‘how-to’ on inspiring students is not really a mystery. An expansive literature on positive psychology, human performance, and organizational effectiveness has shown us the factors that liberate top performance and encourage purposeful engagement.     The more sobering news is that education is not yet prepared to fully support your efforts. But here are four steps that will aim you in the right direction as the 2012 – 2013 school year opens up:   Redefine your professional obligations as a 21st century teacher. Keep in mind the meaning of inspiration: To fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence; to inspire confidence in others; to influence or impel in a positive way; and to generate a positive view of the future. Mix the information with the vision. Teach the person, not the stuff. Make it your priority to leave your students next June with a better sense of self, values that matter, a can-do attitude, and the certainty that they can handle the future.   Examine your model of teaching and learning. The original root of education—educare, ‘to draw from within’—lies buried under the accumulated mass of education’s infatuation with behaviorism, neuroscience, all manner of educational ‘sciences’, and the tendency of our current society to believe in the supremacy of the input-output model of life. This behaviorist model works perfectly for standardized curriculum; but it does not tap the entrepreneurial core that elicits the creativity, commitment, and resourcefulness we want from students.   Pay close attention to classroom culture. Plants bloom best under the right conditions; so do human beings. Set up norms, not rules. Remember that care, in the form of a positive mentor relationship, respect for individual student aspirations, and a belief in each student’s desire to learn, is your foremost teaching strategy. Be an active, empathetic listener. Model curiosity. Know that you broadcast your feelings to students—and be aware of what you are feeling each day.   Use the tools of inquiry—and trust the result. Starting with questions, using inquiry, or designing a project around a compelling challenge are great tools. This is the coming mantra of education. But the tools must be accompanied by your belief that valuable learning will come out of the experience that may not fit the standards or address the end of course tests. Yes, prepare students for the tests; that’s your job and your paycheck may depend on it. But plenty of opportunities exist to turn students loose on learning, with good, supportive guidelines that aim them in the direction of the aha! and the revelation. The more you trust your students, the more your students will access their deeper selves and the ultimate source of their success.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.   At the start of any new venture, it’s a good idea to set some goals. I suggest one overriding goal for every teacher for the 2012- 2013 school year is to inspire students as well as teach them.    In an NCLB-crazed world, this sounds almost quaint. 95% of the discussion about education revolves around curriculum—what to teach, how to teach, and how to test the impact of curriculum delivery. A generation of teachers has grown up on a daily diet of one message: If information can just be packaged properly and turned into a list of standards, and then relayed to students in the proper dosage, test scores will rise and all will be well.     I’m a fan of standards as general guidelines and organizing tools that help us form a consensus on what an educated person ought to know—or, at least, what we currently think that person should know. So teaching facts, concepts, and academic skills are very much part of the job.     But life has its tidal flows. Arguably, it was necessary for the accountability movement, NCLB, and high stakes testing to rush in to fill the gaps left from the 1990s, when too little attention was paid to outcomes and all students were not taught and supported equally. With the advent of Common Core Standards, project based learning, and a renewed emphasis on inquiry, creativity, whole child education, and 21st century skills, however, the tide is moving the opposite direction. The packaged curriculum will no longer work—and neither will teaching that lacks inspiration.   I say this for two reasons. First, education has moved swiftly in direction of expecting students to practice and master skillful behaviors related to life management and workplace requirements. Teaching behavior and peak performance rather than facts and concepts requires the services of a skillful coach who can motivate and inspire. Many educators, including top leadership, cling to the notion that skills can be boxed up and taught like the causes of the Civil War or the elements of the photosynthesis cycle. Nothing is further from reality, as companies (which spend millions of dollars trying to get employees to talk successfully with one another) or marriage therapists (who patiently guide spouses through repeated attempts to ‘actively listen’ to one another) will attest. In fact, so-called ‘soft’ skills are really the ‘hard’ skills in life—much harder, as most people know, than preparing for multiple choice tests or writing a short essay.   To succeed in teaching skills, teachers now need to address issues such as personal values, attitude, and intrinsic elements of students’ personalities. For example, teaching students to collaborate in teams sounds easy—until one realizes that it’s difficult to succeed in groups unless one has a healthy attitude toward diversity. That’s called empathy, and it’s not something we ordinarily teach. Similarly, effective interpersonal communication is rooted in self confidence, assertiveness, and self-awareness.    This is doubly important because education persists in mislabeling personal strengths—or ‘dispositions’, as psychologists define them—as ‘skills’ or ‘habits of mind.’ Resiliency, curiosity, and perserverance are commonly included in this category. These truly are the internal assets necessary to sail through an increasingly non-linear, surprising world. But they originate deep within a person, a product of genes, experience, and willpower. None are easily accessible—and they do not respond to direct instruction.    So how do you, as a teacher, adjust to the new goal of tapping the inner strengths of your students? The good news is that the ‘how-to’ on inspiring students is not really a mystery. An expansive literature on positive psychology, human performance, and organizational effectiveness has shown us the factors that liberate top performance and encourage purposeful engagement.     The more sobering news is that education is not yet prepared to fully support your efforts. But here are four steps that will aim you in the right direction as the 2012 – 2013 school year opens up:   Redefine your professional obligations as a 21st century teacher. Keep in mind the meaning of inspiration: To fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence; to inspire confidence in others; to influence or impel in a positive way; and to generate a positive view of the future. Mix the information with the vision. Teach the person, not the stuff. Make it your priority to leave your students next June with a better sense of self, values that matter, a can-do attitude, and the certainty that they can handle the future.   Examine your model of teaching and learning. The original root of education—educare, ‘to draw from within’—lies buried under the accumulated mass of education’s infatuation with behaviorism, neuroscience, all manner of educational ‘sciences’, and the tendency of our current society to believe in the supremacy of the input-output model of life. This behaviorist model works perfectly for standardized curriculum; but it does not tap the entrepreneurial core that elicits the creativity, commitment, and resourcefulness we want from students.   Pay close attention to classroom culture. Plants bloom best under the right conditions; so do human beings. Set up norms, not rules. Remember that care, in the form of a positive mentor relationship, respect for individual student aspirations, and a belief in each student’s desire to learn, is your foremost teaching strategy. Be an active, empathetic listener. Model curiosity. Know that you broadcast your feelings to students—and be aware of what you are feeling each day.   Use the tools of inquiry—and trust the result. Starting with questions, using inquiry, or designing a project around a compelling challenge are great tools. This is the coming mantra of education. But the tools must be accompanied by your belief that valuable learning will come out of the experience that may not fit the standards or address the end of course tests. Yes, prepare students for the tests; that’s your job and your paycheck may depend on it. But plenty of opportunities exist to turn students loose on learning, with good, supportive guidelines that aim them in the direction of the aha! and the revelation. The more you trust your students, the more your students will access their deeper selves and the ultimate source of their success.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.   Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:50:29 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Teach-But-Also-Inspire/blog/6260441/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-08-05T00:50:29Z ASCD EDge At the start of any new venture, it’s a good idea to set some goals. I suggest one overriding goal for every teacher for the 2012- 2013 school year is to inspire students as well as teach them.    In an NCLB-crazed world, this sounds almost quaint. 95% of the discussion about education revolves around curriculum—what to teach, how to teach, and how to test the impact of curriculum delivery. A generation of teachers has grown up on a daily diet of one message: If information can just be packaged properly and turned into a list of standards, and then relayed to students in the proper dosage, test scores will rise and all will be well.     I’m a fan of standards as general guidelines and organizing tools that help us form a consensus on what an educated person ought to know—or, at least, what we currently think that person should know. So teaching facts, concepts, and academic skills are very much part of the job.     But life has its tidal flows. Arguably, it was necessary for the accountability movement, NCLB, and high stakes testing to rush in to fill the gaps left from the 1990s, when too little attention was paid to outcomes and all students were not taught and supported equally. With the advent of Common Core Standards, project based learning, and a renewed emphasis on inquiry, creativity, whole child education, and 21st century skills, however, the tide is moving the opposite direction. The packaged curriculum will no longer work—and neither will teaching that lacks inspiration.   I say this for two reasons. First, education has moved swiftly in direction of expecting students to practice and master skillful behaviors related to life management and workplace requirements. Teaching behavior and peak performance rather than facts and concepts requires the services of a skillful coach who can motivate and inspire. Many educators, including top leadership, cling to the notion that skills can be boxed up and taught like the causes of the Civil War or the elements of the photosynthesis cycle. Nothing is further from reality, as companies (which spend millions of dollars trying to get employees to talk successfully with one another) or marriage therapists (who patiently guide spouses through repeated attempts to ‘actively listen’ to one another) will attest. In fact, so-called ‘soft’ skills are really the ‘hard’ skills in life—much harder, as most people know, than preparing for multiple choice tests or writing a short essay.   To succeed in teaching skills, teachers now need to address issues such as personal values, attitude, and intrinsic elements of students’ personalities. For example, teaching students to collaborate in teams sounds easy—until one realizes that it’s difficult to succeed in groups unless one has a healthy attitude toward diversity. That’s called empathy, and it’s not something we ordinarily teach. Similarly, effective interpersonal communication is rooted in self confidence, assertiveness, and self-awareness.    This is doubly important because education persists in mislabeling personal strengths—or ‘dispositions’, as psychologists define them—as ‘skills’ or ‘habits of mind.’ Resiliency, curiosity, and perserverance are commonly included in this category. These truly are the internal assets necessary to sail through an increasingly non-linear, surprising world. But they originate deep within a person, a product of genes, experience, and willpower. None are easily accessible—and they do not respond to direct instruction.    So how do you, as a teacher, adjust to the new goal of tapping the inner strengths of your students? The good news is that the ‘how-to’ on inspiring students is not really a mystery. An expansive literature on positive psychology, human performance, and organizational effectiveness has shown us the factors that liberate top performance and encourage purposeful engagement.     The more sobering news is that education is not yet prepared to fully support your efforts. But here are four steps that will aim you in the right direction as the 2012 – 2013 school year opens up:   Redefine your professional obligations as a 21st century teacher. Keep in mind the meaning of inspiration: To fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence; to inspire confidence in others; to influence or impel in a positive way; and to generate a positive view of the future. Mix the information with the vision. Teach the person, not the stuff. Make it your priority to leave your students next June with a better sense of self, values that matter, a can-do attitude, and the certainty that they can handle the future.   Examine your model of teaching and learning. The original root of education—educare, ‘to draw from within’—lies buried under the accumulated mass of education’s infatuation with behaviorism, neuroscience, all manner of educational ‘sciences’, and the tendency of our current society to believe in the supremacy of the input-output model of life. This behaviorist model works perfectly for standardized curriculum; but it does not tap the entrepreneurial core that elicits the creativity, commitment, and resourcefulness we want from students.   Pay close attention to classroom culture. Plants bloom best under the right conditions; so do human beings. Set up norms, not rules. Remember that care, in the form of a positive mentor relationship, respect for individual student aspirations, and a belief in each student’s desire to learn, is your foremost teaching strategy. Be an active, empathetic listener. Model curiosity. Know that you broadcast your feelings to students—and be aware of what you are feeling each day.   Use the tools of inquiry—and trust the result. Starting with questions, using inquiry, or designing a project around a compelling challenge are great tools. This is the coming mantra of education. But the tools must be accompanied by your belief that valuable learning will come out of the experience that may not fit the standards or address the end of course tests. Yes, prepare students for the tests; that’s your job and your paycheck may depend on it. But plenty of opportunities exist to turn students loose on learning, with good, supportive guidelines that aim them in the direction of the aha! and the revelation. The more you trust your students, the more your students will access their deeper selves and the ultimate source of their success.   Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.   nonadult false Teach, But Also Inspire text blog 1156 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6260441 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_The-Whole-Child-is-a-Smarter-Child/blog/6015583/127586.html As I’ve reported in the past, IQ scores are on the move, rising nearly ten points with each generation. Known as the Flynn effect, after James Flynn, a cognitive scientist, the reason behind the rise in scores is widely debated, but answers focus on one area that should be of interest to teachers: Scores are increasing because children are showing greater capacity for fluid intelligence. That’s the ability to see patterns and solve novel problems without prior information, which relies on better working memory (the capacity to manipulate information) and a longer attention span. Intelligence researchers consider fluid intelligence to be the ultimate cognitive ability—a kind of gold standard for smart. Until a few years ago, fluid intelligence was considered immutable, but research in 2008, using computer programs, showed that it may be improved through training.   The fall out from the research was predictable: Brain boosting software flooded the market. In our data driven, analytic, brain-centric society, the enhanced ability to count and remember squares on a screen was seen as a competitive edge.   But I suggest that teachers approach fluid intelligence differently. First, don’t be fooled into thinking the brain alone is at work here. The brain is not an isolated cognitive organ whose neuronal pathways and exact mechanisms for problem solving have been identified, or whose mysterious interactions between emotions and a conscious thought have been parsed. Neuroscientists themselves caution us not be overconfident about applying brain science to the classroom.   Second, don’t be misled by IQ results. Another significant reason that IQ scores are rising is that formal schooling teaches students to categorize objects, which helps them on IQ tests. In 1900, for example, an IQ test might have asked about the relationship between rabbits and dogs. The correct answer: Dogs chase rabbits. Today’s correct answer? Both dogs and rabbits are mammals.   This leads to a culturally self-fulfilling prophecy: You have to go to school and learn facts in order to be considered smart. Richard Nisbett sets this standard in his book Intelligence and How to Get It, stating that, “Without formal education, a person is simply not going to be very bright—whether we measure intelligence by IQ tests or any other metric.” Sorry, natives of the rain forest.   Rather than a hyper focus on the brain and IQ, I believe we should put our faith in a multi-faceted, holistic approach that respects and enlarges human capacity, so that fluid intelligence includes the ability to create, empathize, and solve the issues of a divided global world. It’s quite possible, in fact, that fluid intelligence flourishes in a whole child environment, and that—in the 21st century—the whole child is a smarter child. It tells us also that, with contributions from all of us, we can make children smarter. My ten point action plan:   Take charge of your teaching. In my last post, I advocated for teacher empowerment. Fluid intelligence requires a fluid environment, like moving waters seeking a new outlet. Rather than remain a pawn of a top down system, use your own creative and visionary ability to move your teaching and school forward. Students will respond by ‘feeling’ the shift and acting more intelligently.   Pose questions, not answers. Teaching to the test stops fluid intelligence in its tracks. By definition, the highest form of smart is the ability to question, see gaps in patterns, solve problems and create ideas. Either we teach young people to do this, or our civilization will wither. The choice is that stark.   Stay focused on the future. The new indicators of smart use the language of the future: Resiliency; empathy, collaboration; communication; creativity; ethics; and character. These are difficult to teach, but can be learned by students when teachers make these habits and skills important.   Practice the power of care. Know the basics of why small people become good big people: They feel loved. A recent news item detailed how a Missouri kindergarten teacher required a six-year old to sit in her pooped pants while the rest of the class took a test. The rationale? The teacher was preparing her for the rigors of state testing in the future. Enough said.   Start with the heart. The heart and brain work in an intimate partnership. In simple terms, this means that all successful learning begins with emotional safety. Take time to create a climate of safety, belonging, and transparency in your class.   Learn about the brain. Most teachers know remarkably little about the chief tool of their trade. It’s important to know about advances in neuroscience, as well as the current limitations of neuroscience. Mostly, learn about the frontal lobes. That’s where most of your words are processed by your students.   Tap collective intelligence. No more than anyone else do I understand world trends, but one fact is clear: people are now woven into a web of intelligence. They get smarter because other people help them get smarter. Our job as educators is to figure out why this happens, how to make it happen faster and better, and how to direct it for positive results. We can begin by teaching students to work in highly committed teams focused on deep, productive work.   Dive into creativity. A very recent study reported that only 25% of people thought they lived up to their creative potential. One major factor? They were not encouraged to develop their creativity in school. Yet creativity is the highest expression of fluid intelligence. Two useful tools: Use creativity rubrics and designate one column in other rubrics for ‘breakthrough’ thinking.   Be a coach. Whether you feel comfortable with student-centered learning or not, it’s day is here. The role of the modern teacher is still to convey information as appropriate and necessary, but that skill set must now be expanded to include coaching and mentoring. Intelligence can’t be taught; neither is it a fixed commodity. Somewhere in between is your role as a supporting adult who guides and instructs in a way that stimulates a young person to grapple with life in a way that kindles the growth of intelligence.   Model intelligence. What if fluid intelligence is increased by good modeling? Are you a good model? Are you whole and healthy? Do you convey curiosity, joy, an open attitude, and commitment to your own growth? As a test, how would you answer the question about dogs and rabbits? Are they just mammals, or do they represent two beautiful and amazing species in an amazing world that’s getting better by the day—because we’re all getting smarter?   Thom Markham is a psychologist and educational consultant. He is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. As I’ve reported in the past, IQ scores are on the move, rising nearly ten points with each generation. Known as the Flynn effect, after James Flynn, a cognitive scientist, the reason behind the rise in scores is widely debated, but answers focus on one area that should be of interest to teachers: Scores are increasing because children are showing greater capacity for fluid intelligence. That’s the ability to see patterns and solve novel problems without prior information, which relies on better working memory (the capacity to manipulate information) and a longer attention span. Intelligence researchers consider fluid intelligence to be the ultimate cognitive ability—a kind of gold standard for smart. Until a few years ago, fluid intelligence was considered immutable, but research in 2008, using computer programs, showed that it may be improved through training.   The fall out from the research was predictable: Brain boosting software flooded the market. In our data driven, analytic, brain-centric society, the enhanced ability to count and remember squares on a screen was seen as a competitive edge.   But I suggest that teachers approach fluid intelligence differently. First, don’t be fooled into thinking the brain alone is at work here. The brain is not an isolated cognitive organ whose neuronal pathways and exact mechanisms for problem solving have been identified, or whose mysterious interactions between emotions and a conscious thought have been parsed. Neuroscientists themselves caution us not be overconfident about applying brain science to the classroom.   Second, don’t be misled by IQ results. Another significant reason that IQ scores are rising is that formal schooling teaches students to categorize objects, which helps them on IQ tests. In 1900, for example, an IQ test might have asked about the relationship between rabbits and dogs. The correct answer: Dogs chase rabbits. Today’s correct answer? Both dogs and rabbits are mammals.   This leads to a culturally self-fulfilling prophecy: You have to go to school and learn facts in order to be considered smart. Richard Nisbett sets this standard in his book Intelligence and How to Get It, stating that, “Without formal education, a person is simply not going to be very bright—whether we measure intelligence by IQ tests or any other metric.” Sorry, natives of the rain forest.   Rather than a hyper focus on the brain and IQ, I believe we should put our faith in a multi-faceted, holistic approach that respects and enlarges human capacity, so that fluid intelligence includes the ability to create, empathize, and solve the issues of a divided global world. It’s quite possible, in fact, that fluid intelligence flourishes in a whole child environment, and that—in the 21st century—the whole child is a smarter child. It tells us also that, with contributions from all of us, we can make children smarter. My ten point action plan:   Take charge of your teaching. In my last post, I advocated for teacher empowerment. Fluid intelligence requires a fluid environment, like moving waters seeking a new outlet. Rather than remain a pawn of a top down system, use your own creative and visionary ability to move your teaching and school forward. Students will respond by ‘feeling’ the shift and acting more intelligently.   Pose questions, not answers. Teaching to the test stops fluid intelligence in its tracks. By definition, the highest form of smart is the ability to question, see gaps in patterns, solve problems and create ideas. Either we teach young people to do this, or our civilization will wither. The choice is that stark.   Stay focused on the future. The new indicators of smart use the language of the future: Resiliency; empathy, collaboration; communication; creativity; ethics; and character. These are difficult to teach, but can be learned by students when teachers make these habits and skills important.   Practice the power of care. Know the basics of why small people become good big people: They feel loved. A recent news item detailed how a Missouri kindergarten teacher required a six-year old to sit in her pooped pants while the rest of the class took a test. The rationale? The teacher was preparing her for the rigors of state testing in the future. Enough said.   Start with the heart. The heart and brain work in an intimate partnership. In simple terms, this means that all successful learning begins with emotional safety. Take time to create a climate of safety, belonging, and transparency in your class.   Learn about the brain. Most teachers know remarkably little about the chief tool of their trade. It’s important to know about advances in neuroscience, as well as the current limitations of neuroscience. Mostly, learn about the frontal lobes. That’s where most of your words are processed by your students.   Tap collective intelligence. No more than anyone else do I understand world trends, but one fact is clear: people are now woven into a web of intelligence. They get smarter because other people help them get smarter. Our job as educators is to figure out why this happens, how to make it happen faster and better, and how to direct it for positive results. We can begin by teaching students to work in highly committed teams focused on deep, productive work.   Dive into creativity. A very recent study reported that only 25% of people thought they lived up to their creative potential. One major factor? They were not encouraged to develop their creativity in school. Yet creativity is the highest expression of fluid intelligence. Two useful tools: Use creativity rubrics and designate one column in other rubrics for ‘breakthrough’ thinking.   Be a coach. Whether you feel comfortable with student-centered learning or not, it’s day is here. The role of the modern teacher is still to convey information as appropriate and necessary, but that skill set must now be expanded to include coaching and mentoring. Intelligence can’t be taught; neither is it a fixed commodity. Somewhere in between is your role as a supporting adult who guides and instructs in a way that stimulates a young person to grapple with life in a way that kindles the growth of intelligence.   Model intelligence. What if fluid intelligence is increased by good modeling? Are you a good model? Are you whole and healthy? Do you convey curiosity, joy, an open attitude, and commitment to your own growth? As a test, how would you answer the question about dogs and rabbits? Are they just mammals, or do they represent two beautiful and amazing species in an amazing world that’s getting better by the day—because we’re all getting smarter?   Thom Markham is a psychologist and educational consultant. He is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:38:04 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_The-Whole-Child-is-a-Smarter-Child/blog/6015583/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-04-25T22:38:04Z ASCD EDge As I’ve reported in the past, IQ scores are on the move, rising nearly ten points with each generation. Known as the Flynn effect, after James Flynn, a cognitive scientist, the reason behind the rise in scores is widely debated, but answers focus on one area that should be of interest to teachers: Scores are increasing because children are showing greater capacity for fluid intelligence. That’s the ability to see patterns and solve novel problems without prior information, which relies on better working memory (the capacity to manipulate information) and a longer attention span. Intelligence researchers consider fluid intelligence to be the ultimate cognitive ability—a kind of gold standard for smart. Until a few years ago, fluid intelligence was considered immutable, but research in 2008, using computer programs, showed that it may be improved through training.   The fall out from the research was predictable: Brain boosting software flooded the market. In our data driven, analytic, brain-centric society, the enhanced ability to count and remember squares on a screen was seen as a competitive edge.   But I suggest that teachers approach fluid intelligence differently. First, don’t be fooled into thinking the brain alone is at work here. The brain is not an isolated cognitive organ whose neuronal pathways and exact mechanisms for problem solving have been identified, or whose mysterious interactions between emotions and a conscious thought have been parsed. Neuroscientists themselves caution us not be overconfident about applying brain science to the classroom.   Second, don’t be misled by IQ results. Another significant reason that IQ scores are rising is that formal schooling teaches students to categorize objects, which helps them on IQ tests. In 1900, for example, an IQ test might have asked about the relationship between rabbits and dogs. The correct answer: Dogs chase rabbits. Today’s correct answer? Both dogs and rabbits are mammals.   This leads to a culturally self-fulfilling prophecy: You have to go to school and learn facts in order to be considered smart. Richard Nisbett sets this standard in his book Intelligence and How to Get It, stating that, “Without formal education, a person is simply not going to be very bright—whether we measure intelligence by IQ tests or any other metric.” Sorry, natives of the rain forest.   Rather than a hyper focus on the brain and IQ, I believe we should put our faith in a multi-faceted, holistic approach that respects and enlarges human capacity, so that fluid intelligence includes the ability to create, empathize, and solve the issues of a divided global world. It’s quite possible, in fact, that fluid intelligence flourishes in a whole child environment, and that—in the 21st century—the whole child is a smarter child. It tells us also that, with contributions from all of us, we can make children smarter. My ten point action plan:   Take charge of your teaching. In my last post, I advocated for teacher empowerment. Fluid intelligence requires a fluid environment, like moving waters seeking a new outlet. Rather than remain a pawn of a top down system, use your own creative and visionary ability to move your teaching and school forward. Students will respond by ‘feeling’ the shift and acting more intelligently.   Pose questions, not answers. Teaching to the test stops fluid intelligence in its tracks. By definition, the highest form of smart is the ability to question, see gaps in patterns, solve problems and create ideas. Either we teach young people to do this, or our civilization will wither. The choice is that stark.   Stay focused on the future. The new indicators of smart use the language of the future: Resiliency; empathy, collaboration; communication; creativity; ethics; and character. These are difficult to teach, but can be learned by students when teachers make these habits and skills important.   Practice the power of care. Know the basics of why small people become good big people: They feel loved. A recent news item detailed how a Missouri kindergarten teacher required a six-year old to sit in her pooped pants while the rest of the class took a test. The rationale? The teacher was preparing her for the rigors of state testing in the future. Enough said.   Start with the heart. The heart and brain work in an intimate partnership. In simple terms, this means that all successful learning begins with emotional safety. Take time to create a climate of safety, belonging, and transparency in your class.   Learn about the brain. Most teachers know remarkably little about the chief tool of their trade. It’s important to know about advances in neuroscience, as well as the current limitations of neuroscience. Mostly, learn about the frontal lobes. That’s where most of your words are processed by your students.   Tap collective intelligence. No more than anyone else do I understand world trends, but one fact is clear: people are now woven into a web of intelligence. They get smarter because other people help them get smarter. Our job as educators is to figure out why this happens, how to make it happen faster and better, and how to direct it for positive results. We can begin by teaching students to work in highly committed teams focused on deep, productive work.   Dive into creativity. A very recent study reported that only 25% of people thought they lived up to their creative potential. One major factor? They were not encouraged to develop their creativity in school. Yet creativity is the highest expression of fluid intelligence. Two useful tools: Use creativity rubrics and designate one column in other rubrics for ‘breakthrough’ thinking.   Be a coach. Whether you feel comfortable with student-centered learning or not, it’s day is here. The role of the modern teacher is still to convey information as appropriate and necessary, but that skill set must now be expanded to include coaching and mentoring. Intelligence can’t be taught; neither is it a fixed commodity. Somewhere in between is your role as a supporting adult who guides and instructs in a way that stimulates a young person to grapple with life in a way that kindles the growth of intelligence.   Model intelligence. What if fluid intelligence is increased by good modeling? Are you a good model? Are you whole and healthy? Do you convey curiosity, joy, an open attitude, and commitment to your own growth? As a test, how would you answer the question about dogs and rabbits? Are they just mammals, or do they represent two beautiful and amazing species in an amazing world that’s getting better by the day—because we’re all getting smarter?   Thom Markham is a psychologist and educational consultant. He is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. nonadult false The Whole Child is a Smarter Child text blog 746 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 6015583 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_How-to-Revolt/blog/5976297/127586.html Embracing revolution is a quick way to be terminated in education. More than most jobs, teaching demands fealty to higher powers, no matter their expertise, fidelity to the standard curriculum, harmful or otherwise, and the willingness to narrow your horizons to fit the prevailing winds of politicians and other suits who can best decide whether you’re doing a good job or not.    But it is time for teachers to revolt. In spiritual literature, there is reference to the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It seems to me that teaching as a profession is now fully entered into that darkness. Over-standardization of teaching practices, a narrow, test based curriculum, packaged solutions to every learning problem, value-added evaluations, and the tightening of industrial work rules hostile to 21st century learning are overt signs of a more profound struggle that will decide our nation’s future. Will we celebrate and advance human capacities, or diminish them? Will we devise education that liberates the best in children, or seek to contain them in little jars labeled testing data, pacing guides, or a hundred other ciphers borne of the desire to regulate and limit human behavior in the name of ‘objective’ measures?   One can oppose the trends by speaking up, political action, or occupying education. This is fine, and I applaud the resistance. But I doubt that trench warfare will succeed until teaching is reinstated to its preeminent position as an ennobling profession that puts all its resources towards the development of well-rounded, capable, and emotionally stable young people. To my mind, defending union rights, sniping at testing, deriding corporate charter schools, protesting public shaming of teachers, or ridiculing the U.S. Department of Education engages teachers in skirmishes. The real battle is to reclaim and articulate a vision that transcends the current debate and carries the American public forward with a new and more inspiring narrative around learning in the 21st century.   This is a task for teachers, not political luminaries and media CEO’s, and it will not be easy. Education is a sedentary, conservative industry, held inert by tired truths and ossified structures. That doesn’t help. But even more, the standards and testing mania has paralyzed teachers themselves. The result is self-inflicted disempowerment. Yes, teachers may have been beaten down by the system. But their willingness to accept the status quo has become part of the problem, too.   It doesn’t have to be this way. There is too much latent power and talent in the teaching ranks. I always return from workshops with teachers feeling inspired and energized by the number of bright, committed, high quality human beings I see in the classroom, who offer world class learning everyday to their students. I can’t resist one recent example: Working alongside a vivacious, energetic 25-year old woman who was designing a very complex, challenging project for her third graders, I wondered aloud whether her students would succeed. No worries. She nearly jumped from her chair, and whooped: “Oh, yeh! My kiddos can do this!” It wasn’t bravado; it was the loving conviction and sheer knowledge that she—and they—could pull this off. There are many more like her.   Her enthusiasm and care for her students stayed with me, but as I thought about it, I realized that she, though clearly at the high end in terms of her craft, no doubt sees herself as a worker in the system, subject to the next testing schedule and comings and goings of the experts and evaluators. And, the fact is, that’s her defined role: She has power over those 30 third graders, but little else. And, another fact: If she objected too much, she would be sanctioned.   So how can she revolt without losing her job? More important, how could 7 million plus teachers in the U.S. come together, foment a revolution, and still draw their paychecks? Instead of conflict, I prefer to think of a powerful, positive, collective vision that would bring about revolutionary change without the extreme polarity that characterizes our daily discourse today. I’m reminded of Gandhi’s reply to the British Viceroy who asked, “Do you believe the British will just walk out of India?” And the reply: “Yes.” If educators hold to a more expansive vision of learning, those who believe teaching is an assembly line job will eventually walk away.   As with Gandhi, it’s more about taking a personal stand rather than tearing down your enemies. Here’s a short manifesto for teachers:   Reclaim your power.  Revolution begins with understanding that you have influence. The old adage that ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ needs to be countered at every turn by a new generation of teachers who have left behind timidity, resignation, a ‘punch the time clock’ mentality, or any other trappings of the industrial mind set. You work in the most creative, challenging arena possible: the world of preparing young people for the most fluid, dynamic, unknown future faced by any generation. Stand tall and speak out. Be conscious of your lineage. Be proud of your willingness to engage in work that directly affects the future of the planet. Know that millions of teachers in many countries feel just as you do.   Professionalize your profession. I know I’ll be dinged for this, but pay less attention to union leadership, District curriculum objectives, strict adherence to standards, or similar dictates than the vast rumblings and fresh ideas flowing from a profession seeking to reinvent itself. Keep an open mind and ask yourself: What does 21st century education look like? How do I help reinvent education that serves our present generation of children? What new ideas are out there? Who is a good source for professional expertise? One practical step: Get on Twitter! 50 new ideas come through the phone each day.   Teach what is true. A study recently published by the Brown Center on Education Policy University found that more ‘rigorous’ standards didn’t lead to increased achievement on standardized tests. And if they did, so what? Every teacher I have worked with in the past ten years knows that tests alone are insufficient to measure learning. For that matter, most administrators feel that way, too, as do parents. Recognize that constant testing is driven by forces unrelated to good education, mostly by the desire to measure, quantify, and monetize learning. But the bottom line for the visionary educator? True learning is about thinking, understanding, and solving. So, if you need to teach to the test in April, do so; but don’t make that your year around objective. Also, know you’re in the majority: A recent report indicates that only 28% of teachers regard standardized tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement.   Stand in the light. You’re in a gotcha’ situation. If your performance is measured by tests, then test data will determine your future. If your performance is measured by understanding, depth of thinking, and student engagement, then no one knows how exactly to tell if you’re doing a good job. It’s like trying to invent a meter to measure an artist—it can’t be done well, at least now. The only way out is to leave the box—stand tall in the light—and admit that, yes, it’s difficult to measure learning, but that doesn’t mean you will settle for a reductionist approach that limits young humans to data points. Instead, commit to multiple performance measures, peer evaluations, collective reviews of student work, and portfolios—along with a few tests, but not too many—to measure the learning. This is key. The revolution will catch fire when the test and measurement mania subsides, and new measures prove far better at capturing the broad array of skills and habits of mind necessary to succeed in the 21st century.     Know that standing still is moving backwards. I work with several Districts focused on transformation, but I walk into other schools in which nothing has changed in 50 years or in which teachers engage unenthusiastically in half-baked reform efforts. Worse, I encounter too many teachers who have given up. As one English teacher told me with a shrug when I visited a high school and inquired about reform efforts, “This is just a school,” she said in a resigned tone, meaning it was business as usual, nothing more. In 2012, with the headlines screaming at us, the world swaying with change, the problems looming, and the creative opportunities dangling, how can this be? Every school should be in some stage of transformation—and every teacher needs to be participating as a change agent, an insistent voice for reinvention and redesign.   Finally, I believe every teacher needs to take stand. The debate over education is not an argument about short term test results, or global competition, or getting more students into nameplate universities; it’s a referendum on the fundamental character of our nation. It goes to the heart of what we wish to be as a society and contributor to global progress. Deciding your non-negotiables in this situation is not easy (remember the poll numbers from the American Revolution: 40% for Paul Revere, 40% for King George, and 20% with their fingers in the wind.) Where do you stand, what do you believe, and how will you act? Embracing revolution is a quick way to be terminated in education. More than most jobs, teaching demands fealty to higher powers, no matter their expertise, fidelity to the standard curriculum, harmful or otherwise, and the willingness to narrow your horizons to fit the prevailing winds of politicians and other suits who can best decide whether you’re doing a good job or not.    But it is time for teachers to revolt. In spiritual literature, there is reference to the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It seems to me that teaching as a profession is now fully entered into that darkness. Over-standardization of teaching practices, a narrow, test based curriculum, packaged solutions to every learning problem, value-added evaluations, and the tightening of industrial work rules hostile to 21st century learning are overt signs of a more profound struggle that will decide our nation’s future. Will we celebrate and advance human capacities, or diminish them? Will we devise education that liberates the best in children, or seek to contain them in little jars labeled testing data, pacing guides, or a hundred other ciphers borne of the desire to regulate and limit human behavior in the name of ‘objective’ measures?   One can oppose the trends by speaking up, political action, or occupying education. This is fine, and I applaud the resistance. But I doubt that trench warfare will succeed until teaching is reinstated to its preeminent position as an ennobling profession that puts all its resources towards the development of well-rounded, capable, and emotionally stable young people. To my mind, defending union rights, sniping at testing, deriding corporate charter schools, protesting public shaming of teachers, or ridiculing the U.S. Department of Education engages teachers in skirmishes. The real battle is to reclaim and articulate a vision that transcends the current debate and carries the American public forward with a new and more inspiring narrative around learning in the 21st century.   This is a task for teachers, not political luminaries and media CEO’s, and it will not be easy. Education is a sedentary, conservative industry, held inert by tired truths and ossified structures. That doesn’t help. But even more, the standards and testing mania has paralyzed teachers themselves. The result is self-inflicted disempowerment. Yes, teachers may have been beaten down by the system. But their willingness to accept the status quo has become part of the problem, too.   It doesn’t have to be this way. There is too much latent power and talent in the teaching ranks. I always return from workshops with teachers feeling inspired and energized by the number of bright, committed, high quality human beings I see in the classroom, who offer world class learning everyday to their students. I can’t resist one recent example: Working alongside a vivacious, energetic 25-year old woman who was designing a very complex, challenging project for her third graders, I wondered aloud whether her students would succeed. No worries. She nearly jumped from her chair, and whooped: “Oh, yeh! My kiddos can do this!” It wasn’t bravado; it was the loving conviction and sheer knowledge that she—and they—could pull this off. There are many more like her.   Her enthusiasm and care for her students stayed with me, but as I thought about it, I realized that she, though clearly at the high end in terms of her craft, no doubt sees herself as a worker in the system, subject to the next testing schedule and comings and goings of the experts and evaluators. And, the fact is, that’s her defined role: She has power over those 30 third graders, but little else. And, another fact: If she objected too much, she would be sanctioned.   So how can she revolt without losing her job? More important, how could 7 million plus teachers in the U.S. come together, foment a revolution, and still draw their paychecks? Instead of conflict, I prefer to think of a powerful, positive, collective vision that would bring about revolutionary change without the extreme polarity that characterizes our daily discourse today. I’m reminded of Gandhi’s reply to the British Viceroy who asked, “Do you believe the British will just walk out of India?” And the reply: “Yes.” If educators hold to a more expansive vision of learning, those who believe teaching is an assembly line job will eventually walk away.   As with Gandhi, it’s more about taking a personal stand rather than tearing down your enemies. Here’s a short manifesto for teachers:   Reclaim your power.  Revolution begins with understanding that you have influence. The old adage that ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ needs to be countered at every turn by a new generation of teachers who have left behind timidity, resignation, a ‘punch the time clock’ mentality, or any other trappings of the industrial mind set. You work in the most creative, challenging arena possible: the world of preparing young people for the most fluid, dynamic, unknown future faced by any generation. Stand tall and speak out. Be conscious of your lineage. Be proud of your willingness to engage in work that directly affects the future of the planet. Know that millions of teachers in many countries feel just as you do.   Professionalize your profession. I know I’ll be dinged for this, but pay less attention to union leadership, District curriculum objectives, strict adherence to standards, or similar dictates than the vast rumblings and fresh ideas flowing from a profession seeking to reinvent itself. Keep an open mind and ask yourself: What does 21st century education look like? How do I help reinvent education that serves our present generation of children? What new ideas are out there? Who is a good source for professional expertise? One practical step: Get on Twitter! 50 new ideas come through the phone each day.   Teach what is true. A study recently published by the Brown Center on Education Policy University found that more ‘rigorous’ standards didn’t lead to increased achievement on standardized tests. And if they did, so what? Every teacher I have worked with in the past ten years knows that tests alone are insufficient to measure learning. For that matter, most administrators feel that way, too, as do parents. Recognize that constant testing is driven by forces unrelated to good education, mostly by the desire to measure, quantify, and monetize learning. But the bottom line for the visionary educator? True learning is about thinking, understanding, and solving. So, if you need to teach to the test in April, do so; but don’t make that your year around objective. Also, know you’re in the majority: A recent report indicates that only 28% of teachers regard standardized tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement.   Stand in the light. You’re in a gotcha’ situation. If your performance is measured by tests, then test data will determine your future. If your performance is measured by understanding, depth of thinking, and student engagement, then no one knows how exactly to tell if you’re doing a good job. It’s like trying to invent a meter to measure an artist—it can’t be done well, at least now. The only way out is to leave the box—stand tall in the light—and admit that, yes, it’s difficult to measure learning, but that doesn’t mean you will settle for a reductionist approach that limits young humans to data points. Instead, commit to multiple performance measures, peer evaluations, collective reviews of student work, and portfolios—along with a few tests, but not too many—to measure the learning. This is key. The revolution will catch fire when the test and measurement mania subsides, and new measures prove far better at capturing the broad array of skills and habits of mind necessary to succeed in the 21st century.     Know that standing still is moving backwards. I work with several Districts focused on transformation, but I walk into other schools in which nothing has changed in 50 years or in which teachers engage unenthusiastically in half-baked reform efforts. Worse, I encounter too many teachers who have given up. As one English teacher told me with a shrug when I visited a high school and inquired about reform efforts, “This is just a school,” she said in a resigned tone, meaning it was business as usual, nothing more. In 2012, with the headlines screaming at us, the world swaying with change, the problems looming, and the creative opportunities dangling, how can this be? Every school should be in some stage of transformation—and every teacher needs to be participating as a change agent, an insistent voice for reinvention and redesign.   Finally, I believe every teacher needs to take stand. The debate over education is not an argument about short term test results, or global competition, or getting more students into nameplate universities; it’s a referendum on the fundamental character of our nation. It goes to the heart of what we wish to be as a society and contributor to global progress. Deciding your non-negotiables in this situation is not easy (remember the poll numbers from the American Revolution: 40% for Paul Revere, 40% for King George, and 20% with their fingers in the wind.) Where do you stand, what do you believe, and how will you act? Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:30:23 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_How-to-Revolt/blog/5976297/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-04-15T20:30:23Z Blogs ASCD EDge Embracing revolution is a quick way to be terminated in education. More than most jobs, teaching demands fealty to higher powers, no matter their expertise, fidelity to the standard curriculum, harmful or otherwise, and the willingness to narrow your horizons to fit the prevailing winds of politicians and other suits who can best decide whether you’re doing a good job or not.    But it is time for teachers to revolt. In spiritual literature, there is reference to the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It seems to me that teaching as a profession is now fully entered into that darkness. Over-standardization of teaching practices, a narrow, test based curriculum, packaged solutions to every learning problem, value-added evaluations, and the tightening of industrial work rules hostile to 21st century learning are overt signs of a more profound struggle that will decide our nation’s future. Will we celebrate and advance human capacities, or diminish them? Will we devise education that liberates the best in children, or seek to contain them in little jars labeled testing data, pacing guides, or a hundred other ciphers borne of the desire to regulate and limit human behavior in the name of ‘objective’ measures?   One can oppose the trends by speaking up, political action, or occupying education. This is fine, and I applaud the resistance. But I doubt that trench warfare will succeed until teaching is reinstated to its preeminent position as an ennobling profession that puts all its resources towards the development of well-rounded, capable, and emotionally stable young people. To my mind, defending union rights, sniping at testing, deriding corporate charter schools, protesting public shaming of teachers, or ridiculing the U.S. Department of Education engages teachers in skirmishes. The real battle is to reclaim and articulate a vision that transcends the current debate and carries the American public forward with a new and more inspiring narrative around learning in the 21st century.   This is a task for teachers, not political luminaries and media CEO’s, and it will not be easy. Education is a sedentary, conservative industry, held inert by tired truths and ossified structures. That doesn’t help. But even more, the standards and testing mania has paralyzed teachers themselves. The result is self-inflicted disempowerment. Yes, teachers may have been beaten down by the system. But their willingness to accept the status quo has become part of the problem, too.   It doesn’t have to be this way. There is too much latent power and talent in the teaching ranks. I always return from workshops with teachers feeling inspired and energized by the number of bright, committed, high quality human beings I see in the classroom, who offer world class learning everyday to their students. I can’t resist one recent example: Working alongside a vivacious, energetic 25-year old woman who was designing a very complex, challenging project for her third graders, I wondered aloud whether her students would succeed. No worries. She nearly jumped from her chair, and whooped: “Oh, yeh! My kiddos can do this!” It wasn’t bravado; it was the loving conviction and sheer knowledge that she—and they—could pull this off. There are many more like her.   Her enthusiasm and care for her students stayed with me, but as I thought about it, I realized that she, though clearly at the high end in terms of her craft, no doubt sees herself as a worker in the system, subject to the next testing schedule and comings and goings of the experts and evaluators. And, the fact is, that’s her defined role: She has power over those 30 third graders, but little else. And, another fact: If she objected too much, she would be sanctioned.   So how can she revolt without losing her job? More important, how could 7 million plus teachers in the U.S. come together, foment a revolution, and still draw their paychecks? Instead of conflict, I prefer to think of a powerful, positive, collective vision that would bring about revolutionary change without the extreme polarity that characterizes our daily discourse today. I’m reminded of Gandhi’s reply to the British Viceroy who asked, “Do you believe the British will just walk out of India?” And the reply: “Yes.” If educators hold to a more expansive vision of learning, those who believe teaching is an assembly line job will eventually walk away.   As with Gandhi, it’s more about taking a personal stand rather than tearing down your enemies. Here’s a short manifesto for teachers:   Reclaim your power.  Revolution begins with understanding that you have influence. The old adage that ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ needs to be countered at every turn by a new generation of teachers who have left behind timidity, resignation, a ‘punch the time clock’ mentality, or any other trappings of the industrial mind set. You work in the most creative, challenging arena possible: the world of preparing young people for the most fluid, dynamic, unknown future faced by any generation. Stand tall and speak out. Be conscious of your lineage. Be proud of your willingness to engage in work that directly affects the future of the planet. Know that millions of teachers in many countries feel just as you do.   Professionalize your profession. I know I’ll be dinged for this, but pay less attention to union leadership, District curriculum objectives, strict adherence to standards, or similar dictates than the vast rumblings and fresh ideas flowing from a profession seeking to reinvent itself. Keep an open mind and ask yourself: What does 21st century education look like? How do I help reinvent education that serves our present generation of children? What new ideas are out there? Who is a good source for professional expertise? One practical step: Get on Twitter! 50 new ideas come through the phone each day.   Teach what is true. A study recently published by the Brown Center on Education Policy University found that more ‘rigorous’ standards didn’t lead to increased achievement on standardized tests. And if they did, so what? Every teacher I have worked with in the past ten years knows that tests alone are insufficient to measure learning. For that matter, most administrators feel that way, too, as do parents. Recognize that constant testing is driven by forces unrelated to good education, mostly by the desire to measure, quantify, and monetize learning. But the bottom line for the visionary educator? True learning is about thinking, understanding, and solving. So, if you need to teach to the test in April, do so; but don’t make that your year around objective. Also, know you’re in the majority: A recent report indicates that only 28% of teachers regard standardized tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement.   Stand in the light. You’re in a gotcha’ situation. If your performance is measured by tests, then test data will determine your future. If your performance is measured by understanding, depth of thinking, and student engagement, then no one knows how exactly to tell if you’re doing a good job. It’s like trying to invent a meter to measure an artist—it can’t be done well, at least now. The only way out is to leave the box—stand tall in the light—and admit that, yes, it’s difficult to measure learning, but that doesn’t mean you will settle for a reductionist approach that limits young humans to data points. Instead, commit to multiple performance measures, peer evaluations, collective reviews of student work, and portfolios—along with a few tests, but not too many—to measure the learning. This is key. The revolution will catch fire when the test and measurement mania subsides, and new measures prove far better at capturing the broad array of skills and habits of mind necessary to succeed in the 21st century.     Know that standing still is moving backwards. I work with several Districts focused on transformation, but I walk into other schools in which nothing has changed in 50 years or in which teachers engage unenthusiastically in half-baked reform efforts. Worse, I encounter too many teachers who have given up. As one English teacher told me with a shrug when I visited a high school and inquired about reform efforts, “This is just a school,” she said in a resigned tone, meaning it was business as usual, nothing more. In 2012, with the headlines screaming at us, the world swaying with change, the problems looming, and the creative opportunities dangling, how can this be? Every school should be in some stage of transformation—and every teacher needs to be participating as a change agent, an insistent voice for reinvention and redesign.   Finally, I believe every teacher needs to take stand. The debate over education is not an argument about short term test results, or global competition, or getting more students into nameplate universities; it’s a referendum on the fundamental character of our nation. It goes to the heart of what we wish to be as a society and contributor to global progress. Deciding your non-negotiables in this situation is not easy (remember the poll numbers from the American Revolution: 40% for Paul Revere, 40% for King George, and 20% with their fingers in the wind.) Where do you stand, what do you believe, and how will you act? blogs nonadult false How to Revolt text blog blogs 1808 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 1 Blogs 0 5976297 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Districts-Enter-PBL-Land/blog/5967141/127586.html A decade ago, project based learning was popular in a few schools and with a few teachers, but hardly widespread. And the movement was growing very slowly.  At that time, education was caught up by standards and high stakes testing, a focus that discouraged teachers and schools from implementing inquiry-based learning.    Not so now. With the rise of 21st century skills instruction, the advent of career and college readiness goals, and the arrival of Common Core Standards, which emphasize inquiry, the game has changed. PBL is popular.   Perhaps the intervening years between 2000 and the present was a good thing. Many of us could foresee that PBL’s popularity would grow exponentially at some point, but practitioners also recognized that PBL needed improvement. Foremost, PBL needed to blend the best of discovery learning from the 90’s with the core content requirements of standards-based education. This took time, experience, and the development of tools and methods for what I term high quality PBL.   Fortunately, the timing is right. In 2012, education is in desperate need of more inquiry-based education—and PBL is available as a replicable, reliable method for teachers.   The most visible evidence of PBL’s new level of acceptance is a phenomenon I rarely encountered in prior years: Districts have begun to see PBL as the primary method for teaching and learning in all grade levels, and are backing up their decision by offering in-depth PBL professional development and coaching to teachers.   For any District, this is a brave step into the unknown. There is a dramatic difference between conventional instruction and a student-focused, inquiry-based approach. Often, this can show up in poorly planned projects that leave students, teachers, and administrative staff dissatisfied with results. PBL is a sophisticated methodology, with many moving parts, and teachers and staff developers may not recognize how challenging it is to implement—or how difficult to train for.   But it can be done right. In my experience, Districts benefit when they take a careful step-by-step approach that allows sufficient time and opportunity for PBL to take root and flourish, as well as avoiding a “one size fits all” approach to PBL:   Prepare the Ground.  Most teachers understand the rationale for PBL, but remain skeptical until they are reassured on several fronts. First, they need to know that PBL will help them meet their core content objectives. Second, they need to be shown how PBL differs from ‘projects,’ which they often equate with off task work, disorganized groups, or fuzzy outcomes. Once reassured, the discussion can broaden out to focus on the rationale for PBL (more engagement and deeper learning), the outcomes (skills and content), and the rationale behind the world-wide movement toward inquiry-based methods. The bottom line during this introductory period? Start with questions, discussion, and plenty of time to surface and explore objections.   Differentiate the Task. Unseasoned advocates for PBL have a habit of treating PBL like other reforms: Everyone will do it, in exactly the same way. In fact, experience with PBL shows that implementation varies across grade levels, subjects, and teachers. There is no one ‘PBL’; it is a process and philosophy that must be adapted to each teacher’s situation. For example, algebra teachers will often design shorter, problem-oriented projects, while a World History teacher may have a much longer project in mind. The goal is to help teachers see the commonalities in the process, yet still leave room for common sense applications. It’s also important to recognize one of the chief commonalities: All teachers can teach 21st century skills, and thus link to a PBL philosophy. Case in point: An AP Calculus teacher may not use PBL, but can group students into a team and assess them using the same teamwork rubric used by the World History teacher.   Offer Methods and Tools. I leave teachers with a sophisticated set of tools for planning and assessing projects, as well as outlining a step by step method for high quality PBL. It’s important for teachers to understand that PBL uses a codified method that is rapidly being adopted in the U.S. and in many other high performing countries. The tools include showing teachers how to access the growing number of project examples on the internet. One important note, however: The project examples provide plenty of ideas, but rarely can be used off the shelf without revision and replanning.   Plan for Coaching.  Whole group instruction about PBL gets the conversation going and anchors the methods and objectives. But individual conferencing and coaching with teachers about their particular project is critical. Each teacher (or team of teachers) needs to develop a driving question, project plan, and assessment plan, including the sometimes unfamiliar task of deciding how students will exhibit results and deliver public products. In general, every teacher will need about 45 minutes of coaching to turn a preliminary design into a solid plan.   Debrief and Replan. First year projects in a District usually yield mixed results. But positive results are often visible. In one District, I heard repeatedly that students who were previously disengaged or very quiet were now speaking out and contributing. This surprised and pleased teachers—and indicated a culture shift, one of the objectives of PBL. Beyond that, however, teachers will struggle with identifiable barriers in the first year, including teaching and assessing 21st century skills and managing teams of students. They also need to learn to avoid default mode, which is to use PBL to cover a unit, and instead look for ideas that really challenge and engage students in a new way. The best way to handle this change process is to anticipate the gaps and address them by  scheduling teams of teachers to discuss, replan, and revise projects, using protocols or the norms of a professional learning community.    Have a vision for getting better. Implementing PBL on a large scale is much like a business start-up. Expect that it will take three years of consistent effort before the norms, methods, expectations, expertise, and results come together to achieve success. And, to progress from the start-up year through year three, each year requires a separate strategy. In the first year, the goal is to establish a PBL culture by aligning the 21st skills assessments, training students to work in effective teams, and building a consensus on project quality. In the second year, the objective is to bring more power to the thinking and inquiry process within projects, and to ensure that the performance of students rises significantly. In year three, Districts should expect a noticeably higher level of student engagement (often with a spike in test scores), outstanding projects, and a consensus culture among teachers that denotes that PBL is widely accepted.      Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       A decade ago, project based learning was popular in a few schools and with a few teachers, but hardly widespread. And the movement was growing very slowly.  At that time, education was caught up by standards and high stakes testing, a focus that discouraged teachers and schools from implementing inquiry-based learning.    Not so now. With the rise of 21st century skills instruction, the advent of career and college readiness goals, and the arrival of Common Core Standards, which emphasize inquiry, the game has changed. PBL is popular.   Perhaps the intervening years between 2000 and the present was a good thing. Many of us could foresee that PBL’s popularity would grow exponentially at some point, but practitioners also recognized that PBL needed improvement. Foremost, PBL needed to blend the best of discovery learning from the 90’s with the core content requirements of standards-based education. This took time, experience, and the development of tools and methods for what I term high quality PBL.   Fortunately, the timing is right. In 2012, education is in desperate need of more inquiry-based education—and PBL is available as a replicable, reliable method for teachers.   The most visible evidence of PBL’s new level of acceptance is a phenomenon I rarely encountered in prior years: Districts have begun to see PBL as the primary method for teaching and learning in all grade levels, and are backing up their decision by offering in-depth PBL professional development and coaching to teachers.   For any District, this is a brave step into the unknown. There is a dramatic difference between conventional instruction and a student-focused, inquiry-based approach. Often, this can show up in poorly planned projects that leave students, teachers, and administrative staff dissatisfied with results. PBL is a sophisticated methodology, with many moving parts, and teachers and staff developers may not recognize how challenging it is to implement—or how difficult to train for.   But it can be done right. In my experience, Districts benefit when they take a careful step-by-step approach that allows sufficient time and opportunity for PBL to take root and flourish, as well as avoiding a “one size fits all” approach to PBL:   Prepare the Ground.  Most teachers understand the rationale for PBL, but remain skeptical until they are reassured on several fronts. First, they need to know that PBL will help them meet their core content objectives. Second, they need to be shown how PBL differs from ‘projects,’ which they often equate with off task work, disorganized groups, or fuzzy outcomes. Once reassured, the discussion can broaden out to focus on the rationale for PBL (more engagement and deeper learning), the outcomes (skills and content), and the rationale behind the world-wide movement toward inquiry-based methods. The bottom line during this introductory period? Start with questions, discussion, and plenty of time to surface and explore objections.   Differentiate the Task. Unseasoned advocates for PBL have a habit of treating PBL like other reforms: Everyone will do it, in exactly the same way. In fact, experience with PBL shows that implementation varies across grade levels, subjects, and teachers. There is no one ‘PBL’; it is a process and philosophy that must be adapted to each teacher’s situation. For example, algebra teachers will often design shorter, problem-oriented projects, while a World History teacher may have a much longer project in mind. The goal is to help teachers see the commonalities in the process, yet still leave room for common sense applications. It’s also important to recognize one of the chief commonalities: All teachers can teach 21st century skills, and thus link to a PBL philosophy. Case in point: An AP Calculus teacher may not use PBL, but can group students into a team and assess them using the same teamwork rubric used by the World History teacher.   Offer Methods and Tools. I leave teachers with a sophisticated set of tools for planning and assessing projects, as well as outlining a step by step method for high quality PBL. It’s important for teachers to understand that PBL uses a codified method that is rapidly being adopted in the U.S. and in many other high performing countries. The tools include showing teachers how to access the growing number of project examples on the internet. One important note, however: The project examples provide plenty of ideas, but rarely can be used off the shelf without revision and replanning.   Plan for Coaching.  Whole group instruction about PBL gets the conversation going and anchors the methods and objectives. But individual conferencing and coaching with teachers about their particular project is critical. Each teacher (or team of teachers) needs to develop a driving question, project plan, and assessment plan, including the sometimes unfamiliar task of deciding how students will exhibit results and deliver public products. In general, every teacher will need about 45 minutes of coaching to turn a preliminary design into a solid plan.   Debrief and Replan. First year projects in a District usually yield mixed results. But positive results are often visible. In one District, I heard repeatedly that students who were previously disengaged or very quiet were now speaking out and contributing. This surprised and pleased teachers—and indicated a culture shift, one of the objectives of PBL. Beyond that, however, teachers will struggle with identifiable barriers in the first year, including teaching and assessing 21st century skills and managing teams of students. They also need to learn to avoid default mode, which is to use PBL to cover a unit, and instead look for ideas that really challenge and engage students in a new way. The best way to handle this change process is to anticipate the gaps and address them by  scheduling teams of teachers to discuss, replan, and revise projects, using protocols or the norms of a professional learning community.    Have a vision for getting better. Implementing PBL on a large scale is much like a business start-up. Expect that it will take three years of consistent effort before the norms, methods, expectations, expertise, and results come together to achieve success. And, to progress from the start-up year through year three, each year requires a separate strategy. In the first year, the goal is to establish a PBL culture by aligning the 21st skills assessments, training students to work in effective teams, and building a consensus on project quality. In the second year, the objective is to bring more power to the thinking and inquiry process within projects, and to ensure that the performance of students rises significantly. In year three, Districts should expect a noticeably higher level of student engagement (often with a spike in test scores), outstanding projects, and a consensus culture among teachers that denotes that PBL is widely accepted.      Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:58:25 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Districts-Enter-PBL-Land/blog/5967141/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-04-13T01:58:25Z ASCD EDge A decade ago, project based learning was popular in a few schools and with a few teachers, but hardly widespread. And the movement was growing very slowly.  At that time, education was caught up by standards and high stakes testing, a focus that discouraged teachers and schools from implementing inquiry-based learning.    Not so now. With the rise of 21st century skills instruction, the advent of career and college readiness goals, and the arrival of Common Core Standards, which emphasize inquiry, the game has changed. PBL is popular.   Perhaps the intervening years between 2000 and the present was a good thing. Many of us could foresee that PBL’s popularity would grow exponentially at some point, but practitioners also recognized that PBL needed improvement. Foremost, PBL needed to blend the best of discovery learning from the 90’s with the core content requirements of standards-based education. This took time, experience, and the development of tools and methods for what I term high quality PBL.   Fortunately, the timing is right. In 2012, education is in desperate need of more inquiry-based education—and PBL is available as a replicable, reliable method for teachers.   The most visible evidence of PBL’s new level of acceptance is a phenomenon I rarely encountered in prior years: Districts have begun to see PBL as the primary method for teaching and learning in all grade levels, and are backing up their decision by offering in-depth PBL professional development and coaching to teachers.   For any District, this is a brave step into the unknown. There is a dramatic difference between conventional instruction and a student-focused, inquiry-based approach. Often, this can show up in poorly planned projects that leave students, teachers, and administrative staff dissatisfied with results. PBL is a sophisticated methodology, with many moving parts, and teachers and staff developers may not recognize how challenging it is to implement—or how difficult to train for.   But it can be done right. In my experience, Districts benefit when they take a careful step-by-step approach that allows sufficient time and opportunity for PBL to take root and flourish, as well as avoiding a “one size fits all” approach to PBL:   Prepare the Ground.  Most teachers understand the rationale for PBL, but remain skeptical until they are reassured on several fronts. First, they need to know that PBL will help them meet their core content objectives. Second, they need to be shown how PBL differs from ‘projects,’ which they often equate with off task work, disorganized groups, or fuzzy outcomes. Once reassured, the discussion can broaden out to focus on the rationale for PBL (more engagement and deeper learning), the outcomes (skills and content), and the rationale behind the world-wide movement toward inquiry-based methods. The bottom line during this introductory period? Start with questions, discussion, and plenty of time to surface and explore objections.   Differentiate the Task. Unseasoned advocates for PBL have a habit of treating PBL like other reforms: Everyone will do it, in exactly the same way. In fact, experience with PBL shows that implementation varies across grade levels, subjects, and teachers. There is no one ‘PBL’; it is a process and philosophy that must be adapted to each teacher’s situation. For example, algebra teachers will often design shorter, problem-oriented projects, while a World History teacher may have a much longer project in mind. The goal is to help teachers see the commonalities in the process, yet still leave room for common sense applications. It’s also important to recognize one of the chief commonalities: All teachers can teach 21st century skills, and thus link to a PBL philosophy. Case in point: An AP Calculus teacher may not use PBL, but can group students into a team and assess them using the same teamwork rubric used by the World History teacher.   Offer Methods and Tools. I leave teachers with a sophisticated set of tools for planning and assessing projects, as well as outlining a step by step method for high quality PBL. It’s important for teachers to understand that PBL uses a codified method that is rapidly being adopted in the U.S. and in many other high performing countries. The tools include showing teachers how to access the growing number of project examples on the internet. One important note, however: The project examples provide plenty of ideas, but rarely can be used off the shelf without revision and replanning.   Plan for Coaching.  Whole group instruction about PBL gets the conversation going and anchors the methods and objectives. But individual conferencing and coaching with teachers about their particular project is critical. Each teacher (or team of teachers) needs to develop a driving question, project plan, and assessment plan, including the sometimes unfamiliar task of deciding how students will exhibit results and deliver public products. In general, every teacher will need about 45 minutes of coaching to turn a preliminary design into a solid plan.   Debrief and Replan. First year projects in a District usually yield mixed results. But positive results are often visible. In one District, I heard repeatedly that students who were previously disengaged or very quiet were now speaking out and contributing. This surprised and pleased teachers—and indicated a culture shift, one of the objectives of PBL. Beyond that, however, teachers will struggle with identifiable barriers in the first year, including teaching and assessing 21st century skills and managing teams of students. They also need to learn to avoid default mode, which is to use PBL to cover a unit, and instead look for ideas that really challenge and engage students in a new way. The best way to handle this change process is to anticipate the gaps and address them by  scheduling teams of teachers to discuss, replan, and revise projects, using protocols or the norms of a professional learning community.    Have a vision for getting better. Implementing PBL on a large scale is much like a business start-up. Expect that it will take three years of consistent effort before the norms, methods, expectations, expertise, and results come together to achieve success. And, to progress from the start-up year through year three, each year requires a separate strategy. In the first year, the goal is to establish a PBL culture by aligning the 21st skills assessments, training students to work in effective teams, and building a consensus on project quality. In the second year, the objective is to bring more power to the thinking and inquiry process within projects, and to ensure that the performance of students rises significantly. In year three, Districts should expect a noticeably higher level of student engagement (often with a spike in test scores), outstanding projects, and a consensus culture among teachers that denotes that PBL is widely accepted.      Thom Markham is the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators, and the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education. Download Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.       nonadult false Districts Enter PBL Land text blog 548 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5967141 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-Soft-Skills-are-Hard-Skills/blog/5899579/127586.html Teaching 21st century skills is now regarded as a top priority in education, but in my experience it is still unexamined territory. In fact, I question whether these skills can be taught without radical adjustments in teaching methods and—most of all—a deeper appreciation of what it takes for students to master skills instead of accumulating knowledge.   Our fuzzy outlook on skills begins with the outdated vocabulary of industrial education, in which writing an essay or solving a math problem is traditionally regarded as a ‘hard’ skill, while communicating with someone who disagrees with you or collaborating effectively in a diverse team are considered ‘soft’ skills.   This is more than a vocabulary issue. It confirms the hierarchy that gives greater weight to academic achievement and stigmatizes the teaching of skills. It also ignores a fact obvious to most adults: Communication and collaboration are the most difficult of human skills—and need to be taught and practiced relentlessly.   Fortunately, we are in the process of rebalancing outcomes in education to be more skill-based. The new Common Core Standards will hasten this—the focus on inquiry demands better skills—but at the same time I believe we should be prepared for an unintended consequence: We will discover that teaching 21st century skills is more difficult than we assumed. Here’s why, in rough order:   1. The need for qualitative assessment. The first reason is obvious: Skills don’t fit into our current assessment system. Skills can only be assessed through performance rubrics, which can be quite good (and are getting better), but which are imperfect instruments that are inherently subjective, based on observation, and loosely tied to letter grades. Eventually, a widely-accepted set of anchored, standardized rubrics will fill this gap. But assessing skills cannot meet industrial standards of measurement.   2. Integrating skills and instruction. I’ve been part of teaching 21st century skills for the past ten years, primarily by building a teaching model that closely integrates project based learning (PBL) with skill-based instruction, and I’ve come to believe that we can’t teach 21st century skills without PBL. In general, well designed projects accomplish that important goal. Students emerge with clearly enhanced abilities to collaborate in teams, present to audiences, and manage their workflow.   But I’ve also noticed the projects that fail. In those instances, the teams resemble the group work from the 90’s, with a kind of mixed off-task focus that gets just a bit of work done, but not too much. Or, the presentations are mundane, with no more rigor than the Friday oral book report. In other words, PBL can be very good at helping students master 21st century skills, but not so good at teaching core knowledge and the conventions of a discipline. It’s vital that we develop higher standards for inquiry-based, skill-oriented instruction that accomplishes both goals. This will be a major challenge for professional development around Common Core Standards.   3. Levels of ‘hardness.’ Now the terrain shifts. It is one thing to train students and assess them on a group presentation. That is not difficult for many teachers. Similarly, a teacher can observe how well a group works together and assign a grade for their performance. But the functioning of a team of student depends on a number of positive internal factors—psychologists call them ‘strengths---that determine how much empathy, persistence, and personal responsibility a member brings to the team. Anyone who has worked in a team knows that personality counts—and we don’t know how to teach personality. This point is underscored if you read the many new lists of 21st century skills, most of which include resiliency, tolerance, and appreciation for global diversity as skills.   4. Purpose. Increasingly, I see a systemic issue ahead of us as we attempt to upgrade education and fit it into the global culture: We can’t teach 21st century skills without purposeful engagement. This point relates to the above comments on ‘hardness.’ Skills emerge from deep within, spurred by challenge, freedom, and meaning. In the last few years, there has been a flurry of books describing the effects of purpose, including The Path to Purpose, by William Damon, and Drive, by Daniel Pink. These and other books attest to research showing that purpose drives performance, and that purpose derives from meaningful engagement with topics that matter.   Eventually, that means that teaching 21st century skills must be fundamentally linked to educational transformation. So far, we treat skills as cognitive add-ons that can be taught in the same way that the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of the Civil War are taught. But the core issue is that skills can’t be standardized, and that truth will send ripples through the system.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. His latest book is the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert Tools for Innovation and Inquiry for K-12 Educators. He may be reached at thom@thommarkham.com.   Teaching 21st century skills is now regarded as a top priority in education, but in my experience it is still unexamined territory. In fact, I question whether these skills can be taught without radical adjustments in teaching methods and—most of all—a deeper appreciation of what it takes for students to master skills instead of accumulating knowledge.   Our fuzzy outlook on skills begins with the outdated vocabulary of industrial education, in which writing an essay or solving a math problem is traditionally regarded as a ‘hard’ skill, while communicating with someone who disagrees with you or collaborating effectively in a diverse team are considered ‘soft’ skills.   This is more than a vocabulary issue. It confirms the hierarchy that gives greater weight to academic achievement and stigmatizes the teaching of skills. It also ignores a fact obvious to most adults: Communication and collaboration are the most difficult of human skills—and need to be taught and practiced relentlessly.   Fortunately, we are in the process of rebalancing outcomes in education to be more skill-based. The new Common Core Standards will hasten this—the focus on inquiry demands better skills—but at the same time I believe we should be prepared for an unintended consequence: We will discover that teaching 21st century skills is more difficult than we assumed. Here’s why, in rough order:   1. The need for qualitative assessment. The first reason is obvious: Skills don’t fit into our current assessment system. Skills can only be assessed through performance rubrics, which can be quite good (and are getting better), but which are imperfect instruments that are inherently subjective, based on observation, and loosely tied to letter grades. Eventually, a widely-accepted set of anchored, standardized rubrics will fill this gap. But assessing skills cannot meet industrial standards of measurement.   2. Integrating skills and instruction. I’ve been part of teaching 21st century skills for the past ten years, primarily by building a teaching model that closely integrates project based learning (PBL) with skill-based instruction, and I’ve come to believe that we can’t teach 21st century skills without PBL. In general, well designed projects accomplish that important goal. Students emerge with clearly enhanced abilities to collaborate in teams, present to audiences, and manage their workflow.   But I’ve also noticed the projects that fail. In those instances, the teams resemble the group work from the 90’s, with a kind of mixed off-task focus that gets just a bit of work done, but not too much. Or, the presentations are mundane, with no more rigor than the Friday oral book report. In other words, PBL can be very good at helping students master 21st century skills, but not so good at teaching core knowledge and the conventions of a discipline. It’s vital that we develop higher standards for inquiry-based, skill-oriented instruction that accomplishes both goals. This will be a major challenge for professional development around Common Core Standards.   3. Levels of ‘hardness.’ Now the terrain shifts. It is one thing to train students and assess them on a group presentation. That is not difficult for many teachers. Similarly, a teacher can observe how well a group works together and assign a grade for their performance. But the functioning of a team of student depends on a number of positive internal factors—psychologists call them ‘strengths---that determine how much empathy, persistence, and personal responsibility a member brings to the team. Anyone who has worked in a team knows that personality counts—and we don’t know how to teach personality. This point is underscored if you read the many new lists of 21st century skills, most of which include resiliency, tolerance, and appreciation for global diversity as skills.   4. Purpose. Increasingly, I see a systemic issue ahead of us as we attempt to upgrade education and fit it into the global culture: We can’t teach 21st century skills without purposeful engagement. This point relates to the above comments on ‘hardness.’ Skills emerge from deep within, spurred by challenge, freedom, and meaning. In the last few years, there has been a flurry of books describing the effects of purpose, including The Path to Purpose, by William Damon, and Drive, by Daniel Pink. These and other books attest to research showing that purpose drives performance, and that purpose derives from meaningful engagement with topics that matter.   Eventually, that means that teaching 21st century skills must be fundamentally linked to educational transformation. So far, we treat skills as cognitive add-ons that can be taught in the same way that the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of the Civil War are taught. But the core issue is that skills can’t be standardized, and that truth will send ripples through the system.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. His latest book is the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert Tools for Innovation and Inquiry for K-12 Educators. He may be reached at thom@thommarkham.com.   Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:42:15 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-Soft-Skills-are-Hard-Skills/blog/5899579/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-03-25T20:42:15Z ASCD EDge Teaching 21st century skills is now regarded as a top priority in education, but in my experience it is still unexamined territory. In fact, I question whether these skills can be taught without radical adjustments in teaching methods and—most of all—a deeper appreciation of what it takes for students to master skills instead of accumulating knowledge.   Our fuzzy outlook on skills begins with the outdated vocabulary of industrial education, in which writing an essay or solving a math problem is traditionally regarded as a ‘hard’ skill, while communicating with someone who disagrees with you or collaborating effectively in a diverse team are considered ‘soft’ skills.   This is more than a vocabulary issue. It confirms the hierarchy that gives greater weight to academic achievement and stigmatizes the teaching of skills. It also ignores a fact obvious to most adults: Communication and collaboration are the most difficult of human skills—and need to be taught and practiced relentlessly.   Fortunately, we are in the process of rebalancing outcomes in education to be more skill-based. The new Common Core Standards will hasten this—the focus on inquiry demands better skills—but at the same time I believe we should be prepared for an unintended consequence: We will discover that teaching 21st century skills is more difficult than we assumed. Here’s why, in rough order:   1. The need for qualitative assessment. The first reason is obvious: Skills don’t fit into our current assessment system. Skills can only be assessed through performance rubrics, which can be quite good (and are getting better), but which are imperfect instruments that are inherently subjective, based on observation, and loosely tied to letter grades. Eventually, a widely-accepted set of anchored, standardized rubrics will fill this gap. But assessing skills cannot meet industrial standards of measurement.   2. Integrating skills and instruction. I’ve been part of teaching 21st century skills for the past ten years, primarily by building a teaching model that closely integrates project based learning (PBL) with skill-based instruction, and I’ve come to believe that we can’t teach 21st century skills without PBL. In general, well designed projects accomplish that important goal. Students emerge with clearly enhanced abilities to collaborate in teams, present to audiences, and manage their workflow.   But I’ve also noticed the projects that fail. In those instances, the teams resemble the group work from the 90’s, with a kind of mixed off-task focus that gets just a bit of work done, but not too much. Or, the presentations are mundane, with no more rigor than the Friday oral book report. In other words, PBL can be very good at helping students master 21st century skills, but not so good at teaching core knowledge and the conventions of a discipline. It’s vital that we develop higher standards for inquiry-based, skill-oriented instruction that accomplishes both goals. This will be a major challenge for professional development around Common Core Standards.   3. Levels of ‘hardness.’ Now the terrain shifts. It is one thing to train students and assess them on a group presentation. That is not difficult for many teachers. Similarly, a teacher can observe how well a group works together and assign a grade for their performance. But the functioning of a team of student depends on a number of positive internal factors—psychologists call them ‘strengths---that determine how much empathy, persistence, and personal responsibility a member brings to the team. Anyone who has worked in a team knows that personality counts—and we don’t know how to teach personality. This point is underscored if you read the many new lists of 21st century skills, most of which include resiliency, tolerance, and appreciation for global diversity as skills.   4. Purpose. Increasingly, I see a systemic issue ahead of us as we attempt to upgrade education and fit it into the global culture: We can’t teach 21st century skills without purposeful engagement. This point relates to the above comments on ‘hardness.’ Skills emerge from deep within, spurred by challenge, freedom, and meaning. In the last few years, there has been a flurry of books describing the effects of purpose, including The Path to Purpose, by William Damon, and Drive, by Daniel Pink. These and other books attest to research showing that purpose drives performance, and that purpose derives from meaningful engagement with topics that matter.   Eventually, that means that teaching 21st century skills must be fundamentally linked to educational transformation. So far, we treat skills as cognitive add-ons that can be taught in the same way that the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of the Civil War are taught. But the core issue is that skills can’t be standardized, and that truth will send ripples through the system.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. His latest book is the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert Tools for Innovation and Inquiry for K-12 Educators. He may be reached at thom@thommarkham.com.   nonadult false Why Soft Skills are Hard Skills text blog 1463 11 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5899579 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_How-PBL-Educates-the-Whole-Child/blog/5789867/127586.html Over the past decade and a half, I’ve seen how well executed project based learning (PBL) can provide a joyful learning experience for students. Joy is not our number one standard, I realize, but when projects offer the right mix of challenge, engagement, and personalized support, blended with a motivating, meaningful learning experience that reaches deep into the soul, joy is the outcome. You can see it bubble up in the animated faces, big smiles, body language, and open-hearted response of students at the end of a good project. In other words, we’ve reached the whole child.   This outcome, in my view, can be explained by a little observed fact: PBL is built on the same foundation as whole child education. Inquiry into adolescent mental health, youth development, and developmental psychology has revealed the three core conditions required for young people to develop a ‘drive and thrive’ outlook that leads to successful adulthood: Experiencing mastery; finding meaning and fulfillment; and having a constructive relationship to a caring adult mentor. These are the exact three factors critical to effective PBL, which cannot succeed without a strong teacher-student relationship, a challenging, meaningful problem to be solved, and broad-based assessments that emphasize mastery and growth over time.   The importance of aligning teaching with the fundamentals of whole child education can’t be overstated. First, having an educational system disconnected from what we know about healthy adolescent development is unsustainable. And second, educating the whole child is now a national, as well as planet-wide, necessity if we are serious about helping students become skillful, resilient, collaborative, creative, and self aware. The dilemma is that the whole child can’t be educated through the transmission model, and it is impossible to graft a holistic version of human beings onto a framework founded on industrial objectives, punishment and reward, and the achievements of the left brain. We try, but everything turns out to be a work around. PBL offers a way forward.   A quick disclaimer: Right now, not all PBL is equal, and we’re not to the point in which all PBL supports the whole child. Too often, the goal is to cover standards under the guise of ‘student-centered instruction.’ Ultimately, however, I foresee that PBL, supported by initiatives such as Common Core Standards, will continue to evolve and become a consensus teaching philosophy designed to implement whole child objectives.   If you’re a PBL educator, attaining this goal begins with careful design. High quality PBL uses proven methods for planning a project that challenges students, stimulates deep inquiry, and requires them to demonstrate their mastery of skills and applied knowledge. This is the planner’s function—and it’s critical for setting up a thoughtful, scaffolded process that balances problem solving and mastery of core knowledge and concepts relevant to the lives of students.   The second aspect determines the internal assets students will bring to the project. I call this building a ‘PBL-friendly culture’. Driven by intangibles—the personality and style of the teacher, a sincere regard for students, and openness to the failure and success cycle of discovery among them—the culture directly affects the quality of thinking and engagement during the project, and thus the level of mastery at the end, by establishing the positive relationship with students necessary to effective personalization, differentiation, and individual feedback.   This may sound daunting, but the good news is that PBL is in the midst of a rapid improvement process, and experienced PBL teachers are developing student-friendly tools and teaching styles that aim for this more holistic approach. I see progress on at least four fronts:   Teachers as skillful mentors. A mentor relationship is the key to having conversations with students about the meaning and fulfillment they seek in life (what are their interests?) and about their performance (I’m going to tell you how well you are doing and you trust me enough to listen.) PBL led by teachers who talk at, rather than talk with, generally fails. But good facilitation yields amazing results.   Know the why. Very recent research reveals that even ‘rigorous’ standards have little impact on test scores. Rather than focus so tightly on standards, good PBL teachers envision a powerful challenge, invite students into the planning process, and then incorporate key standards and concepts that support the learning goals of the project. This shift—from coverage to questions—by itself addresses many whole child issues in schools today.     Redefine rigor. Both whole child learning and good PBL demand a broader view of human functioning and new standards for performance. Outdated notions of rigor as a tensile measure (How hard can I make this test?) or quantity (How much homework can I give them?) don’t tap the depths of motivation necessary to foster self-determination and awareness. Instead, detailed rubrics that describe world class skillfulness, work ethic, habits of mind, craftsmanship, and deep thinking help students develop from within.   Allow the ‘wow.’  The whole child is a creativity machine that can be turned on—and effective PBL teachers know how to reward innovative thinking, as well as honor divergent solutions that adults haven’t yet discovered. The best PBL employs creativity rubrics, ‘breakthrough’ columns on rubrics, brainstorming, peer protocols, and formal reflection as core tools. It is quite possible to activate the inner resources of children by simply following two guidelines—one, that today’s young people want to reinvent, not reenact, the world; and two, that ‘genius’ is derived from the same root word as joy.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Over the past decade and a half, I’ve seen how well executed project based learning (PBL) can provide a joyful learning experience for students. Joy is not our number one standard, I realize, but when projects offer the right mix of challenge, engagement, and personalized support, blended with a motivating, meaningful learning experience that reaches deep into the soul, joy is the outcome. You can see it bubble up in the animated faces, big smiles, body language, and open-hearted response of students at the end of a good project. In other words, we’ve reached the whole child.   This outcome, in my view, can be explained by a little observed fact: PBL is built on the same foundation as whole child education. Inquiry into adolescent mental health, youth development, and developmental psychology has revealed the three core conditions required for young people to develop a ‘drive and thrive’ outlook that leads to successful adulthood: Experiencing mastery; finding meaning and fulfillment; and having a constructive relationship to a caring adult mentor. These are the exact three factors critical to effective PBL, which cannot succeed without a strong teacher-student relationship, a challenging, meaningful problem to be solved, and broad-based assessments that emphasize mastery and growth over time.   The importance of aligning teaching with the fundamentals of whole child education can’t be overstated. First, having an educational system disconnected from what we know about healthy adolescent development is unsustainable. And second, educating the whole child is now a national, as well as planet-wide, necessity if we are serious about helping students become skillful, resilient, collaborative, creative, and self aware. The dilemma is that the whole child can’t be educated through the transmission model, and it is impossible to graft a holistic version of human beings onto a framework founded on industrial objectives, punishment and reward, and the achievements of the left brain. We try, but everything turns out to be a work around. PBL offers a way forward.   A quick disclaimer: Right now, not all PBL is equal, and we’re not to the point in which all PBL supports the whole child. Too often, the goal is to cover standards under the guise of ‘student-centered instruction.’ Ultimately, however, I foresee that PBL, supported by initiatives such as Common Core Standards, will continue to evolve and become a consensus teaching philosophy designed to implement whole child objectives.   If you’re a PBL educator, attaining this goal begins with careful design. High quality PBL uses proven methods for planning a project that challenges students, stimulates deep inquiry, and requires them to demonstrate their mastery of skills and applied knowledge. This is the planner’s function—and it’s critical for setting up a thoughtful, scaffolded process that balances problem solving and mastery of core knowledge and concepts relevant to the lives of students.   The second aspect determines the internal assets students will bring to the project. I call this building a ‘PBL-friendly culture’. Driven by intangibles—the personality and style of the teacher, a sincere regard for students, and openness to the failure and success cycle of discovery among them—the culture directly affects the quality of thinking and engagement during the project, and thus the level of mastery at the end, by establishing the positive relationship with students necessary to effective personalization, differentiation, and individual feedback.   This may sound daunting, but the good news is that PBL is in the midst of a rapid improvement process, and experienced PBL teachers are developing student-friendly tools and teaching styles that aim for this more holistic approach. I see progress on at least four fronts:   Teachers as skillful mentors. A mentor relationship is the key to having conversations with students about the meaning and fulfillment they seek in life (what are their interests?) and about their performance (I’m going to tell you how well you are doing and you trust me enough to listen.) PBL led by teachers who talk at, rather than talk with, generally fails. But good facilitation yields amazing results.   Know the why. Very recent research reveals that even ‘rigorous’ standards have little impact on test scores. Rather than focus so tightly on standards, good PBL teachers envision a powerful challenge, invite students into the planning process, and then incorporate key standards and concepts that support the learning goals of the project. This shift—from coverage to questions—by itself addresses many whole child issues in schools today.     Redefine rigor. Both whole child learning and good PBL demand a broader view of human functioning and new standards for performance. Outdated notions of rigor as a tensile measure (How hard can I make this test?) or quantity (How much homework can I give them?) don’t tap the depths of motivation necessary to foster self-determination and awareness. Instead, detailed rubrics that describe world class skillfulness, work ethic, habits of mind, craftsmanship, and deep thinking help students develop from within.   Allow the ‘wow.’  The whole child is a creativity machine that can be turned on—and effective PBL teachers know how to reward innovative thinking, as well as honor divergent solutions that adults haven’t yet discovered. The best PBL employs creativity rubrics, ‘breakthrough’ columns on rubrics, brainstorming, peer protocols, and formal reflection as core tools. It is quite possible to activate the inner resources of children by simply following two guidelines—one, that today’s young people want to reinvent, not reenact, the world; and two, that ‘genius’ is derived from the same root word as joy.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:52:50 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_How-PBL-Educates-the-Whole-Child/blog/5789867/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-02-18T23:52:50Z ASCD EDge Over the past decade and a half, I’ve seen how well executed project based learning (PBL) can provide a joyful learning experience for students. Joy is not our number one standard, I realize, but when projects offer the right mix of challenge, engagement, and personalized support, blended with a motivating, meaningful learning experience that reaches deep into the soul, joy is the outcome. You can see it bubble up in the animated faces, big smiles, body language, and open-hearted response of students at the end of a good project. In other words, we’ve reached the whole child.   This outcome, in my view, can be explained by a little observed fact: PBL is built on the same foundation as whole child education. Inquiry into adolescent mental health, youth development, and developmental psychology has revealed the three core conditions required for young people to develop a ‘drive and thrive’ outlook that leads to successful adulthood: Experiencing mastery; finding meaning and fulfillment; and having a constructive relationship to a caring adult mentor. These are the exact three factors critical to effective PBL, which cannot succeed without a strong teacher-student relationship, a challenging, meaningful problem to be solved, and broad-based assessments that emphasize mastery and growth over time.   The importance of aligning teaching with the fundamentals of whole child education can’t be overstated. First, having an educational system disconnected from what we know about healthy adolescent development is unsustainable. And second, educating the whole child is now a national, as well as planet-wide, necessity if we are serious about helping students become skillful, resilient, collaborative, creative, and self aware. The dilemma is that the whole child can’t be educated through the transmission model, and it is impossible to graft a holistic version of human beings onto a framework founded on industrial objectives, punishment and reward, and the achievements of the left brain. We try, but everything turns out to be a work around. PBL offers a way forward.   A quick disclaimer: Right now, not all PBL is equal, and we’re not to the point in which all PBL supports the whole child. Too often, the goal is to cover standards under the guise of ‘student-centered instruction.’ Ultimately, however, I foresee that PBL, supported by initiatives such as Common Core Standards, will continue to evolve and become a consensus teaching philosophy designed to implement whole child objectives.   If you’re a PBL educator, attaining this goal begins with careful design. High quality PBL uses proven methods for planning a project that challenges students, stimulates deep inquiry, and requires them to demonstrate their mastery of skills and applied knowledge. This is the planner’s function—and it’s critical for setting up a thoughtful, scaffolded process that balances problem solving and mastery of core knowledge and concepts relevant to the lives of students.   The second aspect determines the internal assets students will bring to the project. I call this building a ‘PBL-friendly culture’. Driven by intangibles—the personality and style of the teacher, a sincere regard for students, and openness to the failure and success cycle of discovery among them—the culture directly affects the quality of thinking and engagement during the project, and thus the level of mastery at the end, by establishing the positive relationship with students necessary to effective personalization, differentiation, and individual feedback.   This may sound daunting, but the good news is that PBL is in the midst of a rapid improvement process, and experienced PBL teachers are developing student-friendly tools and teaching styles that aim for this more holistic approach. I see progress on at least four fronts:   Teachers as skillful mentors. A mentor relationship is the key to having conversations with students about the meaning and fulfillment they seek in life (what are their interests?) and about their performance (I’m going to tell you how well you are doing and you trust me enough to listen.) PBL led by teachers who talk at, rather than talk with, generally fails. But good facilitation yields amazing results.   Know the why. Very recent research reveals that even ‘rigorous’ standards have little impact on test scores. Rather than focus so tightly on standards, good PBL teachers envision a powerful challenge, invite students into the planning process, and then incorporate key standards and concepts that support the learning goals of the project. This shift—from coverage to questions—by itself addresses many whole child issues in schools today.     Redefine rigor. Both whole child learning and good PBL demand a broader view of human functioning and new standards for performance. Outdated notions of rigor as a tensile measure (How hard can I make this test?) or quantity (How much homework can I give them?) don’t tap the depths of motivation necessary to foster self-determination and awareness. Instead, detailed rubrics that describe world class skillfulness, work ethic, habits of mind, craftsmanship, and deep thinking help students develop from within.   Allow the ‘wow.’  The whole child is a creativity machine that can be turned on—and effective PBL teachers know how to reward innovative thinking, as well as honor divergent solutions that adults haven’t yet discovered. The best PBL employs creativity rubrics, ‘breakthrough’ columns on rubrics, brainstorming, peer protocols, and formal reflection as core tools. It is quite possible to activate the inner resources of children by simply following two guidelines—one, that today’s young people want to reinvent, not reenact, the world; and two, that ‘genius’ is derived from the same root word as joy.   Thom Markham is a psychologist and school redesign consultant. He is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com. nonadult false How PBL Educates the Whole Child text blog 808 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5789867 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_PBL-and-Common-Core-Standards/blog/5751049/127586.html The first question about Common Core Standards has been answered: What will they look like? The answer is: Very different. The internationally benchmarked standards will emphasize creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, presentation and demonstration, problem solving, research and inquiry, and career readiness.   The second question is more challenging: How will we teach these new standards? For several years, the winds of change have been howling in one direction, pointing educators toward greater focus on depth rather than coverage, thinking rather than memorizing or listing, and demonstrating and performing rather than ‘hand it in and grade it.’ With 46 states endorsing the Common Core Standards and half of those planning for full implementation in the next three years, we’ve moved into hurricane status. Quite soon, we’ll land on a distant, unknown shore. Teachers will have to teach differently.   States and professional development organizations recognize that the kind of transformative professional preparation necessary to meet the challenge of teaching the new standards is not yet in place. But for those teachers and schools who want to jump start the process, I suggest a solution is in place: Use project based learning (PBL).   First, I refer to high quality PBL, as outlined in a recent post. Successful implementation of the new standards will require innovative best practices that persuade and prepare students to engage in thoughtful problem-solving, as well as encourage better performance through more sophisticated, broad-based assessments. PBL, well done, accomplishes those goals. But old style ‘projects’ won’t come close.     The Six Moving Parts   There is an overriding reason that the Common Core Standards will challenge our professional capability as educators: Teaching inquiry and skillful problem solving is not a simple change of strategy to, let’s say, favoring one reading method over another. Instead, success relies on shifting a number of teaching practices simultaneously. When aligned, these practices act synergistically to activate a student’s desire to learn, support growth over time, invite deeper engagement, and stimulate the reflective and critical faculties—often in a team-based, collective environment—that lead to superior solutions and analysis.   I call these shifts the six ‘moving parts’ of PBL. They help meet the goals of the Common Core Standards in the following ways:   1)     Moving from instruction to inquiry. More than ever, curriculum will now start with questions rather than the delivery of information. Subject matter is important, but teachers will now need to know how to apply knowledge through designing a problem solving process. PBL teachers begin by posing a significant challenge to students and capturing the challenge in a manageable problem statement or driving question. The question frames the project; the problem sets the solution process into motion. Choosing and crafting a suitable problem requires experience, curiosity, and passion, as well as thorough knowledge of the discipline.   2)     Balancing knowledge and skills. The Common Core Standards rebalance the equation between content and skills. In every subject, the emphasis is now on a blend of knowing/doing and learning/demonstrating, in which students apply what they know and demonstrate mastery of 21st century skills such as presentation and collaboration. This shift changes expectations for student mastery, rearranges assessments and grading systems, and relies on coaching students (more on that in a minute) for better performance. These represent the core skill set for PBL teachers, and are backed by a well developed set of PBL tools.   3)     Going deep. Deep thinking sounds good in theory, but takes time, making it problematic in the context of a 48 minute period or a 180 day school year. Deep thinking also conflicts with current testing requirements, which do not reward insight and analysis. PBL approaches this challenge by assessing fewer standards (the goal of the Common Core), using a variety of proven thinking tools, and designing a controlled process that helps students focus their thinking on the driving question.   4)     Teaching teamwork. The Common Core Standards identify collaboration and teamwork as a 21st century skill to be taught. This is laudable, but something bigger is underway. As the outside world shows us, we’re moving into a collaborative culture of continuous learning within networked    communities. The Common Core Standards implicitly recognize this fact, but PBL teachers give it life in the classroom by using team contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, and work ethic rubrics to turn group work into effective teams. This guidance is a necessity for a curriculum that   emphasizes problem solving and inquiry, now generally done in the real world in project teams.   5)     Establishing a culture of inquiry. This moving part determines the fate of a project in a PBL classroom—and it will be central to the success of the Common Core Standards. The challenge can be stated simply: When you’re no longer standing in front of the room, giving instruction, it’s hard to be in charge. And, when you’re implementing problem solving and inquiry, you’re usually not standing in front of the room. The only way to remain in charge (and sane) is to teach students how to take charge of themselves, to respect the inquiry process, and become self-directed learners. This requires time, patience, a dose of psychology, and a careful blend of assessments and tools that promote the development of self-awareness, respect, self-control, and other attributes of a functioning community. PBL has led the way in developing and using these tools.   6)     Blending coaching with teaching. Finally, high quality PBL demands coaching skills as well as teaching skills. In PBL, a teacher often works shoulder to shoulder with students, giving them feedback, questioning them, and urging them on to the next level of achievement. It is a collaborative, communal form of teaching and learning that requires good listening, appropriate praise, and focused criticism. The same will be true of the Common Core Standards.   Thom Markham is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     The first question about Common Core Standards has been answered: What will they look like? The answer is: Very different. The internationally benchmarked standards will emphasize creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, presentation and demonstration, problem solving, research and inquiry, and career readiness.   The second question is more challenging: How will we teach these new standards? For several years, the winds of change have been howling in one direction, pointing educators toward greater focus on depth rather than coverage, thinking rather than memorizing or listing, and demonstrating and performing rather than ‘hand it in and grade it.’ With 46 states endorsing the Common Core Standards and half of those planning for full implementation in the next three years, we’ve moved into hurricane status. Quite soon, we’ll land on a distant, unknown shore. Teachers will have to teach differently.   States and professional development organizations recognize that the kind of transformative professional preparation necessary to meet the challenge of teaching the new standards is not yet in place. But for those teachers and schools who want to jump start the process, I suggest a solution is in place: Use project based learning (PBL).   First, I refer to high quality PBL, as outlined in a recent post. Successful implementation of the new standards will require innovative best practices that persuade and prepare students to engage in thoughtful problem-solving, as well as encourage better performance through more sophisticated, broad-based assessments. PBL, well done, accomplishes those goals. But old style ‘projects’ won’t come close.     The Six Moving Parts   There is an overriding reason that the Common Core Standards will challenge our professional capability as educators: Teaching inquiry and skillful problem solving is not a simple change of strategy to, let’s say, favoring one reading method over another. Instead, success relies on shifting a number of teaching practices simultaneously. When aligned, these practices act synergistically to activate a student’s desire to learn, support growth over time, invite deeper engagement, and stimulate the reflective and critical faculties—often in a team-based, collective environment—that lead to superior solutions and analysis.   I call these shifts the six ‘moving parts’ of PBL. They help meet the goals of the Common Core Standards in the following ways:   1)     Moving from instruction to inquiry. More than ever, curriculum will now start with questions rather than the delivery of information. Subject matter is important, but teachers will now need to know how to apply knowledge through designing a problem solving process. PBL teachers begin by posing a significant challenge to students and capturing the challenge in a manageable problem statement or driving question. The question frames the project; the problem sets the solution process into motion. Choosing and crafting a suitable problem requires experience, curiosity, and passion, as well as thorough knowledge of the discipline.   2)     Balancing knowledge and skills. The Common Core Standards rebalance the equation between content and skills. In every subject, the emphasis is now on a blend of knowing/doing and learning/demonstrating, in which students apply what they know and demonstrate mastery of 21st century skills such as presentation and collaboration. This shift changes expectations for student mastery, rearranges assessments and grading systems, and relies on coaching students (more on that in a minute) for better performance. These represent the core skill set for PBL teachers, and are backed by a well developed set of PBL tools.   3)     Going deep. Deep thinking sounds good in theory, but takes time, making it problematic in the context of a 48 minute period or a 180 day school year. Deep thinking also conflicts with current testing requirements, which do not reward insight and analysis. PBL approaches this challenge by assessing fewer standards (the goal of the Common Core), using a variety of proven thinking tools, and designing a controlled process that helps students focus their thinking on the driving question.   4)     Teaching teamwork. The Common Core Standards identify collaboration and teamwork as a 21st century skill to be taught. This is laudable, but something bigger is underway. As the outside world shows us, we’re moving into a collaborative culture of continuous learning within networked    communities. The Common Core Standards implicitly recognize this fact, but PBL teachers give it life in the classroom by using team contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, and work ethic rubrics to turn group work into effective teams. This guidance is a necessity for a curriculum that   emphasizes problem solving and inquiry, now generally done in the real world in project teams.   5)     Establishing a culture of inquiry. This moving part determines the fate of a project in a PBL classroom—and it will be central to the success of the Common Core Standards. The challenge can be stated simply: When you’re no longer standing in front of the room, giving instruction, it’s hard to be in charge. And, when you’re implementing problem solving and inquiry, you’re usually not standing in front of the room. The only way to remain in charge (and sane) is to teach students how to take charge of themselves, to respect the inquiry process, and become self-directed learners. This requires time, patience, a dose of psychology, and a careful blend of assessments and tools that promote the development of self-awareness, respect, self-control, and other attributes of a functioning community. PBL has led the way in developing and using these tools.   6)     Blending coaching with teaching. Finally, high quality PBL demands coaching skills as well as teaching skills. In PBL, a teacher often works shoulder to shoulder with students, giving them feedback, questioning them, and urging them on to the next level of achievement. It is a collaborative, communal form of teaching and learning that requires good listening, appropriate praise, and focused criticism. The same will be true of the Common Core Standards.   Thom Markham is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:42:02 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_PBL-and-Common-Core-Standards/blog/5751049/127586.html Thom_Markham 2012-02-04T05:42:02Z ASCD EDge The first question about Common Core Standards has been answered: What will they look like? The answer is: Very different. The internationally benchmarked standards will emphasize creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, presentation and demonstration, problem solving, research and inquiry, and career readiness.   The second question is more challenging: How will we teach these new standards? For several years, the winds of change have been howling in one direction, pointing educators toward greater focus on depth rather than coverage, thinking rather than memorizing or listing, and demonstrating and performing rather than ‘hand it in and grade it.’ With 46 states endorsing the Common Core Standards and half of those planning for full implementation in the next three years, we’ve moved into hurricane status. Quite soon, we’ll land on a distant, unknown shore. Teachers will have to teach differently.   States and professional development organizations recognize that the kind of transformative professional preparation necessary to meet the challenge of teaching the new standards is not yet in place. But for those teachers and schools who want to jump start the process, I suggest a solution is in place: Use project based learning (PBL).   First, I refer to high quality PBL, as outlined in a recent post. Successful implementation of the new standards will require innovative best practices that persuade and prepare students to engage in thoughtful problem-solving, as well as encourage better performance through more sophisticated, broad-based assessments. PBL, well done, accomplishes those goals. But old style ‘projects’ won’t come close.     The Six Moving Parts   There is an overriding reason that the Common Core Standards will challenge our professional capability as educators: Teaching inquiry and skillful problem solving is not a simple change of strategy to, let’s say, favoring one reading method over another. Instead, success relies on shifting a number of teaching practices simultaneously. When aligned, these practices act synergistically to activate a student’s desire to learn, support growth over time, invite deeper engagement, and stimulate the reflective and critical faculties—often in a team-based, collective environment—that lead to superior solutions and analysis.   I call these shifts the six ‘moving parts’ of PBL. They help meet the goals of the Common Core Standards in the following ways:   1)     Moving from instruction to inquiry. More than ever, curriculum will now start with questions rather than the delivery of information. Subject matter is important, but teachers will now need to know how to apply knowledge through designing a problem solving process. PBL teachers begin by posing a significant challenge to students and capturing the challenge in a manageable problem statement or driving question. The question frames the project; the problem sets the solution process into motion. Choosing and crafting a suitable problem requires experience, curiosity, and passion, as well as thorough knowledge of the discipline.   2)     Balancing knowledge and skills. The Common Core Standards rebalance the equation between content and skills. In every subject, the emphasis is now on a blend of knowing/doing and learning/demonstrating, in which students apply what they know and demonstrate mastery of 21st century skills such as presentation and collaboration. This shift changes expectations for student mastery, rearranges assessments and grading systems, and relies on coaching students (more on that in a minute) for better performance. These represent the core skill set for PBL teachers, and are backed by a well developed set of PBL tools.   3)     Going deep. Deep thinking sounds good in theory, but takes time, making it problematic in the context of a 48 minute period or a 180 day school year. Deep thinking also conflicts with current testing requirements, which do not reward insight and analysis. PBL approaches this challenge by assessing fewer standards (the goal of the Common Core), using a variety of proven thinking tools, and designing a controlled process that helps students focus their thinking on the driving question.   4)     Teaching teamwork. The Common Core Standards identify collaboration and teamwork as a 21st century skill to be taught. This is laudable, but something bigger is underway. As the outside world shows us, we’re moving into a collaborative culture of continuous learning within networked    communities. The Common Core Standards implicitly recognize this fact, but PBL teachers give it life in the classroom by using team contracts, peer collaboration rubrics, and work ethic rubrics to turn group work into effective teams. This guidance is a necessity for a curriculum that   emphasizes problem solving and inquiry, now generally done in the real world in project teams.   5)     Establishing a culture of inquiry. This moving part determines the fate of a project in a PBL classroom—and it will be central to the success of the Common Core Standards. The challenge can be stated simply: When you’re no longer standing in front of the room, giving instruction, it’s hard to be in charge. And, when you’re implementing problem solving and inquiry, you’re usually not standing in front of the room. The only way to remain in charge (and sane) is to teach students how to take charge of themselves, to respect the inquiry process, and become self-directed learners. This requires time, patience, a dose of psychology, and a careful blend of assessments and tools that promote the development of self-awareness, respect, self-control, and other attributes of a functioning community. PBL has led the way in developing and using these tools.   6)     Blending coaching with teaching. Finally, high quality PBL demands coaching skills as well as teaching skills. In PBL, a teacher often works shoulder to shoulder with students, giving them feedback, questioning them, and urging them on to the next level of achievement. It is a collaborative, communal form of teaching and learning that requires good listening, appropriate praise, and focused criticism. The same will be true of the Common Core Standards.   Thom Markham is the principal author of the Handbook for Project Based Learning, published by the Buck Institute for Education, and the author of the Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: Expert tools for inquiry and innovation for K-12 educators (available March, 2012). Download the Top Ten Tools for PBL on his website, www.thommarkham.com or contact him at thom@thommarkham.com.     nonadult false PBL and Common Core Standards text blog 2145 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5751049 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_2012-Rebalancing-Heart-and-Brain/blog/5674794/127586.html One way to describe the tumult of the past few years, as well as the year we’re about to enter—the momentous 2012—is imbalance. The world is out of whack, whether the topic is climate patterns, wealth distribution, political power, job opportunity, food availability, or life-work balance. Most of us experience a rushing sense of unease and a desire to get things back in order.   Education, in my view, is not exempt from imbalance. To me, the reason is obvious: We’re stuck on the brain, and ignore the heart. The entire system is geared toward cognitive achievement, as defined in the narrowest sense by grades, tests, AP classes, and a dense, overblown academic curriculum. Most of us value a well rounded, heart-oriented whole child, but that is not the ultimate outcome of the system we have created. In fact, as long as education overvalues the brain and undervalues the heart, we can’t educate the whole child.   Why should educators refocus on the heart in 2012—and why would the world reward us, if we did so? I believe the most pressing goal of education in 2012 is to move forward and align our system of learning with unfolding global trends and the needs of today’s youth. The heart is designed for that task. Consider three findings about the heart:   1. The heart is not just a metaphor.   We’re accustomed to the greeting card version of the heart, with flowery language and a nice red drawing. But in a previous ASCD post, I pointed out the new scientific findings on the heart and the role of emotions in regulating brain function. Simply put, it is no longer ‘scientific’ to make the brain the sole center of learning, or assume that the keys to emotional development can be found in the brain alone. It is much more accurate to refer to ‘heart-brain’ learning, and to view emotions as ‘tools’ used by the heart to affect brain and body.   For example, we know the heart secretes hormones and neurotransmitters, as well as serving as a main hub for the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Through the vagal nerve, the heart has instant communication with the brain. There is a constant flow of information between the two organs, and with other body systems. Nearly 80% of the messages between brain and heart originate in the heart.   What does this mean for whole child advocates? Without trying to be definitive, the most obvious educational goals of the whole child movement are to nurture the highest human functions, such as creativity, insight, and problem solving. Even more, we hope to improve emotional balance and self-awareness in students, giving them better collaboration skills and enhanced internal assets such as resiliency, empathy, and perseverance. I suggest that if we want to succeed at this vital effort, then we will need to acknowledge the central role of the heart in emotional development, collaborative impulses, intuition and creativity, and the expanded use of the brain. The ultimate truth is that inner calm precedes mental clarity.   2. The heart is the processor of emotions.   The physiological response of the heart is programmed by emotions. Using a complex biofeedback system that affects the pattern of heart rhythms, various emotions have differing effects on the heart and thus the brain. Frustration, stress, and anger disrupt the heart and fog the brain; appreciation, unconditional acceptance and love, or other positive emotions smooth out the rhythms with a noticeably positive effect: The frontal part of the brain responds to the heart’s message of cheer by clearer thinking, faster response, and greater insight. By intentionally generating a positive emotion, an individual can make a conscious choice about how his or her brain will function. Simple exercises, such as heart-focused breathing and a feeling of gratitude, have remarkably positive effects on the brain.   In our brain-centric, cognitively-oriented society, it’s difficult to accept this reality. But, as our ancestors believed, the heart is the seat of emotions. The brain, with its limbic capability, moderates our impulses and helps us gain a meta-cognitive view of our emotional lives. Brain based learning encourages the full use of the brain. But the brain cannot act alone. For humans to function at their peak, the heart must be soothed. Most important, love, care, and positive relationships sooth us like nothing else. This is the foundation of whole child education—and should be the defining element of every classroom.   3. The heart connects us.   This statement relies on slightly more speculative science, but it is certain that the heart generates the most powerful electromagnetic field in the body (far stronger than the brain), and there is compelling evidence that through this field we communicate our emotional state to one another. Based on the concept of coherence, it is evident that emotionally balanced individuals entrain with each other and create a collective coherent field. It is even possible (and gold standard experiments are underway now to confirm this) that the field extends globally and we operate in a field of collective intelligence that can be enhanced through positive networking.   In other words, the brain excels at sorting and classifying, but the heart contains the secrets of connection and communion. Understanding this deep connectivity of the heart may be our most important task as citizens in a post-2012 world. If a majority, or even an influential minority, of ‘whole’ human beings becomes prominent across the globe, the human species will find it easy to collaborate peacefully, think clearly and with less distortion about the challenges of global life, and develop and share the deep intellectual and intuitive resources necessary for the race to flourish.   For educators, these possibilities imply that a more visible role for the heart in the classroom may be vital to the grand evolutionary drama playing out across the world, as youth collaborate and network on behalf of progress and justice. It tells us that the ultimate goal of whole child education should be to reinvigorate the heart’s capacity—and the potential of our children—to bring us together.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., president of GlobalRedesigns, is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He also offers Heart in School workshops. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: New ideas and innovative tips for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.           One way to describe the tumult of the past few years, as well as the year we’re about to enter—the momentous 2012—is imbalance. The world is out of whack, whether the topic is climate patterns, wealth distribution, political power, job opportunity, food availability, or life-work balance. Most of us experience a rushing sense of unease and a desire to get things back in order.   Education, in my view, is not exempt from imbalance. To me, the reason is obvious: We’re stuck on the brain, and ignore the heart. The entire system is geared toward cognitive achievement, as defined in the narrowest sense by grades, tests, AP classes, and a dense, overblown academic curriculum. Most of us value a well rounded, heart-oriented whole child, but that is not the ultimate outcome of the system we have created. In fact, as long as education overvalues the brain and undervalues the heart, we can’t educate the whole child.   Why should educators refocus on the heart in 2012—and why would the world reward us, if we did so? I believe the most pressing goal of education in 2012 is to move forward and align our system of learning with unfolding global trends and the needs of today’s youth. The heart is designed for that task. Consider three findings about the heart:   1. The heart is not just a metaphor.   We’re accustomed to the greeting card version of the heart, with flowery language and a nice red drawing. But in a previous ASCD post, I pointed out the new scientific findings on the heart and the role of emotions in regulating brain function. Simply put, it is no longer ‘scientific’ to make the brain the sole center of learning, or assume that the keys to emotional development can be found in the brain alone. It is much more accurate to refer to ‘heart-brain’ learning, and to view emotions as ‘tools’ used by the heart to affect brain and body.   For example, we know the heart secretes hormones and neurotransmitters, as well as serving as a main hub for the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Through the vagal nerve, the heart has instant communication with the brain. There is a constant flow of information between the two organs, and with other body systems. Nearly 80% of the messages between brain and heart originate in the heart.   What does this mean for whole child advocates? Without trying to be definitive, the most obvious educational goals of the whole child movement are to nurture the highest human functions, such as creativity, insight, and problem solving. Even more, we hope to improve emotional balance and self-awareness in students, giving them better collaboration skills and enhanced internal assets such as resiliency, empathy, and perseverance. I suggest that if we want to succeed at this vital effort, then we will need to acknowledge the central role of the heart in emotional development, collaborative impulses, intuition and creativity, and the expanded use of the brain. The ultimate truth is that inner calm precedes mental clarity.   2. The heart is the processor of emotions.   The physiological response of the heart is programmed by emotions. Using a complex biofeedback system that affects the pattern of heart rhythms, various emotions have differing effects on the heart and thus the brain. Frustration, stress, and anger disrupt the heart and fog the brain; appreciation, unconditional acceptance and love, or other positive emotions smooth out the rhythms with a noticeably positive effect: The frontal part of the brain responds to the heart’s message of cheer by clearer thinking, faster response, and greater insight. By intentionally generating a positive emotion, an individual can make a conscious choice about how his or her brain will function. Simple exercises, such as heart-focused breathing and a feeling of gratitude, have remarkably positive effects on the brain.   In our brain-centric, cognitively-oriented society, it’s difficult to accept this reality. But, as our ancestors believed, the heart is the seat of emotions. The brain, with its limbic capability, moderates our impulses and helps us gain a meta-cognitive view of our emotional lives. Brain based learning encourages the full use of the brain. But the brain cannot act alone. For humans to function at their peak, the heart must be soothed. Most important, love, care, and positive relationships sooth us like nothing else. This is the foundation of whole child education—and should be the defining element of every classroom.   3. The heart connects us.   This statement relies on slightly more speculative science, but it is certain that the heart generates the most powerful electromagnetic field in the body (far stronger than the brain), and there is compelling evidence that through this field we communicate our emotional state to one another. Based on the concept of coherence, it is evident that emotionally balanced individuals entrain with each other and create a collective coherent field. It is even possible (and gold standard experiments are underway now to confirm this) that the field extends globally and we operate in a field of collective intelligence that can be enhanced through positive networking.   In other words, the brain excels at sorting and classifying, but the heart contains the secrets of connection and communion. Understanding this deep connectivity of the heart may be our most important task as citizens in a post-2012 world. If a majority, or even an influential minority, of ‘whole’ human beings becomes prominent across the globe, the human species will find it easy to collaborate peacefully, think clearly and with less distortion about the challenges of global life, and develop and share the deep intellectual and intuitive resources necessary for the race to flourish.   For educators, these possibilities imply that a more visible role for the heart in the classroom may be vital to the grand evolutionary drama playing out across the world, as youth collaborate and network on behalf of progress and justice. It tells us that the ultimate goal of whole child education should be to reinvigorate the heart’s capacity—and the potential of our children—to bring us together.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., president of GlobalRedesigns, is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He also offers Heart in School workshops. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: New ideas and innovative tips for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.           Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:24:26 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_2012-Rebalancing-Heart-and-Brain/blog/5674794/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-12-27T17:24:26Z ASCD EDge One way to describe the tumult of the past few years, as well as the year we’re about to enter—the momentous 2012—is imbalance. The world is out of whack, whether the topic is climate patterns, wealth distribution, political power, job opportunity, food availability, or life-work balance. Most of us experience a rushing sense of unease and a desire to get things back in order.   Education, in my view, is not exempt from imbalance. To me, the reason is obvious: We’re stuck on the brain, and ignore the heart. The entire system is geared toward cognitive achievement, as defined in the narrowest sense by grades, tests, AP classes, and a dense, overblown academic curriculum. Most of us value a well rounded, heart-oriented whole child, but that is not the ultimate outcome of the system we have created. In fact, as long as education overvalues the brain and undervalues the heart, we can’t educate the whole child.   Why should educators refocus on the heart in 2012—and why would the world reward us, if we did so? I believe the most pressing goal of education in 2012 is to move forward and align our system of learning with unfolding global trends and the needs of today’s youth. The heart is designed for that task. Consider three findings about the heart:   1. The heart is not just a metaphor.   We’re accustomed to the greeting card version of the heart, with flowery language and a nice red drawing. But in a previous ASCD post, I pointed out the new scientific findings on the heart and the role of emotions in regulating brain function. Simply put, it is no longer ‘scientific’ to make the brain the sole center of learning, or assume that the keys to emotional development can be found in the brain alone. It is much more accurate to refer to ‘heart-brain’ learning, and to view emotions as ‘tools’ used by the heart to affect brain and body.   For example, we know the heart secretes hormones and neurotransmitters, as well as serving as a main hub for the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Through the vagal nerve, the heart has instant communication with the brain. There is a constant flow of information between the two organs, and with other body systems. Nearly 80% of the messages between brain and heart originate in the heart.   What does this mean for whole child advocates? Without trying to be definitive, the most obvious educational goals of the whole child movement are to nurture the highest human functions, such as creativity, insight, and problem solving. Even more, we hope to improve emotional balance and self-awareness in students, giving them better collaboration skills and enhanced internal assets such as resiliency, empathy, and perseverance. I suggest that if we want to succeed at this vital effort, then we will need to acknowledge the central role of the heart in emotional development, collaborative impulses, intuition and creativity, and the expanded use of the brain. The ultimate truth is that inner calm precedes mental clarity.   2. The heart is the processor of emotions.   The physiological response of the heart is programmed by emotions. Using a complex biofeedback system that affects the pattern of heart rhythms, various emotions have differing effects on the heart and thus the brain. Frustration, stress, and anger disrupt the heart and fog the brain; appreciation, unconditional acceptance and love, or other positive emotions smooth out the rhythms with a noticeably positive effect: The frontal part of the brain responds to the heart’s message of cheer by clearer thinking, faster response, and greater insight. By intentionally generating a positive emotion, an individual can make a conscious choice about how his or her brain will function. Simple exercises, such as heart-focused breathing and a feeling of gratitude, have remarkably positive effects on the brain.   In our brain-centric, cognitively-oriented society, it’s difficult to accept this reality. But, as our ancestors believed, the heart is the seat of emotions. The brain, with its limbic capability, moderates our impulses and helps us gain a meta-cognitive view of our emotional lives. Brain based learning encourages the full use of the brain. But the brain cannot act alone. For humans to function at their peak, the heart must be soothed. Most important, love, care, and positive relationships sooth us like nothing else. This is the foundation of whole child education—and should be the defining element of every classroom.   3. The heart connects us.   This statement relies on slightly more speculative science, but it is certain that the heart generates the most powerful electromagnetic field in the body (far stronger than the brain), and there is compelling evidence that through this field we communicate our emotional state to one another. Based on the concept of coherence, it is evident that emotionally balanced individuals entrain with each other and create a collective coherent field. It is even possible (and gold standard experiments are underway now to confirm this) that the field extends globally and we operate in a field of collective intelligence that can be enhanced through positive networking.   In other words, the brain excels at sorting and classifying, but the heart contains the secrets of connection and communion. Understanding this deep connectivity of the heart may be our most important task as citizens in a post-2012 world. If a majority, or even an influential minority, of ‘whole’ human beings becomes prominent across the globe, the human species will find it easy to collaborate peacefully, think clearly and with less distortion about the challenges of global life, and develop and share the deep intellectual and intuitive resources necessary for the race to flourish.   For educators, these possibilities imply that a more visible role for the heart in the classroom may be vital to the grand evolutionary drama playing out across the world, as youth collaborate and network on behalf of progress and justice. It tells us that the ultimate goal of whole child education should be to reinvigorate the heart’s capacity—and the potential of our children—to bring us together.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., president of GlobalRedesigns, is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He also offers Heart in School workshops. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide: New ideas and innovative tips for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.           nonadult false 2012: Rebalancing Heart and Brain text blog 810 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5674794 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Designing-High-Quality-PBL/blog/5650895/127586.html In a recent ASCD post, I listed ten ways to teach innovation. By far, the most important item on the list is #1: Implementing high quality project based learning (PBL).     I emphasize the term ‘high quality’ PBL for two reasons. First, many educators still equate PBL with ‘doing projects,’ ‘hands on’ learning, or ‘activities.’ This is an industrial holdover from the time when projects were designed as an antidote to lecture or a respite from seat time, as a culminating opportunity for students to finally demonstrate what they had learned during the year, or even as a simple reward for having endured tedious instruction.   PBL is a far more evolved method of instruction. Well-executed PBL begins with the recognition that, as in the real world, it’s often difficult to distinguish between acquiring information and using it. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter. Students focus on a problem or challenge, work in teams to find a solution to the problem, and often exhibit their work to an adult audience at the end of the project. Most important, PBL emphasizes carefully planned assessments that incorporate formative feedback, detailed rubrics, and multiple evaluations of content and skills.   But even with a method, mediocre PBL is still possible (and too prevalent). Simply turning students loose on a problem or question, putting them in groups, and having them do an exhibition or PowerPoint at the end of two weeks, does not meet the criteria for ‘high quality.’ This is especially true if innovation is our goal. Fostering innovation is a complex, challenging task that requires a teacher to do many things all at once: Refocus learning on the student; teach critical content; develop and assess global-age skills; offer constant opportunity for deep thinking and reflection; and reward intangible assets such as drive, passion, creativity, empathy, and resiliency. High quality PBL can offer students that complete experience, but it doesn’t happen automatically.   High quality PBL begins with a consistent, considered project design. Teachers move through a design process based on specific principles backed by proven methods and practices. Taken as a whole, this methodology allows teachers to conceive and implement a coherent problem-solving process that brings out the best work in students and addresses the key standards in the curriculum. Slight variations exist among practitioners, but there is general agreement on these methods. In my work, I use seven design principles. Each principle represents a point—or fault line—at which the project can be made more powerful and engaging, or less so:   Identify the challenge. At the core of PBL lies a meaningful, doable challenge. This means that projects start with a powerful idea, an authentic issue, or a vital concept. The challenge must then be defined so that it aligns with the objectives of the course, but not so narrow that it doesn’t demand innovation and insight.   High quality tip: Design projects that matter. A project that gives students an opportunity to contribute to their community or prepares them for life will invite their best efforts and whole-hearted participation. Generally, if projects originate from a laundry list of standards, they lack a big idea to power the project. There must be a reason to learn beyond covering the curriculum.   Craft the Driving Question. Your intention drives a project. What is the deep understanding that you want students to demonstrate at the end of the project? There is a proven process for turning a challenge into a driving question that captures the intent and depth of the project.   High quality tip: Make the problem relevant. An effective Driving Question taps a deep level of motivation. For example, a social studies team shifted their question on a Depression-era project to get at deeper lessons from the 1930’s that resonate today:               “What can we learn from the 1930’s?” to “How important is self-reliance in today’s world?”   Start with Results. PBL mimics the ‘plan backwards’ approach recommended by many educators. Given that PBL focuses on problem solving, innovation, and ‘fuzzy’ goals, it is imperative that you design both the knowledge acquisition as well as the process of learning. Think of yourself as more of a coach than a teacher. Your job is to put together a game plan for high performance.   High quality tip: Think beyond normal lesson planning. Questions that should come up at this stage: What protocols and peer methods will you use to encourage reflection and deep thinking? How will you organize your teams? What evidence will you require to reward innovative thinking?    Build the Assessment.  The key to high quality PBL assessment is to view content as one of several outcomes that will help students become more skillful, be reflective about their capabilities, and prepare them for post secondary success. This means designing evaluations and formative assessments in five areas: (1) global-age skills; (2) conceptual understanding; (3) personal strengths or habits of mind; (4) innovation and creativity; and (5) critical content.   High quality tip: Distinguish assessment and evaluation. Assessment is a constant tool, used to improve performance and support growth over time; evaluation is the final score. Formative assessment is essential to PBL. Use it regularly throughout a project to improve performance. Assess skill development as well as content mastery.   Enroll and engage.  Starting right is the key to success at the end. This includes helping students connect their interests to the question or problem, and organizing teams for effective performance by establishing norms and clear benchmarks.   High quality tip: Use a Critical Friends or tuning protocol to have students refine the question or the project. This is an excellent time to incorporate student voice. If you need a copy of the protocol, download the Top Ten PBL Tools at www.thommarkham.com.   Focus on quality. High quality PBL relies on teams that demonstrate commitment, purpose, and results, similar to the organizational goals of high performing industries. To do this, let go of the notion of ‘groups’ and move to the language of teamwork. Allow plenty of time for preparation, drafting, and refinement of products, presentations, and skills.   High quality tip: Facilitate deep thinking. Teach your students the tools of inquiry and require the teams to practice the skills of dialogue, visible thinking, peer evaluation, and critique.   End with Mastery. PBL is a non-linear process that begins with divergent thinking, enters a period of emergent problem solving, and ends with converging ideas and products. A good PBL teacher manages the work flow through the chaos of the project, but also closes the project by giving students every opportunity and support necessary to experience a sense of mastery and accomplishment.    High quality tip: Reflect. Take two days to review and reflect on the project. Reflect on accomplishments, and evaluate the project against criteria. Was the Driving Question answered? Was the investigation sufficient? Were skills mastered? What questions were raised? The project debrief improves future projects, as well as teaching students the cycle of quality improvement.   How can we sum this up? PBL promises more engaging school work and a shift in the culture of learning that should be visible in the form of more satisfied, higher performing, and more innovative students. But it does require a systematic approach that fully engages students, offers a potent blend of skills and intellectual challenge, and prompts or awakens a deeper curiosity about life. From that standpoint, PBL is still a work in progress.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Coach’s Guide. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com, where visitors can download the Top Ten Tools for PBL.       In a recent ASCD post, I listed ten ways to teach innovation. By far, the most important item on the list is #1: Implementing high quality project based learning (PBL).     I emphasize the term ‘high quality’ PBL for two reasons. First, many educators still equate PBL with ‘doing projects,’ ‘hands on’ learning, or ‘activities.’ This is an industrial holdover from the time when projects were designed as an antidote to lecture or a respite from seat time, as a culminating opportunity for students to finally demonstrate what they had learned during the year, or even as a simple reward for having endured tedious instruction.   PBL is a far more evolved method of instruction. Well-executed PBL begins with the recognition that, as in the real world, it’s often difficult to distinguish between acquiring information and using it. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter. Students focus on a problem or challenge, work in teams to find a solution to the problem, and often exhibit their work to an adult audience at the end of the project. Most important, PBL emphasizes carefully planned assessments that incorporate formative feedback, detailed rubrics, and multiple evaluations of content and skills.   But even with a method, mediocre PBL is still possible (and too prevalent). Simply turning students loose on a problem or question, putting them in groups, and having them do an exhibition or PowerPoint at the end of two weeks, does not meet the criteria for ‘high quality.’ This is especially true if innovation is our goal. Fostering innovation is a complex, challenging task that requires a teacher to do many things all at once: Refocus learning on the student; teach critical content; develop and assess global-age skills; offer constant opportunity for deep thinking and reflection; and reward intangible assets such as drive, passion, creativity, empathy, and resiliency. High quality PBL can offer students that complete experience, but it doesn’t happen automatically.   High quality PBL begins with a consistent, considered project design. Teachers move through a design process based on specific principles backed by proven methods and practices. Taken as a whole, this methodology allows teachers to conceive and implement a coherent problem-solving process that brings out the best work in students and addresses the key standards in the curriculum. Slight variations exist among practitioners, but there is general agreement on these methods. In my work, I use seven design principles. Each principle represents a point—or fault line—at which the project can be made more powerful and engaging, or less so:   Identify the challenge. At the core of PBL lies a meaningful, doable challenge. This means that projects start with a powerful idea, an authentic issue, or a vital concept. The challenge must then be defined so that it aligns with the objectives of the course, but not so narrow that it doesn’t demand innovation and insight.   High quality tip: Design projects that matter. A project that gives students an opportunity to contribute to their community or prepares them for life will invite their best efforts and whole-hearted participation. Generally, if projects originate from a laundry list of standards, they lack a big idea to power the project. There must be a reason to learn beyond covering the curriculum.   Craft the Driving Question. Your intention drives a project. What is the deep understanding that you want students to demonstrate at the end of the project? There is a proven process for turning a challenge into a driving question that captures the intent and depth of the project.   High quality tip: Make the problem relevant. An effective Driving Question taps a deep level of motivation. For example, a social studies team shifted their question on a Depression-era project to get at deeper lessons from the 1930’s that resonate today:               “What can we learn from the 1930’s?” to “How important is self-reliance in today’s world?”   Start with Results. PBL mimics the ‘plan backwards’ approach recommended by many educators. Given that PBL focuses on problem solving, innovation, and ‘fuzzy’ goals, it is imperative that you design both the knowledge acquisition as well as the process of learning. Think of yourself as more of a coach than a teacher. Your job is to put together a game plan for high performance.   High quality tip: Think beyond normal lesson planning. Questions that should come up at this stage: What protocols and peer methods will you use to encourage reflection and deep thinking? How will you organize your teams? What evidence will you require to reward innovative thinking?    Build the Assessment.  The key to high quality PBL assessment is to view content as one of several outcomes that will help students become more skillful, be reflective about their capabilities, and prepare them for post secondary success. This means designing evaluations and formative assessments in five areas: (1) global-age skills; (2) conceptual understanding; (3) personal strengths or habits of mind; (4) innovation and creativity; and (5) critical content.   High quality tip: Distinguish assessment and evaluation. Assessment is a constant tool, used to improve performance and support growth over time; evaluation is the final score. Formative assessment is essential to PBL. Use it regularly throughout a project to improve performance. Assess skill development as well as content mastery.   Enroll and engage.  Starting right is the key to success at the end. This includes helping students connect their interests to the question or problem, and organizing teams for effective performance by establishing norms and clear benchmarks.   High quality tip: Use a Critical Friends or tuning protocol to have students refine the question or the project. This is an excellent time to incorporate student voice. If you need a copy of the protocol, download the Top Ten PBL Tools at www.thommarkham.com.   Focus on quality. High quality PBL relies on teams that demonstrate commitment, purpose, and results, similar to the organizational goals of high performing industries. To do this, let go of the notion of ‘groups’ and move to the language of teamwork. Allow plenty of time for preparation, drafting, and refinement of products, presentations, and skills.   High quality tip: Facilitate deep thinking. Teach your students the tools of inquiry and require the teams to practice the skills of dialogue, visible thinking, peer evaluation, and critique.   End with Mastery. PBL is a non-linear process that begins with divergent thinking, enters a period of emergent problem solving, and ends with converging ideas and products. A good PBL teacher manages the work flow through the chaos of the project, but also closes the project by giving students every opportunity and support necessary to experience a sense of mastery and accomplishment.    High quality tip: Reflect. Take two days to review and reflect on the project. Reflect on accomplishments, and evaluate the project against criteria. Was the Driving Question answered? Was the investigation sufficient? Were skills mastered? What questions were raised? The project debrief improves future projects, as well as teaching students the cycle of quality improvement.   How can we sum this up? PBL promises more engaging school work and a shift in the culture of learning that should be visible in the form of more satisfied, higher performing, and more innovative students. But it does require a systematic approach that fully engages students, offers a potent blend of skills and intellectual challenge, and prompts or awakens a deeper curiosity about life. From that standpoint, PBL is still a work in progress.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Coach’s Guide. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com, where visitors can download the Top Ten Tools for PBL.       Sat, 17 Dec 2011 11:40:45 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Designing-High-Quality-PBL/blog/5650895/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-12-17T11:40:45Z ASCD EDge In a recent ASCD post, I listed ten ways to teach innovation. By far, the most important item on the list is #1: Implementing high quality project based learning (PBL).     I emphasize the term ‘high quality’ PBL for two reasons. First, many educators still equate PBL with ‘doing projects,’ ‘hands on’ learning, or ‘activities.’ This is an industrial holdover from the time when projects were designed as an antidote to lecture or a respite from seat time, as a culminating opportunity for students to finally demonstrate what they had learned during the year, or even as a simple reward for having endured tedious instruction.   PBL is a far more evolved method of instruction. Well-executed PBL begins with the recognition that, as in the real world, it’s often difficult to distinguish between acquiring information and using it. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that matter. Students focus on a problem or challenge, work in teams to find a solution to the problem, and often exhibit their work to an adult audience at the end of the project. Most important, PBL emphasizes carefully planned assessments that incorporate formative feedback, detailed rubrics, and multiple evaluations of content and skills.   But even with a method, mediocre PBL is still possible (and too prevalent). Simply turning students loose on a problem or question, putting them in groups, and having them do an exhibition or PowerPoint at the end of two weeks, does not meet the criteria for ‘high quality.’ This is especially true if innovation is our goal. Fostering innovation is a complex, challenging task that requires a teacher to do many things all at once: Refocus learning on the student; teach critical content; develop and assess global-age skills; offer constant opportunity for deep thinking and reflection; and reward intangible assets such as drive, passion, creativity, empathy, and resiliency. High quality PBL can offer students that complete experience, but it doesn’t happen automatically.   High quality PBL begins with a consistent, considered project design. Teachers move through a design process based on specific principles backed by proven methods and practices. Taken as a whole, this methodology allows teachers to conceive and implement a coherent problem-solving process that brings out the best work in students and addresses the key standards in the curriculum. Slight variations exist among practitioners, but there is general agreement on these methods. In my work, I use seven design principles. Each principle represents a point—or fault line—at which the project can be made more powerful and engaging, or less so:   Identify the challenge. At the core of PBL lies a meaningful, doable challenge. This means that projects start with a powerful idea, an authentic issue, or a vital concept. The challenge must then be defined so that it aligns with the objectives of the course, but not so narrow that it doesn’t demand innovation and insight.   High quality tip: Design projects that matter. A project that gives students an opportunity to contribute to their community or prepares them for life will invite their best efforts and whole-hearted participation. Generally, if projects originate from a laundry list of standards, they lack a big idea to power the project. There must be a reason to learn beyond covering the curriculum.   Craft the Driving Question. Your intention drives a project. What is the deep understanding that you want students to demonstrate at the end of the project? There is a proven process for turning a challenge into a driving question that captures the intent and depth of the project.   High quality tip: Make the problem relevant. An effective Driving Question taps a deep level of motivation. For example, a social studies team shifted their question on a Depression-era project to get at deeper lessons from the 1930’s that resonate today:               “What can we learn from the 1930’s?” to “How important is self-reliance in today’s world?”   Start with Results. PBL mimics the ‘plan backwards’ approach recommended by many educators. Given that PBL focuses on problem solving, innovation, and ‘fuzzy’ goals, it is imperative that you design both the knowledge acquisition as well as the process of learning. Think of yourself as more of a coach than a teacher. Your job is to put together a game plan for high performance.   High quality tip: Think beyond normal lesson planning. Questions that should come up at this stage: What protocols and peer methods will you use to encourage reflection and deep thinking? How will you organize your teams? What evidence will you require to reward innovative thinking?    Build the Assessment.  The key to high quality PBL assessment is to view content as one of several outcomes that will help students become more skillful, be reflective about their capabilities, and prepare them for post secondary success. This means designing evaluations and formative assessments in five areas: (1) global-age skills; (2) conceptual understanding; (3) personal strengths or habits of mind; (4) innovation and creativity; and (5) critical content.   High quality tip: Distinguish assessment and evaluation. Assessment is a constant tool, used to improve performance and support growth over time; evaluation is the final score. Formative assessment is essential to PBL. Use it regularly throughout a project to improve performance. Assess skill development as well as content mastery.   Enroll and engage.  Starting right is the key to success at the end. This includes helping students connect their interests to the question or problem, and organizing teams for effective performance by establishing norms and clear benchmarks.   High quality tip: Use a Critical Friends or tuning protocol to have students refine the question or the project. This is an excellent time to incorporate student voice. If you need a copy of the protocol, download the Top Ten PBL Tools at www.thommarkham.com.   Focus on quality. High quality PBL relies on teams that demonstrate commitment, purpose, and results, similar to the organizational goals of high performing industries. To do this, let go of the notion of ‘groups’ and move to the language of teamwork. Allow plenty of time for preparation, drafting, and refinement of products, presentations, and skills.   High quality tip: Facilitate deep thinking. Teach your students the tools of inquiry and require the teams to practice the skills of dialogue, visible thinking, peer evaluation, and critique.   End with Mastery. PBL is a non-linear process that begins with divergent thinking, enters a period of emergent problem solving, and ends with converging ideas and products. A good PBL teacher manages the work flow through the chaos of the project, but also closes the project by giving students every opportunity and support necessary to experience a sense of mastery and accomplishment.    High quality tip: Reflect. Take two days to review and reflect on the project. Reflect on accomplishments, and evaluate the project against criteria. Was the Driving Question answered? Was the investigation sufficient? Were skills mastered? What questions were raised? The project debrief improves future projects, as well as teaching students the cycle of quality improvement.   How can we sum this up? PBL promises more engaging school work and a shift in the culture of learning that should be visible in the form of more satisfied, higher performing, and more innovative students. But it does require a systematic approach that fully engages students, offers a potent blend of skills and intellectual challenge, and prompts or awakens a deeper curiosity about life. From that standpoint, PBL is still a work in progress.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Coach’s Guide. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com, where visitors can download the Top Ten Tools for PBL.       pbl nonadult false Designing High Quality PBL text blog pbl 6737 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 1 0 5650895 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Ways-to-Teach-Innovation/blog/5545792/127586.html One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking.   The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum.   This is hardly the case, as we know. In fact, innovation and the current classroom model most often operate as antagonists. The system is evolving, but not quickly enough to get young people ready for the new world. But I do believe there are a number of ways that teachers can bypass the system and offer students the tools and experiences that spur an innovative mindset. Here are ten ideas:   1. Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Most teachers have done projects, but the majority do not use the defined set of methods associated with high-quality PBL. These methods include developing a focused question, using solid, well crafted performance assessments, allowing for multiple solutions, enlisting community resources, and choosing engaging, meaningful themes for projects. PBL offers the best method we have presently for combining inquiry with accountability, and should be part of every teacher’s repertoire. See my website (www.thommarkham.com) or the Buck Institute (www.bie.org) for methods.   2. Teach concepts, not facts. Concept-based instruction overcomes the fact-based, rote-   oriented nature of standardized curriculum. If your curriculum is not organized conceptually, use you own knowledge and resources to teach ideas and deep understanding, not test items.   3. Distinguish concepts from critical information. Preparing students for tests is part of the job. But they need information for a more important reason: To innovate, they need to know something. The craft precedes the art. Find the right blend between open-ended inquiry and direct instruction.   4. Make skills as important as knowledge. Innovation and 21st century skills are closely related. Choose several 21st century skills, such as collaboration or critical thinking, to focus on throughout the year. Incorporate them into lessons. Use detailed rubrics to assess and grade the skills.     5. Form teams, not groups. Innovation now emerges from teams and networks—and we can teach students to work collectively and become better collective thinkers. Group work is common, but team work is rare. Some tips: Use specific methods to form teams; assess teamwork and work ethic; facilitate high quality interaction through protocols and critique; teach the cycle of revision; and expect students to reflect critically on both ongoing work and final products. For peer collaboration rubrics, see the Top Ten Tools, downloadable from my website.   6. Use thinking tools. Hundreds of interesting, thought provoking tools exist for thinking through problems, sharing insights, finding solutions, and encouraging divergent solutions. Use Big Think tools or the Visible Thinking Routines developed at Harvard’s Project Zero.   7. Use creativity tools. Industry uses a set of cutting edge tools to stimulate creativity and innovation. As described in books such as Gamestorming or Beyond Words, the tools include playful games and visual exercises that can easily be used in the classroom.   8. Reward discovery. Innovation is mightily discouraged by our system of assessment, which rewards the mastery of known information. Step up the reward system by using rubrics with a blank column to acknowledge and reward innovation and creativity. I call it the Breakthrough column. See the Top Ten Tools.   9. Make reflection part of the lesson. Because of the coverage imperative, the tendency is to move on quickly from the last chapter and begin the next chapter. But reflection is necessary to anchor learning and stimulate deeper thinking and understanding. There is no innovation without rumination. If you’re looking for ideas on how to reflect on learning, contact me and I’ll send you what I use.   10. Be innovative yourself. This is the kicker, because innovation requires the willingness to fail, a focus on fuzzy outcomes rather than standardized measures, and the bravery to resist the system’s emphasis on strict accountability. But the reward is a kind of liberating creativity that makes teaching exciting and fun, engages students, and—most critical—helps students find the passion and resources necessary to design a better life for themselves and others.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com. One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking.   The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum.   This is hardly the case, as we know. In fact, innovation and the current classroom model most often operate as antagonists. The system is evolving, but not quickly enough to get young people ready for the new world. But I do believe there are a number of ways that teachers can bypass the system and offer students the tools and experiences that spur an innovative mindset. Here are ten ideas:   1. Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Most teachers have done projects, but the majority do not use the defined set of methods associated with high-quality PBL. These methods include developing a focused question, using solid, well crafted performance assessments, allowing for multiple solutions, enlisting community resources, and choosing engaging, meaningful themes for projects. PBL offers the best method we have presently for combining inquiry with accountability, and should be part of every teacher’s repertoire. See my website (www.thommarkham.com) or the Buck Institute (www.bie.org) for methods.   2. Teach concepts, not facts. Concept-based instruction overcomes the fact-based, rote-   oriented nature of standardized curriculum. If your curriculum is not organized conceptually, use you own knowledge and resources to teach ideas and deep understanding, not test items.   3. Distinguish concepts from critical information. Preparing students for tests is part of the job. But they need information for a more important reason: To innovate, they need to know something. The craft precedes the art. Find the right blend between open-ended inquiry and direct instruction.   4. Make skills as important as knowledge. Innovation and 21st century skills are closely related. Choose several 21st century skills, such as collaboration or critical thinking, to focus on throughout the year. Incorporate them into lessons. Use detailed rubrics to assess and grade the skills.     5. Form teams, not groups. Innovation now emerges from teams and networks—and we can teach students to work collectively and become better collective thinkers. Group work is common, but team work is rare. Some tips: Use specific methods to form teams; assess teamwork and work ethic; facilitate high quality interaction through protocols and critique; teach the cycle of revision; and expect students to reflect critically on both ongoing work and final products. For peer collaboration rubrics, see the Top Ten Tools, downloadable from my website.   6. Use thinking tools. Hundreds of interesting, thought provoking tools exist for thinking through problems, sharing insights, finding solutions, and encouraging divergent solutions. Use Big Think tools or the Visible Thinking Routines developed at Harvard’s Project Zero.   7. Use creativity tools. Industry uses a set of cutting edge tools to stimulate creativity and innovation. As described in books such as Gamestorming or Beyond Words, the tools include playful games and visual exercises that can easily be used in the classroom.   8. Reward discovery. Innovation is mightily discouraged by our system of assessment, which rewards the mastery of known information. Step up the reward system by using rubrics with a blank column to acknowledge and reward innovation and creativity. I call it the Breakthrough column. See the Top Ten Tools.   9. Make reflection part of the lesson. Because of the coverage imperative, the tendency is to move on quickly from the last chapter and begin the next chapter. But reflection is necessary to anchor learning and stimulate deeper thinking and understanding. There is no innovation without rumination. If you’re looking for ideas on how to reflect on learning, contact me and I’ll send you what I use.   10. Be innovative yourself. This is the kicker, because innovation requires the willingness to fail, a focus on fuzzy outcomes rather than standardized measures, and the bravery to resist the system’s emphasis on strict accountability. But the reward is a kind of liberating creativity that makes teaching exciting and fun, engages students, and—most critical—helps students find the passion and resources necessary to design a better life for themselves and others.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com. Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:28:24 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Ten-Ways-to-Teach-Innovation/blog/5545792/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-12-04T06:28:24Z ASCD EDge One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking.   The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum.   This is hardly the case, as we know. In fact, innovation and the current classroom model most often operate as antagonists. The system is evolving, but not quickly enough to get young people ready for the new world. But I do believe there are a number of ways that teachers can bypass the system and offer students the tools and experiences that spur an innovative mindset. Here are ten ideas:   1. Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Most teachers have done projects, but the majority do not use the defined set of methods associated with high-quality PBL. These methods include developing a focused question, using solid, well crafted performance assessments, allowing for multiple solutions, enlisting community resources, and choosing engaging, meaningful themes for projects. PBL offers the best method we have presently for combining inquiry with accountability, and should be part of every teacher’s repertoire. See my website (www.thommarkham.com) or the Buck Institute (www.bie.org) for methods.   2. Teach concepts, not facts. Concept-based instruction overcomes the fact-based, rote-   oriented nature of standardized curriculum. If your curriculum is not organized conceptually, use you own knowledge and resources to teach ideas and deep understanding, not test items.   3. Distinguish concepts from critical information. Preparing students for tests is part of the job. But they need information for a more important reason: To innovate, they need to know something. The craft precedes the art. Find the right blend between open-ended inquiry and direct instruction.   4. Make skills as important as knowledge. Innovation and 21st century skills are closely related. Choose several 21st century skills, such as collaboration or critical thinking, to focus on throughout the year. Incorporate them into lessons. Use detailed rubrics to assess and grade the skills.     5. Form teams, not groups. Innovation now emerges from teams and networks—and we can teach students to work collectively and become better collective thinkers. Group work is common, but team work is rare. Some tips: Use specific methods to form teams; assess teamwork and work ethic; facilitate high quality interaction through protocols and critique; teach the cycle of revision; and expect students to reflect critically on both ongoing work and final products. For peer collaboration rubrics, see the Top Ten Tools, downloadable from my website.   6. Use thinking tools. Hundreds of interesting, thought provoking tools exist for thinking through problems, sharing insights, finding solutions, and encouraging divergent solutions. Use Big Think tools or the Visible Thinking Routines developed at Harvard’s Project Zero.   7. Use creativity tools. Industry uses a set of cutting edge tools to stimulate creativity and innovation. As described in books such as Gamestorming or Beyond Words, the tools include playful games and visual exercises that can easily be used in the classroom.   8. Reward discovery. Innovation is mightily discouraged by our system of assessment, which rewards the mastery of known information. Step up the reward system by using rubrics with a blank column to acknowledge and reward innovation and creativity. I call it the Breakthrough column. See the Top Ten Tools.   9. Make reflection part of the lesson. Because of the coverage imperative, the tendency is to move on quickly from the last chapter and begin the next chapter. But reflection is necessary to anchor learning and stimulate deeper thinking and understanding. There is no innovation without rumination. If you’re looking for ideas on how to reflect on learning, contact me and I’ll send you what I use.   10. Be innovative yourself. This is the kicker, because innovation requires the willingness to fail, a focus on fuzzy outcomes rather than standardized measures, and the bravery to resist the system’s emphasis on strict accountability. But the reward is a kind of liberating creativity that makes teaching exciting and fun, engages students, and—most critical—helps students find the passion and resources necessary to design a better life for themselves and others.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com. nonadult false Ten Ways to Teach Innovation text blog 3909 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 2 1 5545792 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Edugeddon/blog/5497181/127586.html Across the globe, the political, social, and economic forces that bind us as a nation and a planet seem headed for a decisive showdown in 2012. Events have shifted dramatically and unexpectedly, so much so that I’m beginning to wonder if education will face its own version of Armageddon next year.   Given the education system’s built-in inertia, history of cautious reforms, and competing views on what to do next, a mass call for radical reformation of schooling sounds unlikely. But sudden change now emerges from some subterranean, momentous process that escapes our notice until a thousand tweets and a previously invisible network of hundredth monkeys coalesces into a visible, powerful movement that captures our attention and awakens us to a common cause.   I first began thinking about this two months ago, when I was contacted by two rural high schools, in different states, that wanted to make fundamental changes at their schools. This was unusual. Nearly all schools, even if they institute project based learning and 21st century skills instruction (my specialty), prefer not to disturb the basic patterns and structure of industrial education.   In these cases, however, there was a noticeable new tone underlying the requests. Speaking from a small town in the central valley of California, one principal described his school as “stagnant”—a term which he used in the deepest sense, as in, “we don’t serve the needs to our children any longer.” If we don’t turn the system upside down, he told me, our kids will not be ready for their world.   The second school had leaped first and looked later. Inspired by models around the country, they built an expensive, thoroughly modern wing on the school for their senior class. But the seniors wouldn’t have any of the usual classes; instead, they would spend half their day on 21st century education, a mix of projects, skill building, and internships. The plan lacked specifics (we’re working on them now) but not the faith that there had to be a better way to conduct education—just as many people believe there has to be a better way to govern ourselves and distribute wealth, but can’t outline an exact method.   Two schools are a small sample, I realize. But perhaps they represent currents of transformational change that lie just below the surface of our conversation—and that will, to our surprise, suddenly find a collective voice in the near future.   How would the showdown occur? In the case of education, the drivers of change propelling us into the mid-21st century have been colliding with the barricades of the past for over a decade now. Most educators know that, at some point, those forces must array themselves against one another as a visible, civic battle over ideas on how we educate young people for their new world. Let’s call this great struggle Edugeddon, and look at why a confluence of events might produce a surge in public discussion next year:   12% of the 21st-century is almost gone. If you’re older and had a few birthdays, you know that you don’t realize you’re forty until about age forty-five. There’s always a lag. It’s the same with the new century: We finally realize that we’re well into it and that may finally snap us out of the industrial haze.   Technology. What’s new about this point? Well, technology is no longer a gimmick, gee-whiz, amazingly cool new thing in our world. It’s just the way the world is—and it’s getting more powerful, personalized, palpable, and accessible every minute, whether manifested as handheld screens in the classroom or hybrid schooling. It’s no longer a question of how technology can be used in schools; it now matters how quickly we will import learning into technology. At some point, enough adults will agree.   Academics are not enough. In the old days, you certified your learning through a degree, which qualified you for a job. Now you must know and do. Acquiring global age skills, career attributes, industry-specific knowledge, or on-the-job training is a must, unless you like living with your parents. When a majority of parents object, there will be change.   The need to think. The industrial curriculum does not promote deep thinking and inquiry, especially if focused solely on math and reading. The current fixation on coverage and testing is antithetical to the information age and promotes a shallow approach to learning. If enough people learn this way, there will be no Edugeddon—just more cable TV. But if sufficient numbers want to re-embrace the core values of deep learning, there will be revolt.   The narrowing of opportunity.  At the exact crossroads in history when we need more educated people, fewer of our youth can afford education. Course offerings are limited. The arts suffer. The watchword is ‘cut’, not ‘expand.’ This is not a recipe for continued greatness; all of us know this. How many will refuse mediocrity?   The holistic impulse. A vast number of people have now adopted the ‘whole person’ approach to life. Pay attention to emotions. Honor diverse ways of thinking and knowing. Allow a variety of expression. Collaborate, communicate, and use collective intelligence to chart your individual path in life. Why not schools, too?   Innovation is in the air. It’s hard to have a school system devised in the 1900’s nested in a society that in every ad proclaims its ability to innovate. How long can an institution remain walled off from the culture at large?   Edugeddon doesn’t signify the end, or a battle between good and evil. It simply represents an historical, penultimate point in history that demands more from us than normal. It’s imperative that we imagine, dream, solve, and re-invent how we learn. But it does imply a struggle between opposing forces—and I can think of at least three factors that can make predictions of Edugeddon just a fantasy:   No great push from the public to transform education. Despite dissatisfaction with NCLB and a general sense that schools don’t work as well as wanted, there is no grand outcry about the methods of today’s schools. Transformational change requires a powerful public movement.   A non-innovative industry. Schools are not generally staffed with innovators, and decades of industrial work rules have stifled creativity and out of the box thinking. Transformation would require fresh permission and enthusiastic support for innovation within the system.   A sense of resignation. Resignation comes in many forms, such as “If only we had money, we could change,” or “What can we do? The kids aren’t ready to learn.” If often is voiced in terms of blame, as if charter schools, poverty, federal officials, testing, corporations, or other easy targets are the sole culprit. All these arguments favor the easy road, which is to remain static through refusing to share collective responsibility for the current reality.   These factors—lack of a unified voice for change, an inability to mobilize our best creative talent, and a paralyzing despair—affect society as a whole. So I’ll make one more analogy. Armageddon is said to be a choice between faith and fear. So is Edugeddon. It’s not about finding the right educational strategy; it’s about leaping into the future and having faith that we can discover and devise a better way to educate our young. When the leap occurs, schools will immediately start to transform. It’s a matter of how many of us choose to take that faithful leap—and when.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.        Across the globe, the political, social, and economic forces that bind us as a nation and a planet seem headed for a decisive showdown in 2012. Events have shifted dramatically and unexpectedly, so much so that I’m beginning to wonder if education will face its own version of Armageddon next year.   Given the education system’s built-in inertia, history of cautious reforms, and competing views on what to do next, a mass call for radical reformation of schooling sounds unlikely. But sudden change now emerges from some subterranean, momentous process that escapes our notice until a thousand tweets and a previously invisible network of hundredth monkeys coalesces into a visible, powerful movement that captures our attention and awakens us to a common cause.   I first began thinking about this two months ago, when I was contacted by two rural high schools, in different states, that wanted to make fundamental changes at their schools. This was unusual. Nearly all schools, even if they institute project based learning and 21st century skills instruction (my specialty), prefer not to disturb the basic patterns and structure of industrial education.   In these cases, however, there was a noticeable new tone underlying the requests. Speaking from a small town in the central valley of California, one principal described his school as “stagnant”—a term which he used in the deepest sense, as in, “we don’t serve the needs to our children any longer.” If we don’t turn the system upside down, he told me, our kids will not be ready for their world.   The second school had leaped first and looked later. Inspired by models around the country, they built an expensive, thoroughly modern wing on the school for their senior class. But the seniors wouldn’t have any of the usual classes; instead, they would spend half their day on 21st century education, a mix of projects, skill building, and internships. The plan lacked specifics (we’re working on them now) but not the faith that there had to be a better way to conduct education—just as many people believe there has to be a better way to govern ourselves and distribute wealth, but can’t outline an exact method.   Two schools are a small sample, I realize. But perhaps they represent currents of transformational change that lie just below the surface of our conversation—and that will, to our surprise, suddenly find a collective voice in the near future.   How would the showdown occur? In the case of education, the drivers of change propelling us into the mid-21st century have been colliding with the barricades of the past for over a decade now. Most educators know that, at some point, those forces must array themselves against one another as a visible, civic battle over ideas on how we educate young people for their new world. Let’s call this great struggle Edugeddon, and look at why a confluence of events might produce a surge in public discussion next year:   12% of the 21st-century is almost gone. If you’re older and had a few birthdays, you know that you don’t realize you’re forty until about age forty-five. There’s always a lag. It’s the same with the new century: We finally realize that we’re well into it and that may finally snap us out of the industrial haze.   Technology. What’s new about this point? Well, technology is no longer a gimmick, gee-whiz, amazingly cool new thing in our world. It’s just the way the world is—and it’s getting more powerful, personalized, palpable, and accessible every minute, whether manifested as handheld screens in the classroom or hybrid schooling. It’s no longer a question of how technology can be used in schools; it now matters how quickly we will import learning into technology. At some point, enough adults will agree.   Academics are not enough. In the old days, you certified your learning through a degree, which qualified you for a job. Now you must know and do. Acquiring global age skills, career attributes, industry-specific knowledge, or on-the-job training is a must, unless you like living with your parents. When a majority of parents object, there will be change.   The need to think. The industrial curriculum does not promote deep thinking and inquiry, especially if focused solely on math and reading. The current fixation on coverage and testing is antithetical to the information age and promotes a shallow approach to learning. If enough people learn this way, there will be no Edugeddon—just more cable TV. But if sufficient numbers want to re-embrace the core values of deep learning, there will be revolt.   The narrowing of opportunity.  At the exact crossroads in history when we need more educated people, fewer of our youth can afford education. Course offerings are limited. The arts suffer. The watchword is ‘cut’, not ‘expand.’ This is not a recipe for continued greatness; all of us know this. How many will refuse mediocrity?   The holistic impulse. A vast number of people have now adopted the ‘whole person’ approach to life. Pay attention to emotions. Honor diverse ways of thinking and knowing. Allow a variety of expression. Collaborate, communicate, and use collective intelligence to chart your individual path in life. Why not schools, too?   Innovation is in the air. It’s hard to have a school system devised in the 1900’s nested in a society that in every ad proclaims its ability to innovate. How long can an institution remain walled off from the culture at large?   Edugeddon doesn’t signify the end, or a battle between good and evil. It simply represents an historical, penultimate point in history that demands more from us than normal. It’s imperative that we imagine, dream, solve, and re-invent how we learn. But it does imply a struggle between opposing forces—and I can think of at least three factors that can make predictions of Edugeddon just a fantasy:   No great push from the public to transform education. Despite dissatisfaction with NCLB and a general sense that schools don’t work as well as wanted, there is no grand outcry about the methods of today’s schools. Transformational change requires a powerful public movement.   A non-innovative industry. Schools are not generally staffed with innovators, and decades of industrial work rules have stifled creativity and out of the box thinking. Transformation would require fresh permission and enthusiastic support for innovation within the system.   A sense of resignation. Resignation comes in many forms, such as “If only we had money, we could change,” or “What can we do? The kids aren’t ready to learn.” If often is voiced in terms of blame, as if charter schools, poverty, federal officials, testing, corporations, or other easy targets are the sole culprit. All these arguments favor the easy road, which is to remain static through refusing to share collective responsibility for the current reality.   These factors—lack of a unified voice for change, an inability to mobilize our best creative talent, and a paralyzing despair—affect society as a whole. So I’ll make one more analogy. Armageddon is said to be a choice between faith and fear. So is Edugeddon. It’s not about finding the right educational strategy; it’s about leaping into the future and having faith that we can discover and devise a better way to educate our young. When the leap occurs, schools will immediately start to transform. It’s a matter of how many of us choose to take that faithful leap—and when.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.        Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:10:14 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Edugeddon/blog/5497181/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-11-20T21:10:14Z ASCD EDge Across the globe, the political, social, and economic forces that bind us as a nation and a planet seem headed for a decisive showdown in 2012. Events have shifted dramatically and unexpectedly, so much so that I’m beginning to wonder if education will face its own version of Armageddon next year.   Given the education system’s built-in inertia, history of cautious reforms, and competing views on what to do next, a mass call for radical reformation of schooling sounds unlikely. But sudden change now emerges from some subterranean, momentous process that escapes our notice until a thousand tweets and a previously invisible network of hundredth monkeys coalesces into a visible, powerful movement that captures our attention and awakens us to a common cause.   I first began thinking about this two months ago, when I was contacted by two rural high schools, in different states, that wanted to make fundamental changes at their schools. This was unusual. Nearly all schools, even if they institute project based learning and 21st century skills instruction (my specialty), prefer not to disturb the basic patterns and structure of industrial education.   In these cases, however, there was a noticeable new tone underlying the requests. Speaking from a small town in the central valley of California, one principal described his school as “stagnant”—a term which he used in the deepest sense, as in, “we don’t serve the needs to our children any longer.” If we don’t turn the system upside down, he told me, our kids will not be ready for their world.   The second school had leaped first and looked later. Inspired by models around the country, they built an expensive, thoroughly modern wing on the school for their senior class. But the seniors wouldn’t have any of the usual classes; instead, they would spend half their day on 21st century education, a mix of projects, skill building, and internships. The plan lacked specifics (we’re working on them now) but not the faith that there had to be a better way to conduct education—just as many people believe there has to be a better way to govern ourselves and distribute wealth, but can’t outline an exact method.   Two schools are a small sample, I realize. But perhaps they represent currents of transformational change that lie just below the surface of our conversation—and that will, to our surprise, suddenly find a collective voice in the near future.   How would the showdown occur? In the case of education, the drivers of change propelling us into the mid-21st century have been colliding with the barricades of the past for over a decade now. Most educators know that, at some point, those forces must array themselves against one another as a visible, civic battle over ideas on how we educate young people for their new world. Let’s call this great struggle Edugeddon, and look at why a confluence of events might produce a surge in public discussion next year:   12% of the 21st-century is almost gone. If you’re older and had a few birthdays, you know that you don’t realize you’re forty until about age forty-five. There’s always a lag. It’s the same with the new century: We finally realize that we’re well into it and that may finally snap us out of the industrial haze.   Technology. What’s new about this point? Well, technology is no longer a gimmick, gee-whiz, amazingly cool new thing in our world. It’s just the way the world is—and it’s getting more powerful, personalized, palpable, and accessible every minute, whether manifested as handheld screens in the classroom or hybrid schooling. It’s no longer a question of how technology can be used in schools; it now matters how quickly we will import learning into technology. At some point, enough adults will agree.   Academics are not enough. In the old days, you certified your learning through a degree, which qualified you for a job. Now you must know and do. Acquiring global age skills, career attributes, industry-specific knowledge, or on-the-job training is a must, unless you like living with your parents. When a majority of parents object, there will be change.   The need to think. The industrial curriculum does not promote deep thinking and inquiry, especially if focused solely on math and reading. The current fixation on coverage and testing is antithetical to the information age and promotes a shallow approach to learning. If enough people learn this way, there will be no Edugeddon—just more cable TV. But if sufficient numbers want to re-embrace the core values of deep learning, there will be revolt.   The narrowing of opportunity.  At the exact crossroads in history when we need more educated people, fewer of our youth can afford education. Course offerings are limited. The arts suffer. The watchword is ‘cut’, not ‘expand.’ This is not a recipe for continued greatness; all of us know this. How many will refuse mediocrity?   The holistic impulse. A vast number of people have now adopted the ‘whole person’ approach to life. Pay attention to emotions. Honor diverse ways of thinking and knowing. Allow a variety of expression. Collaborate, communicate, and use collective intelligence to chart your individual path in life. Why not schools, too?   Innovation is in the air. It’s hard to have a school system devised in the 1900’s nested in a society that in every ad proclaims its ability to innovate. How long can an institution remain walled off from the culture at large?   Edugeddon doesn’t signify the end, or a battle between good and evil. It simply represents an historical, penultimate point in history that demands more from us than normal. It’s imperative that we imagine, dream, solve, and re-invent how we learn. But it does imply a struggle between opposing forces—and I can think of at least three factors that can make predictions of Edugeddon just a fantasy:   No great push from the public to transform education. Despite dissatisfaction with NCLB and a general sense that schools don’t work as well as wanted, there is no grand outcry about the methods of today’s schools. Transformational change requires a powerful public movement.   A non-innovative industry. Schools are not generally staffed with innovators, and decades of industrial work rules have stifled creativity and out of the box thinking. Transformation would require fresh permission and enthusiastic support for innovation within the system.   A sense of resignation. Resignation comes in many forms, such as “If only we had money, we could change,” or “What can we do? The kids aren’t ready to learn.” If often is voiced in terms of blame, as if charter schools, poverty, federal officials, testing, corporations, or other easy targets are the sole culprit. All these arguments favor the easy road, which is to remain static through refusing to share collective responsibility for the current reality.   These factors—lack of a unified voice for change, an inability to mobilize our best creative talent, and a paralyzing despair—affect society as a whole. So I’ll make one more analogy. Armageddon is said to be a choice between faith and fear. So is Edugeddon. It’s not about finding the right educational strategy; it’s about leaping into the future and having faith that we can discover and devise a better way to educate our young. When the leap occurs, schools will immediately start to transform. It’s a matter of how many of us choose to take that faithful leap—and when.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He is the primary author of the Buck Institute for Education’s Handbook on Project Based Learning and the author of the forthcoming Project Based Learning Design and Coaching Guide for K-12 Teachers. He may be reached through www.thommarkham.com.        education, reform nonadult false Edugeddon text blog education,reform 663 0 0.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 5497181 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Occupy-the-Future/blog/5446431/127586.html A couple of weeks ago, the noted philosopher and veteran social critic, Noam Chomsky, spoke to the youth of the Occupy Boston camp and advised them to occupy the world. In the same week, David Brooks of the New York Times reminded readers that the 99% can be defined in terms other than wealth. He suggested that most important 99% is the portion of American youth who receive an education vastly inferior to the needs of the 21st century. Finally, there have been numerous articles criticizing the Occupy movement for failing to articulate a list of demands.   It appears to me it might be time for educators to step in and fill the gaps. I suggest that our industry formulate a set of non-negotiable demands that would, if implemented, address the issues raised by the Occupy protestors and critics alike. In fact, were these demands met, the future of the world would look quite different from the future now before us. So let education do its part with an Occupy the Future movement.   The demands must be simply stated, above politics, and speak to the deepest convictions of teachers. They must rise above the current debate over teacher salaries and evaluations, per pupil expenditures, charter schools, or similar operational questions. They must be system-busting, change-oriented, paradigm–shifting demands that really will alter the direction of the planet.   By choice, the Occupy movement has no leaders. This is appropriate to the Age, in which change begins at the bottom of the power structure and flows through horizontal social networks. The Occupy the Future movement can do the same. Instead of relying on representatives from the Department of Education, state legislatures, District Offices, or the vast number of special interest organizations that inhabit the education space, let’s take our cue from what the overwhelming number of teachers in this country (and most other countries) know is right about educating children. Let’s speak with a collective voice.   As part of the collective, here is a five-point list of demands I would suggest for the Occupy the Future movement:   Insist on a whole child education for the whole nation. This is the most important demand. It is time to restore hope, joy, and creativity to education. It is time to raise emotionally capable young people. It is time to tap the depths of human capacity and release into this world the most insightful, innovative, ethical, and caring beings that we know how to raise, support, and educate. Our future depends on this choice. Refuse to support mandates that dumb children down. The fixation on testing, the obsession with math and reading, and the overreliance on Advanced Placement courses and grade point averages all represent, in their own way, a narrowing of educational purpose. These measures don’t result in smarter children; in fact, they encourage the use of only part of the brain. The future requires fully educated humans. Teach young people to cooperate, not compete. The power structure now regards education as an instrumental tool for national dominance and competing the in the global economy. The Occupy the Future movement sees it differently: Prosperity and peace in the global age will result from a cooperative endeavor among the young people of many countries, as they search collectively for solutions to climate change, population issues, economic dislocation, and political representation. Our demand is that our children be taught the global skills of tolerance, empathy, collaboration, and cross-cultural awareness. Transform the system. The Occupy the Future movement refuses to accept the possibility of Edugeddon—the meltdown in our educational system that results from schools unwilling to change and adapt to the global age. We demand that every school in America teach 21st century skills, offer students challenging projects and engaging curriculum, and rewrite the curriculum and requirements to reflect the transformed nature of global life. Fund education—before anything else.  While the Occupy the Future movement acknowledges the competing demands of society for funding important initiatives, it is now time to recognize one cause above all others: The preparation of our youth for life in the most challenging and uncertain century in human history. While we do not claim every answer to the problems of the future, nor can we foresee the many opportunities ahead, we know that young people must be offered the best possible education that we can design. As adults, it is our responsibility to pay for that system of education. We demand a new set of priorities in our country.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com.       A couple of weeks ago, the noted philosopher and veteran social critic, Noam Chomsky, spoke to the youth of the Occupy Boston camp and advised them to occupy the world. In the same week, David Brooks of the New York Times reminded readers that the 99% can be defined in terms other than wealth. He suggested that most important 99% is the portion of American youth who receive an education vastly inferior to the needs of the 21st century. Finally, there have been numerous articles criticizing the Occupy movement for failing to articulate a list of demands.   It appears to me it might be time for educators to step in and fill the gaps. I suggest that our industry formulate a set of non-negotiable demands that would, if implemented, address the issues raised by the Occupy protestors and critics alike. In fact, were these demands met, the future of the world would look quite different from the future now before us. So let education do its part with an Occupy the Future movement.   The demands must be simply stated, above politics, and speak to the deepest convictions of teachers. They must rise above the current debate over teacher salaries and evaluations, per pupil expenditures, charter schools, or similar operational questions. They must be system-busting, change-oriented, paradigm–shifting demands that really will alter the direction of the planet.   By choice, the Occupy movement has no leaders. This is appropriate to the Age, in which change begins at the bottom of the power structure and flows through horizontal social networks. The Occupy the Future movement can do the same. Instead of relying on representatives from the Department of Education, state legislatures, District Offices, or the vast number of special interest organizations that inhabit the education space, let’s take our cue from what the overwhelming number of teachers in this country (and most other countries) know is right about educating children. Let’s speak with a collective voice.   As part of the collective, here is a five-point list of demands I would suggest for the Occupy the Future movement:   Insist on a whole child education for the whole nation. This is the most important demand. It is time to restore hope, joy, and creativity to education. It is time to raise emotionally capable young people. It is time to tap the depths of human capacity and release into this world the most insightful, innovative, ethical, and caring beings that we know how to raise, support, and educate. Our future depends on this choice. Refuse to support mandates that dumb children down. The fixation on testing, the obsession with math and reading, and the overreliance on Advanced Placement courses and grade point averages all represent, in their own way, a narrowing of educational purpose. These measures don’t result in smarter children; in fact, they encourage the use of only part of the brain. The future requires fully educated humans. Teach young people to cooperate, not compete. The power structure now regards education as an instrumental tool for national dominance and competing the in the global economy. The Occupy the Future movement sees it differently: Prosperity and peace in the global age will result from a cooperative endeavor among the young people of many countries, as they search collectively for solutions to climate change, population issues, economic dislocation, and political representation. Our demand is that our children be taught the global skills of tolerance, empathy, collaboration, and cross-cultural awareness. Transform the system. The Occupy the Future movement refuses to accept the possibility of Edugeddon—the meltdown in our educational system that results from schools unwilling to change and adapt to the global age. We demand that every school in America teach 21st century skills, offer students challenging projects and engaging curriculum, and rewrite the curriculum and requirements to reflect the transformed nature of global life. Fund education—before anything else.  While the Occupy the Future movement acknowledges the competing demands of society for funding important initiatives, it is now time to recognize one cause above all others: The preparation of our youth for life in the most challenging and uncertain century in human history. While we do not claim every answer to the problems of the future, nor can we foresee the many opportunities ahead, we know that young people must be offered the best possible education that we can design. As adults, it is our responsibility to pay for that system of education. We demand a new set of priorities in our country.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com.       Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:56:18 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Occupy-the-Future/blog/5446431/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-11-07T17:56:18Z ASCD EDge A couple of weeks ago, the noted philosopher and veteran social critic, Noam Chomsky, spoke to the youth of the Occupy Boston camp and advised them to occupy the world. In the same week, David Brooks of the New York Times reminded readers that the 99% can be defined in terms other than wealth. He suggested that most important 99% is the portion of American youth who receive an education vastly inferior to the needs of the 21st century. Finally, there have been numerous articles criticizing the Occupy movement for failing to articulate a list of demands.   It appears to me it might be time for educators to step in and fill the gaps. I suggest that our industry formulate a set of non-negotiable demands that would, if implemented, address the issues raised by the Occupy protestors and critics alike. In fact, were these demands met, the future of the world would look quite different from the future now before us. So let education do its part with an Occupy the Future movement.   The demands must be simply stated, above politics, and speak to the deepest convictions of teachers. They must rise above the current debate over teacher salaries and evaluations, per pupil expenditures, charter schools, or similar operational questions. They must be system-busting, change-oriented, paradigm–shifting demands that really will alter the direction of the planet.   By choice, the Occupy movement has no leaders. This is appropriate to the Age, in which change begins at the bottom of the power structure and flows through horizontal social networks. The Occupy the Future movement can do the same. Instead of relying on representatives from the Department of Education, state legislatures, District Offices, or the vast number of special interest organizations that inhabit the education space, let’s take our cue from what the overwhelming number of teachers in this country (and most other countries) know is right about educating children. Let’s speak with a collective voice.   As part of the collective, here is a five-point list of demands I would suggest for the Occupy the Future movement:   Insist on a whole child education for the whole nation. This is the most important demand. It is time to restore hope, joy, and creativity to education. It is time to raise emotionally capable young people. It is time to tap the depths of human capacity and release into this world the most insightful, innovative, ethical, and caring beings that we know how to raise, support, and educate. Our future depends on this choice. Refuse to support mandates that dumb children down. The fixation on testing, the obsession with math and reading, and the overreliance on Advanced Placement courses and grade point averages all represent, in their own way, a narrowing of educational purpose. These measures don’t result in smarter children; in fact, they encourage the use of only part of the brain. The future requires fully educated humans. Teach young people to cooperate, not compete. The power structure now regards education as an instrumental tool for national dominance and competing the in the global economy. The Occupy the Future movement sees it differently: Prosperity and peace in the global age will result from a cooperative endeavor among the young people of many countries, as they search collectively for solutions to climate change, population issues, economic dislocation, and political representation. Our demand is that our children be taught the global skills of tolerance, empathy, collaboration, and cross-cultural awareness. Transform the system. The Occupy the Future movement refuses to accept the possibility of Edugeddon—the meltdown in our educational system that results from schools unwilling to change and adapt to the global age. We demand that every school in America teach 21st century skills, offer students challenging projects and engaging curriculum, and rewrite the curriculum and requirements to reflect the transformed nature of global life. Fund education—before anything else.  While the Occupy the Future movement acknowledges the competing demands of society for funding important initiatives, it is now time to recognize one cause above all others: The preparation of our youth for life in the most challenging and uncertain century in human history. While we do not claim every answer to the problems of the future, nor can we foresee the many opportunities ahead, we know that young people must be offered the best possible education that we can design. As adults, it is our responsibility to pay for that system of education. We demand a new set of priorities in our country.   Thom Markham, Ph.D., is a psychologist and school redesign consultant who assists teachers in designing high quality, rigorous projects that incorporate 21st century skills and the principles of youth development. He may be reached through his website at www.thommarkham.com.       educational change, future of education, occupy nonadult false Occupy the Future text blog educational change,future of education,occupy 1876 1 1.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 5 0 5446431 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-the-Whole-Child-needs-a-coach/blog/5299556/127586.html Coaching is popular these days, as evidenced by a recent article in The New Yorker (Oct 3, 2011), describing how a neurosurgeon decides to extend coaching into the operating room and improve his skills in unhooking a damaged thyroid from the grasp of surrounding tissue. Athletes also get coached, in just about everything. So do executives and those needing better life skills. And teachers increasingly receive coaching on structuring lessons and pacing their instruction.   Coaches are employed to help people become more skillful, versatile, and capable. This sounds similar to what teachers also do, but with one critical difference: Teachers convey information, while coaches equip people to guide themselves. Coaches may act as teachers on occasion, but they know that skills come out of a catalytic process, not direct instruction. They also know that knowledge alone doesn’t make you competent; thoughts, intentions, emotions, and perspective matter more.   The difference between a coach and a teacher is no small matter, especially if you envision the future of education. We’re still moving in fits and starts as the question of standards, deeper thinking, and a more skill-based curriculum plays out. But the target is pretty clear: We’re headed toward a kind of education in which skills, personal strengths, and the qualities associated self-guided inquiry are prominent features. New norms for creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking are in ascendance. Nearly everyone recognizes the essential value of teaching young people perseverance, resiliency, and empathy in a diverse, fast paced global world.   This is why we hear much more about the Whole Child. If the industrial paradigm still held, we wouldn’t be shifting our emphasis in the classroom (though it might be a humane step.) But the new world leaves us no choice. We either develop people to handle themselves or we’re in trouble.   Which brings me to the question: Will the whole child need a coach, too? It’s one thing to describe an outcome (‘a skillful, empathetic, creative, persistent, curious lifelong learner”) but quite a different, and more difficult, task, to figure out how a young person learns these qualities. But the best answer we have at present is: They need a coach.   What do coaches do exactly? The coaching profession is well developed, mostly around the core skills of relating, facilitating, assessing, and conversing. For example, here’s a list of five key coaching strategies from Leader as Coach, by David Peterson and Mary Hicks:   Forge a partnership. Build trust and understanding so people want to work with you. Inspire commitment. Build motivation so people focus on goals that matter. Grow skills. Build competencies so people know how to do what’s required. Promote persistence. Build stamina and discipline so learning lasts. Shape the environment. Build in supports to reward learning and remove barriers to learning.   Again, this list doesn’t sound so different from good teaching. But any one of these strategies begins with the person—not the test, not the curriculum. In fact, the foundation of successful coaching is respect for individual choice and the rock solid belief that every person is entitled to that choice. Coaching begins with dignity and worth, not a list of prescribed objectives and automatic sanctions.   There are other models of coaching, by the way. The primary alternative has been called the ‘amoeba’ theory. To change behavior, you can either poke the organism so it moves away from you, or you put out some sugar and entice the organism in your direction. This is the behaviorist model, the core tool of the industrial classroom.   The problem with the amoeba model is that it emphasizes rewards over self motivation, eliminates self-correction, habituates actions only when there is a stimulus, and crushes long term ambition in favor of immediate cessation of pain or immediate acquisition of the reward. Not a good Whole Child strategy.   I believe eventually we will have to redefine the teacher as coach—and train the teacher/coach in the strategies I listed above, plus a host of discrete skills necessary for coaching to be effective. Building trust and understanding, for example, requires excellent listening, non-judgmental intervention, ability to resolve breakdowns, and a keen sense for analyzing what isn’t working.   These aren’t easy skills (ask your spouse) but training and self-reflection help. As education moves forward with the Whole Child in mind, it’s seems clear that teachers will eventually need less instructional coaching and more coaching on their skills, attitudes, and—quite possibly—their own inner child. Coaching is popular these days, as evidenced by a recent article in The New Yorker (Oct 3, 2011), describing how a neurosurgeon decides to extend coaching into the operating room and improve his skills in unhooking a damaged thyroid from the grasp of surrounding tissue. Athletes also get coached, in just about everything. So do executives and those needing better life skills. And teachers increasingly receive coaching on structuring lessons and pacing their instruction.   Coaches are employed to help people become more skillful, versatile, and capable. This sounds similar to what teachers also do, but with one critical difference: Teachers convey information, while coaches equip people to guide themselves. Coaches may act as teachers on occasion, but they know that skills come out of a catalytic process, not direct instruction. They also know that knowledge alone doesn’t make you competent; thoughts, intentions, emotions, and perspective matter more.   The difference between a coach and a teacher is no small matter, especially if you envision the future of education. We’re still moving in fits and starts as the question of standards, deeper thinking, and a more skill-based curriculum plays out. But the target is pretty clear: We’re headed toward a kind of education in which skills, personal strengths, and the qualities associated self-guided inquiry are prominent features. New norms for creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking are in ascendance. Nearly everyone recognizes the essential value of teaching young people perseverance, resiliency, and empathy in a diverse, fast paced global world.   This is why we hear much more about the Whole Child. If the industrial paradigm still held, we wouldn’t be shifting our emphasis in the classroom (though it might be a humane step.) But the new world leaves us no choice. We either develop people to handle themselves or we’re in trouble.   Which brings me to the question: Will the whole child need a coach, too? It’s one thing to describe an outcome (‘a skillful, empathetic, creative, persistent, curious lifelong learner”) but quite a different, and more difficult, task, to figure out how a young person learns these qualities. But the best answer we have at present is: They need a coach.   What do coaches do exactly? The coaching profession is well developed, mostly around the core skills of relating, facilitating, assessing, and conversing. For example, here’s a list of five key coaching strategies from Leader as Coach, by David Peterson and Mary Hicks:   Forge a partnership. Build trust and understanding so people want to work with you. Inspire commitment. Build motivation so people focus on goals that matter. Grow skills. Build competencies so people know how to do what’s required. Promote persistence. Build stamina and discipline so learning lasts. Shape the environment. Build in supports to reward learning and remove barriers to learning.   Again, this list doesn’t sound so different from good teaching. But any one of these strategies begins with the person—not the test, not the curriculum. In fact, the foundation of successful coaching is respect for individual choice and the rock solid belief that every person is entitled to that choice. Coaching begins with dignity and worth, not a list of prescribed objectives and automatic sanctions.   There are other models of coaching, by the way. The primary alternative has been called the ‘amoeba’ theory. To change behavior, you can either poke the organism so it moves away from you, or you put out some sugar and entice the organism in your direction. This is the behaviorist model, the core tool of the industrial classroom.   The problem with the amoeba model is that it emphasizes rewards over self motivation, eliminates self-correction, habituates actions only when there is a stimulus, and crushes long term ambition in favor of immediate cessation of pain or immediate acquisition of the reward. Not a good Whole Child strategy.   I believe eventually we will have to redefine the teacher as coach—and train the teacher/coach in the strategies I listed above, plus a host of discrete skills necessary for coaching to be effective. Building trust and understanding, for example, requires excellent listening, non-judgmental intervention, ability to resolve breakdowns, and a keen sense for analyzing what isn’t working.   These aren’t easy skills (ask your spouse) but training and self-reflection help. As education moves forward with the Whole Child in mind, it’s seems clear that teachers will eventually need less instructional coaching and more coaching on their skills, attitudes, and—quite possibly—their own inner child. Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:07:12 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Why-the-Whole-Child-needs-a-coach/blog/5299556/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-10-14T20:07:12Z ASCD EDge Coaching is popular these days, as evidenced by a recent article in The New Yorker (Oct 3, 2011), describing how a neurosurgeon decides to extend coaching into the operating room and improve his skills in unhooking a damaged thyroid from the grasp of surrounding tissue. Athletes also get coached, in just about everything. So do executives and those needing better life skills. And teachers increasingly receive coaching on structuring lessons and pacing their instruction.   Coaches are employed to help people become more skillful, versatile, and capable. This sounds similar to what teachers also do, but with one critical difference: Teachers convey information, while coaches equip people to guide themselves. Coaches may act as teachers on occasion, but they know that skills come out of a catalytic process, not direct instruction. They also know that knowledge alone doesn’t make you competent; thoughts, intentions, emotions, and perspective matter more.   The difference between a coach and a teacher is no small matter, especially if you envision the future of education. We’re still moving in fits and starts as the question of standards, deeper thinking, and a more skill-based curriculum plays out. But the target is pretty clear: We’re headed toward a kind of education in which skills, personal strengths, and the qualities associated self-guided inquiry are prominent features. New norms for creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking are in ascendance. Nearly everyone recognizes the essential value of teaching young people perseverance, resiliency, and empathy in a diverse, fast paced global world.   This is why we hear much more about the Whole Child. If the industrial paradigm still held, we wouldn’t be shifting our emphasis in the classroom (though it might be a humane step.) But the new world leaves us no choice. We either develop people to handle themselves or we’re in trouble.   Which brings me to the question: Will the whole child need a coach, too? It’s one thing to describe an outcome (‘a skillful, empathetic, creative, persistent, curious lifelong learner”) but quite a different, and more difficult, task, to figure out how a young person learns these qualities. But the best answer we have at present is: They need a coach.   What do coaches do exactly? The coaching profession is well developed, mostly around the core skills of relating, facilitating, assessing, and conversing. For example, here’s a list of five key coaching strategies from Leader as Coach, by David Peterson and Mary Hicks:   Forge a partnership. Build trust and understanding so people want to work with you. Inspire commitment. Build motivation so people focus on goals that matter. Grow skills. Build competencies so people know how to do what’s required. Promote persistence. Build stamina and discipline so learning lasts. Shape the environment. Build in supports to reward learning and remove barriers to learning.   Again, this list doesn’t sound so different from good teaching. But any one of these strategies begins with the person—not the test, not the curriculum. In fact, the foundation of successful coaching is respect for individual choice and the rock solid belief that every person is entitled to that choice. Coaching begins with dignity and worth, not a list of prescribed objectives and automatic sanctions.   There are other models of coaching, by the way. The primary alternative has been called the ‘amoeba’ theory. To change behavior, you can either poke the organism so it moves away from you, or you put out some sugar and entice the organism in your direction. This is the behaviorist model, the core tool of the industrial classroom.   The problem with the amoeba model is that it emphasizes rewards over self motivation, eliminates self-correction, habituates actions only when there is a stimulus, and crushes long term ambition in favor of immediate cessation of pain or immediate acquisition of the reward. Not a good Whole Child strategy.   I believe eventually we will have to redefine the teacher as coach—and train the teacher/coach in the strategies I listed above, plus a host of discrete skills necessary for coaching to be effective. Building trust and understanding, for example, requires excellent listening, non-judgmental intervention, ability to resolve breakdowns, and a keen sense for analyzing what isn’t working.   These aren’t easy skills (ask your spouse) but training and self-reflection help. As education moves forward with the Whole Child in mind, it’s seems clear that teachers will eventually need less instructional coaching and more coaching on their skills, attitudes, and—quite possibly—their own inner child. nonadult false Why the Whole Child needs a coach text blog 1141 11 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 2 0 5299556 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Can-we-really-teach-creativity/blog/3577828/127586.html   Can we really teach creativity? That’s a challenging question for educators under increasing pressure from society to produce a new generation of problem solvers and innovators.   Why is it a challenge? Because teaching creativity—or even its close cousin, critical thinking—is not remotely similar to teaching the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of World War I. The skills of innovation and creativity can be lumped into a mysterious set of processes used by human beings to make sense of their world, enter a dark tunnel of confusion, and reemerge with a solution in hand. How this occurs, no one knows. How we teach the process, we’re not quite sure. Assessing the journey though this dark tunnel or evaluating the end product are even more difficult. Think of judging a piece of modern art. It’s that subjective.   This is where the rub begins for educators. Teaching creativity requires that we ‘go deep’ with children rather than providing them with more information. And, given that human performance is not directly teachable, it means setting the conditions under which creativity flourishes. It also means, as in the case of the modern art example, that we may not know creativity until we see it. None of these methods fits well with a data-driven, standards-based accountability system. In fact, the evolution in the mission of schools places the current system at direct odds with the future. Teaching people instead of stuff requires educators to draw upon the fields of psychology and human performance, which consider the industrial structure and mindset as barriers to peak performance and creativity. But the good news is that thoughtful educators can apply important lessons from the human performance field to the classroom, including the following:   Speak the language of creativity. A teacher’s attitude can spur creativity or squelch it. Research confirms that IQ is malleable, and that performance is affected by self-fulfilling belief systems. Students who move from a ‘fixed mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset’ will believe in themselves, and in their creative potential. Yet in every school I visit, I hear teachers talking about who is ‘smart’ or ‘gifted’ or a ‘slow’ learner. Aside from the placebo effect this conversation induces, it violates what we know about the brain: The brain is a plastic organ capable of change over a lifetime—and is particularly shifting between ages 5 and 18. Sorting students by assuming who has potential and who doesn’t kills the creative urge, not to mention the damage it does to Algebra I scores (“I can’t do math—I didn’t get the math gene.”)   Emphasize questions and inquiry. Charles Leadbeater, the British futurist and educational innovator, has good insights into creativity. In Learning from the Extremes, a recent report for Cisco Systems, he recommends that schools start, “learning from challenges that people face rather than from a formal curriculum.” Teachers can either ‘cover’ standards, or turn them into concepts and problems to be solved. Inquiry works towards supporting the kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking we need for the future.   Project Based Learning.  Let’s put in a plug for PBL. The best way I know to start with questions in a classroom is to do inventive activities that pose a challenge, or extended projects that begin with a rich, authentic, and interesting question. The primary reason that PBL has exploded is that teachers recognize that students need to creatively address important questions. If you want a tested method for doing this, use PBL. It works.   Use breakthrough assessments. I recommend rubrics with a ‘breakthrough’ category—a blank column that invites students to deliver a product that cannot be anticipated or easily defined in words. It’s not the ‘A’ category—that’s Mastery or Commended or a similar high-ranking indicator. The breakthrough column goes beyond the A, rewarding innovation, creativity, and something new outside the formal curriculum. It’s a ‘show me’ category. Students like it, and so do teachers. It particularly appeals to high-end students who feel current offerings are drab, or to the middling student who will not work just for a grade, but who seeks the psychic reward of creating something cool. For samples of these rubrics, please go to www.thommarkham.com and click on ‘PBL Resources.’   Teach to the iceberg. It’s last on the list, but first in importance. An unfortunate legacy of the cognitive model that dominates education is the belief that everything important in life takes place from the neck up. But creativity originates in the deeper self and is not immediately accessible or public. In workshops, I share the iceberg model of skills developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which shows skills as the tip of the iceberg—the demonstrable, visible part. Below the tip of the iceberg is 90% of the human being. Teaching creativity requires shifting our attention to the process of inner discovery, allowing students time to reflect, discuss, and brainstorm, as well as using proven methods for getting the creative juices flowing, such as mindfulness, meditation, silence, or structured interactive exercises.   Can we really teach creativity? That’s a challenging question for educators under increasing pressure from society to produce a new generation of problem solvers and innovators.   Why is it a challenge? Because teaching creativity—or even its close cousin, critical thinking—is not remotely similar to teaching the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of World War I. The skills of innovation and creativity can be lumped into a mysterious set of processes used by human beings to make sense of their world, enter a dark tunnel of confusion, and reemerge with a solution in hand. How this occurs, no one knows. How we teach the process, we’re not quite sure. Assessing the journey though this dark tunnel or evaluating the end product are even more difficult. Think of judging a piece of modern art. It’s that subjective.   This is where the rub begins for educators. Teaching creativity requires that we ‘go deep’ with children rather than providing them with more information. And, given that human performance is not directly teachable, it means setting the conditions under which creativity flourishes. It also means, as in the case of the modern art example, that we may not know creativity until we see it. None of these methods fits well with a data-driven, standards-based accountability system. In fact, the evolution in the mission of schools places the current system at direct odds with the future. Teaching people instead of stuff requires educators to draw upon the fields of psychology and human performance, which consider the industrial structure and mindset as barriers to peak performance and creativity. But the good news is that thoughtful educators can apply important lessons from the human performance field to the classroom, including the following:   Speak the language of creativity. A teacher’s attitude can spur creativity or squelch it. Research confirms that IQ is malleable, and that performance is affected by self-fulfilling belief systems. Students who move from a ‘fixed mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset’ will believe in themselves, and in their creative potential. Yet in every school I visit, I hear teachers talking about who is ‘smart’ or ‘gifted’ or a ‘slow’ learner. Aside from the placebo effect this conversation induces, it violates what we know about the brain: The brain is a plastic organ capable of change over a lifetime—and is particularly shifting between ages 5 and 18. Sorting students by assuming who has potential and who doesn’t kills the creative urge, not to mention the damage it does to Algebra I scores (“I can’t do math—I didn’t get the math gene.”)   Emphasize questions and inquiry. Charles Leadbeater, the British futurist and educational innovator, has good insights into creativity. In Learning from the Extremes, a recent report for Cisco Systems, he recommends that schools start, “learning from challenges that people face rather than from a formal curriculum.” Teachers can either ‘cover’ standards, or turn them into concepts and problems to be solved. Inquiry works towards supporting the kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking we need for the future.   Project Based Learning.  Let’s put in a plug for PBL. The best way I know to start with questions in a classroom is to do inventive activities that pose a challenge, or extended projects that begin with a rich, authentic, and interesting question. The primary reason that PBL has exploded is that teachers recognize that students need to creatively address important questions. If you want a tested method for doing this, use PBL. It works.   Use breakthrough assessments. I recommend rubrics with a ‘breakthrough’ category—a blank column that invites students to deliver a product that cannot be anticipated or easily defined in words. It’s not the ‘A’ category—that’s Mastery or Commended or a similar high-ranking indicator. The breakthrough column goes beyond the A, rewarding innovation, creativity, and something new outside the formal curriculum. It’s a ‘show me’ category. Students like it, and so do teachers. It particularly appeals to high-end students who feel current offerings are drab, or to the middling student who will not work just for a grade, but who seeks the psychic reward of creating something cool. For samples of these rubrics, please go to www.thommarkham.com and click on ‘PBL Resources.’   Teach to the iceberg. It’s last on the list, but first in importance. An unfortunate legacy of the cognitive model that dominates education is the belief that everything important in life takes place from the neck up. But creativity originates in the deeper self and is not immediately accessible or public. In workshops, I share the iceberg model of skills developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which shows skills as the tip of the iceberg—the demonstrable, visible part. Below the tip of the iceberg is 90% of the human being. Teaching creativity requires shifting our attention to the process of inner discovery, allowing students time to reflect, discuss, and brainstorm, as well as using proven methods for getting the creative juices flowing, such as mindfulness, meditation, silence, or structured interactive exercises. Fri, 06 May 2011 22:33:14 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Can-we-really-teach-creativity/blog/3577828/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-05-06T22:33:14Z ASCD EDge   Can we really teach creativity? That’s a challenging question for educators under increasing pressure from society to produce a new generation of problem solvers and innovators.   Why is it a challenge? Because teaching creativity—or even its close cousin, critical thinking—is not remotely similar to teaching the photosynthesis cycle or the causes of World War I. The skills of innovation and creativity can be lumped into a mysterious set of processes used by human beings to make sense of their world, enter a dark tunnel of confusion, and reemerge with a solution in hand. How this occurs, no one knows. How we teach the process, we’re not quite sure. Assessing the journey though this dark tunnel or evaluating the end product are even more difficult. Think of judging a piece of modern art. It’s that subjective.   This is where the rub begins for educators. Teaching creativity requires that we ‘go deep’ with children rather than providing them with more information. And, given that human performance is not directly teachable, it means setting the conditions under which creativity flourishes. It also means, as in the case of the modern art example, that we may not know creativity until we see it. None of these methods fits well with a data-driven, standards-based accountability system. In fact, the evolution in the mission of schools places the current system at direct odds with the future. Teaching people instead of stuff requires educators to draw upon the fields of psychology and human performance, which consider the industrial structure and mindset as barriers to peak performance and creativity. But the good news is that thoughtful educators can apply important lessons from the human performance field to the classroom, including the following:   Speak the language of creativity. A teacher’s attitude can spur creativity or squelch it. Research confirms that IQ is malleable, and that performance is affected by self-fulfilling belief systems. Students who move from a ‘fixed mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset’ will believe in themselves, and in their creative potential. Yet in every school I visit, I hear teachers talking about who is ‘smart’ or ‘gifted’ or a ‘slow’ learner. Aside from the placebo effect this conversation induces, it violates what we know about the brain: The brain is a plastic organ capable of change over a lifetime—and is particularly shifting between ages 5 and 18. Sorting students by assuming who has potential and who doesn’t kills the creative urge, not to mention the damage it does to Algebra I scores (“I can’t do math—I didn’t get the math gene.”)   Emphasize questions and inquiry. Charles Leadbeater, the British futurist and educational innovator, has good insights into creativity. In Learning from the Extremes, a recent report for Cisco Systems, he recommends that schools start, “learning from challenges that people face rather than from a formal curriculum.” Teachers can either ‘cover’ standards, or turn them into concepts and problems to be solved. Inquiry works towards supporting the kind of ‘out of the box’ thinking we need for the future.   Project Based Learning.  Let’s put in a plug for PBL. The best way I know to start with questions in a classroom is to do inventive activities that pose a challenge, or extended projects that begin with a rich, authentic, and interesting question. The primary reason that PBL has exploded is that teachers recognize that students need to creatively address important questions. If you want a tested method for doing this, use PBL. It works.   Use breakthrough assessments. I recommend rubrics with a ‘breakthrough’ category—a blank column that invites students to deliver a product that cannot be anticipated or easily defined in words. It’s not the ‘A’ category—that’s Mastery or Commended or a similar high-ranking indicator. The breakthrough column goes beyond the A, rewarding innovation, creativity, and something new outside the formal curriculum. It’s a ‘show me’ category. Students like it, and so do teachers. It particularly appeals to high-end students who feel current offerings are drab, or to the middling student who will not work just for a grade, but who seeks the psychic reward of creating something cool. For samples of these rubrics, please go to www.thommarkham.com and click on ‘PBL Resources.’   Teach to the iceberg. It’s last on the list, but first in importance. An unfortunate legacy of the cognitive model that dominates education is the belief that everything important in life takes place from the neck up. But creativity originates in the deeper self and is not immediately accessible or public. In workshops, I share the iceberg model of skills developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which shows skills as the tip of the iceberg—the demonstrable, visible part. Below the tip of the iceberg is 90% of the human being. Teaching creativity requires shifting our attention to the process of inner discovery, allowing students time to reflect, discuss, and brainstorm, as well as using proven methods for getting the creative juices flowing, such as mindfulness, meditation, silence, or structured interactive exercises. nonadult false Can we really teach creativity? text blog 5324 11 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 4 1 3577828 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_Heart-Brain-and-Intelligence/blog/3455546/127586.html In previous posts, I’ve argued that the standard ‘scientific’ approach of measuring intelligence through IQ tests feeds the notion that performance is a fixed commodity, drives the present testing mania, and leads to a narrowed curriculum that shortchanges kids and stifles creativity. The recent resurrection of the whole child approach to education is a response to these concerns. Intuitively, we know that integrating both academic and human development into schools helps students act more ‘intelligently.’ We can see also that children, growing up in the throes of searing change and fragmented values, need stronger emotional support systems if they are to have the opportunity to demonstrate their cognitive abilities. This is the province of the heart. In the past, the heart has been regarded as a kind of poetic metaphor used to express our care for others. But there is now scientific evidence that shows the heart to be an active organ that partners with the brain to determine our overall intelligence. Consider these facts discovered in the last 15 years: The heart has a heart-brain made up of thousands of neurons that process information just like the brain does. Eighty percent of nerve traffic between the heart and brain goes upward from the heart to the brain. The heart regulates the autonomic nervous system, particularly the parasympathetic system, which is designed to relax the body and prepare it for optimum performance. Positive emotions activate this heart-led network, with widespread beneficial impacts on the entire system of brain and body. These facts tell us that the heart is a central tool for learning. It transforms emotions, positive or negative, into physiological processes that regulate stress and directly affect cognition and performance. This transformation occurs in two ways. First, as anxiety decreases, the brain responds by moving its operations from the hind brain—the fight or flight center—forward to the frontal lobes—the center for attention, focus, critical thinking, and planning. Second, as the nervous system becomes optimally balanced, or ‘coherent,’ the body and brain enter the ‘zone,’ the place of peak performance. Technologies and methods are now in place to activate the power of the heart. A simple set of strategies helps students to generate a positive emotion and, using their mind’s eye, move it into the region of the heart. Accompanied by breathing exercises, this focus shifts their heart rhythms and activates the parasympathetic response, along with other positive hormonal responses. (Another new fact—the heart is now classified as an endocrine gland.) The result is less stress, greater clarity, improved concentration, and a feeling of well-being. This exercise takes some practice, as you might expect, but a few 20-minute sessions a week show results such as decreased feelings of anxiety, more positive interactions with peers, and improved communication. We’ve all heard results like this before, but a new finding is that the heart also contributes to higher test scores. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education completed a million-dollar study of the heart and learning, and its findings support this claim. The TestEdge National Demonstration Study (TENDS), conducted by researchers at the Institute of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org/) in collaboration with Claremont Graduate University, focused on whether heart-based technologies improve emotional self-regulation and psychophysiological coherence (meaning that the body and brain work in harmony), and whether these changes enhance academic performance, stress management, emotional stability, relationships, and overall well-being. The answer to these questions is: absolutely yes. The first part of the study, carried out with 980 tenth graders in California, using control and experimental groups, showed significant reductions in test anxiety and related emotional indicators, along with 10- to 25-point increases in California standardized test scores. The second part of the study, conducted in eight states, provided compelling evidence for a causal link between physiological changes and the cognitive functions associated with learning and performance. These findings offer clues to the future of education. Using heart-based technologies, we can readily teach students to improve their collaboration, communication, and creativity skills, while also honing their ability to concentrate, remember, and find solutions to problems. In fact, we now know how to stimulate the flow state made famous by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which leads to optimal performance and maximum intelligence. In other words, we know how to help young people behave intelligently, which is emerging as the definition of intelligence itself, and we have verified that the capacity to learn and excel is a whole body, whole mind exercise. It’s time to act upon that information and help children use their hearts as well as their brains in school.     In previous posts, I’ve argued that the standard ‘scientific’ approach of measuring intelligence through IQ tests feeds the notion that performance is a fixed commodity, drives the present testing mania, and leads to a narrowed curriculum that shortchanges kids and stifles creativity. The recent resurrection of the whole child approach to education is a response to these concerns. Intuitively, we know that integrating both academic and human development into schools helps students act more ‘intelligently.’ We can see also that children, growing up in the throes of searing change and fragmented values, need stronger emotional support systems if they are to have the opportunity to demonstrate their cognitive abilities. This is the province of the heart. In the past, the heart has been regarded as a kind of poetic metaphor used to express our care for others. But there is now scientific evidence that shows the heart to be an active organ that partners with the brain to determine our overall intelligence. Consider these facts discovered in the last 15 years: The heart has a heart-brain made up of thousands of neurons that process information just like the brain does. Eighty percent of nerve traffic between the heart and brain goes upward from the heart to the brain. The heart regulates the autonomic nervous system, particularly the parasympathetic system, which is designed to relax the body and prepare it for optimum performance. Positive emotions activate this heart-led network, with widespread beneficial impacts on the entire system of brain and body. These facts tell us that the heart is a central tool for learning. It transforms emotions, positive or negative, into physiological processes that regulate stress and directly affect cognition and performance. This transformation occurs in two ways. First, as anxiety decreases, the brain responds by moving its operations from the hind brain—the fight or flight center—forward to the frontal lobes—the center for attention, focus, critical thinking, and planning. Second, as the nervous system becomes optimally balanced, or ‘coherent,’ the body and brain enter the ‘zone,’ the place of peak performance. Technologies and methods are now in place to activate the power of the heart. A simple set of strategies helps students to generate a positive emotion and, using their mind’s eye, move it into the region of the heart. Accompanied by breathing exercises, this focus shifts their heart rhythms and activates the parasympathetic response, along with other positive hormonal responses. (Another new fact—the heart is now classified as an endocrine gland.) The result is less stress, greater clarity, improved concentration, and a feeling of well-being. This exercise takes some practice, as you might expect, but a few 20-minute sessions a week show results such as decreased feelings of anxiety, more positive interactions with peers, and improved communication. We’ve all heard results like this before, but a new finding is that the heart also contributes to higher test scores. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education completed a million-dollar study of the heart and learning, and its findings support this claim. The TestEdge National Demonstration Study (TENDS), conducted by researchers at the Institute of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org/) in collaboration with Claremont Graduate University, focused on whether heart-based technologies improve emotional self-regulation and psychophysiological coherence (meaning that the body and brain work in harmony), and whether these changes enhance academic performance, stress management, emotional stability, relationships, and overall well-being. The answer to these questions is: absolutely yes. The first part of the study, carried out with 980 tenth graders in California, using control and experimental groups, showed significant reductions in test anxiety and related emotional indicators, along with 10- to 25-point increases in California standardized test scores. The second part of the study, conducted in eight states, provided compelling evidence for a causal link between physiological changes and the cognitive functions associated with learning and performance. These findings offer clues to the future of education. Using heart-based technologies, we can readily teach students to improve their collaboration, communication, and creativity skills, while also honing their ability to concentrate, remember, and find solutions to problems. In fact, we now know how to stimulate the flow state made famous by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which leads to optimal performance and maximum intelligence. In other words, we know how to help young people behave intelligently, which is emerging as the definition of intelligence itself, and we have verified that the capacity to learn and excel is a whole body, whole mind exercise. It’s time to act upon that information and help children use their hearts as well as their brains in school.     Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:19:55 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_Heart-Brain-and-Intelligence/blog/3455546/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-04-12T17:19:55Z ASCD EDge In previous posts, I’ve argued that the standard ‘scientific’ approach of measuring intelligence through IQ tests feeds the notion that performance is a fixed commodity, drives the present testing mania, and leads to a narrowed curriculum that shortchanges kids and stifles creativity. The recent resurrection of the whole child approach to education is a response to these concerns. Intuitively, we know that integrating both academic and human development into schools helps students act more ‘intelligently.’ We can see also that children, growing up in the throes of searing change and fragmented values, need stronger emotional support systems if they are to have the opportunity to demonstrate their cognitive abilities. This is the province of the heart. In the past, the heart has been regarded as a kind of poetic metaphor used to express our care for others. But there is now scientific evidence that shows the heart to be an active organ that partners with the brain to determine our overall intelligence. Consider these facts discovered in the last 15 years: The heart has a heart-brain made up of thousands of neurons that process information just like the brain does. Eighty percent of nerve traffic between the heart and brain goes upward from the heart to the brain. The heart regulates the autonomic nervous system, particularly the parasympathetic system, which is designed to relax the body and prepare it for optimum performance. Positive emotions activate this heart-led network, with widespread beneficial impacts on the entire system of brain and body. These facts tell us that the heart is a central tool for learning. It transforms emotions, positive or negative, into physiological processes that regulate stress and directly affect cognition and performance. This transformation occurs in two ways. First, as anxiety decreases, the brain responds by moving its operations from the hind brain—the fight or flight center—forward to the frontal lobes—the center for attention, focus, critical thinking, and planning. Second, as the nervous system becomes optimally balanced, or ‘coherent,’ the body and brain enter the ‘zone,’ the place of peak performance. Technologies and methods are now in place to activate the power of the heart. A simple set of strategies helps students to generate a positive emotion and, using their mind’s eye, move it into the region of the heart. Accompanied by breathing exercises, this focus shifts their heart rhythms and activates the parasympathetic response, along with other positive hormonal responses. (Another new fact—the heart is now classified as an endocrine gland.) The result is less stress, greater clarity, improved concentration, and a feeling of well-being. This exercise takes some practice, as you might expect, but a few 20-minute sessions a week show results such as decreased feelings of anxiety, more positive interactions with peers, and improved communication. We’ve all heard results like this before, but a new finding is that the heart also contributes to higher test scores. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education completed a million-dollar study of the heart and learning, and its findings support this claim. The TestEdge National Demonstration Study (TENDS), conducted by researchers at the Institute of HeartMath (http://www.heartmath.org/) in collaboration with Claremont Graduate University, focused on whether heart-based technologies improve emotional self-regulation and psychophysiological coherence (meaning that the body and brain work in harmony), and whether these changes enhance academic performance, stress management, emotional stability, relationships, and overall well-being. The answer to these questions is: absolutely yes. The first part of the study, carried out with 980 tenth graders in California, using control and experimental groups, showed significant reductions in test anxiety and related emotional indicators, along with 10- to 25-point increases in California standardized test scores. The second part of the study, conducted in eight states, provided compelling evidence for a causal link between physiological changes and the cognitive functions associated with learning and performance. These findings offer clues to the future of education. Using heart-based technologies, we can readily teach students to improve their collaboration, communication, and creativity skills, while also honing their ability to concentrate, remember, and find solutions to problems. In fact, we now know how to stimulate the flow state made famous by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which leads to optimal performance and maximum intelligence. In other words, we know how to help young people behave intelligently, which is emerging as the definition of intelligence itself, and we have verified that the capacity to learn and excel is a whole body, whole mind exercise. It’s time to act upon that information and help children use their hearts as well as their brains in school.     nonadult false Heart, Brain, and Intelligence text blog 1010 11 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 0 0 3455546 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250 http://edge.ascd.org/_The-Myth-of-IQ/blog/3426855/127586.html On a recent plane trip, I sat next to a hip young man, about 20 years old with an earring and an iPod, who was doing something that many young people don’t. He was reading a serious book on politics and history. Ever on the lookout for success stories, I struck up a conversation about his education. Turns out, his account of how he educated himself caused me to wonder, again: Do schools help students master intelligent behaviors that lead to success in life? Or not? Here’s the thumbnail: After spending two years at a community college, the young man had just won a prestigious, full-ride Regents scholarship to the University of California at Irvine. Attending a two-year college out of high school had been his choice, he told me. Each of his three older siblings had graduated with 4.3 grade point averages from his highly regarded suburban high school—and he noticed that they all ended up hating high school. Too focused on grades, they felt stressed and time pressured. And, in an ironic twist, his sister was not accepted by the college of her choice because she hadn’t participated in extracurricular activities. He also told me that earning a 4.3 G.P.A. wasn’t a motivating challenge for him. “It’s easy enough to get good grades in high school,” he shrugged. “You just study all the time and don’t do anything else.” His decision from 9th grade on? Focus on subjects that were meaningful to him; use the time saved for life-enhancing electives; become skillful rather than grub for grades. As a result, he turned his success in high school drama into a communications major at the community college, which he chose because of a strong connection to a supportive mentor there. Two years of stellar performance on the college debate team earned him the scholarship—a successful outcome by any measure.   He also proved in important point: Intelligent behavior is more important than an IQ score. In other blogs, I’ve noted that intelligence is generally regarded as an innate, crystallized ability that is determined at birth and never changes. This outdated, ‘cognitive capsule’ view of intelligence has spawned the current educational focus on fixed capacity and retention of information, as measured through high-stakes testing. This view of intelligence also leads to student stratification. On a recent trip to Texas, I learned that the schools there use standardized measures to identify ‘gifted’ children at the age of five, setting in motion 12 years of special attention, while other students remain categorized as ‘low’ or ‘middle’ achievers by the school system. It’s important to know that the ‘fixed’ view is outdated and not supported by research. Between 1947 and 2001, U.S. students added a mysterious 17 points to their IQ test scores—an unforeseen surge that scientists cannot explain and a trend that shows signs of accelerating in this decade. Further, due to advances in our understanding of personality, creativity, emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and social dynamics, the entire field of intelligence is now in disarray. Most experts now grope for a more dynamic definition of intelligence that incorporates native ability, environmental influences, and personality into a holistic understanding of how people behave intelligently. Should educators be doing the same? I think so. As noted psychologist Robert Sternberg says, “In a world so beset with problems, perhaps the most important thing to understand is not the intelligence of people, but how they use it.” But if we truly want to encourage intelligent behavior in schools—to prepare students for a world that demands that they make informed choices, manage uncertainty, and live by entrepreneurial norms—then we need to do more than simply abandon the old model of intelligence. In fact, I believe that preparing students to act intelligently requires educators to think through a number of issues. Consider these implications: Intelligent behavior is not amenable to reward and punishment. Rather, students now ask: Is this worth doing? Intelligent behavior draws students naturally to authentic tasks that contain meaning. That means educators must find a new balance between constructivism and accountability—between creative tasks and information. Bottom line, students need to be freed from the constraints of a rigid, fact-filled day and offered flexible opportunities to pursue learning.      Intelligent behavior is mediated by personality; it is not an innate reflex. Mood, outlook, experience, goals, and communication style all impact behavior. The trend toward personalized and differentiated instruction reflects what teachers know: a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to learning does not really work. And, the more we personalize, the more difficult it becomes to standardize. This conflict lies at the heart of discussions about the future of education. How do we create multiple pathways for inquiry and innovation—which are necessary to appeal to the broad range of talents and interests in today’s youth—while still teaching a core curriculum? Intelligent behavior is highly related to self-efficacy. Students will ask: Can I succeed at this? As I have stated before, rigor should no longer be defined by the ‘hardness’ of work, but instead should represent a standard for students’ practical, adaptive skills and their habits of mind. But personal mastery does not occur through lectures and testing—it happens through practice and feedback, with the teacher as a supportive mentor. In essence, if educators want to have students learn intelligent behaviors, they must become facilitators of learning—a big change from grading essays. Intelligent behavior is a whole body exercise. Seminal research by psychologists and neuroscientists tells us that motivation, perception, effort, and engagement—all central to intelligent behavior—do not arise solely in the brain. As data correlating school climate and academic achievement show, emotions and the environment impact cognition in powerful ways, both negatively and positively. If we want to promote intelligent behavior, we need to incorporate emotional intelligence into the mainstream of the school day. For starters, it’s time to let go of the outdated distinction between cognitive and affective learning. Here, I’d like to plug the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) for their relentless focus on whole child education. In the face of the current testing mania, it’s brave. It’s also right, in the sense that whole child education produces far more capable young people. To my mind, the issues around intelligence rise above simple arguments over educational philosophy. I believe emphasizing a narrow form of intelligence makes our children less smart, in the sense that they become less capable of solving problems and using what they know. It’s actually a squandering of human capital that the world can ill-afford. In fact, since most parents know their child adds up to much more than a single number called an IQ score, I wouldn’t be surprised to see parents advocating soon for a broader view of intelligence. And one day, the right not to have your child slotted into a niche by the educational system may be considered a civil right. We’ll see. Just to let you know, my young friend on the plane surprised me at the end of our conversation. How did he plan to use his debate skills? Well, he thought he might go into real estate management. I probed a bit, and it was clear his success and range of skills had given him a kind of confidence to try something entirely new—a worthy trait in today’s world. He knew how to manage money, he said, and now he wanted to manage someone else’s. He told me this with poise and authority—very intelligent behaviors.   On a recent plane trip, I sat next to a hip young man, about 20 years old with an earring and an iPod, who was doing something that many young people don’t. He was reading a serious book on politics and history. Ever on the lookout for success stories, I struck up a conversation about his education. Turns out, his account of how he educated himself caused me to wonder, again: Do schools help students master intelligent behaviors that lead to success in life? Or not? Here’s the thumbnail: After spending two years at a community college, the young man had just won a prestigious, full-ride Regents scholarship to the University of California at Irvine. Attending a two-year college out of high school had been his choice, he told me. Each of his three older siblings had graduated with 4.3 grade point averages from his highly regarded suburban high school—and he noticed that they all ended up hating high school. Too focused on grades, they felt stressed and time pressured. And, in an ironic twist, his sister was not accepted by the college of her choice because she hadn’t participated in extracurricular activities. He also told me that earning a 4.3 G.P.A. wasn’t a motivating challenge for him. “It’s easy enough to get good grades in high school,” he shrugged. “You just study all the time and don’t do anything else.” His decision from 9th grade on? Focus on subjects that were meaningful to him; use the time saved for life-enhancing electives; become skillful rather than grub for grades. As a result, he turned his success in high school drama into a communications major at the community college, which he chose because of a strong connection to a supportive mentor there. Two years of stellar performance on the college debate team earned him the scholarship—a successful outcome by any measure.   He also proved in important point: Intelligent behavior is more important than an IQ score. In other blogs, I’ve noted that intelligence is generally regarded as an innate, crystallized ability that is determined at birth and never changes. This outdated, ‘cognitive capsule’ view of intelligence has spawned the current educational focus on fixed capacity and retention of information, as measured through high-stakes testing. This view of intelligence also leads to student stratification. On a recent trip to Texas, I learned that the schools there use standardized measures to identify ‘gifted’ children at the age of five, setting in motion 12 years of special attention, while other students remain categorized as ‘low’ or ‘middle’ achievers by the school system. It’s important to know that the ‘fixed’ view is outdated and not supported by research. Between 1947 and 2001, U.S. students added a mysterious 17 points to their IQ test scores—an unforeseen surge that scientists cannot explain and a trend that shows signs of accelerating in this decade. Further, due to advances in our understanding of personality, creativity, emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and social dynamics, the entire field of intelligence is now in disarray. Most experts now grope for a more dynamic definition of intelligence that incorporates native ability, environmental influences, and personality into a holistic understanding of how people behave intelligently. Should educators be doing the same? I think so. As noted psychologist Robert Sternberg says, “In a world so beset with problems, perhaps the most important thing to understand is not the intelligence of people, but how they use it.” But if we truly want to encourage intelligent behavior in schools—to prepare students for a world that demands that they make informed choices, manage uncertainty, and live by entrepreneurial norms—then we need to do more than simply abandon the old model of intelligence. In fact, I believe that preparing students to act intelligently requires educators to think through a number of issues. Consider these implications: Intelligent behavior is not amenable to reward and punishment. Rather, students now ask: Is this worth doing? Intelligent behavior draws students naturally to authentic tasks that contain meaning. That means educators must find a new balance between constructivism and accountability—between creative tasks and information. Bottom line, students need to be freed from the constraints of a rigid, fact-filled day and offered flexible opportunities to pursue learning.      Intelligent behavior is mediated by personality; it is not an innate reflex. Mood, outlook, experience, goals, and communication style all impact behavior. The trend toward personalized and differentiated instruction reflects what teachers know: a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to learning does not really work. And, the more we personalize, the more difficult it becomes to standardize. This conflict lies at the heart of discussions about the future of education. How do we create multiple pathways for inquiry and innovation—which are necessary to appeal to the broad range of talents and interests in today’s youth—while still teaching a core curriculum? Intelligent behavior is highly related to self-efficacy. Students will ask: Can I succeed at this? As I have stated before, rigor should no longer be defined by the ‘hardness’ of work, but instead should represent a standard for students’ practical, adaptive skills and their habits of mind. But personal mastery does not occur through lectures and testing—it happens through practice and feedback, with the teacher as a supportive mentor. In essence, if educators want to have students learn intelligent behaviors, they must become facilitators of learning—a big change from grading essays. Intelligent behavior is a whole body exercise. Seminal research by psychologists and neuroscientists tells us that motivation, perception, effort, and engagement—all central to intelligent behavior—do not arise solely in the brain. As data correlating school climate and academic achievement show, emotions and the environment impact cognition in powerful ways, both negatively and positively. If we want to promote intelligent behavior, we need to incorporate emotional intelligence into the mainstream of the school day. For starters, it’s time to let go of the outdated distinction between cognitive and affective learning. Here, I’d like to plug the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) for their relentless focus on whole child education. In the face of the current testing mania, it’s brave. It’s also right, in the sense that whole child education produces far more capable young people. To my mind, the issues around intelligence rise above simple arguments over educational philosophy. I believe emphasizing a narrow form of intelligence makes our children less smart, in the sense that they become less capable of solving problems and using what they know. It’s actually a squandering of human capital that the world can ill-afford. In fact, since most parents know their child adds up to much more than a single number called an IQ score, I wouldn’t be surprised to see parents advocating soon for a broader view of intelligence. And one day, the right not to have your child slotted into a niche by the educational system may be considered a civil right. We’ll see. Just to let you know, my young friend on the plane surprised me at the end of our conversation. How did he plan to use his debate skills? Well, he thought he might go into real estate management. I probed a bit, and it was clear his success and range of skills had given him a kind of confidence to try something entirely new—a worthy trait in today’s world. He knew how to manage money, he said, and now he wanted to manage someone else’s. He told me this with poise and authority—very intelligent behaviors.   Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:07:40 GMT http://edge.ascd.org/_The-Myth-of-IQ/blog/3426855/127586.html Thom_Markham 2011-03-31T21:07:40Z Blogs ASCD EDge On a recent plane trip, I sat next to a hip young man, about 20 years old with an earring and an iPod, who was doing something that many young people don’t. He was reading a serious book on politics and history. Ever on the lookout for success stories, I struck up a conversation about his education. Turns out, his account of how he educated himself caused me to wonder, again: Do schools help students master intelligent behaviors that lead to success in life? Or not? Here’s the thumbnail: After spending two years at a community college, the young man had just won a prestigious, full-ride Regents scholarship to the University of California at Irvine. Attending a two-year college out of high school had been his choice, he told me. Each of his three older siblings had graduated with 4.3 grade point averages from his highly regarded suburban high school—and he noticed that they all ended up hating high school. Too focused on grades, they felt stressed and time pressured. And, in an ironic twist, his sister was not accepted by the college of her choice because she hadn’t participated in extracurricular activities. He also told me that earning a 4.3 G.P.A. wasn’t a motivating challenge for him. “It’s easy enough to get good grades in high school,” he shrugged. “You just study all the time and don’t do anything else.” His decision from 9th grade on? Focus on subjects that were meaningful to him; use the time saved for life-enhancing electives; become skillful rather than grub for grades. As a result, he turned his success in high school drama into a communications major at the community college, which he chose because of a strong connection to a supportive mentor there. Two years of stellar performance on the college debate team earned him the scholarship—a successful outcome by any measure.   He also proved in important point: Intelligent behavior is more important than an IQ score. In other blogs, I’ve noted that intelligence is generally regarded as an innate, crystallized ability that is determined at birth and never changes. This outdated, ‘cognitive capsule’ view of intelligence has spawned the current educational focus on fixed capacity and retention of information, as measured through high-stakes testing. This view of intelligence also leads to student stratification. On a recent trip to Texas, I learned that the schools there use standardized measures to identify ‘gifted’ children at the age of five, setting in motion 12 years of special attention, while other students remain categorized as ‘low’ or ‘middle’ achievers by the school system. It’s important to know that the ‘fixed’ view is outdated and not supported by research. Between 1947 and 2001, U.S. students added a mysterious 17 points to their IQ test scores—an unforeseen surge that scientists cannot explain and a trend that shows signs of accelerating in this decade. Further, due to advances in our understanding of personality, creativity, emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and social dynamics, the entire field of intelligence is now in disarray. Most experts now grope for a more dynamic definition of intelligence that incorporates native ability, environmental influences, and personality into a holistic understanding of how people behave intelligently. Should educators be doing the same? I think so. As noted psychologist Robert Sternberg says, “In a world so beset with problems, perhaps the most important thing to understand is not the intelligence of people, but how they use it.” But if we truly want to encourage intelligent behavior in schools—to prepare students for a world that demands that they make informed choices, manage uncertainty, and live by entrepreneurial norms—then we need to do more than simply abandon the old model of intelligence. In fact, I believe that preparing students to act intelligently requires educators to think through a number of issues. Consider these implications: Intelligent behavior is not amenable to reward and punishment. Rather, students now ask: Is this worth doing? Intelligent behavior draws students naturally to authentic tasks that contain meaning. That means educators must find a new balance between constructivism and accountability—between creative tasks and information. Bottom line, students need to be freed from the constraints of a rigid, fact-filled day and offered flexible opportunities to pursue learning.      Intelligent behavior is mediated by personality; it is not an innate reflex. Mood, outlook, experience, goals, and communication style all impact behavior. The trend toward personalized and differentiated instruction reflects what teachers know: a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to learning does not really work. And, the more we personalize, the more difficult it becomes to standardize. This conflict lies at the heart of discussions about the future of education. How do we create multiple pathways for inquiry and innovation—which are necessary to appeal to the broad range of talents and interests in today’s youth—while still teaching a core curriculum? Intelligent behavior is highly related to self-efficacy. Students will ask: Can I succeed at this? As I have stated before, rigor should no longer be defined by the ‘hardness’ of work, but instead should represent a standard for students’ practical, adaptive skills and their habits of mind. But personal mastery does not occur through lectures and testing—it happens through practice and feedback, with the teacher as a supportive mentor. In essence, if educators want to have students learn intelligent behaviors, they must become facilitators of learning—a big change from grading essays. Intelligent behavior is a whole body exercise. Seminal research by psychologists and neuroscientists tells us that motivation, perception, effort, and engagement—all central to intelligent behavior—do not arise solely in the brain. As data correlating school climate and academic achievement show, emotions and the environment impact cognition in powerful ways, both negatively and positively. If we want to promote intelligent behavior, we need to incorporate emotional intelligence into the mainstream of the school day. For starters, it’s time to let go of the outdated distinction between cognitive and affective learning. Here, I’d like to plug the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) for their relentless focus on whole child education. In the face of the current testing mania, it’s brave. It’s also right, in the sense that whole child education produces far more capable young people. To my mind, the issues around intelligence rise above simple arguments over educational philosophy. I believe emphasizing a narrow form of intelligence makes our children less smart, in the sense that they become less capable of solving problems and using what they know. It’s actually a squandering of human capital that the world can ill-afford. In fact, since most parents know their child adds up to much more than a single number called an IQ score, I wouldn’t be surprised to see parents advocating soon for a broader view of intelligence. And one day, the right not to have your child slotted into a niche by the educational system may be considered a civil right. We’ll see. Just to let you know, my young friend on the plane surprised me at the end of our conversation. How did he plan to use his debate skills? Well, he thought he might go into real estate management. I probed a bit, and it was clear his success and range of skills had given him a kind of confidence to try something entirely new—a worthy trait in today’s world. He knew how to manage money, he said, and now he wanted to manage someone else’s. He told me this with poise and authority—very intelligent behaviors.   blogs nonadult false The Myth of IQ text blog blogs 1361 10 5.0 http://edge.ascd.org/service/displayKickPlace.kickAction?u=31175808&as=127586 http://media.kickstatic.com/kickapps/images/127586/photos/PHOTO_13301378_127586_31175808_ap_160X120.jpg false United States CA San Rafael 8 Blogs 0 3426855 31175808 ASCD EDge Member 250