Discussion: dialog, conversation, links
Discussion: Education Reform
Discussions and Feedback about Education Reform with Marion Brady - I'd like you to raise questions, make suggestions, criticize, and--I hope--add to what I'm doing.American History Handbook
The activities in the American History Handbook are active, engaging, and intellectually stimulating. Its "Investigations" focus on unusual primary sources, and provide systemically integrated concepts that give students a master information organizer theyll find useful for the rest of their lives.Connections: Investigating Reality
Connections: Investigating Reality is a free course of study designed primarily for adolescents and older students, working in small, cooperative groups. The programs overarching aim is expanding learner ability to "make sense" of reality.
I'd like you to raise questions, make suggestions, crtiticize, and--I hope--add to what I'm doing.
This website has three discussion areas:
- General discussion of education reform
- Discussion of Connections: Investigating Reality, both general and activity-specific
- Discussion of American History Handbook, also both general and topic-specific.
Links for other websites I recommend:
Susan Ohanian is one of our nation's leading commentators on education policy: http://www.susanohanian.org/
Diane Ravitch, author, professor, and historian of education, speaks out on the failures of standardization-based education reform: http://www.dianeravitch.com/
Valerie Strauss's blog on the Washington Post website publishes enlightened education commentary from many sources: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet
Tom Maglozzi, professor and NPR "Car Talk" co-host: "My New Theory of Learning:" http://www.cartalk.com/content/rant/r-rlast15.html
The late Jerry Bracey's Education Disinformation Detection and Reporting site: http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/
Listserv created after the death of Jerry Bracey for original subscribers to EDDRA: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eddra
Alfie Kohn is the author of 12 books about education and human behavior, including The Schools Our Children Deserve, The Homework Myth, and the newly published Feel-Bad Education . . . And Other Contrarian Essays on Children & Schooling. http://www.alfiekohn.com
Site for solid information about problems generated by standardized testing: http://www.fairtest.org/
Steve Denning, renowned expert in organizational management, gives his "Single best idea for reforming education" here.
July 7, 2011 The educational value of creative disobedience
Video: Geoff Mulgan describes UK Studio Schools
Judy Willis, authority on cognitive processes, on educational strategies
Most Americans lack understanding of our own society, and of the profound ways in which we differ in culture from societies with whom we must deal. A thoughtful paper on this problem, and its consequences for America and American education: http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1611.201111.garfinkle.middleeast.html
Is merit pay for teachers a good idea? Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrkrvAUbU9Y
More evidence that using reality as the main learning resource, and involving learners actively can motivate and transform them: http://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx.html?utm_source=newsletter_
Great student-produced video about Florida's Comprehensive Achievment Tests: http://teacher.ocps.net/daniel.stanley/Site/FCAT_PSA.html
Sir Ken Robinson's analysis of conventional education's adverse outcomes, in a great RSA-animated talk: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/06/ken-robinson-animation.html#more
A new TED speech by Dr. Derek Cabrera, "A Big TOE," details a conceptual framework that dovetails nicely with that in CIR and our other educational materials: http://cabreralabs.org/the-tools/video/new-ted-talk/