-
My Pedagogic Creed - John Dewey
"With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities;" -
The Project Method: The Use of the Purposeful Act in the Educative Process - Kilpatrick
"... we may say that the child is naturally active, especially along social lies. Heretofore a regime of coercion has only too often reduced our schools to aimless dawdling and our pupils to selfish individualists ... wholehearted purposeful activity in social situations as the typical unit of school procedure is the best guarantee of the utilization of the child's native capacities now too frequently wasted." -
Founding of McMaster University Medical School
"Medical science had evolved into a finely branched network of highly specialized fields ... Medical curricula reflected the trend of
specialization ... The McMaster medical curriculum aimed primarily at training general practitioners. PBL was embraced as the educational approach that was to compliment the holistic vision (Neufeld and Barrows, 1974; Fraenkel, 1978). Application in practice was seen as more important than storing facts by rote learning." - Problem-Based and Project-Based Learning -
Schools Without Subjects - Beecher H. Harris
"We, the professionals, the agents, the administrators of the program, are cast in impossible roles. We are taskmasters. However benign, compassionate, considerate by nature and by intent we might be, we have to be task masters ... We will not be anything else until we eliminate subject-teaching ... Until then we shall continue enslaved by the program ... Once freed from the subject-teaching program we shall be able to express our true selves." -
Problem-Based Learning - An approach to medical eductation
"Problem-based learning is the learning that results from the process of working toward the understanding or resolution of a problem. The problem is encountered first in the learning process!" -
21st Century Skills for 21st Century Jobs
"Global competition, the Internet, and widespread use of technology all suggest that the economy of the 21st century will create new challenges for employers and workers. While it is possible to compete in this new global economy by creating low-wage, low-skilled jobs, America has chosen to take full advantage of its labor force and to create high-performance workplaces." -
High Tech High Founded
"High Tech High opened in September 2000 as a small public charter school with plans to serve approximately 450 students. HTH has evolved into an integrated network of thirteen charter schools serving approximately 5,300 students in grades K-12 across three campuses." "High Tech High is guided by four connected design principles—equity, personalization, authentic work, and collaborative design ..." Link text -
Partnership for Twenty-First Century Learning (P21) Founded
Link text "P21's mission is to serve as catalyst for 21st century learning to build collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders so that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a world where change is constant and learning never stops." Outcomes: Content Knowledge and 21st Century Themes, Learning and Innovation Skills, Information, Media, and Technology Skills, and Life and Career Skills -
Curriculum for the 21st Century - Nel Noddings
"... we now must prepare students for the new occupational structures of a post-industrial world ... More workers are employed in relatively small organizations instead of the huge manufacturing plants ... Many work-places are not as hierarchically organized as they once were, and workers are evaluated by their peers as well as their bosses. Team work is required. Moreover, many jobs now require means-ends planning, diagnosis of problems, and cooperation in the search for solutions." -
Common Core State Standards Released
Common Core Standards "The Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy (ELA). These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live." -
Next Generation Science Standards Released
[NGSS] http://www.nextgenscience.org/development-process In 2009, a Carnegie Foundation ... concluded that "the nation’s capacity to innovate for economic growth and the ability of American workers to thrive in the modern workforce depend on a broad foundation of math and science learning.". However, the U.S. system of science and mathematics education is performing far below par and, if left unattended, will leave millions of young Americans unprepared to succeed in a global economy. -
AP Capstone
Capstone link "In AP Seminar, students investigate real-world issues
from multiple perspectives, gathering and analyzing
information from various sources in order to develop
valid evidence-based arguments. In AP Research,
students cultivate the skills and discipline necessary
to conduct independent research and to produce and
defend a scholarly academic thesis. " -
Finland Begins Phasing out Subject-Specific Classes
"Subject-specific lessons – an hour of history in the morning, an hour of geography in the afternoon – are already being phased out for 16-year-olds in the city’s upper schools. They are being replaced by what the Finns call “phenomenon” teaching – or teaching by topic. For instance, a teenager studying a vocational course might take “cafeteria services” lessons, which would include elements of maths, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing skills and communication skills." -
Essential Readings in Problem-Based Learning
"Neurologist Howard S. Barrows reversed the sequence, presenting students with patient problems to solve in small groups and requiring them to seek relevant knowledge in an effort to solve those problems. Out of his work, PBL was born ... Today, PBL is used at levels from elementary school to adult education, in disciplines ranging across the humanities and sciences ...This book aims to take stock of developments in the field and to bridge the gap between practice and the theoretical tradition." -
Interdisciplinary Learning: A Cognitive-Epistemological Foundation
"Preparing individuals to lead informed and fulfilling lives in dynamic knowledge societies requires that we nurture synthesizing minds. We must nurture individuals’ capacity to to knit together knowledge from vast and disparate sources into coherent wholes in order to address pressing issues of cultural and natural survival (Gardner 2006)"
