Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe write in their Educational Leadership article about how to reform school by acknowledging that we have three different types of learning goals: Acquisition, Meaning Making and Transfer. To Put Understanding First is to realize that too much teaching focuses only on (short-term) acquisition of knowledge and skill instead of (long-term) understanding.
An idea is “big” if it helps us make sense of lots of confusing experiences and seemingly isolated facts. It’s like the picture that connects the dots or a simple rule of thumb in a complex field.
This is my confessional: most of what I learn in art and in teaching is direct result of mistakes I make. Here are ten mistakes art teachers as well as teachers of any grade or subject must avoid when developing creative learners.
Despite our best efforts, targeted change within our schools is happening too slowly or it's not happening at all. Perhaps the time has come to switch to battlefield tactics.
Using Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Shapiro models an approach to teaching critical thinking that asks students to first believe and then to doubt a point of view. The ultimate goal is analysis, integration of thought, and deeper understanding of complex ideas.
Upcoming Workshops in Princeton, NJ
January 9th A 2-hour box lunch talk on HS reform in NJ
February 27th Intro to Ubd
April 10th Schooling by Design
Interested in more information
about our upcoming workshops? Email us or call (609)466-8080.
