While reading this book, especially the education sections,
I am definitely feeling depressed about education in our country. The authors
provide a lot of evidence to show that our country has a lot of catching up to
do and that being average will not help us get there. One statistic that I found
particularly unsettling was that “our college ‘survival rate’ is 17 points
below the average”. After reading this, I continued to look for solutions to
this problem. As high school teachers, how do we help students succeed so that
they are able to “survive” college and not take remedial courses? If “about a
third of first year students entering college had taken at least one remedial
course in reading, writing, or math”, what can we do to prevent this from
happening?
Later in the chapter, the authors introduce the idea of “the
three C’s” as suggested by another author. Tom Wagner says that these three C’s,
“critical thinking, effective oral and written communication, and collaboration”
can help improve education in our country. While these three things are not the
only answer, I think they give us an important place to start. One of the main themes I have noticed throughout the book is that now, more than ever, creativity is key. In order to help inspire creativity, students need to be able to think critically or “outside the box”. They also should be able to express themselves and work effectively with others. In order to surpass average and help our students add value to everything that they do, we need to develop the skills associated with “the three C’s”. While we do focus on these skills already, after reading this book I am realizing how imperative they really are. This gives me a lot to think about as I prepare for the new school year!
Becka, I definitely agree. The three C's were a good suggestion. Critical thinking skills are key. Unfortunately, a lot of teachers feel pressured to cover so much curriculum they don't have time to follow this advice. School districts need to encourage teachers to go more deeply - to practice depth not breadth as Bill Daggett suggested to us years ago during his visit.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Kristina. I agree about depth vs. breadth. I think the use of essential questions has been helpful in fostering the 3 C's in my classroom. Critical thinking is a hard skill to teach, but without it, students are not going to go very far considering the world we are living in.
ReplyDeleteWell said on all fronts! Yes - creativity is the key! Yes - Dagget focused on depth. And yes - critical thinking is tough to teach.
ReplyDeleteCreativity: How can we provide opportunities for our students to be creative as we move to more intensive high stakes testing? Is their room for creativity as student test scores may become part of the teacher evaluation? Won't that just move us toward "drill and practice" in a survival of the fittest type mold?
Depth: How can I continue to preach depth, but not get through all of the curriculum? How much freedom are we going to be given to do so? We created Pacing Guides years ago to make sure all of the material was covered.
Critical thinking: So much for the "Forrest Gumpian" classroom where "whatever you tell me drill sergeant" is a way of life? Seriously - critical thinking skills will only come through a multitude of practice. And yes - that takes time.
Ultimately, when all is said and done, are we going to have the freedom to be teachers? Or are we going to be a bunch of circus animals?