TEAMS an Education for the Future

“ I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” -Mark Twain

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it” -Alan Kay

Why do many students find school boring and irrelevant? Because school is mostly boring and irrelevant, that’s not just my opinion; that’s what students have told me over my 15 years in the classroom, and I am not just talking about students who have fallen through the cracks. Even our best and brightest, those matriculating to MIT, Princeton and Stanford have told me how mind-numbing school can be. If that’s what our model students think, you can begin to understand why our at-risk students do so poorly or drop out of school entirely. Why is this? Because in most cases, school does not do a very good job preparing students for the “real” world, or tap into student’s talents and interests. That is why kids don’t apply themselves, kids who do well, are not necessarily learning in a deep and meaningful way, they just become good at doing school. They know what they have to do in order to receive the grade they want, mostly memorizing and regurgitating information gleaned from reading the textbook or listening to a lecture, unfortunately this is the modus operandi of most Advanced Placement classes. Students who are “educated” this way usually are not required to think critically, creatively or required to solve problems.

What if kids went to school and actually developed a passion for learning about the things they want to know more about? What if we re-imagined school to be completely different from the factory model we have perpetuated for the last 160 years or so, and allowed the student to be the center of their own learning, stopped teaching subjects in isolation, regulated by arbitrary bell schedules. What if teachers became the “guide on the side” instead of the “sage on the stage?” What if we encouraged students to take risks and see failure as an opportunity to learn and not something to be avoided. What if we taught students to be entrepreneurs and innovators so that the next generation of creators become successful because of school not in spite of it? What if we taught our students to use the latest technology to effectively research, collaborate, and communicate ideas? Make learning relevant on their terms and not on ours.

Most schools today stress STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The implicit goal of the STEM movement is to recapture America’s lost prestige as a world innovation leader. The prevailing narrative among policy makers is countries like China and India have quickly outpaced our ability to produce students proficient in the STEM fields and are well on their way to technological and economic domination. International tests such as the Program for International Assessment of Students Achievement (PISA) reinforce this point. As a result, the United States has taken bold measures to ensure that it remain the economic leader of the free world by emphasizing STEM education as evidenced by the proliferation of career and technical academies and magnet programs that specialize in these subjects. I believe that STEM education is a good thing, but I don’t believe that schools exist solely to train students for the workforce and that is what STEM education seems to do. The reality is that we are preparing our students for jobs that don’t even exist today. The technological revolution has affected every aspect of our personal and professional lives, yet we continue to “school” our students for a bygone era. I believe that the best way forward to is train students to think like artists and entrepreneurs, it is one thing to be able to learn STEM, but it is a much better approach to teach our students how to use their education to create something original and new, think of it as the Steve Jobs approach to design. For this reason, I propose a new acronym, one that will prepare students to be creators, innovators, and collaborators. My school will be built upon the TEAMS acronym, Technology Entrepreneurship, Art Math and Science, STEM education with a purpose.  

Project Based Learning and the High School Social Studies Curriculum: Strategies to Develop 21st Century Competencies

The No Child Left Behind Act (2001), and its strict accountability measures for testable subjects such as math and reading, had the unintended consequence of marginalizing other subjects such as the social studies. This has had a profound impact on our student’s overall performance in reading as indicated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) or the nation’s report card. Since 2002, eighth grade students have made no discernable progress in reading despite the fact that schools report spending upwards of 60% of their time on the subject (Tieso, 2013). Countries that outperform us in reading point out that the only difference in curriculum is the fact that they “provide their students with a comprehensive, content-rich education in the liberal arts and sciences” (Tieso, 2013, p. 97). Our continual shortchanging of the social studies has not only led to historical amnesia, and reduced reading scores, but is a lost opportunity to develop student’s skills, and  habits of mind that will help them be successful after they leave school. The problem is that high school history students are not learning the skills and dispositions that will help them be successful in post high-school education, the 21^st century economy, and civic life.    

            For students to be successful in the 21^st century economy, they will need to possess skills beyond the traditional reading writing and arithmetic (Huang, Hodson, La Torre, Obregon, Rivera, 2010). The new economy puts a premium on abilities such as critical interpersonal skills to include speaking, listening and the ability to function as part of a team. Students need to learn the skills to help them find and assess appropriate information using technologies such as the World Wide Web and databases. Students need to know how to communicate effectively in both verbal and nonverbal ways through a variety of platforms to include digital networks. An understanding of American history is critical if students are to become contributing members of our democracy, students will need to understand basic scientific principles such as the scientific method if they are to become critical thinkers and adroit problem solvers. Living in a global society requires that students be fluent in multicultural understanding and foreign languages (Uchida, 1996). While teacher-centered classrooms are the predominate configuration in most American schools, they are ineffectual in developing the previously mentioned skills and dispositions.     

            Traditional teacher centered pedagogy is not conducive to students learning 21^st century skills, while teacher lectures and demonstrations are important to the learning process, students should be at the center of their learning, they should be provided with several opportunities to engage in “hands-on” learning (Odom, Bell, 2015). An effective way to engage students in a student-centered lesson is through the use of Project Based learning or PBL. According to Lattimer & Riordan (2011) “PBL is typically considered an approach to teaching in which students respond to real-world questions or challenges through an extended inquiry process. PBL often involves peer collaboration, a strong emphasis on critical thinking and communication skills, and interdisciplinary learning” (p.18) Research indicates that inquiry based teaching pedagogies such as PBL are an effective way to engage students, as Weimer (2012) points out “while no evidence proves that PBL enhances academic achievement as measured by exams, there is evidence to suggest that PBL ‘works’ for achieving other important learning outcomes. Studies suggest that PBL develops more positive student attitudes, fosters a deeper approach to learning and helps students retain knowledge longer that traditional instruction” (p. 44-45). The 21^st Century economy requires that students think creatively and become problem solvers, in addition, providing students a diversity of student-centered lessons will help them retain their learning, according to Starko (2013) “creative applications of core content are among teachers’ most powerful tools in building students’ understanding. If we want students to master the content, they must do something with it beyond simple repetition. They must use it in meaning ful ways and make it their own” (p. 55). In addition “collaboration, creative problem solving, and problem-based learning have all been shown to increase creativity in children. This recent research supports what earlier researchers have maintained about creative learning environments: they must be flexible, free, open to unusual or divergent answers, and collaborative” (Cullen, Harris, & Hill, 2012, p. 11).

            Addressing this problem would benefit a variety of stakeholders to include social studies teachers, curriculum designers, administrators and of course students. I believe most teachers want to do everything possible to ensure that their students are successful in school, I believe the reason most social studies teachers do not engage their students in PBL, is simply that they do not know any better. Despite the fact that PBL has been effectively used for many years, my school district has never provided training on its benefits and implementation. In addition, I  never received PBL training in my education preparation program. Despite these facts, I believe it is important that teachers provide their students opportunities to hone the skills and dispositions that will make them successful  in post high-school education, the 21^st century economy, and civic life. Student-centered pedagogies like PBL will do just that.   

     

References

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