John Thompson: The Head vs the Heart: Which Should Rule in Our Schools?
Guest post by John Thompson.
Bellwhether's Andrew Rotherham, in "The Head - Heart Issue," nailed the essence of data-driven "reform." As the consultant explains, education has always been a battleground between "the Head" and "the Heart." When I attended public school, teachers were free to choose which side of the "head/heart clash" they were on.
The contemporary "reform" movement is based on the principle, however, that educators cannot be granted the autonomy of deciding whether they commit to building trusting relationships with students or whether "In Data We Trust." The immense body of social science that describes the emotional dynamics of schooling that was to be flushed down the toilet. Test-driven "reformers" demanded that we teach primarily to the narrow part of "the Head" that processes Big Data.
Cognitive science now confirms why such a narrow focus does not even serve "the Head" as well as the "reform" theorists think it should. NPR recently reported on an update of the famous experiment where people were looking so intently for one thing that they did not see a gorilla walk across their field of vision. It turns out that
Bellwhether's Andrew Rotherham, in "The Head - Heart Issue," nailed the essence of data-driven "reform." As the consultant explains, education has always been a battleground between "the Head" and "the Heart." When I attended public school, teachers were free to choose which side of the "head/heart clash" they were on.
The contemporary "reform" movement is based on the principle, however, that educators cannot be granted the autonomy of deciding whether they commit to building trusting relationships with students or whether "In Data We Trust." The immense body of social science that describes the emotional dynamics of schooling that was to be flushed down the toilet. Test-driven "reformers" demanded that we teach primarily to the narrow part of "the Head" that processes Big Data.
Cognitive science now confirms why such a narrow focus does not even serve "the Head" as well as the "reform" theorists think it should. NPR recently reported on an update of the famous experiment where people were looking so intently for one thing that they did not see a gorilla walk across their field of vision. It turns out that