Collaborating to Stagnation
The new Common Core standards are supposed to develop students with "21st century skills" and "higher level" or "critical" thinking skills. (I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what a 21st century skill is that is uniquely different from the skills k-12 education taught in that last century) It's that second part that has a lot of people and businesses popping up and nodding their heads. Who wouldn't want kids with critical thinking skills? Just watch your average teenage driver with a permit take out the family car and begin setting those 4,000 lbs hurtling down the main drag of town past stop signs, pedestrians, bicyclists and pot holes and take note of how many times you pray that child has critical thinking skills. It's a laudible goal, but what does it mean in common core.
A post on InvisibleSerfsCollar.com delves into what the industry experts at Pearson think critical thinking means. "Pearson wants open-ended tasks to assess 21st century skills in authentic real-world problem contexts. And these tasks are to be done as a group in order to assess collaboration." The goal is not to complete the task, but to "assess collaboration." Pearson goes on to note that tasks which are “obvious” or “unambiguous” would
A post on InvisibleSerfsCollar.com delves into what the industry experts at Pearson think critical thinking means. "Pearson wants open-ended tasks to assess 21st century skills in authentic real-world problem contexts. And these tasks are to be done as a group in order to assess collaboration." The goal is not to complete the task, but to "assess collaboration." Pearson goes on to note that tasks which are “obvious” or “unambiguous” would