Monday, June 20, 2011

ASCD Inservice: Differentiating "Drill and Kill?"

ASCD Inservice: Differentiating "Drill and Kill?"

Differentiating "Drill and Kill?"

KiseEducation consultant Jane A. G. Kise's article in the summer 2011 online issue of Educational Leadership ("Let Me Learn it My Way!") discusses how each child shows different learning preferences along dimensions connected to Carl Jung's theories of personality (extraversion versus introversion and intuition versus sensing).

In this blog post, Kise considers how learning styles determine which activities motivate kids.

Let's take a basic question such as, "Will practicing basic math facts improve student retention?" My answer? Maybe. Although I am a huge fan of mastering math facts for the automaticity that provides for more complex problems, I know that students with different learning styles react very differently to repetitive practice.

When I work with teachers, I often have them gather in groups according to their preferred learning styles connected to Carl Jung's ideas about personality. I ask teachers to discuss how, as students, they approached assignments such as


Do Interactive White Boards Make a Difference?

Students seem to like using interactive white boards (IWBs), but do they improve learning? In last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story, teaching with IWBs is praised for opportunities for instant feedback on individual student learning, whole class participation, visual learning,...