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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

How school reform preserves the ‘status quo’ — and what real change would look like

How school reform preserves the ‘status quo’ — and what real change would look like:

How school reform preserves the ‘status quo’ — and what real change would look like

(http://www.urdjuret.com)
(http://www.urdjuret.com)
If you follow the education policy debate at all, you know that critics are often called “defenders of the status quo” by people pushing market-based school reforms. Here is a piece about why it is actually the reforms that are preserving the status quo — and what real reform would actually look like. It was written by Arthur H. Camins, director of the Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.  His writing can be accessed athttp://www.arthurcamins.com/.
By Arthur H. Camins
A moment after my train pulled to a final stop in Hoboken this morning, another train on my left pulled away provoking the perception that I was rolling forward.  Had I not glanced to my right to see the stationary platform I might have been fooled into thinking I was actually moving. So it is with the current education reform strategies — the illusion of movement without looking around at the evidence.
There are two pillars of Department of Education policy:  increased numbers of charter schools and consequential use of standards-based assessment for promotion and 

The bottom line on ‘learning styles’

University of Virginia Professor Daniel Willingham is well known in ed circles for applying cognitive science to K-16 education. One topic to which he has written and returned  is the notion of different “learning styles” and whether there is any … Continue reading →