Hi! I imagine some of you read the subject header and sighed; "Here we go again." I had an initial reaction to an article at Education Week about resistance to the 21st Century Skills movement. Link at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/03/04/23pushback_ep.h28.html?tmp=235230828
At one level, the article brings out that this is really a century-old discussion about the balance between teaching skills and teaching content. I was on the point of sighing and clicking away, when I hit this section of the article which caused me to lock in on what the opponents to 21st Century Learning were saying. ******************** Mr. Willingham argued not only that the teaching of skills is inseparable from that of core content, but also that it is the content itself that allows individuals to recognize problems and to determine which critical-thinking skills to apply to solve them. As a result, critical-thinking skills cannot transfer from the specific content in which they are exercised to real-life contexts such as in the workplace, said E.D. Hirsch (...) Those techniques include student-directed methods such as project-based learning, which requires students to work in groups to solve a specified problem, relying on teachers for guidance rather than for explicit instruction. Although the panelists said such methods can be effective ways to deepen childrens content knowledge, they are difficult for teachers to put into place. For instance, Mr. Willingham said, a teacher leading a whole classroom-based discussion of Albert Camus novel The Stranger can largely control themed discussions. A project-based setting allowing small groups to explore different ideas might give students a chance to examine a diverse, richer set of subtextssuch as the history of existentialist thought or colonization in 1930s Algeriabut it also forces teachers to make many more snap judgments about how to guide students, provide resources on topics with which they may be unfamiliar, and ensure students are on task. Theres a reason teachers have been taught for 75 years to do projects and they dont do them, he said. ****************** What is your reaction to this? Take care, Bill _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
