SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Education leaders are letting teachers (and students) down

The latest issue of Scientific American has a great article about how teachers can’t tell the difference between fads and fallacies and proven methods. Here are three examples from the article.

• A common misconception is that teaching content is less important than teaching critical thinking skills or problem-solving strategies.
• Scientists have also long known that kids must be explicitly taught the connections between letters and sounds and that they benefit most when such instruction is planned and explicit. Yet some reading programs, even those used in large school districts, teach this information only if an instructor sees the need.
• Many teachers, for instance, need to be disabused of the notions children have different “learning styles” and that boys’ brains are hardwired to be better at spatial tasks than girls’. 

The author makes the following important point: “This job of bringing accurate scientific information about thinking and learning to teachers might arguably fall to schools of education, states, districts and teachers’ professional organizations, but these institutions have shown little interest in the job.”

The author is actually being kind here, as the schools of education, states, districts, and teachers’ professional organizations - far from showing little interest - for the most part promote the fads and fallacies and pan the proven methods. H/T FG