Sunday, December 02, 2007
In his article, “The Steep Unlearning Curve,” Will Richardson suggests 10 things we need to unlearn. What do you think? Are there anymore things to add to the list?
- We need to unlearn the idea that we are the sole content experts in the classroom, because we can now connect our kids to people who know far more than we do about the material we’re teaching.
- We need to unlearn the premise that we know more than our kids, because in many cases, they can now be our teachers as well.
- We need to unlearn the idea that learning itself is an event. In this day and age, it is a continual process.
- We need to unlearn the strategy that collaborative work inside the classroom is enough and understand that cooperating with students from around the globe can teach relevant and powerful negotiation and team-building skills.
- We need to unlearn the idea that every student needs to learn the same content when really what they need to learn is how to self-direct their own learning.
- We need to unlearn the notion that our students don’t need to see and understand how we ourselves learn.
- We need to unlearn our fear of putting ourselves and our students “out there” for we’ve proven we can do it in safe, relevant and effective ways.
- We need to unlearn the practice that teaches all students at the same pace. Is it any wonder why so many of our students love to play online games where they move forward at their own pace?
- We need to unlearn the idea that we can teach our students to be literate in this world by continually blocking and filtering access to the sites and experiences they need our help to navigate.
- We need to unlearn the premise that real change can happen just by rethinking what happens inside the school walls and understand that education is now a community undertaking on many different levels.
Posted by Randy Ziegenfuss in
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These 10 premises are very much the SHIFT that we are talking about at Salisbury this year.
When I taught gifted kids I had the good fortune of them teaching me. They taught me that I was not the sole expert in the room, that they could teach themselves if I had the necessary resources for them and that they were quite capable of directing their own learning.
Several years into teaching gifted kids I was asked to teach several classes of 7th and 8th grade reading. While these children were not “gifted” I found the same premises to hold. In fact students learned more and were more positive about their learning when they were in charge of it.
I will be forever in debt to those bright children who challenged the way I taught and made me a better teacher.on 12/02 at 08:24 PM -
I agree with Barbara completely! However, my experiences were typically at the other end of the spectrum with student who had difficulty learning or those with emotional or behavioral issues and these ten ideas still held true. There were still many life lessons students were able to teach me that I still remember as I interact with people each and every day. I think these definitely describe the direction of the district...have you shared these with the teachers?
on 12/02 at 09:00 PM -
These “un-learning” items by Richardson certainly speak to the dual role of students and teachers (and administrators)....all of us need to assume and welcome the dual roles. I also see another message in these statements. The classroom today is much larger than the physical classroom with its twenty-something students and one teacher or simply connected with other classrooms in the school. I had the opportunity to visit the U.N. recently, and I was introduced to a website for learning that changed my view of global education and the expanded nature of today’s classroom. Check it out and see what you think of the opportunities it affords. http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/ I would be interested in hearing what you think.
on 12/02 at 09:40 PM -
The unlearning focuses make me think how important the need is for us to put our students out there to take charge of their learning. For many children they don’t feel confident in becoming independent learners because they don’t understand what their gifts are. All children hold intelligences, but they often have not been awakened to how they best learn. Intelligences are the way people think, develop skills, and solve problems. Howard Gardner tells us that we possess eight intelligences: logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, body/ kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal/linguistic, and naturalistice. Gardner writes,"For each person, one of these intelligences tends to be stronger than the other, yet the others works together in complementary ways.” We need to learn that students learn best when he/she makes use of the dominant intelligence, and it is our responsiblity as educators to make sure children know what thay dominant intelligence is. Teachers need to learn how to observe students at work and at play by student-watching in order to help students understand themselves as learners. We can also give learning inventories to help students grasp how they learn best. When this awareness is awakened, our learners feel comfortable to participate directly in the teaching and learning that goes on “within the classroom”. The nondominant intelligences of students also needed to be tapped into so we can stretch these intelligences. Children learn or tap into these nondominant intelligences when they collaborate as learners, freely question, communicate globally, and self and peer assess. When we as educators know the children we teach - individually, culturally, and developmentally - the best learning will happen in the process that works best for the student, allowing them to learn in ways comfortable to them. As we tap into students’ gifts, we allow them to speed off in directions that allow them to work to their fullest potential as they become experts in their learning.
on 12/03 at 06:02 PM -
I just spent some time looking around the Cyber School Bus site: http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/. I think this is an amazing resource. There are a number of areas I think might be useful to teachers and and students. In particular, any of the curriculum units (which seem to give a truly global perspective on issues such as poverty, human rights and discrimination), InfoNation (which provides the ability to compare nations on varying factors), and the UN webcasts (with live and archived video of sessions). How can we share this information with our teachers? I think it is a good model for global education!
on 12/05 at 10:55 AM -
I also checked this out and I agree with you. I would like to use a staff meeting to share some of these websites for teachers.
Barbara Samide on 12/05 at 03:30 PM -
The website is full of pertinent topics. Quotes that go with each area are powerful. Many of the podcasts are very lengthy. Possibly these would make professional learning academies to use after school. I agree with Barbara that we could show the site at a staff meeting, but the half hour time would not be enough to ensure the webcast gets viewied. I also had difficulty opening the webcasts. Could you give me some advice?
on 12/09 at 08:52 AM -
The webcasts do require RealPlayer to run on your computer. You might have been having trouble because it needs to be installed on your computer. On the UN Webcasts page, in the lower right hand corner, there is information and a link about installing RealPlayer on your computer. Good luck!
on 12/09 at 01:56 PM
