Powerful Learning - Another Way We Can Connect the Standards
Debbie recommended this new book of essays by Linda Darling-Hammond and colleagues. Called Powerful Learning: What we Know About Teaching for Understanding, it pulls together thinking about what 21st students should know and be able to do as well as what teachers need to do to get students there.
I only got to page 3 before I had to get a pencil and start scribbling in the margins. It all seemed so familiar to me — so …. LIBRARY-LIKE. Another voice in the choir of 21st century visioning.
Darling-Hammond refers to the National Academy of Science publication How Students Learn (Donovan and Bransford 2005). The NAS work identified three core principles about student learning that impact teaching. Notice how closely these three key principles align with the AASL Standadrs:
1. “Students come to the classroom with prior knowledge that must be addressed if teaching is to be effective.” (p. 3) Call it prior knowledge, schema, or the “K” of K-W-L, they all get at the same idea: that when we can tap into what students know, we activate a powerful scaffold onto which new learning can grow. Identifying prior knowledge also helps us identify misconceptions that, if not corrected, are reinforced.
AASL Standards Connection:
1.1.1 “Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real-world connection for using this process in own life.”
1.1.2 “Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.”
4.1.2 “Read widely and fluently to make connections with self, the world, and previous reading.”
4.1.5 “Connect ideas to own interests and previous knowledge and experience.”
4.2.2 “Demonstrate motivation by seeking information to answer personal questions and interests …”2. “Students need to organize and use knowledge conceptually if they are to apply it beyond the classroom.” (p. 4) This means going beyond putting facts on a graphic organizer and copying it out for an animal report, but recognizing that organizing, structuring, or ordering information are all strategies that help us make meaning and conceptual knowledge of those facts. Inquiry is a key method for putting conceptual knowledge to the test. (I now refer to those animal reports graphic organizers as “dump and go,” as in, “Oh, you’ve got five facts? OK, you’re done. You can go back to class.”)
AASL Standards Connection:
Common Belief 2: “Inquiry provides a framework for learning.”
Standard 1: “Learners use skills, tools, and resources to inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge.”
1.1.6 “Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format … in order to make inferences and gather meaning.”
2.1.2 “Organize knowledge so that it is useful.”
2.1.3 “Use strategies to draw conclusino from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.”
2.2.1 “Connect understanding to the real world.”
3.1.4 “Use technology and othe rinformation tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding …”
3.1.5 “Connect learning to community issues.”3. “Students learn more effectively if they understand how they learn and how to manage their own learning.” (p.4) This encompasses the concepts of metacognition, reflection and self-assessment, self-directed learning, and project planning by students.
AASL Standards Connection:
Common Belief 6: The contuining expansion of information demands that all individuals acquire the thinking skills that will enable them to learn on their own.�
1.4.1 “Monitor own information-seeking processes for effectiveness and progress, and adapt as necessary.”
1.4.2 “Use interaction with and feedback from teachers and peers to guide own inquiry process.”
1.4.3 “…Assess for gaps or weaknesses.”
2.4.1 “Determine how to act on information.”
2.4.2 “Reflect on systematic process, and assess for completeness of investigation.”
2.4.4 “Develop directions for future investigations.”
3.4.1 “Assess the processes by which learning was achieved in order to revise strategies and learn more effectively in the future.”
3.4.2 “Assess the quality and effectiveness of the learning product.”
3.4.3 “Assess own abilit to work with others in a group setting …”
4.4.2 “Recognize the limits of own personal knowledge.”
4.4.3 “Recognize how to focus efforts in personal learning.”
4.4.5 “Develop personal criteria for agauging how effectively own ideas are expressed.”
4.4.6 “Evaluate own ability to select resources that are engaging and appropriate for personal interests and needs.”
Whew - the AASL Standards cover each of those three key principles not once, but over and over, in different permutations. We are in good shape.
More on Darling-Hammond’s book in the next Standards post …
Book cover from Amazon.com
October 27th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I agree with the idea mentioned as from AASL Standards Connection in the blog entry “Powerful Learning – Another Way We Can Connect The Standard” The blog entry states, “1.1.2 ‘Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.’” Also mentioned in the blog entry and again from AASL Standards Connection is “4.1.5 ‘Connect ideas to . . . previous knowledge and experience.’” This is a very valid idea. I think it is very important that whenever possible to teach at a pace that new information and concepts can attach to existing knowledge. Learning through increments is a solid way to build depth of understanding. Certainly learning styles can vary, but I feel confident that an overall underlying phenomena in learning is that information bits bind together best like a giant snowball that is assembled through many rolled on layers. When too much new information is given at once, there may be not enough time for a learner to process the information. The learner needs to classify the information and then browse their own mental shelves to know which “books” should be adjacent to the new information. I think learning also parallels with certain historical developments. For example popular rock music did not completely invent itself in the last fifty years from thin air. Many of the harmonies, rhythms, orchestrational and structural techniques existed before. The ingredients of popular rock music are attached to previous music knowledge. It is very unlikely that rock music would have developed from classical music. A layer of knowledge needed to be present. This layer of knowledge would be the features found in jazz, blues, and country music. Like historical development, I think that the learning process is incremental.