March 9, 2010
This is another entry in my occasional series of classic articles of interest to educators and education researchers. This piece was co-authored by Hilda Borko, now on the faculty at Stanford and formerly a professor – and my advisor – at the U. of Colorado at Boulder.
Putnam, R. T. & Borko, H. (2000, January-February). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4-15.
Excerpt:
The education and research communities are abuzz with new (or at least re-discovered) ideas about the nature of cognition and learning. Terms like “situated cognition,” “distributed cognition,” and “communities of practice” fill the air. Recent dialogue in Educational Researcher (Anderson, Reder, & Simon, 1996, 1997; Greeno, 1997) typifies this discussion. Some have argued that the shifts in world view that these discussions represent are even more fundamental than the now-historical shift from behaviorist to cognitive views of learning (Shuell, 1986).
These new ideas about the nature of knowledge, thinking, and learning — which are becoming known as the “situative perspective” (Greeno, 1997; Greeno, Collins, & Resnick, 1996) — are interacting with, and sometimes fueling, current reform movements in education. Most discussions of these ideas and their implications for educational practice have been cast primarily in terms of students. Scholars and policymakers have considered, for example, how to help students develop deep understandings of subject matter, situate students’ learning in meaningful contexts, and create learning communities in which teachers and students engage in rich discourse about important ideas (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989; National Education Goals Panel, 1991; National Research Council, 1993).
Less attention has been paid to teachers–either to their roles in creating learning experiences consistent with the reform agenda or to how they themselves learn new ways of teaching. In this article we focus on the latter. Our purpose in considering teachers’ learning is twofold. First, we use these ideas about the nature of learning and knowing as lenses for understanding recent research on teacher learning. Second, we explore new issues about teacher learning and teacher education that this perspective brings to light. We begin with a brief overview of three conceptual themes that are central to the situative perspective–that cognition is (a) situated in particular physical and social contexts; (b) social in nature; and (c) distributed across the individual, other persons, and tools.
The full article is available online here.
March 9, 2010
The Washington Post reports:
A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming — all the diversions of a home computer beamed into the classroom to compete with the professor for the student’s attention…
Professors have banned laptops from their classrooms at George Washington University, American University, the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia, among many others. Last month, a physics professor at the University of Oklahoma poured liquid nitrogen onto a laptop and then shattered it on the floor, a warning to the digitally distracted. A student — of course — managed to capture the staged theatrics on video and drew a million hits on YouTube.
March 8, 2010
From the AP, via MSNBC:
Clickers first gained popularity in large science lecture halls as a way of gauging whether students understood the material. They have since migrated into smaller classrooms and can be found in nursing and other professional schools. Even middle schools and high schools are using them.
Research at the college level has found that students like using the devices and attendance often goes up. But results are mixed when it comes to learning. Some evidence suggests clicker use has led to only modest gains in retention and test scores, while other studies have detected little or no improvement, according to a November article in the North American Journal of Psychology.
March 4, 2010
The AP, via MSNBC, reports:
The U.S. Department of Education named 16 finalists Thursday in the first round of its “Race to the Top” competition, which will deliver $4.35 billion in school reform grants.
The grants are designed to reward states that have adopted and will continue implementing innovative reforms to improve student performance.
The money is part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus law, which provided an unprecedented $100 billion for schools.
February 22, 2010
The New York Times reports:
Macmillan, one of the five largest publishers of trade books and textbooks, is introducing software called DynamicBooks, which will allow college instructors to edit digital editions of textbooks and customize them for their individual classes.
Professors will be able to reorganize or delete chapters; upload course syllabuses, notes, videos, pictures and graphs; and perhaps most notably, rewrite or delete individual paragraphs, equations or illustrations.
While many publishers have offered customized print textbooks for years — allowing instructors to reorder chapters or insert third-party content from other publications or their own writing — DynamicBooks gives instructors the power to alter individual sentences and paragraphs without consulting the original authors or publisher.
“Basically they will go online, log on to the authoring tool, have the content right there and make whatever changes they want,” said Brian Napack, president of Macmillan. “And we don’t even look at it.”
February 19, 2010
Inside Higher Ed reports:
[An] infrastructure is emerging that would make it possible for dozens of states to share data about the students in their K-12 and postsecondary education systems, creating the equivalent of a national system of data on students’ educational progress.
That prospect excites many policy makers, who say the ability to gather and analyze such information is essential to reaching the widely embraced goal of getting more Americans into and out of higher education with a meaningful credential.
And at the very same time, it deeply troubles some Congressional Republicans and higher education privacy advocates, who say such a massive receptacle of data on students would inevitably impinge on individual privacy.
February 18, 2010
Science Direct reports:
A study found that people who used computer simulations to learn about moon phases understood the concepts just as well — and in some cases better — than did those who learned from collecting data from viewing the moon.
The results suggest the use of computer simulations in science classes may be an effective and often less expensive and time-consuming way to teach some science concepts, said Kathy Cabe Trundle, lead author of the study and associate professor of science education at Ohio State University.
“These results give us confidence that computer simulations can be effective in the classroom,” Trundle said. “But now we need to do further study to see if it works in others areas of science.”
Trundle conducted the study with Randy Bell, associate professor of science education at the University of Virginia. Their study appears online in the journal Computers & Education and will be published in a future print edition.
The article by Trundle & Bell is available here (free access to abstract; subscription required for full article).
Note: Cross-posted with my Cognitive Science Blog.
February 18, 2010
MSNBC reports:
Across the nation, public schools have been putting the brakes on grinding — also known as freak dancing — where partners repeatedly rub their pelvises together in a sexually suggestive manner. Some schools have canceled dances altogether. Others are implementing dress codes and even requiring students to sign agreements that spell out acceptable behavior. And some schools are turning to more unconventional means, such as Pacific Hills School in West Hollywood’s recent threat to turn up the lights and play Burt Bacharach if students started to grind, according to the Los Angeles Times.
February 18, 2010
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
Lower Merion School District officials used school-issued laptop computers to illegally spy on students, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
The suit, filed Feb. 11, says unnamed school officials at Harriton High School in Rosemont remotely activated the webcam on a student’s computer last year because the district believed he “was engaged in improper behavior in his home.”
An assistant principal at Harriton confronted the student for “improper behavior” on Nov. 11 and cited a photograph taken by the webcam as evidence.
Michael E. and Holly S. Robbins, of Penn Valley, filed the suit on behalf of their son.
They are seeking class action status for the suit.
When the computers were distributed to students, the district did not disclose that it could activate the cameras at any time, the suit alleges.
It claims the school district violated federal and state wiretapping laws and violated students’ civil rights.
February 15, 2010
The L. A. Times reports:
[Utah state] Sen. Chris Buttars [proposes] that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.
The notion quickly gained some traction among supporters who agreed with the Republican’s assessment that many seniors frittered away their final year of high school, but faced vehement opposition from other quarters, including in his hometown of West Jordan.
“My parents are against it,” Williams said. “All the teachers at the school are against it. I’m against it.”
Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The proposal comes as the state faces a $700-million shortfall and reflects the creativity — or desperation — of lawmakers.
“You’re looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them,” said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. “It’s left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions.”
