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Week One:
Did you ever contemplate why your English teacher and science teacher never got together on even one project assignment? Have you ever wondered why you can’t remember a particular day from a high school algebra class, or a specific lecture from a day of college art appreciation? Do you ever doubt why you are teaching in the first place? These are questions that we as educators secretly ask ourselves.
One of the most important concepts that you should learn and practice to enhance your teaching is that no information or knowledge is an entity that stands alone, but that all things are related. History is related to science, which is related to the arts, to languages, to mathematics and to all human endeavors. This is a fact of our lives and of the universe.
Unfortunately, since the beginning of the past century the American educational system has favored a pigeonholed approach to teaching. We have divided all information into convenient parcels of knowledge that are simple to package and deliver. It is much easier to put all math information into one textbook and all of science into another. It is simpler to administer and grade one standardized test that is broken into sections than to assess how they might actually be able to solve a problem. By breaking learning into component subject matter, we can easily plan what needs to be done for the next day, week, or quarter. We can effortlessly document grades for math, science, language arts, and social science on a report card. We can readily calculate the bell curve. We can quickly take the joy out of learning.
Many attribute this trend toward standardization of knowledge to the industrial revolution and the ideas of Henry Ford. To learn more about Henry Ford and the mechanization of American industry, click:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmass.htm
Around the beginning of the 20th century The Ford Motor Company metamorphosed mankind’s approach to the production of the automobile, and practically everything else being fabricated, by the innovation of the assembly line. With this standardization American industry soon found that the overall yield of the worker was increased ten-fold. Many thought that if it worked for Ford that it would work for other industry as well. It had such enormous success in those other industries that leaders in education also began to wonder, “Why wouldn’t it work in the schools?” Scholars readily introduced this concept into the classroom believing that they would make our educational system more efficient and productive. But a child’s mind is not a piece of metal. The human brain does not learn best in the assembly line. A myriad of today's educational problems can be traced to a century of implementing these beliefs. These include low test scores, student disinterest in school, illiteracy, inability for bright students to grasp related material in other domains. It has also yielded a whole generation of adults who can’t recall the rudimentary information of basic concepts like how photosynthesis works, or what makes the clouds drift by; something they were all exposed to in fifth grade.
There is a better way to learn and it should encompass these four concepts: Learning should appeal to our natural sense of curiosity. Learning should be open-ended. Learning should be relevant. Learning should be connected.
In his book “Awakening Genius in the Classroom”, Thomas Armstrong outlines twelve qualities that are dimensions of genius. These qualities include curiosity, playfulness, imagination, creativity, wonder and others. He writes, “The genius is a symbol of an individual’s potential: all that a person may be lies locked inside during the early years of development. So, when we say as educators that we want to help students to develop their potential, we’re essentially saying that we want them to find their inner genius and support them in guiding it into pathways that can lead to personal fulfillment and to the benefit of those around them.”
Armstrong, T. (1998). Awakening Genius in the Classroom. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development ASCD, Alexandria, Va.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences allows children to advance towards learning from of myriad of abilities, perspectives, and strengths. In his research he has discovered that the brain processes information in a variety of specific locations and diverse ways. Gardner also suggests seven entry points that general classroom teachers can use to help or ignite the learner's interest. These seven entry points are: Narrative, Quantitative/Numerical, Logical, Foundational/Existential, Aesthetic, Hands-on, and Social.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed; Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books.
More simply stated the intelligences are the ways that individual brains process information. The parallel entry points are ways to access these brain processes. A multiple intelligence classroom can also be used as an effective means to fulfill curriculum standards. By presenting information in the classroom through thematic instruction, students see that all information is connected.
What great minds are not driven by the sheer joy of the discipline that interests them? When we are engrossed, why should our curiosities be denied just because the book or the hour ends? What pleasure is there in study when even the teacher can’t comprehend or communicate a subject’s relevance? Who would refute the relationship between the science of the galaxy and the mathematics within Einstein’s theories? These are the concepts that are inherent in understanding and utilizing seamless thematic instruction. We will learn much more about this as the course progresses.
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