How can schools teach "critical-thinking skills?"

[chromotone]

I've seen on DU the lament that schools aren't teaching "critical-thinking skills." So how would schools go about this?

[Taverner]

1. In depth review of the Scientific Method

a day lesson on the socratic method

a statistics course

lots can be done

[MissDeeds]

33. Good ideas

The Socratic method is excellent. Open ended questions and group problem solving activities are also good.

[Rick Myers]

2. When I was in 10th grade, back in the 70's

Our American History teacher started the year with a full 4 weeks of NOTHING but critical thinking. It was the best moment of my education. But that was along time ago, before teach to the test was the norm...

[XemaSab]

73. Brilliant

History's a great place for critical thinking.

Homework assignment: Analyze each of the following passages. Who is writing the passage? What are they writing about? Who are they writing about? What are some of the possible biases inherent in their account?

Then give them diary entries from a slave owner, a slave, an Indian fighter, a Native American, an American revolutionary, a Brit fighting the Americans in the Revolution.... you could go on and on with this.

[boilerbabe]

95. This is perfect for the course I am taking...thanks! n/t

[devilgrrl]

3. I'd like to know when "critical-thinking skills" were ever taught?

It was "conform or else" at any school I had to go to.

[seabeyond]

7. this is what i am thinking. this was my biggest bitch with school 3 decades ago

it has always been little interaction. listen. learn.

[Sequoia]

12. AND DO HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK !!!

I hate all the homework teachers assign to the kids. It's so much and if kids don't do it they fail the stupid grade their in. It's a battleground.

[Mountainman]

20. And when kids get into higher education and there is homework what do you say?

[Sequoia]

53. *&^%$ !!! How's that?

[XemaSab]

74. Two things:

I didn't have that much homework in college. Reading, yes, busywork, no.

Also, I've read some folks on DU who have kids in grade school with 4 hours of homework a night, and that's just ridiculous.

[boilerbabe]

101. Gotta be prepared. n/t

[boilerbabe]

97. I was lucky

I also grew up during the 60s and 70s. There was a time where there was a lot of experimentation in the classroom. I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. The teachers allowed a lot of creativity with the students, and in some classes allowed us to write and perform our own plays. I don't think my education suffered from it at all!

I would probably skip school if I were subject to that "teach to the test" mentality that prevails today. I occasionally substituted (teaching) in the mid-90s. During the "politically correct" time, but before the No Child's Behind Left!

Any system that propogates blandness and conformity with young people (it's ok, once you are old and tired, I guess) should be shut down. I don't have as much invested in the educational system as those who have children, but now that I am taking online college courses, it has renewed my interest in it.

[seabeyond]

103. kids in texas school, and from what i see the teachers understand need for back and forth

and participation from the student and i believe that the kids really are getting it more than we did in the past. i am really more impressed with my childrens schools, teachers as i hear so much bitching going on from so many dissing schools today. my oldest is just to 7th grade. but.... i dont have a lot of bitching

now i do have all of kids communication and interaction at a higher expectation than a lot of parents and maybe they just take it into the classrooms and teacher simply allow cause the kid is doing.

[raccoon]

13. Same here. And crappy schools are nothing new. The ones I went to were crappy.

This was in the '50's and '60's.

There were some good schools but not in the poor district I went to school in.

[boilerbabe]

100. That's too bad..

We only had one district--small town in the middle of nowhere...

[proud2BlibKansan]

58. And I don't know of any schools that DID NOT teach critical thinking before NCLB

[devilgrrl]

64. I know of three schools that didn't teach "critical-thinking"

My elementary school, my Junior High School and my High School.

This was during the 70's-early 80's.


:hi:

[datasuspect]

65. our owners don't want us to think critically or question

then it would be easier for more people to know they are being hoodwinked.

they teach us enough so we can make useful comparative analyses of similar consumer products.

[boilerbabe]

102. Good point! n/t

[truedelphi]

4. I attended a very fine Catholic high school in the sixties

Freshman year was spent on the study of poetics

Sophomore year on the study of rhetoric.

Junior year on dialectics

And senior year was a compendium of all three.

Ask me to dissect an argument - and I can do it.

The real problem is not that schools don't know what or how to teach - it is that when you have a state run oligarchy, whose vested interests are to enslave the people in purchasing ever more toxic substances, it is far better that the citizenry doesn't think!!

[boilerbabe]

104. Consume, consume, consume! n/t

[seabeyond]

5. i teach it, demand it, expect it at home. not all things can be taught by school

some things, surely, the parent can do.

[boilerbabe]

105. Yes, it's a good thing not to place parental responsibilites

on the teachers. I get the impression that in a lot of schools, the teachers are expected to take on issues that parents should be responsible for. Most of the people that I know are pretty involved with their children and their education. But I realize that this is not true in many other areas...teachers should not have to be babysitters.

[glowing]

6. It was taught to me as well as my classmates... In order to return to these

skills, the standardizing, bastardizing of our school system needs to come to an abrupt stop.

[boilerbabe]

106. yes!! We need to bring back true education---

The "No CEO Left Behind" unfunded mandate needs to be jettisoned!!

[ThomWV]

8. It is as simple as a teacher demanding facts to back up assertions.

That is all it takes, just get people in the habit of thinking before they speak, having something to back themselves up other than the state of their glands.

[jwirr]

15. One of my college profs said we had learned everything we needed

to know if we had enough sense to ask one question, "How do you know?"

[seabeyond]

17. lol lol lol. ya.... i like some of those college professors. ya. n/t

[jwirr]

32. Oh, he was brilliant but his bottom line was "do the research." nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

59. One of my favorites is metacognition

Which means literally "I know what I know". If you know what you know and why you know it, you are doing some of the best critical thinking possible.

[boilerbabe]

Never thought before I spoke, but didn't attribute this to "glands"

Too funny!

[ChazII]

108. My school has recently started using

thinking maps. We require our students to tell "how they know what they know". It is a start and a step toward meta-cognition. We also have just been named a candidate school for the IB program at the elementary level.

[ixion]

9. by forcing students to think critically rather than just absorb and regurgitate, as it is now...

I wasn't asked to think critically in a class until I was a junior in college. Critical thinking skills should be taught from Kindergarten on forward, IMO.

[Eric J in MN]

10. Geometry - prove ____ with a series of logical statements. NT

NT

[HughBeaumont]

11. Schools teach obedience and coping with constant interruption.

That's no accident. They made it very much similar to the corporate world most of us are used to now.

[la la]

14. Critical Thinking Skills

WERE the educational way to go in the district I taught in in CA---from the middle 70s to about the middle 80s----then Language Arts Skills came along and critical thinking wasn't even talked about any longer.

That's one complaint I have about education---and basically the only one ( my husband and I taught a combination of almost 60 years!- so I'm teacher through and through!) my complaint is and has always been---the 'administrators' come up with good educational ideas at times, but----as soon as something else comes along- they drop the first great idea that works well and go on to something else. Back in the day, teachers were not even consulted about what works and what doesn't--actually, I still don't think they're consulted---the ednabobs just like to make it look that way.

( my husband was an administrator for a while, also, so I know of what I speak. He went back to the classroom because he was so aggravated by the whole thing.)

[Birthmark]

16. One of the best article I've ever seen on critical thinking...

...that I've ever seen:
http://www.csicop.org/si/9012/critical-thinking.html

It's simple, effective, and even has an easily remembered acronym. Seems like it could be taught in a day or two and then used in a broad range of circumstances to get to think critically as a matter of course.

[Mountainman]

26. Wow, I wish we had that link in the UFO believers thread this week.

I got royally ripped apart because I asked believers where the evidence of what they say the saw existed. One person said he was a scientist and I asked if the scientific method was used to gather evidence of space travelers and all he could do is rip me a new one!


"evidence based upon authority and/or testimony is always inadequate for any paranormal claim"

I would have to say that believers in space travel do not use critical thinking to arrive at their conclusions.

[Birthmark]

29. There's a UFO believers thread?

Let me at 'em!!! Link! Link! lol

[Mountainman]

31. Here you go

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3083286

[Birthmark]

48. Thanks I went looking and found it.

Put a couple of posts up. If history is any guide, I'll be set upon pretty quickly since I was logical, factual, and sensible. lol

[Mountainman]

52. The trend here at DU is to accept what the majority believes and defend it to the death!

It's almost like we need a bunch of liberals to tell us what to think just as freepers need a bunch of right wingers to tell them what to think.

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. The guy has a point.

In examining a phenomenon where the only evidence is a visual sighting, that equates to no evidence at all. And when you have the government taking pains to conceal any physical evidence, there will be nothing but visual evidence - therefore, no evidence.

But tens of thousands of people have seen "something". Skepticism is warranted, but dismissal is not.

[Mountainman]

46. In the critical thinking web site the professor says that UFO believers use the

convenient excuse that the evidence is hidden by the government. Dismissal of the idea of space travelers is very relevant here. People see something, they don't know what and take the popular explanation what they see are beings from another planet. I don't buy it, never will until there is real evidence.

[DCKit]

56. Wait a minute - I've seen several UFOs, but never any little gray or green peoples...

and I don't believe in leprechauns or fairies.

Are you arguing with those who believe in UFOs, or those who believe aliens are piloting the UFOs?

[Mountainman]

66. People see UFOs. Unidentified flying objects.

I'm not arguing that they haven't seen something that they can't explain. I'm saying that when they attribute what the see to beings from another planet I don't believe them or I don't agree with them.

There is no physical evidence in existence that proves that beings from another planet visited earth. So critical thinking would say that we don't know the source of what people see and without evidence we can't say what they saw was caused by beings from another planet visiting earth. And using the argument that the government hides the evidence does not support the idea either.

[Birthmark]

49. I just posted on that UFO thread.

I believe it is the definitive way in which UFO reports should be viewed. (Yeah, right.) But I do think it's a helpful post.

[Igel]

79. Good article.

I've never seen a college student that was taught actual critical thinking. Most in college can't do it; it takes work and a decent command of the facts, a kind of ruthless fairness that many Americans have no use or time for and a dedication to not only finding flaws, but finding strengths.

The private and public schools the kids went to did them a disservice.


One problem with the article is precisely the lack of ability to find strengths. I consider this an important feature in critical thinking: It's fine to falsify all the theories, but this can miss some important insights. For example, a false theory can handle the data much better than another false theory; or it may handle all the data in one area, and provide a useful framework for research in that area; or a theory that was falsified might be remedied and made whole again. I've seen students unable to acknowledge that a theory is pretty good, for all its imperfections; or to evaluate competing theories to find the most useful or adequate. All they've learned is "critical thinking = tearing down". Critical thinking is the means to an end, but that isn't it.

[Mountainman]

18. You teach children to question information and seek the truth.

My dad and one of my teachers did that for me. I remember a history class where we were discussing the burning of the Battleship Maine in Cuba. The history book said it was Cubans who blew up the ship. Our teacher stopped and asked us if we believed that. Then he said that it could have been some group that wanted to start a war such as the U.S. Government. We learned that what we read may or may not be the truth. I will never forget that.

My dad did a lot of the same.

[EFerrari]

43. I was lucky that way, too. Someone asked me, how do you know that?

really early on.

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. The best college professor I had was my Elementary School Science prof

I hated Science and was nervous about passing that class. But he made it so easy. I will never forget the day we learned about electrical circuits. As we walked in the classroom, he handed each one of us a battery, a copper wire and a little lightbulb. He told us to make the light come on. I was one of the last ones to figure it out but I did it. And to this day, I can show you how to wire that battery and lightbulb and make it come on. That was critical thinking at its finest.

[EFerrari]

62. My junior high was full of GREAT teachers.

And that's odd because middle school is usually such a difficult group of years.

I remember three science teachers who taught as a team. They introduced us to the concept "brainstorming", (which is pretty hard to do with mostly uptight young adolescents) and a social studies teacher who let us design our own ethnography -- although, we didn't know that's what it was at the time. Once I ordered some materials from Japan for his class and they never came. I got them the next semester -- they were sent by sea mail. lol! But, he nudged us and damn if we didn't take him up on it. :)

[aikoaiko]

19. Scientific method, rhetoric, and logic will get students pretty damn far with critical thinking.

All these skills take a lot of practice (drilling).

[LanternWaste]

21. Wouldn't that be part and parcel of match and science?

Wouldn't that be part and parcel of math and science, and only into college would it then be a discipline in and of itself? That's pretty much how I read things when I was in HS and college in the early and mid eighties...

But them it seems these days, everyone except the teachers themselves seem to be experts on what should and should not be taught... :sarcasm:

[Romulox]

22. Compulsory Home Economics (by which I mean ECONOMICS)

Learn to:

Balance a checkbook
Compare credit card offers
Read and understand basic consumer contracts
Understand how a mortgage works

[XemaSab]

75. I was musing yesterday that high school should have a WHOLE YEAR

of life skills... cooking, home ec, hemming a skirt, snaking a drain, fixing a car... basic dumdum stuff...

Hell of a lot more useful than half the crap I learned... :P

[ladywnch]

78. in my school is was an elective called 'consumer education'

and it was much like what you said including how to rent an apartment, what a lease was, what to look for in it, car loans, etc. only a handful of us took it. it was one of the best classes I took in HS.......second only to POD/Economics.

Critical thinking (which was the basis of the OP) was taught early on in my small, steel town school district. As with most professions, some taught it better than others. Based on what I see my step children being taught (and not being taught) I now look back at my school years as having been college quality!! NCLB has completely runied education in this country!!!

My kids are in 'advance' level classes and get 4.0 grading yet I am hard pressed to tell you what they are learning. I have sadly come to realize that 'advance' level classes are actually working to what we knew as grade level and the rest of them are in what we would have called remedial ed.
It is just plain disturbing to me. My 8th grader's reading and language skills are about what I would have expected from a 6th grader. His knowledge of history/social studies.....about the same. Math seems more advanced for 8th grade, but I was a bit slow with math so I'm not real sure about that.

NCLB = future cannon fodder/sheep

[LSK]

23. well when I went to school, somewhere I learned about sources

Something about making points and getting quotes and sourcing things from books.

I find that the problem really is that nobody knows how to judge a source anymore.

Do kids have to write term papers anymore?

[XemaSab]

76. What is this "judging sources" you speak of?

:shrug:

-GDP

[SoCalDem]

24. Teachers have to be able to spend time talking to the kids

and engaging them in discussion... Do they have that time anymore? I don't think so..

and teachers may be afraid to start discussions that involve "thinking", for fear of "upsetting" this group or that..or of being accused of being biased..

I think that more and more teachers are just showing up, teaching the text, and going home..

My friends who are teachers are quite discouraged:(

[seabeyond]

25. the sinking

ship and self swiftboating is funny

[Hydra]

27. Want my honest opinion?

I learned how to think critically by being a smartass.

I questioned, I mocked, I insinuated, I watched and I learned.

Since I'm still a smartass that refuses to automatically believe even "accepted fact," I still do it here and in my daily life.

Remember that the next time a child asks you why the sky is blue and you can't be bothered to help them find out the real answer. There is no substitute for the question and the courage to ask it.

[MindPilot]

28. I had an English teacher in high school who required everyone

to bring a copy of a news magazine to class every Friday. Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, the local paper.

The exercise was to compare sources for the same story and learn how to separate fact from opinion & bias.

[BlooInBloo]

30. (1) Get smart people as the teachers....

... The rest is easy - at least on the education-system side of things.

Quadruple teacher pay immediately.

[timtom]

34. Turn off the ******* teevee!

I also recommend (in addition to the logic and rhetoric mentioned above ) a good healthy infusion of classical studies. Learn Latin or Greek and at least one modern language.

Read science fiction from the 50's and 60's.

View classic movies.

Discuss.

Watch operas.

Discuss.

[RaleighNCDUer]

35. As if so many here would recognize it if they saw it.

Sometimes, I despair.

[BlooInBloo]

39. Yup.

[annabanana]

36. All they have to do is run a couple of segments of "TV News"

and de-construct it.

Did it tell you WHAT happened? Where? Exactly WHO? (often a big blank when the "who" has big lawyers) and Why?

Also: What information is left out? (they can even break them down like math problems. . "what do you need to know to solve this puzzle?..what's left out?"

[RaleighNCDUer]

37. Start with psych profiles of the teachers to weed out the authoritarians.

Authoritarians despise critical thinking.

Most the damage done to kids in school is by authoritarians. Unfortunately, there is a certain personality type that is drawn to education because of the power they have over students - they reacted against it themselves in school, and became teachers to become the ones wielding power. Only after they are there do they realize their power is ONLY over the students - the DOE, the administrators, Parent/Teacher Associations, all wield power over the teacher. This frustrates them, making them even more abusive of the kids.

Teaching should not be in the hands of people who are afraid of being challenged by 12 year olds.

[knitter4democracy]

51. You can't. The worst authoritarians teach in the education colleges.

The worst one I ever dealt with taught the education weed out class to freshmen at our college. He was just plain awful, and it was all I could do to get an A in his class. I'd never had a teacher so full of himself and his own power before.

Most of the people in my education classes, though, weren't authoritarian types at all. I was in secondary ed, though, and I know some of the guys in elementary ed were full of themselves. I did teach with some authoritarian types, but most of the time, if a kid had his facts straight, they'd let it slide. It was always funny how the students those teachers hated were the ones I loved most.

[proud2BlibKansan]

61. The authoritarians always become principals

They rarely stay in the classroom.

[XemaSab]

77. In my experience it's the vice principals who were the martinets.

I had this one in high school who was always bucking for principal... after about 5 principals came and went she finally copped a clue and transfered to a different school.

But yeah, they saw right through ol' Sandy. :P

[knitter4democracy]

90. Really? It's always been the opposite in my experience.

At the schools were I taught and where I went, the vice principal was always overworked and overtired and much more likely to be merciful than the principal him/herself. The one at the last school where I taught before leaving to have our daughter was still teaching, too, and he was wonderful. He was the one who really ran the school, and he always erred on the side of mercy but got firm when he needed to. It was the principal and the social worker (her crony) who were the worst. I hated dealing with them and kept discipline issues between the kid and me as much as I could, worried that they'd ruin it.

[knitter4democracy]

89. Also very, very true.

That prof I had was a retired superintendant. I remember feeling sorry for anyone in his old district.

[Fumesucker]

91. Teaching should not be in the hands of people who are afraid of being challenged by 12 year olds.

That is a profound statement.

Do you think the intellectually curious would on the whole make better teachers?

[Marr]

38. I really think parents need to be teaching this more than schools.

Children certainly aren't learning to think by sitting in front of a television set for 6 hours every day. Anyone who would allow (or encourage) their child to spend their time in that way is clearly not very concerned about that child's development.

[TZ]

55. Bad idea

Do you really think freepers and fundies WANT their children to learn critical thinking skills?

[riverdeep]

40. Good ideas mentioned so far.

Especially teaching the scientific method as it applies to everyday life. "Your car isn't starting? Is it more likely to be a bad starter motor or battery, or is as likely to be a witch across the street that cursed you?"

But one thing that's often neglected is letting kids know it's okay to fail. We get them to think if you don't know something, you're stupid. This creates unnecessary anxiety and steals the joy from learning. Instead, let them know ignorance is a natural state, it's okay to be confused, and most of all- knowledge is tentative. What you think is true today, you might have doubts about tomorrow. So while you should be diligent in arriving at your conclusions, be a fair weather friend to your ideas. With this base set, then you can give them the tools (critical thinking) to navigate their way through the mess.

Oh, and have them read 'Information Anxiety' (original, not the follow-up in 2000) by Richard Saul Wurman (founder of TED). A great book on how to make sense of information and contains many mind-opening lessons on how to learn. It came out in 1989, but the lessons are timeless.

[RaleighNCDUer]

88. Right in line with one of the greatest bumper stickers I ever saw:

"Don't believe everything you think."

[EFerrari]

41. I must be missing something. How can schools pretend to teach

without teaching critical thinking skills? I taught them both via discussion and as part of written assignments.

[Lorien]

47. Most modern public schools now only drill students for testing

(part of the "no child left behind" debacle). Obviously memorizing facts and figures is not the same as utilizing critical thinking skills. Besides, a fascist government wants a population which is free of critical thinkers! And as far as essays go; many students are now getting away with simply copying and pasting info from the internet into a paper and turning it in as their own.

[EFerrari]

54. What a very sad state of affairs.

:(

[Dora]

44. More reading, more writing, more group discussion, less testing. nt

[Lorien]

45. My 1970's "hippie commune" school taught critical thinking skills

It was a very simple method;instead of asking us for an answer to a question like "When was the civil war"? our teachers would ask "what events and beliefs of the time contributed to the conflict that became America's civil war"? They didn't just want facts and figures; they wanted a round table discussion that each and every student contributed to. They wanted debates and "light bulb moments", not just regurgitation of textbook quotations. Test questions were usually in essay form and often began with "what was ____ and why, in your opinion, is it important or unimportant"? Everything was very hands on. Biology courses often took place in a forest or on a pond. Physics classes might take place in a glass blower's studio. We were never simply given answers to remember; we had to discover them for ourselves, often using our own resources.

[knitter4democracy]

50. When I taught, that was a huge part of my curriculum.

English teachers teach reading, writing, thinking, and dreaming, as Sharon Draper says. That was my job.

Essay writing was a huge part of the curriculum in the schools I taught in. Every essay is at least slightly persuasive (you're trying to persuade the reader you're right about whatever you're writing about), and the best way to persuade is to make a claim, follow it up with evidence, and then explain how the evidence backs up the claim. People listen to evidence, especially if it's explained to them.

You can teach critical thought in any subject. In math, you make them write out their thinking process step-by-step. In science, you make them write up lab reports and write out what their evidence is and why it proves the hypothesis. In history classes, you make them write essays with at least three good sources. Learning a foreign language is an act of critical thought itself, so I think it should be required of every student, regardless of track.

Critical thinking skills are in every state mandated curriculum I've ever seen. It's more than possible to teach it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

57. It's easy when we don't have to test test test

[datasuspect]

63. classical education?

[Political Heretic]

67. The could start with some text books that are already available:

http://www.criticalthinking.org/page.cfm?CategoryID=54

I would recommend this book be part of a core requirements of a Liberal Arts university for Freshmen:
http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Thinking-Taking-Professional-Personal/dp/0130647608/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207176043&sr=8-2

[Political Heretic]

68. Critical Thinking isn't abstract. It is a professional discipline and quantifiable skill.

Critical Thinking isn't some inherent trait that you "cultivate" organically. It is something that is taught. And there are resources out there providing curriculum to do it.

I linked some above, but there are more.

[Spike89]

69. project-based learning (PBL) works, but...

it takes a dedicated teacher (there is no machine-graded test) and to do it well, it needs to be done systemically through multiple curriculum areas. It's also notoriously difficult to assess "success" in hard, concrete numbers to satisfy NCLB and other crude oversight schemes.

Basically, PBL is nothing new, creating a report is PBL. Some educators add that the project must concern an authentic project. (i.e., identify an endangered species and three potential solutions vs. write a report on polar bears). What's different now is that it is a bit easier now for students to actually pursue knowledge in and out of the classroom than merely absorbing it from an "all-knowing" teacher/lecturer. That the inverse is also true--projects can more easily be shared/published--also enhances the benefits of modern PBL.

The sad thing is, although PBL is almost universally accepted as an effective teaching and learning method, much of the current system seems almost designed to hinder it (high-stakes testing, over-large class sizes, emphasis on standardization).

[Political Heretic]

70. Critical Thinking Handbook: K-3

http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=150&catalogID=214&cateID=132

Critical Thinking Handbook: 4th - 6th Grades
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=150&catalogID=214&cateID=132

Critical Thinking Handbook: 6th - 9th Grades
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=150&catalogID=214&cateID=132

Critical Thinking Handbook: High School
http://www.criticalthinking.org/store-page.cfm?P=products&ItemID=153&catalogID=214&cateID=132

[LWolf]

71. There are many ways to do so.

Critical thinking is an integral part of inquiry-based education.

Adding elements of depth and complexity to the core curriculum at any age or level will foster higher-level thinking.

More open-ended activities that look for multiple solutions/responses, and evaluate all of them for accuracy and efficiency, also encourage critical thinking.

Designing lessons around Bloom's Taxonomy.

How would schools go about doing any of this?

First, make the primary curriculum goal to be thinking, not standardized lists of isolated skills.

Second, focus on the process of learning, including the thinking involved, instead of standardized test scores.

Curriculum: a balance between depth and breadth

Finally, a structure that encourages depth of thought by providing:

Adequate physical plant, and funding for enough staff to keep class sizes low and provide abundant support staff.

Change in daily and yearly schedules to allow time for in-depth learning of content.

[MissB]

81. That'd be our school.

(see my post down-thread)

We're fortunate to be able to fund the school beyond what the state provides so our class sizes are really low and we still have all the extra staff that makes a school a good experience - people like librarians, counselors, tag coordinators, special ed folks, PE teachers, art teachers, music teachers.... Small classes do make a difference.

The school is small enough that the principal can really work with the teachers from term to term on scheduling that works for collaboration of various grades and disciplines.

What I've found interesting is that while the school most certainly doesn't emphasize teaching to the test, our school district consistently posts among the top scores in the state. Giving the kids the tools to think and reason goes a long way.

[LWolf]

92. In the days before high-stakes testing,

I found that to be the same. We always took tests, although not so many and not with such an emphasis. When you focus on thinking, the kids do well on the test without much stress.

That changed for us when a single school in our large district didn't make AYP for a couple of years and triggered legal action. The whole district has to come up with an "improvement plan," and part of that plan will be to further standardize curriculum and instruction. That's when the scripted curriculums etc. were instituted. Our test scores actually went down with the changes in the plan; we had to stop doing what worked to provide documentation that our district was authoritarian enough about standards to keep the district from takeover.

That, and the mathematical reality that the formulas used for AYP pretty much guarantee that ALL schools will eventually "fail," and you've got a recipe for disaster.

NCLB doesn't care how well your students were doing to begin with. You WILL improve every year by a certain amount, or else. Of course, the better you are already doing, the less room there is statistically for "improvement," and the less improvement you show.

[BeHereNow]

72. Ha-ha-hah! Can I have some of what you've been smoking?

Ain't gonna happen.
The corporate octopus has its tentacles in that money pot too.

There are too prominent levels of corruption that relate to your question.

1. There is BIG money in the testing- textbooks are designed to
factor into that; we teach to test, not to stimulate learning.
the taxpayers pay for both the corporate issued books and their
stupid tests.

2. "The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America" by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt,
whistle blower, articulates quite clearly the moment when corporate powers
changed education in American to suit THEIR goals; a school to work model.

http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/pages/book.htm

John Taylor Gatto, an award winning educator also explains a great deal about
the loss of critical thinking skills in the educational process if you are interested.

BHN

[MissB]

80. Our school starts with literature groups in the early years.

In fact, my youngest started in a librarian-run literature group in kindergarten. He was an advanced reader, but the lit group was for 1st graders who were advanced readers, so we're not talking 4th grade here.

The teachers use Bloom's Taxonomy and ask questions that move the kids from the first three categories of Bloom's and into the last three categories. The last three categories are analysis, synthesis and evaluation and the theory goes that these are the categories that help teach the higher order thinking skills.

The literature groups are great to sit in on through grade school. Beyond that, I don't know because my kids are still in grade school. Our high school is a college-prep school (public) and the drop out rate is nil. How the early work translates to the higher grades isn't something I've experienced yet, but the school is rated as an exceptional school (not that I enjoy the kids having to test, but the teachers definitely don't teach to the test).

[elleng]

82. My daughters' school:

"Our curriculum evolves from an understanding of the stages of cognitive, social/emotional, artistic, and physical development. It promotes active, collaborative learning with an emphasis on building conceptual understanding, promoting creative, critical and analytical thinking, and encouraging problem solving. Lowell's mission is to create an inclusive community of life-long learners in which each child is valued and respected.

When provided with a stimulating environment, the guidance of teachers, and parental support, each child can become a motivated learner and a responsible citizen." >>>

http://www.lowellschool.org/about_our_school/philosophy.aspx

[MilesColtrane]

83. Teach logic, basic debating skills (the ability to identify fallacies), critical reading.

[Breeze54]

84. Parents should start that when the kids are babies!

The schools should enhance it but all should be involved.

[Echo In Light]

86. Exactly. For instance, from very early on, we taught our daughter that "bad words" don't exist

They're merely dead symbols that people give meaning to. It depends on the context in which they're used, and of course who is using them and why. That, and a crucial aspect of understanding people and society is to always question authority and hierarchy. To defy the laws of tradition is a crusade only of the brave.

[defendandprotect]

85. How are we going to get rid of "Leave no child behind"? Will it be parents . . .

and a fast upheaval --- or Congress and the slow road?

[El Pinko]

87. There are a lot of good ideas here...

...another thing should be that school shouldn't just be about training kids to produce ANSWERS. They should be asking QUESTIONS, constantly.

From the earliest grade levels, there should be tons of exercises aimed at getting kids to ASK QUESTIONS about all sorts of topics.

[elleng]

99. Check this out;

http://www.learner.org/resources/series172.html

[elleng]

93. The Learning Classroom

http://www.learner.org/resources/series172.html\

also on pbs.

[boilerbabe]

94. Get rid of "No Child Left Behind" would be the first thing n/t

[erebusman]

96. stop teaching conformity? NT

[elleng]

98. Is 'conformity' taught?

If so, how and by whom?

[dysfunctional press]

107. some educators are onto something that seems to work well, and shows great future potential

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3107661&mesg_id=3107661

[ThoughtCriminal]

109. Science and debate

Our school had a terrific debate team. It's not that we had a great coach, new debaters mostly learned from the more experienced team members and from tournament experience.

Science was not just taught, we learned how discoveries were made and how incorrect assumptions were challenged and discarded when experimental evidence disproved them.

And this was in Alabama.