Published by JohnL on 16 May 2008
in Administration, Arithmetic and mathematics, Content learning, Musings, News, Policy, Reading, Research, Spelling, Teacher education, Technology, The press and Written Expression.
My colleague Dan Willingham has posted a marvelous video that’s an introduction to thinking about neuroscience and education. Under the title “Brain-based Education: Fad or Breakthrough,” he illustrates important elements about what are reasoned extrapolations from cognitive neuroscience to education and what are not.
Update (18 May 2008): It’s heartening to see that other sites are pointing to Dan’s video. Here’s a preliminary list (please add others via the comments):
Update (7 June 2008): A couple of days ago, Dan posted a new version of the video; I’ve modified the links in the box accordingly.
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Don Hirsch published an editorial in Education Week that tells it true. We need, he argues, to place a greater emphasis on what and how we teach during children’s early school years. Of course, he champions his recommendation for adopting a clear curriculum during the early years, too. But, the big idea is that the primary and elementary grades are very important if students are to be able to excel in high school and college.
Continue reading ‘Hirsch hits homer’
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Published by JohnL on 27 June 2007
in Administration, Arithmetic and mathematics, Assessment, Behavior Management, Content learning, News, Policy, Reading, Research, Social behavior, Spelling, Teacher education and Written Expression.
Our tour of the Republic of Korea has been wonderful. The temples, the foods, and (especially) the people have been quite delightful. Although Pat Lloyd and I have been seeing some sights, I’ve also been meeting with special educators in Changwon, Busan, and Seoul.
Continue reading ‘Korea talks’
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Several years ago I published a paper for some folks. Carl Binder, Elizabeth Haughton, and Barbara Bateman had written Fluency: Achieving True Mastery in the Learning Process and were looking for a way to disseminate it. It’s been out in the wild since 2002 and I know a few folks have read it. But lots more folks should read it, in my view. So I’m issuing a reminder about it here.
How can you tell whether someone has truly mastered a skill? What is the measurable indicator that a person really knows how to do something? These questions should be at the heart of every teaching decision, every observation of a child’s performance, and every evaluation we make about the success of an educational program. Yet for many educators, and certainly for most parents, answers to these questions are anything but clear. Most of us have grown up in a “percentage correct world” where 100% correct is the best anyone can do. But is perfect accuracy the definition of mastery? Or is there another dimension that makes the difference? In fact, we see many children and adults who can perform skills and demonstrate knowledge accurately enough – given unlimited time to do so. But the real difference that we see in expert performers is that they behave fluently – both accurately and quickly, without hesitation.
Continue reading ‘Promoting mastery’
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Zig Engelmann’s original plan for publishing his recollections of the Follow Through Project called for PDFs of chapters to be available on Zigsite.com for two weeks each. In response to people who learned of their availability too late, he as created “something of a curtain call.” Get ‘em while you can!
DURING THE WEEK OF MONDAY, MARCH 12, ALL CHAPTERS WILL BE ON FOR ONE WEEK, THROUGH SUNDAY MARCH 18. Then, for sure, they will not return.
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Published by JohnL on 28 February 2007
in Administration, Arithmetic and mathematics, Assessment, Behavior Management, Content learning, Musings, News, Parents, Reading, Research, Social behavior, Spelling, Teacher education, Technology, The press and Written Expression.
Good news for those who discovered too late that Zig Engelmann was publishing a history of his time in education. The chapters were available only briefly (2 weeks each) but Zig’s making the entire product available again briefly.
If you missed downloading any of the earlier chapters of “The Outrage of
Project Follow Through,” Zig is re posting ALL chapters on Monday, March 12
about 8am pacific and will leave them up until Monday, March 19, around 8am
pacific.
Bryan
Bryan Wickman,
Executive Director
Association for Direct Instruction
Save the dates. Get it while it’s free. Go to zigsite.com.
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Linda Seebach, an editorial writer for the Rocky Mountain News, published a column recounting the story of Zig Engelmann’s book, The Outrage of Project Follow Through: 5 Million Failed Kids Later. Here’s her lead.
I’ve been reading one of the most important education books you’ll likely never have a chance to read. It’s by Siegfried Engelmann, and it’s about Direct Instruction, the structured curriculum he began to develop in the early 1960s, how DI participated in a federal study called Project Follow Through, and how the results of that study - which demonstrated that DI produced superior outcomes for at-risk children - were essentially disappeared from the educational landscape by hostile educators and bureaucrats.
It’s good to see that some of the mainstream press is picking up this story. Kudos to Ms. Seebach. Link to her column.
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Trina Spencer and Tim Slocum of Utah State University report that they are hoping to develop a line of research on using Direct Instruction (DI) with children with Autism. As a first step, they are creating a comprehensive catalog of current DI practices with this population. They hope to use the results of their survey to plan a series of research projects on the topic.
Tim sent this set of requests:
- If you use DI with children with Autism we ask that you take a few minutes to complete the brief survey below and return it to Trina at tds [at] cc [dot] usu [dot] edu.
- If you know of others who use DI with this population please forward this message to them.
- If you are interested in collaborating on future research, please let us know. Please respond to Trina at tds [at] cc [dot] usu [dot] edu.
Link for downloading the survey.
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