Tis a time for simplicity.
Amongst the piles of edu-data, reform proposals, governmental mandates, and clutchings for new ways to improve student learning outcomes, one simple explanation remains. Learning is a transaction between the learner and what is to be learned. This is an application of Occam’s Razor which tells us “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor
Strip away the nouveau and extraneous. Technology. Assessments. Instructional delivery. Parental choice and politics. Educational financing. After the onion is peeled, the remainder is a student confronting what is to be learned. Or, is it what is learned confronting a student? Yes, these are Occam’s two remaining variables. And, this is how we always should approach the proposition of improving educational outcomes. How can we magnetize that confrontation? How can we make the learner’s interest in the learning compelling? How can we make what is to be learned compelling for the learner? This is the first and most important place where “we”, the educational enterprise, enters the learning interaction.
The educator’s constant quandary is “How to illuminate, amplify, and activate, and perpetuate” the learner’s interaction with what is to be learned. It is eyes-on, hands-on, and minds-on work. It is personal and persistent. It begins every morning and expands across the day. Learner – teacher – learning. This is the most basic of educational propositions. How can I help you to learn?
Education actually is this simple. Sadly, the enterprise makes it much more difficult. Within our educational enterprise, there are propositions that Occam would say “strip it away.” And, there are propositions that Occam would tell us to selectively utilize.
Teachers are inundated with data, recordkeeping, and time-consuming chores related to data management. This has little to do with our basic proposition. Strip it away. The enterprise should be clear about what is to be learned and how it will be assessed. This is all a learner and teacher need to know.
The conversation about and implementation of new academic standards and new state assessments are exceptionally heavy in controversy. The emotionality of these issues distract both learners and teachers. Strip it away.
The politics of parent choice of school options is loud and irrelevant to daily learning. Strip it away from the schoolhouse.
Teachers are expected to be tech-users and social media communicators. Very 21st century and very chic. Considering the dynamic of the learning interaction – how to make it compelling – the use of technology and social media are very assistive. Technology can be the flashlight that illuminates what is to be learned and social media the conduit for teacher/learner talking. Great! Optimize it.
The more that we can do to clarify and personalize each student’s relationship with what is to be learned and the more we can strip away the impediments that obscure the teacher’s organization and management of teaching, the more likely we will be in causing student learning.