Education Online

Suppose someone showed you a novel gadget and told you, “Here’s how it works,” while demonstrating a single function, such as pushing a button. What would you do when they handed it to you?You’d probably push the button. But what if the gadget had other functions? Would it occur to you to search for them, if your teacher hadn’t alluded to their existence?Maybe, maybe not. It turns out that there is a “double-edged sword” to pedagogy: Explicit instruction makes children less likely to engage in spontaneous exploration and discovery. A study by MIT researchers and colleagues compared the behavior of children given a novel toy under four different conditions, finding that children expressly taught one of its functions played with the toy for less time and discovered fewer things to do with it than children in the other three scenarios.

Suppose someone showed you a novel gadget and told you, “Here’s how it works,” while demonstrating a single function, such as pushing a button. What would you do when they handed it to you?

You’d probably push the button. But what if the gadget had other functions? Would it occur to you to search for them, if your teacher hadn’t alluded to their existence?

Maybe, maybe not. It turns out that there is a “double-edged sword” to pedagogy: Explicit instruction makes children less likely to engage in spontaneous exploration and discovery. A study by MIT researchers and colleagues compared the behavior of children given a novel toy under four different conditions, finding that children expressly taught one of its functions played with the toy for less time and discovered fewer things to do with it than children in the other three scenarios.

(via teamteachers)

Source: web.mit.edu

"That Crazy Lady's Blog": Twenty Things I have Learned about Education from Reading Online Blog Posts of One Midwestern Community Newspaper.

donotcallmecrazy:

Within the last six months, teachers have been vilified by politicians, media, and the general population. Specifically, public school teachers have been blamed for current economic conditions due to their “lavish” pay and benefit package and have been told they are the primary reason for a…

Source: donotcallmecrazy

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flaminghomer:

Well, that was a waste of time.
Janey, school is never a waste of time.
Since we have fifteen minutes until recess, please put down your pencils and stare at the front of the room.

(via educationmajorapple)

Source: flaminghomer

a-v-p:

Procrastination doesn’t pay, people! We have digital homework and I know when everyone turns in their stuff. The people who turned it in a half hour or less before the deadline all happened to get C’s or below; the people who turned it in earlier got B’s or above. I noticed this after I graded all of them, and I graded them without looking at the timestamps.

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a-v-p:

Procrastination doesn’t pay, people! We have digital homework and I know when everyone turns in their stuff. The people who turned it in a half hour or less before the deadline all happened to get C’s or below; the people who turned it in earlier got B’s or above. I noticed this after I graded all of them, and I graded them without looking at the timestamps.

(via a-v-p-deactivated20111230)

Teacher, your race is white, but your skin is pink colors. Why they call it “white”? Race name should be “pink”. Also my color is peach skin color. Why English people think is “yellow”? So crazy. I am not a yellow!

a 10-year-old ESL student of mine breaking down racist binaries already. LOVE IT. (via gold-notebook)

Source: golden-notebook