Changing Education Paradigms

Yesterday at my district's voluntary PD "Leadership Academy", we watched and discussed an interesting video from RSA Animate.  I'd seen and enjoyed several other thought-provoking videos from RSA Animate in the spring, but this one is even better!



The basic "big ideas" out of our small group's discussion ended up being:

• How do we change education in radical ways to benefit our students when the current structure is so ingrained in our society and "education reform" is emphasizing standardized testing?
• If we each do as much as we can in our own classrooms to engage students in 21st Century Skills, can our excellent district be a leader for others in changing education from the inside out?
• Another article we read (by Diane Ravitch) that was supposed to be a counterpoint to the video reminded us that subject matter knowledge is still important too.  We concluded that the article isn't really a counterpoint to the video, but an addition: so-called 21st Century Skills are essential to learning, but so is content.  In the article, Ravitch points out that "one cannot think critically until one has quite a lots of knowledge to think about."  

Another quote from the same article that I really loved: "Until we teach our teachers and our students to love knowledge and to love learning, we cannot expect them to use their minds well." (Diane Ravitch)