Forbes April 5, 2021 Linda Darling Hammond
If we really want to support learning, the return to school should not include these staple features of an outdated approach to learning that research has found actually undermine achievement:
- Testing students to label and track them into “high,” “average,” and “low” groups that are segregated by perceived ability — and often by race, class, and language background as well;
- Offering regimented drill and kill remedial instruction in these segregated groups, focused on filling gaps in basic skills in the artificial ways they are assessed on multiple choice tests, which then often causes them to be taught in equally artificial ways;
- “Personalizing” learning by putting students in front of programmed computers for machine-based instruction for long hours at a time — or piles of worksheets that offer the same decontextualized approach to learning;
- Punishing students who disengage or express frustration and despair by excluding them from the classroom or removing “privileges” like recess and library time;
- Placing the neediest students in remedial classes with the least trained and experienced teachers who are least likely to know how to create productive learning environments.
- Read the whole article here
