New survey findings from learning experience design firm MeTEOR Education indicate that very traditional, scripted approaches to schooling may be holding back more than one-half of all US teachers and their students.
The Schools of Hope survey, with more than 7,000 educators responding, found that one in four educators (25%) categorized their schools as “very traditional” and twenty-nine percent (29%) indicated their schools are just beginning to integrate project-based, real-world learning approaches.
The K-12 Mindshift cohort has just released a new book that takes aim at some of these specific challenges. Co-authors Rex Miller, Bill Latham, and Brian Cahill worked with a team of more than 60 career educators, a wide variety of specialists, NFP organizations, and business community leaders that led to Humanizing the Education Machine: How to Create Schools That Turn Disengaged Kids Into Inspired Learners.
The negative impact of scripted, rote, “machine-like” teaching and learning styles has most recently been illustrated by Latham, Miller and the efforts of the K-12 Mindshift. Scripted, “one size fits all” schooling characterized by testing and rote learning often led to disengaged students and demoralized teachers. Latham, an ardent proponent of education reform and an Accredited Learning Environment Planner, notes that “The surprise was the number of educators reporting a lack of significant progress towards modern practices.”
MeTEOR Education, Bill Latham and Rex Miller will present their complete findings at the upcoming EdShift regional events in 2017.
