Tip:
All the answers on Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader? are facts that may or may not be very important for you to remember. The kids learn them as part of the curriculum, but they are facts, information. Adults did learn most of these facts long ago. Now they know that if they need this information, they can find it on the Internet. Students and teachers can find the information they need when they need it. The teacher no longer controls the information.
In fact, the world is changing even faster than schools. Instead of requiring workers who've memorized facts, the workplace needs knowledge workers who can think on their own and who are innovative and creative. This shift will require that teachers adapt their teaching methods.
The difference between knowledge and information is that information is what you know and knowledge is what you do with that information.
If all you ever do is just give back the answers as they were given to you, you don't have the tools to think on your own. Kids know a lot more than we give them credit for—in fact, there is no way we can outsmart them. Check out this video on YouTube. It was a commercial that aired in Europe of a student who finds a clever way to outsmart the teacher:
How do you make learning more engaging and relevant for students?
- The enGauge 21st Century Skills
- Are 21st Century Skills Right-Brain Skills?
- Tom March posted this about music to schools on Infinite Thinking Machine
- Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmichalyi, Ph.D. wrote about Creating the Future on New Horizons.
- Sir Ken Robinson gave this wonderful speech about creativity in schools at the Ted conference in Monterey.
- How to bring Schools out of the 20th Century.
- Alvin Toffler about Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up.
- Daniel Pink about School's Out.
