Fred Newman et al:
INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM COHERENCE
•A set of inter-related programs guided by a
common framework for curriculum, instruction,
assessment and learning that are pursued over a
sustained period.
•Leads to improved student achievement vs.
uncoordinated efforts each limited in scope and
duration
Newman, F.M., Smith, B., Allensworth, E. Bryk, A.S. (2001) Instructional Program
Coherence: What it is and why it should guide school improvement policy. Educational
Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(4), 297-321.
3-D PD
Connecting Standards Alignment and
Curriculum Coordination
with High Student Achievement
Through
Cognitive Science
SOCIETY NOW DEMANDS:
HIGH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR ALL
STUDENTS: 21ST Century Skills
No longer:
•Narrow career or vocational preparation
•Weeding out students and focusing on elite
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY:
All students will:
1. a. Know the important
information and skills
b. Readily access and
comprehend new information
and skills
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY:
All students will:
2. a. Understand the basic
concepts of science
As evidenced by …
b. Problem solving, critical
thinking, & considered
decision making that is
flexible and transferable
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY:
All students will:
3. Direct their own choices and
uses of information, skills, and
concepts when addressing a
question
To design a model for teaching and
learning higher-order thinking,
use what
Cognitive Science
has learned over the past
15+ years about
the intellect and academic thinking
3-D PD:
Focused on Higher-Order
Thinking (H.O.T.)
Focused on Classroom Practice
THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION
BEING ASKED OF
EDUCATORS:
“ Why are our kids not learning at the rate
that they should be despite decades of
reforms and budget increases? “
TIME magazine, April 19, 2010 p. 42, “Is Cash the Answer?”
CURRICULUM
What all students
should know,
understand and be able
to do.
INSTRUCTION
ASSESSMENT
To what degree did students
How students are going learn what we wanted them
to learn the curriculum to know, understand and be
able to do?
THE THREE PARTS OF CLASSROOM PRACTICE
50+ YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION IN
EDUCATION
Cooperative learning
Open-ended assessment
Project-based learning
Computer-aided instruction
Authentic assessment
State curriculum standards
Learning objectives
Inquiry-based learning
Peer assessment
Rubric design
Problem-based learning
… etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.,
So where
are the
effects on
student
learning
???
A PATTERN:
Cooperative learning
Project-based learning
Computer-aided instruction
Inquiry-based learning
Hands-On experimentation
Differentiated Instruction
Problem-based learning
… etc., etc., etc.,
Authentic assessment
Open-ended assessment
Peer assessment
Rubric design
Formative assessment
Summative assessment
… etc., etc., etc.
Instruction:
LOTS !
Assessment:
LOTS !
Curriculum ??
Performance objectives
State curriculum standards
Little but behaviorism
for 100 years
THESIS
THE IMPROVEMENTS IN ASSESSMENT
AND INSTRUCTION ARE STYMIED BY
A LACK OF PROGRESS ON
CURRICULUM
THE ZERO-SUM PENDULUM
SWING IN CURRICULUM
CONTENT:
KNOW
PROCESS:
DO
Essential Basics
Procedural
Knowledge
Cultural Literacy
Declarative
Knowledge
Discovery
Text
Hands-On
Exploration
HIGH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
means students…
KNOW the essential
information
UNDERSTAND the basic
concepts
CAN DO the essential skills
demonstrated by
PROBLEM SOLVING AND CRITICAL
THINKING
The Holy Grail
of High Student Achievement:
PROBLEM SOLVING AND
CRITICAL THINKING
The Higher Thinking Processes:
Application, analysis, synthesis, judgment
=
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
An operational definition
What do students
learn when they
study dinosaurs?
• Could use “ANCIENT EGYPT” as an
example for the Social Studies. At K-12
workshop with 200 teachers many
teachers responded with having had
taught such a unit at some time in their
career.
WHAT STAYS BEHIND ?
Gorgosaurus
Ferns and swamps
Big, bad, ugly, extinct
= specific contexts, exemplars,
information
= topic, context, facts
WHAT MOVES ?
Form-and-function
Interdependence
Evolution
These are transferable concepts
•definable (generalizations, maps, text)
•Universal
•timeless
HOW DOES IT TRAVEL?
LOWER ORDER PROCESSES
Identification
Comprehension
up to… Compare and contrast
= static
knowledge
HIGHER ORDER PROCESSES
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation
Creativity
Each is a different
Method of combining
transferable
concepts to specific
topics
Can you create an insightful
question relating the following
topics to each concept?
Concept
Energy Transformation
Topic
 Light bulb
Interdependence
 Tree
Motion and Forces
 Aspirin
 Skateboard
Form and Function
On a scale of 1-5 how insightful would
your questions be for each concept?
How deep can you go with it?
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
When confronted with a novel problem or question:
What transfers from
prior knowledge?
TRANSFERABLE
CONCEPTS
(“understand”)
What “stays behind” ?
What is the new
context?
How does it move?
TOPIC/CONTEXT
INFORMATION
(“know”)
SKILLS AND
PROCESSES
(“do”)
THE 3-D PARADIGM OF
CURRICULUM
CONCEPT
TOPIC
INFORMATION
PROCESSES AND SKILLS
INCLUSIVE OF CONVENTIONAL PARADIGM
SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO GENERATE
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
THE PATTERN OF LIFE-LONG LEARNING AND
FLEXIBILITY
THE CONVENTIONAL PARADIGM
OF CURRICULUM
CONTENT
PROCESS
OCCASIONALLY GENERATES KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFER
COMPREHENSION IS THE EFFECTIVE CEILING
3-D PD :
I.
THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
a) topic/context information “KNOW”
b) transferable concepts “UNDERSTAND”
c) skills and processes “DO”
II.
THE HIGHER THINKING PROCESSES CAN ALL BE
OBJECTIVELY DEFINED (AND THEREFORE
ASSESSED) AS DIFFERENT METHODS OF
COMBINING TRANSFERABLE CONCEPTS WITH
SPECIFIC TOPIC AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION.
THESIS RESOLUTION:
BREAKING THE LOG-JAM
The improvements in student learning
generated by a 3-D model of
curriculum will be compounded by the
anticipated improvements in learning
flowing from the innovations in
assessment and instruction that were
previously thwarted.
Behaviorism versus Cognition in American Education
•Behaviorism denies existence of mind – only the brain exists
•Cognition minimizes the importance of behavior – the mind controls behavior
NSF conference in
Colorado Springs Schism between
cognitive theorists and
behaviorists – Results
in backing of
behaviorism = Inquiry
WWII – BF Skinner
Behaviorism and
army training –
Psychoanalysts
(Freud) are run out
Sputnik launched.
Soviet technology
seen as a threat
1939
1955
1957
1958
How People Learn
supports the cognitive
approach
Novak publishes
12 year
longitudinal study
(Ithaca, NY) with
results that
strongly support
cognitive-based
learning
The National Defense
Education Act- NSF
charged with science
and math education
Bloom’s
taxonomy
published
Nat’l Resource
Council Report :
1962
1991
1992
Implementation Concerns
• Accountability for curriculum standards
• Origin of transferable concepts
• Meshing with current practice and initiatives
• Compelling, Practical, User-friendly for
teacher
Educational concern:
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR STANDARDS
Any and all curriculum standards can be
analyzed and then categorized for their focus
on concept, information, or process/skill.
Curriculum is aligned with mandated
standards as well as with cognitive
science and learning theory.
Assessment of students’ concept
transfer, information command, and
skill/process abilities is objective.
TWO OPTIONS FOR
CURRICULUM MAPPING
STANDARDS
SPLINTER
CHUNK
AND
AND
SPIRAL
CONNECT
STANDARD
Objective
STANDARD
Objective
STANDARD,
Objective
STANDARD
CONCEPT,
TOPIC,
SKILL
3-D Curriculum Mapping
Step 1: Analyze each standard:
Which concept or skill would
be most useful for
understanding this standard?
What topic info. is required?
3-D Curriculum Mapping
Step 2: Chunk the standards according to
concept and skill:
• What is the concept load?
• What is the skill load?
• What topics, contexts, facts
are required?
3-D Curriculum Mapping
Step 3: Organize the required concepts according to the
cognitive development of students
CONCEPTS DIFFER COGNITIVELY IN THREE WAYS
CHILD’S INTELLECT DEVELOPS IN THREE WAYS
GENERAL /
OBVIOUS
SPECIFIC /
SUBTLE
SIMPLE
COMPLEX
CONCRETE
ABSTRACT
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISION ??
•Each course has few concepts, skills, topics
•The concepts change rarely
•A one-page course curriculum summary is
easily supervised.
•Assessments of concept transfer are objective
WHERE DO THE CONCEPTS AND THEIR
GENERALIZATIONS COME FROM?
Concepts are presently woven throughout,
unrecognized
Bona fide transferable concepts are identified as ideas
that are effective for higher order thinking
Concepts are organized into taxonomies according to:
GENERAL / OBVIOUS
SIMPLE
CONCRETE
SPECIFIC / SUBTLE
COMPLEX
ABSTRACT
Teachers are provided with conceptual structures to
work from. Skill structures are readily available.
CONCEPT MAP – LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE
NATURE OF
MATTER
describes
ENTITIES
describes
PROCESSES
(CHANGES)
always include
can be
W AVES
SUBSTANCES
T HINGS
always take
always involve
changes in
are described with
TIME
change over
of
PROPERTIES
GENERALIZATIONS- Language of Science
1. The natural world is imagined as delineated into
things and composed of substances which we think
of as discrete entities and that we identify with
names. What is it?
2. The entities that make up the natural world are
described and differentiated in terms of their
properties.
The changes that occur throughout the natural
world are described in terms of property changes:
What happened?
Educational concern:
MESHING WITH CURRENT PRACTICES
AND INITIATIVES
e.g.
Differentiated Instruction
Essential questions
UbD is streamlined
Any type of documentation can be
modified
CURRICULUM NOW BECOMES PART OF
DIFFERENTIATED LEARNING
The topic accommodates
student interests and backgrounds. A variety topics
within a classroom is ideal for practicing transfer of
the concept.
The transferable
concept is
The skills accommodate
student strengths or are a focus for improvement.
common
to all students.
The depth of conceptual
understanding accommodates
to students by assigning more, less, or different
generalizations for the same concept to focus their
learning.
CREATING POTENT
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
• Transferable
concept or skill
e.g.
• Governance
• Motif
• Composition
• Rate
• Symmetry
• Metaphor
• Topic or context
+
e.g.
• The Crusades
• Stars
• Speeding
• Tool(s)
• Mount
Rushmore
WHAT IS A PRACTICAL WAY TO
TEACH TO DIFFERENCES?
LEARNING NEEDS
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
student skill levels
student interests
concept
topic (information)
student
backgrounds
teacher strengths
school resources
context (geographical,
seasonal, etc.)
activity format
(discussion, hands-on,
debate, etc.)
parent/community
focus
?
grouping size
time duration
MATCHING
DIFFERENCES
DIFFERENCES
This is an INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY problem
for the teacher
Solution:
Networked database of learning activities,
units, courses and resources indexed and
accessed according to the educational
criteria
Educational Concern:
Practical and User-Friendly for Teachers
•Teachers recognize the power of conceptual transfer
•Standards are simplified, clarified and coordinated year-toyear through concept, topic, and skill master structures.
•Learning efficiency and effectiveness are greatly enhanced.
•Teacher creativity and individual strengths are reflected in
the choice and orchestration of concept, topic, and skill.
•The Database provides rapid, easy, real-time, highly
targeted access to learning activities and resources.
CONCEPTUAL “BACKBONE”
PROVIDES TEACHER FLEXIBILITY
Curriculum is easily modified or elaborated.
Teacher discourse is focused on the concept
– for both content knowledge and classroom
practice
Professional decisions now include curriculum
as well as instruction
“Teaching with concepts also makes teaching
more organized; knowledge more retrievable;
and subject matter more relevant to learners,
more connected, and more focused on meaning
and utility. Rather than accumulating disjointed
trivia, kids see cubbyholes to put things in.”
- Carol Ann Tomlinson
Differentiated Instruction
The curriculum cooperative:
www.lessoncoop.org