Teaching in the 21st Century:
The Need for Change
Central Bucks Schools~ Embedded Learning
Contact Info:
Lynne O’Hara
lohara@cbsd.org
267-893-2585
Room B118, CB West
Teaching in the 21st Century: The Need for Change
Learning Guide - Blended Study Group Version
Use this guide as you progress through the course to organize your thoughts and to help you plan
ways to apply the content you have learned in your building/district. At times, you may be
prompted to refer to the learning guide for specific directions or activities. This course is
structured using units, sections, and topics. For further explanation, please refer back to the
online orientation.
Throughout this course you will demonstrate an understanding of the course content and practice
the skills discussed. There will be activities requiring planning, applying, reflecting
metacognition, and sharing.
Note that some activities will require that you submit responses electronically. All work can be
created in a word processing program and then be copied and pasted into the collection fields on
screen.
As you progress through the course, be sure to:

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





Read and listen to the information presented.
Print and read additional materials as directed.
Follow the Learning Guide closely as you progress through the multimedia portions of
the course. It contains step-by-step instructions for all activities.
Complete all activities, some of which require application in your building/district.
Participate actively and frequently in all discussion activities.
Add information to your Learning Log as directed and at any other time you choose.
Visit the "Links" section and navigate through the additional web resource links.
Create a course resource binder for future reference by collecting all printed course
materials and activities that will help you successfully complete the culminating activity.
2
Unit 1: Introduction
Section 1.1: Introduction
Topic 1.1.2 Course Overview
This course is divided into five units. The first unit is an introduction to the objectives and
materials of the course. The second unit will provide the rationale for 21st Century change by
examining students and workplace. The third unit will examine the roles and responsibilities
required of teachers to prepare students for the 21st Century workplace. The fourth unit explores
how supporting systems must conform in order to accomplish the 21st Century transformation in
the classroom. In the last unit, the completion of the culminating activity based on the collection
of reflections and results from course activities will occur.
The following is an estimate of the time it will take to complete each unit.
Unit 1
Unit 2
Unit 3
Unit 4
Culminating Activity
Total
1 hour &
10 minutes
9 hours &
50 minutes
6 hours &
30 minutes
8 hours &
30 minutes
4 hours
30 hours
3
Unit 1 Activity Time Breakdown
Course Objectives
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
1. identify the needs and preferences of the 21st century learners
2. recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st century workplace
3. understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st century classroom
4. establish more effective communication among stakeholders
*For each activity/experience the relevant objectives are identified in the third column of
the chart.
Unit 1: Introduction
Title
Estimated Time
Objectives Identified
View Multimedia Segment—Introduction
5 minutes
NA
Read Series Overview Document
10 minutes
NA
View Multimedia Segment—Course Objectives/Overview 5 minutes
NA
Print and review the Learning Guide
20 minutes
NA
Participate in Sync Point Discussion Activity
30 minutes
NA
Unit Time Total
70 minutes
All versions
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
4
1. View multimedia Segment – Introduction
www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde
2. Read Series Overview document on the following pages.
5
21st Century Teaching and Learning Series:
A Professional Development System to Support All High School
Reform Initiatives
Our society is in the midst of an unprecedented explosion in all forms of technology and
information. This rapid growth in new technologies or improvements to existing
technology are in turn fostering changes in education, the workforce, job skill demand,
global competition, and life-long learning. We are in a knowledge-driven economy that
demands highly effective workers in workplaces in which working and learning are the
same activity. This opportunity encourages us to rethink much of what we do in schools,
how we learn, and how we prepare students for a world which is difficult for us to
envision.
It is critical that we acknowledge the need to improve academic achievement and to
recognize that changing demands within an increasingly technologically sophisticated
economy and global competition compel us to do so. By the time students leave high
school, they should be prepared for citizenship, work and post secondary education. We
can no longer continue to prepare high school students in the traditional core academic
skills alone. Preparation for the 21st Century will require not only the traditional
academic content that we measure today but also new skills and new knowledge.
Today's graduates will need 21st Century skills such as critical thinking and problem
solving. Not only will they have to master rigorous academic core content, but they will
also need to master emerging content in global awareness, civic literacy, and financial
and economic literacy. In order to communicate this knowledge, innovate and
collaborate, students must also be able to master technology.
Good teaching has always helped to develop life skills such as adaptability, selfdirection, people skills and accountability. Teaching in the 21st Century will require even
more deliberate and intentional instruction in these areas as teachers strive to offer
meaningful and relevant educational experiences for all students.
Envision high school classrooms where subjects come alive as students take on the
roles of historians, scientists, mathematicians, and authors to investigate critical
questions, weigh different points of view in light of discoveries, form positions, and
present and defend their work while collaborating with peers. Technology is integrated
seamlessly in the learning process for research, connecting with experts in the field,
career exploration, collaborating with others, and publishing completed works. The
teacher acts as a facilitator of learning leading students to higher levels of thinking and
creativity while releasing more responsibility to students by using appropriate protocols
for classroom management. Instruction is differentiated to meet the individual needs of
each student in the class.
6
In this environment, student engagement dramatically increases, attendance improves
and dropout rates decrease. As students feel more engaged and intellectually
stimulated, they exhibit more ownership for their learning and perform higher
academically.
In order for teachers to accomplish the transformation from instruction primarily
delivered through lecture and textbook to using multiple modalities in more authentic
and dynamic learning environments, they will need a purposefully designed program of
study with the necessary implementation support system and accountability for change.
The 21st Century Teaching & Learning Series takes teachers through the pedagogical
transformation process in a program of study that builds the instructional foundation for
real change in classroom practice and ensures the change is being implemented
through action research and classroom observations. The series begins with the first
course that builds a compelling case for change with the learners completing a thorough
needs analysis and action plan for accomplishing the change in conjunction with their
principal, department, and study group colleagues. The second through fifth courses are
subject specific (i.e. there are versions for mathematics, science, social studies, and
language arts) and purposefully build the pedagogical skills necessary for
accomplishing lasting instructional change. They will lead to the creation of dynamic,
authentic classroom environments where students take on the roles of scientists,
historians, mathematicians, and writers. Teachers seamlessly incorporate inquiry,
projects, technology, and dynamic and flexible groupings into authentic teaching and
learning.
The 21st Century Teaching & Learning Series Framework:
Goal: To build the capacity of Pennsylvania's high school teachers to better meet the
needs of today's students.
Series Tools

Provides strategies to integrate student use of technology.

Provides opportunities for the teacher to become a facilitator of learning.

Provides performance-based assessment strategies.

Uses lesson planning tools to incorporate series content.

Incorporates student higher order thinking skills.

Provides opportunities for students to have authentic experiences through collaboration
and interdisciplinary means.

Provides a principal observation tool for assessing series content implementation.

Provides strategies for communicating with stakeholders.
7
Program of Study
The 21st Century Teaching & Learning Series takes teachers through a pedagogical
transformation process in a program of study that builds the instructional foundation for
real change in classroom practice and ensures the change is being implemented
through action research and classroom observations.
This series is designed to be meaningful to both novice and experienced teachers and
is comprised of five courses. The courses will be available in a variety of versions
including self-study and facilitated study groups; however, only the facilitated study
group versions of the courses will be acceptable in order to fulfill the Classrooms for the
Future requirement.
The series begins with the first course that builds a compelling case for change with the
learners completing a thorough needs analysis and action plan for accomplishing the
change in conjunction with their principal, department, and study group colleagues. The
second course introduces skills for creating dynamic, authentic classroom environments
where students take on the roles of scientists, historians, mathematicians, and writers.
The third through fifth courses purposefully builds the pedagogical skills necessary for
accomplishing lasting instructional change including inquiry-based learning, projectbased learning, and differentiated instruction with a special emphasis on continuing the
dynamic and authentic classroom environment from course two.
Course 1:
Teaching in the 21st Century – The Need for Change
Course 2:
Teaching Authentic Mathematics in the 21st Century, or
Teaching Authentic Science in the 21st Century, or
Teaching Authentic Social Studies in the 21st Century, or
Teaching Authentic Language Arts in the 21st Century
Course 3:
Differentiated Instruction in the Mathematics Classroom, or
Differentiated Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom, or
Differentiated Instruction in the Science Classroom, or
Differentiated Instruction in the Language Arts Classroom
Course 4:
Authentic Inquiry-Based Learning in the Mathematics Classroom, or
Authentic Inquiry-Based Learning in the Social Studies Classroom, or
Authentic Inquiry-Based Learning in the Science Classroom, or
Authentic Inquiry-Based Learning in the Language Arts Classroom
Course 5:
Authentic Project-Based Learning in the Mathematics Classroom, or
Authentic Project-Based Learning in the Social Studies Classroom, or
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Authentic Project-Based Learning in the Science Classroom, or
Authentic Project-Based Learning in the Language Arts Classroom
21st Century Teaching and Learning Series Goals
The goal of the series is to transform high school instruction from the 20th Century to
21st Century teaching and learning.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Teacher
Centered
Teachers spend time
disseminating
information to students
through direct
instruction
Student Centered
Teachers act as facilitators,
coaching students as they work on
authentic projects
Content
Coverage
Teachers cover content
through direct
instruction and move at
a pace to ensure that all
material is presented,
whether it is learned or
not.
Learning and
Doing
Teachers design projects to address
essential academic standards.
Student performance on projects
demonstrates proficiency or
deficiency with respect to
standards. Intervention is done for
students not meeting standards.
Memorizing
information
Teachers spend most
time involved in direct
instruction, with
assessment occurring as
a test at the end where
recall of information is
tested.
Using information
Teachers have students use
information to develop authentic
projects where mastery of
information is demonstrated in the
way information is used in the
project.
Lecturer
Teachers spend most of
their time involved in
“stand and deliver”.
Knowledge comes from
Facilitator
The teacher provides projects that
involve students doing research and
assimilating the knowledge
themselves. Teachers act as
9
coaches and provide support as
need by students. They take on the
role of project manager.
the teacher.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Whole Group
Configuration
All students receive the
same instruction. One
size fits all.
Flexible Grouping
Configuration
Based on
Individual Student
Needs
Teachers group students based on
needs. Instruction seldom is to the
whole group. Rather, instruction
occurs with individuals, pairs, or
small groups as needed.
Single
Instructional
and Learning
Modality
Multiple
Instructional and
Learning
Modalities to
Include All
Students
Memorization
and Recall
Tests are the primary
means of assessment
and focus on recall and
lower level thinking.
Higher Order
Thinking Skills
Teachers assign projects to the
class that requires higher order
thinking (synthesis, analysis,
application, and evaluation).
Single
Discipline
The class is conducted
in an isolated manner
without connections to
other classes or
subjects.
Interdisciplinary
Teachers have students complete
projects that are designed to use
information and skills that cut
across other subject areas. Some
projects and assignments may be
done collaboratively between two
or more classes (e.g., history,
science, and language arts – a study
of what really might have happened
at the Little Big Horn)
10
Isolated
Students are
encouraged to work
individually
Collaborative
Teachers allow students to work
collaboratively on projects and
network with others in the class, as
well as experts outside of school.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Quiz and Test
Assessments
Students are assessed
through tests only.
PerformanceBased
Assessments
Teachers utilize projects as well as
other products and performances
as assessments to determine
student achievement and needs.
Assessments are tailored to the
talents/needs of the students.
Textbook
Dependent
The teacher may follow
the textbook chapter by
chapter, page by page.
The text book is the
major source of
information.
Multiple Sources
of Information
Including
Technology
Teachers use the textbook as just
another resource, which is used in
conjunction with the internet,
journals, interviews of experts, etc.
Technology as
a luxury
The teacher is the main
user of technology,
primarily as a means of
presenting information.
Technology fully
integrated into
the classroom
Teachers have students regularly
use technology to find information,
network/communicate with each
other and experts, and to produce
and present their projects,
assignments, and performances.
Teachers
teaching to the
one learning
style
Teachers teach to one
learning style (nearly)
all the time (e.g., always
talking only, or always
giving notes on the
board only). Teachers
also expect student
submissions to always
be the same most or all
Teachers
addressing the
learning styles of
all learners
Teachers use different means of
presenting information. Methods
are based on the preferences of
individual students or groups.
Students are able to convey
information to the teacher via their
projects/ performances/
assignments in a variety of
modalities, based on their
11
of the time (e.g., all
work is submitted in
written form).
preferences (written, spoken,
music, acted out, etc.).
12
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Learning content
The focus is on
covering content
Learner-Directed
Learning
Through projects, teachers have
students learn how to ask the right
questions, do an appropriate
investigation, get answers, and use
the information so they can
continue to learn all their lives.
Learning
isolated skills
and factoids
Facts and skills are
learned out of context
and for their own
sakes.
Using a variety of
types of
information to
complete
authentic projects
Teachers devise projects that help
students learn information and
skills through using them in
situations similar to the way they
would in real life.
Acting purely as
a student
Students are involved
in strictly academic
endeavors (e.g., note
taking, listening to
lectures).
Students acting as
a worker in the
discipline
Teachers set up student
assignments, projects, and
performances to allow students to
operate the way a person would
working in the field in the real
world (as a scientist, writer,
mathematician, etc).
Teaching in
isolation
Closing the door and
working alone with no
contact or help from
outside the classroom
Teaching in
collaboration
Teachers take part in co- and team
teaching, as well as working
collaboratively with department
members to improve learning for
students
Teaching in such
a way as to
disengage
students.
Students become
bored because school
is not engaging and
they feel they have to
power down.
Engaging the 21st
Century student
Teachers consider utilize the
unique characteristics of the 21st
Century brain and the habits of the
21st Century digital native to
provide engaging and effective
13
instruction.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Teaching
content
Teachers focus on
subject matter alone.
Teaching to
prepare students
for the 21st
Century
workplace.
Teachers incorporate elements of
the 21st Century workplace into
the classroom to prepare the
student with 21st Century
workplace experiences and skills.
Teachers alone
educate the
student
Teachers have the
primary responsibility
for educating the
student and focus
most if not all of the
load
Shared
responsibility for
educating the
student
Teachers communicate with all
stakeholders (administrators,
school board members, parents,
students) and enlist the help and
inputs of all to effectively educate
students.
“Sit and get”
professional
development
Teachers take part
and accept passive
and ineffective
professional
development
21st Century
professional
development and
learning
communities
Teachers take an active part in
planning and participating in
professional development that
regularly utilize learning
communities to improve student
learning and achievement.
Teacher looks
for one answer
for students
Teachers pose lowlevel questions that
require recall
answers. Emphasis
placed on correct
answer.
Teacher looks for
multiple answers
from students.
Teachers pose questions that
require high level thinking with
multiple solutions. Emphasis
placed on the types of questions.
Teachers reflect
on student
results.
Teachers analyze
assessment scores for
the sake of progress
reporting progress.
Students reflect on
student results
with teachers.
Teachers with students analyze
assessment scores for the purpose
of identifying strengthens and
weakness to prescribe instruction
14
and academic supports.
© 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
Topic 1.1.4 Course Materials
View Multimedia Segment – Course Objectives/Overview
(www.emdbeddedlearningacademy.com)
Sync Point Discussion Activity
In this activity you will participate in a discussion with the other members of your study group
regarding the key concepts considered in this unit.
1. The rubric to be used to provide feedback for your participation in sync point discussion
activities is located on the following page. Save this rubric for reference for these
activities throughout the course.
2. You will be notified when your facilitator has posted a topic for this discussion. You
cannot complete this activity until he/she has done so. Be sure to check your "Inbox."
3. Open the discussion group by clicking on "Course Resources" menu on the top left of the
screen and select "Discussion."
4. On the discussion page, select the "Sync Point" discussion group and look for your
facilitator's posting for Unit 1.
5. You must post a response to your facilitator's topic and either reply to the postings of
others, or ask them questions. If you choose, you may start a new, related topic to discuss
a specific concept in more detail. A study group discussion is a key element of the course
and much can be learned from participating. Part of your grade will be based on the
quality and frequency of your participation in these discussions.
6. Return to this discussion frequently to monitor the discussion and add your inputs. Bear
in mind that the quiz at the end of the unit will in part be based on this discussion.
7. Close the browser window to return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
15
Rubric for Sync Point Discussions
Performance Levels
Advanced
Proficient
Emerging
Responds to the topic
posted by facilitator
and posts 1 reply to
other group
members’ postings
Responds to the topic
posted by facilitator or
posts multiple replies to
other group members’
postings
No postings
Frequency
of Postings
Responds to the initial
posting by facilitator
and posts multiple
replies to other group
members’ postings
Timeliness
of Postings
Response to initial
posting and multiple
replies to other
members’ postings are
done within specified
time period
Response to initial
posting and reply to
other member’s
postings are done
within specified time
period
Response to initial
posting or reply to other
member’s postings are
done within specified
time period
Postings are
not done
during
specified time
periods
Content of
Postings
Responses are
insightful, demonstrate
a strong understanding
of course concepts and
definite application to
practice
Responses
demonstrate a clear
understanding of
course concepts and
some application to
practice
Responses relate to
course concepts, but no
elaboration. Evidence of
possible
misunderstandings
Responses are
not related to
course
concepts or no
posting
© 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
16
Novice
Unit 2: Rationale for 21st Century Change
Unit Overview:
This unit will present compelling arguments for the need for change in our educational practices
in order to improve student achievement. 21st Century skills are needed by all students,
regardless of race, geographic locale, or socioeconomic level.
The learner will explore the characteristics of 21st Century students and the skills needed for
their successful transition into the 21st Century workplace. Also, the learner will assess his/her
own instructional practices to gauge the level at which they are preparing students for the 21st
Century workplace.
View Multimedia Segment – Unit Overview
17
Unit 2 Activity Time Breakdown
Course Objectives
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
1. Identify the needs and preferences of the 21st Century learners
2. Recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st Century workplace
3. Understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st Century
classroom
4. Establish more effective communication among stakeholders
*For each activity/experience the relevant objectives are identified in the third column of
the chart.
Unit 2: Rationale for 21st Century Change
Section 2.1: The 21st Century Student
Topic 2.1.1: How Do 21st Century Students Communicate?
Title
Objectives
Identified
Estimated Time
View Multimedia Segment—Unit Overview
5 minutes
NA
Complete Course Activity—Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D
10 minutes
Chart
NA
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
2
Read article titled The Interconnected Nature of the 21st Century
World
15 minutes
1,2
Complete Course Activity—Personal Use of Technology
20 minutes
1,2
Complete Job-embedded Activity—Student Focus Group Protocol
20 minutes
1,2,4
Complete Job-embedded Activity—Student Use of Technology
60 minutes
1,2,4
18
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Technology Reflection
Title
10 minutes
1,2,3
Objectives
Identified
Estimated Time
Participate in Discussion Activity—Technology Reflection
20 minutes
1,2,3
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Do They Really Think Differently?
15 minutes
1,2
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Student Thinking Patterns
10 minutes
2,3
Participate in Discussion Activity—Student Thinking Patterns
20 minutes
2,3
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Engage Me or Enrage Me
15 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Engaged Students, Engaged Adults
15 minutes
1,2
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Student Engagement
15 minutes
1,2,3,4
Participate in Discussion Activity—Student Engagement
20 minutes
1,2,3,4
Topic 2.1.2: How Do 21st Century Students Think Differently?
Topic 2.1.3: Why Are 21st Century Students Disengaged?
Section 2.2: The 21st Century Workplace
Topic 2.2.1: How Is the 21st Century Workplace Different Than the 20th Century Workplace?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
2
Read article titled Technology, Workplace, and Education: What is
the Link?
15 minutes
2
Complete Course Activity—Classroom Organization
20 minutes
1,2
19
Topic 2.2.2: What Are the 21st Century Skills Needed by Students?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Read article titled 21st Century Workplace: Skills for Success
15 minutes
1,2
Complete Job-embedded Activity—21st Century Skills
90 minutes
1,2,3,4
Participate in Sync Point Discussion
75 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 2 Multiple Choice Questions
20 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 2 Essay Question
60 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 2 Time Totals
Blended Study Group Version
9 hours & 50 minutes
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
20
Section 2.1: The 21st Century Student
Topic 2.1.1: How Do 21st Century Students Communicate?
Course Activity: Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D Chart
In this activity you will reflect on the rationale for 21st Century change.
1. Read the "Planning Guide: An Explanation of the K-L-D Chart" found on the next page.
21
Planning Guide: An Explanation of the K-L-D Chart
K-L-D is a graphic organizer that will help personalize your learning, as well as facilitate
taking notes, expanding teacher leadership skills, and organizing data for your
culminating project.
K-L-D is an adaptation of the K-W-L graphic organizer (What I KNOW, What I WANT to
know, What I LEARNED), commonly used to help students organize their learning.
The first section of the K-L-D is KNOW – "What do I currently know prior to the start of
each unit or course about this topic?" Activating prior knowledge provides a context for
further learning. This prior knowledge may come from college courses, professional
reading, professional development sessions, or classroom experience.
The center section of the K-L-D is LEARN – "What have I learned from the online
sessions, from reading the text pieces, and from completing the other course activities?"
This section may be completed while reading the text sections or after completing them.
The third section of the K-L-D is DO – "What will I do (differently, better, more
systematically) in my classroom, now that I have experienced this learning?" Think
about your instructional practices and reflect on how they may be changed or revised
based on data collection and interpretation, course content knowledge, and researchbased practices that were present in this course.
Prompts will guide you when it is appropriate to complete the K, L, or D sections.
Keep the K-L-Ds near your computer as you work. Save and organize them for
reference during your culminating project.
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
22
2. On the “Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D Chart” found on the next page,
complete the "K" column of the chart, recording what you already know about the topic.
3. Save the chart for later use. You will be directed when to fill in the "L" and "D" columns.
This information will be used to complete the culminating activity.
4. Return to the course to continue.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
23
Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D Chart
Teacher _____________________ Date _____________
What I Already Know (K)
What is your current
knowledge (K) of this
topic? Consider:



college courses
professional reading
peer conversations
List key points or phrases
below.
What I Learned (L)
Fort LeBoeuf SD
What I Will Do (D)
What new or extended
How will what you learned impact
learning (L) have you gained what you do (D) in your classroom?
from this module?
Think about your instructional
What knowledge, strategies, practices and reflect on how they may
and/or practices have you
be changed or revised based on data
experienced or extended
collection and interpretation, course
with this content?
content knowledge, and researchbased practices that were present in
this course.
List key words or phrases
below.
List key points and phrases below.
Learning into Doing
Data Collection and Analysis
Based on a document developed and written by the CAIU Writing Team:
A. Morton, C. Eisenhart, M. Bigelow, P. Conahan, M.K. Justice (2004)
24
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International
All Rights Reserved.
View the multimedia segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article title The Interconnected Nature of the 21st Century World on the following
pages.
25
The Interconnected Nature of the 21st Century World
Digital natives, digital immigrants
My son, Noah, is what some would call a "digital native," one who has never known a
world without instant communication. While the 20-year-old university student may
appear to inhabit a bedroom in my house, he actually spends much of his time in
another galaxy — out there, in the digital universe of gaming sites, web-conferencing,
text messages, BitTorrent, and social networking sites like Facebook.
His father, Travis, on the other hand, is a "digital immigrant," one who is still coming to
terms with how to check his cell phone's voice mail and view a digital video on
YouTube.
This generational divide has been evident for a while, but only now are we beginning to
realize that today's technology is changing the way people absorb information and the
way our students think and learn. Some researchers believe that this constant
interaction with digital media is causing today's students to begin to think and process
information in ways very different from the pre-Internet generation. Current research
proposes that, "Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures"
(Prensky, 2001). Students who have immersed themselves in using digital tools such as
video games, e-mail, instant message, and television have physically different brains as
a result of the digital stimulation. Social science suggests that the environment and
culture in which people are raised influences the way they catalog and process
information. This can be clearly seen when examining thinking skills enhanced by
repeated exposure to computer games and other virtual media, as thought patterns are
less linear and more divergent in style (Prensky, 2001). Today's student also is better at
multitasking and responds faster to expected and unexpected stimuli.
Marc Prensky (2001a) first coined the term digital native to refer to today's students.
"They are native speakers of technology," Prensky says, "fluent in the digital language
of computers, video games, and the Internet. I refer to those of us who were not born
into the digital world as digital immigrants. We have adopted many aspects of the
technology, but like those who learn another language later in life, we retain an ‘accent'
because we still have one foot in the past." For example, digital immigrants will often
choose to read a manual rather than learn from the experience of working with the
software program. "Our accent from the predigital world often makes it difficult for us to
effectively communicate with our students," Prensky says.
Referring to younger people as "the digital natives" for whom technology use comes
more naturally and to older people as the "the immigrants" who comprise most of the
adult population and teaching cadre in our schools and universities can be helpful in
understanding the obstacles that surface when teaching this generation of learners.
26
The need for an expanded continuum
Wes Fyrer (2006), an educational consultant, feels that, rather than individuals falling
into one camp or the other, there exists a continuum in which people can find their
place:
The Natives: Students who have grown up in or are growing up in the digital age, who
assimilate digital tools and methods for communication as easily as they breathe.
The Immigrants: Older adults in society and in our schools who did not grow up with
digital technology tools, but who are working to "learn the language" and to
communicate effectively with the natives around them. Some of the immigrants are
open and accepting of "native ways," but many are resistant to change.
The Refugees: Older adults in society who have chosen to flee from rather than
integrate into the native culture. They may actively work against the goals and interests
of both the digital natives and the digital immigrants. The refugees are primarily
motivated by fear and a staunch desire not only to resist change but to actively oppose
it, to deny the existence of a changed environment, and/or to ignore it.
The Bridges: The digital bridges are neither truly natives nor fully digital immigrants.
Like millenials, who have one foot in each century, the bridges have both native and
immigrant traits. As a result, digital bridges are able to communicate relatively
effectively with both groups.
The Undecided: These people have not made up their mind about which group they fit
into, or which group they want to fit into. They are likely immigrants or refugees, but may
not have taken sufficient action to reveal their identities and/or preferences for group
identity.
But does this oversimplification give teachers an excuse to not master these pervasive
tools as a means for engaging the students they teach? David Warlick blogs about
Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants and warns educators to not let our immigrant
condition limit us as we move forward in learning how to speak in a digital tongue our
students will understand.
"But I believe that it is time that we stop hiding behind our immigrant status and start
acting like natives. We need to stop making excuses and start leading. We are
teachers, after all. It's our job to lead, not follow. Sure, we'll never be able to keep up
with our kids in lots of ways. They have the luxury of time and their brain cells are
fresher. But it is our job to look into the future and then to plan and lead the way for our
children" (Warlick, 2006).
27
Christopher Dede, Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard
Graduate School of Education, argues that using these labels can lead to
overgeneralizations: "Don't start with the technology, when you start with technology, it's
a solution looking for a problem." Dede starts, instead, with learning styles. "No matter
what age you are, your learning style can be shaped by the kind of media you use."
Dede suggests that age may not be the determining factor of how seamlessly we use
the tools of the 21st Century. For example, those who have a media-based learning
style synthesize and process experiences rather than information regardless of their
age. They learn best when taught actively, through collaborations both online and in the
real world.
Last generation
The rapid changes taking place in this digital world are just beginning. And one of the
clear indicators of natives and immigrants will not be simply a question of age, but
rather of the instinctive acceptance of rapid technological change. We may very well be
the last generation of educators who has the prerogative of deciding whether or not to
develop a digital literacy. Many of us have chosen not to acquire proficient technology
skills yet we have still experienced success in our professions. However, the children
we teach today do not have that choice. Students must acquire a high degree of digital
literacy to be truly marketable in the 21st Century. As educators, we do our students a
great service if we allow them to seamlessly garner these skills within the safety nets of
our classrooms. This means educators will need to immerse themselves in the digital
landscape to be able to design learning activities that will be meaningful and authentic
to this generation of learners (Nussbaum-Beach, 2003).
Digital students: Who are they and how do they learn?
According to Diana and James Oblinger (2005), today's students learn differently than
previous generations and as a result they feel disconnected from schools that were
designed for another time. Most of today's students have grown up in an environment
where they control the flow of information they receive and the graphic format in which
they receive it. Think about it. Almost everywhere they go this media-rich generation
finds a constant stream of multimedia competing for their attention. They take the world
in via cell phones, handheld gaming devices, portable digital assistants (PDAs), and
laptops that they take everywhere. They are truly mobile. And at home they mainline
electronic media in the form of computers, TV, and collaborative video games they play
with users they have never met who live around the world. Everywhere they go in
society– technology beckons. The future is rushing at them full speed --until they enter
our classrooms and time seems to stand still. Children today spend much of their day
learning in the same way their grandparents did and as a result, school seems rigid,
uninteresting, and unyielding to many students (Nussbaum-Beach, 2003).
Digital disconnect
28
Today's multitasking students are better equipped for change than many of their
teachers. In fact researchers Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj refer to this disconnect as the
result of poor communication between "digital natives," today's students and "digital
immigrants," many adults. These parents and educators, the digital immigrants, speak
DSL, digital as a second language (Jukes and Dosaj, 2003). Look at the differences
between how digital students learn and how analog teachers teach.
The differences between digital native learners and digital immigrant teachers.
Digital Native Learners
Digital Immigrant Teachers
Prefer receiving information quickly from multiple
multimedia sources.
Prefer slow and controlled release of information
from limited sources.
Prefer parallel processing and multitasking.
Prefer singular processing and single or limited
tasking.
Prefer processing pictures, sounds, and video before Prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds, and
text.
video.
Prefer random access to hyperlinked multimedia
information.
Prefer to provide information linearly, logically, and
sequentially.
Prefer to interact/network simultaneously with
many others.
Prefer students to work independently rather than
network and interact.
Prefer to learn "just-in-time."
Prefer to teach "just-in-case" (it's on the exam).
Prefer instant gratification and instant rewards.
Prefer deferred gratification and deferred rewards.
Prefer learning that is relevant, instantly useful, and Prefer to teach to the curriculum guide and
fun.
standardized tests.
*Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj, The InfoSavvy Group, February 2003
Students are coming into our classrooms ready to learn in digital ways that are familiar
to them and instead they are just sitting there with pencil and paper in hand not
engaged and not learning. The disconnect between how students learn and how
teachers teach is easy to understand when one considers that the current school
system was designed for preparing students for working in factories and agriculture.
However, the world has changed and continues to change at an ever-increasing rate.
While schools have done a masterful job of preparing students for an industrial age, we
29
are moving at warp speed into a whole new era! Some believe the future of our
educational system will hinge on our ability to lead and adapt, as we prepare our
students for the future. We are the first generation of teachers who are preparing
students for jobs that haven't even been invented yet. This means educators will need
to rethink not only what to teach, but what it means to teach and learn in the 21st
Century. Schools must be willing to redesign themselves or render themselves
irrelevant in preparing students for success in the 21st Century.
Literacy in the 21st Century
Being literate in the future will certainly involve the ability to read, write, and do basic
math. However, the concept of literacy in the 21st Century will be far richer and more
comprehensive than the education you and I received growing up (Warlick, 2003). The
very nature of information is changing: how we organized, where we find it, what we use
to view it, what we do with it, and how we communicate it. Will Richardson (2006) in his
book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, talks
about the transformational nature of these pervasive technology tools, especially in
terms of their ability to nurture connections and collaborations: "Whether it's blogs or
wikis or RSS, all roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation and all things
are collaborative and social in nature." The most prevalent change in how we use the
Internet in the 21st Century is not as much in the ability to publish information as it is the
ability to share and connect with others from around the globe.
The social web: Learning together
Today's read/write web technologies have the power to create informal peer-to-peer
social connections and to open new avenues for learning environments that go beyond
those that are linear, teacher-centered and lecture-based to ones that are divergent,
dynamic, student-centered, constructive, and communication-rich.
A passionate student is a learning student. As the people of the world are becoming
increasingly connected, the nature, use, ownership, and purpose of knowledge are
changing in profound ways. Our goal as educators is to leverage these connections and
changes as a powerful means to improve teaching and learning in our schools. We
have a changing demographic in our classrooms and by networking together with
individuals from around the world we are building capacity in our students and ourselves
to understand multiple viewpoints and perspectives. And by using digital media and
web-based tools, students can build their own learning experiences, construct meaning,
and collaborate in teams to solve authentic content-based problems. Many teachers
who use these empowering technologies are now discovering we can have rigor without
sacrificing excitement. The secret: Focus on student passion and interest, not machines
and software. Today's digital natives are passionate about team-based learning
approaches because of their vast digital gaming experiences. It feels natural for them to
learn by collaborating online with others they have never met.
30
Developing an effective learning environment in the 21st Century requires drawing on a
wide range of teaching concepts, methods, strategies, and technologies. For example,
building a rich environment for inquiry involves an understanding of literacy, of problemand project-based learning, of critical and creative thinking skills, of problem solving
techniques and constructivist learning theory. Allowing students to work in teams both in
the classroom and with others around the world ensures that students are engaged in
activities that help them actively pose questions, investigate and solve problems, and
draw conclusions about the world around them. Author and researcher Daniel Goleman
(1996) suggests that working in teams enables students to practice needed life skills,
"Requiring students to learn socially actually forces students to draw on their emotional
intelligence. This is a set of skills that includes how one handles emotions, deals with
frustration, or resolves conflict." Through our creative use of the vast array of webbased social networking tools our students become researchers, writers, videographers,
and activists rather than passive receivers of a textbook's content. They still learn
content but through an authentic means that will prepare them for the world of work of
tomorrow, rather than the world of work of today or yesterday. Collaboration is the focus
of that learning.
Sources
Fryer, W. (Friday, October 20, 2006). Digital refugees and bridges. Retrieved December 31, 2006 from
http://www.infinitethinking.org/2006/10/digital-refugees-and-bridges.html
Goleman, D. (1996). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Jukes, I., Dosaj, A., & Macdonald, B. (2001), NetSavvy: Building Information literacy in the classroom.
California: Corwin.
Jukes, I & Dosaj, A. (February, 2003). The InfoSavvy Group. Excerpts from Apple's Digital tools for digital
students website: apple.com/education/digital.
Oblinger, D. and Oblinger,J. (2005). Educating the net gen. Retrieved January 5, 2007 from
http://www.educause.edu/books/educatingthenetgen/5989.
Prensky, M. (2001a). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved January 5, 2007 from
http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp
Pruitt, C. (May 5, 2005). The next decade of educational media. An interview with Christopher Dede.
Retrieved January 5, 2007 from http://www.digitaldivide.net/articles/view.php?ArticleID=372
Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2003). The last generation. A Tapestry of Knowledge, Volume III. Virginia: Letton
Gooch, 2003.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. California:
Corwin.
Warlick , D. (2004). Redefining literacy for the 21st century. Ohio: Linworth Publishing Inc.
31
Warlick, D. (February 15, 2006). Act like a native. Retrieved December 31, 2006 from
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/02/15/act-like-a-native/
Course Activity: Personal Use of Technology
In this activity you analyze your personal use of technology.
1. Complete the following quiz that will help you identify yourself as a digital immigrant or
a digital native.
a. Place an X in the appropriate box.
b. Add the number of Xs in the "yes" column and record the total in the "total" row.
Question
Yes
Do you sometimes feel that you speak a different language than your students when
it comes to technology?
Have you ever made a "Did you get my email" follow up phone call or walk over to
ask the person?
Do you ever seek student assistance when using technology in the classroom?
Do you feel like you are always playing catch up to learn about new technologies?
Do you prefer to have your email printed for you to read?
Do you prefer to edit hard copies of your documents rather than the electronic
version?
When you find an interesting website to share do you invite people to come view it
at your computer (as opposed to sending them a URL)?
TOTAL
2. Using your total number of "yes" responses, determine where you fall on the digital
immigrant/digital native continuum provided.
Digital Native ← 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 → Digital Immigrant
32
No
3. Using the following chart reflect on your personal use of technology.
Are you using...
Yes
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend./grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software
(Spreadsheets, EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
33
How Often (Daily,
No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
4. Explain how you incorporate technology in your instruction. Note the example in the first
row.
Technology
Blogs
How technology is used in my classroom:
I assign each of my students the role of a soldier from a different
civil war state. Using blogs, students are required to write entries
recording their experiences and feelings as a soldier from that state
as though they were keeping a journal.
5. Return to the course to continue.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
34
Job-embedded Activity: Student Focus Group Protocol
In this activity you will choose a cross section of students for your student focus group.
Note—For learners taking this course during the summer, please identify six students in your
community to serve as your student focus group. Your best results will be realized if you are able
to identify 2 for each of the following categories.
1. Select two students who are "low academic performers."
a.
b.
2. Select two students who are "average academic performers."
a.
b.
3. Select two students who are "high academic performers."
a.
b.
4. As you progress through the course, you will utilize these six students throughout various
activities in this course. As directed, record your results of these activities.
5. Return to the course to continue.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
35
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
In this activity you will analyze your students' use of technology.
1. Using the following chart, interview the six members of your student focus group.
There are six copies of the chart located on the next six pages allowing you to supply
each identified student with one copy of the survey. When the student is finished, collect
the results in order to proceed to the next step.
36
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
37
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
38
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
39
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
40
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
Web Publishing Software
41
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology
How Often (Daily,
Yes No Monthly, Never?)
Describe your usage.
Are you using...
Computers (Laptop or Desktop)
Calculators
PDA's
Cameras, Still or Video
Microscope camera projector
DVD Player
LCD Projector
Educational management software (attend. grades, lesson plans)
Word processing
Data management, graphing, or analysis software (Spreadsheets,
EXCEL)
Database Software (FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Access)
Presentation Software (PowerPoint, Keynote)
Internet for Research
Email
Blogs
Podcasts
Online Communities
Wikipedia
RSS: Really Simple Syndication
Instant Messaging
Discussion Boards
Text Messaging
Desktop publishing
42
Web Publishing Software
Educational Games
Devices for Gathering Experimental Data
Simulation/Modeling Software
Video, Graphics, and Sound Editing or Production Software
Portable Media Players
Search Engines
Job-embedded Activity: Student Use of Technology (continued)
2. Answer the following questions.
a. Did any of your student responses confirm your prior beliefs?
b. Were there any responses that you did not anticipate?
c. What did you find most interesting about how your students are using the
technology?
d. Does your current classroom use of technology align with how your students use
technology?
43
e. How can you modify your instruction so that students can practice 21st Century
skills through technology?
3. Summarize your responses in the space provided. You will enter your summary in the
Learning Log. (Additions will be made to the Learning Log throughout the course. It will
be used for reference during the Culminating Activity at the end of the course.):
4. Enter your summary on the Embedded Learning Academy (www.embeddedlearning
academy.com/pde) web site in your Learning Log by clicking on "Resources" and then
"Learning Log." (Label your entry "Student Use of Technology.") The following page is
the Rubric for Learning Log Entries.
5. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
6. The rubric used for the Learning Log entries is located on the next page.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
44
Rubric for Learning Log Entries
Scoring Levels
Scoring Criteria
Advanced
Completeness
Understanding
of Course
Content
Application of
Course Content
Proficient
Emerging
Novice
Completes all
aspects of the
activity with
reflective responses
Completes all
aspects of the
activity
Completes some
aspects of the
activity
Does not complete
the activity
Entry demonstrates
a strong
understanding of
course concepts
Entry
demonstrates a
clear
understanding of
course concepts
Entry demonstrates
some (limited)
understanding of
course concepts
Entry demonstrates
little or no
understanding of
course concepts
Entry demonstrates
definite and
appropriate
application of course
concepts
Entry
demonstrates a
clear application of
course concepts
Entry demonstrates
limited evidence of
application of
course concepts
Entry demonstrates
little or no evidence
of application of
course concepts
© 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
45
Prediscussion Activity: Technology Reflection
In this activity you will reflect on you and your students' use of technology.
1. Using the Venn Diagram, identify similarities and differences between your use and your
students' use of technology.
Teacher Use of Technology
Student Use of Technology
46
2. Answer the following questions.
a. Are you a digital immigrant or a digital native?
b. How are you and your students using technology in similar ways? In what ways
does your use differ?
c. Why do you think your students' use differs from your use?
d. What opportunities exist for you to use technology in order to better meet student
needs?
3. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses in the space
provided.
47
4. Fill in the "L" and "D" columns of your "Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D
Chart."
5. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
48
Topic 2.1.2: How Do 21st Century Students Think Differently?
Prediscussion Activity: Student Thinking Patterns
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article Do They Really Think Differently? on the following pages. Answer the
questions following the article.
49
Do They Really Think Differently?
By Marc Prensky
From On the Horizon (NCB University Press, Vo 6, December 2001) l. 9 No.
© 2001 Marc Prensky
Different kinds of experiences lead to different brain structures.
-Dr. Bruce D. Berry, Baylor College of Medicine
Our children today are being socialized in a way that is vastly different from their
parents. The numbers are overwhelming: over 10,000 hours playing videogames, over
200,000 emails and instant messages sent and received; over 10,000 hours talking on
digital cell phones; over 20,000 hours watching TV (a high percentage fast speed MTV),
over 500,000 commercials seen—all before the kids leave college. And, maybe, at the
very most, 5,000 hours of book reading. These are today's "Digital Native" students. 1
In Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part I, I discussed how the differences between
our Digital Native students and their Digital Immigrant teachers lie at the root of a great
many of today's educational problems. I suggested that Digital Natives' brains are likely
physically different as a result of the digital input they received growing up. And I
submitted that learning via digital games is one good way to reach Digital Natives in
their "native language."
Here I present evidence for why I think this is so. It comes from neurobiology, social
psychology, and from studies done on children using games for learning.
Neuroplasticity
Although the vast majority of today's educators and teachers grew up with the
understanding that the human brain doesn't physically change based on stimulation it
receives from the outside—especially after the age of 3— it turns out that that view is, in
fact, incorrect.
Based on the latest research in neurobiology, there is no longer any question that
stimulation of various kinds actually changes brain structures and affects the way
people think, and that these transformations go on throughout life. The brain is, to an
extent not at all understood or believed to be when Baby Boomers were growing up,
massively plastic. It can be, and is, constantly reorganized. (Although the popular term
rewired is somewhat misleading, the overall idea is right—the brain changes and
organizes itself differently based on the inputs it receives.) The old idea that we have a
fixed number of brain cells that die off one by one has been replaced by research
showing that our supply of brain cells is replenished constantly.2 The brain constantly
50
reorganizes itself all our child and adult lives, a phenomenon technically known as
neuroplasticity.
One of the earliest pioneers in this field of neurological research found that rats in
"enriched" environments showed brain changes compared with those in "impoverished"
environments after as little as two weeks. Sensory areas of their brains were thicker,
other layers heavier. Changes showed consistent overall growth, leading to the
conclusion that the brain maintains its plasticity for life.3
Other experiments leading to similar conclusions include the following:







Ferrets' brains were physically rewired, with inputs from the eyes switched to where the
hearing nerves went and vice versa. Their brains changed to accommodate the new
inputs.4
Imaging experiments have shown that when blind people learn Braille, "visual" areas of
their brains lit up. Similarly, deaf people use their auditory cortex to read signs.5
Scans of brains of people who tapped their fingers in a complicated sequence that they
had practiced for weeks showed a larger area of motor cortex becoming activated then
when they performed sequences they hadn't practiced.6
Japanese subjects were able to learn to "reprogram" their circuitry for distinguishing "ra"
from "la," a skill they "forget" soon after birth because their language doesn't require it. 7
Researchers found that an additional language learned later in life goes into a different
place in the brain than the language or languages learned as children.8
Intensive reading instruction experiments with students aged 10 and up appeared to
create lasting chemical changes in key areas of the subjects' brains.9
A comparison of musicians versus nonplayers brains via magnetic resonance imaging
showed a 5 percent greater volume in the musicians' cerebellums, ascribed to
adaptations in the brain's structure resulting from intensive musical training and
practice.10
We are only at the very beginning of understanding and applying brain plasticity
research. The goal of many who are—such as the company Scientific Learning—is
"neuroscience-based education."11
Malleability
Social psychology also provides strong evidence that one's thinking patterns change
depending on one's experiences. Until very recently Western philosophers and
psychologists took it for granted that the same basic processes underlie all human
thought. While cultural differences might dictate what people think about, the strategies
and processes of thought, which include logical reasoning and a desire to understand
situations and events in linear terms of cause and effect, were assumed to be the same
for everyone. However this, too, appears to be wrong.
Research by social psychologists12 shows that people who grow up in different cultures
do not just think about different things, they actually think differently. The environment
and culture in which people are raised affects and even determines many of their
thought processes.
51
"We used to think that everybody uses categories in the same way, that logic plays the
same kind of role for everyone in the understanding of everyday life, that memory,
perception, rule application and so on are the same," says one. "But we're now arguing
that cognitive processes themselves are just far more malleable than mainstream
psychology assumed."13
We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop
differently, and that people who undergo different inputs from the culture that surrounds
them think differently. And while we haven't yet directly observed Digital Natives' brains
to see whether they are physically different (such as musicians' appear to be) the
indirect evidence for this is extremely strong.
However, brains and thinking patterns do not just change overnight. A key finding of
brain plasticity research is that brains do not reorganize casually, easily, or arbitrarily.
"Brain reorganization takes place only when the animal pays attention to the sensory
input and to the task."14 "It requires very hard work."15 Biofeedback requires upwards of
50 sessions to produce results.16 Scientific Learning's Fast ForWard program requires
students to spend 100 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 5 to 10 weeks to create
desired changes, because "it takes sharply focused attention to rewire a brain." 17
Several hours a day, five days a week, sharply focused attention—does that remind you
of anything? Oh, yes—video games! That is exactly what kids have been doing ever
since Pong arrived in 1974. They have been adjusting or programming their brains to
the speed, interactivity, and other factors in the games, much as boomers' brains were
programmed to accommodate television, and literate man's brains were reprogrammed
to deal with the invention of written language and reading (where the brain had to be
retrained to deal with things in a highly linear way.)18 "Reading does not just happen, it
is a terrible struggle."19 "Reading [has] a different neurology to it than the things that are
built into our brain, like spoken language."20 One of the main focuses of schools for the
hundreds of years since reading became a mass phenomenon has been retraining our
speech-oriented brains to be able to read. Again, the training involves several hours a
day, five days a week, and sharply focused attention.
Of course just when we'd figured out (more or less) how to retrain brains for reading,
they were retrained again by television. And now things have changed yet again, and
our children are furiously retraining their brains in even newer ways, many of which are
antithetical to our older ways of thinking.
Children raised with the computer "think differently from the rest of us. They develop
hypertext minds. They leap around. It's as though their cognitive structures were
parallel, not sequential."21 "Linear thought processes that dominate educational systems
now can actually retard learning for brains developed through game and Web-surfing
processes on the computer."22
Some have surmised that teenagers use different parts of their brain and think in
different ways than adults when at the computer.23 We now know that it goes even
52
further—their brains are almost certainly physiologically different. But these differences,
most observers agree, are less a matter of kind than a difference of degree. For
example as a result of repeated experiences, particular brain areas are larger and more
highly developed, and others are less so.
For example, thinking skills enhanced by repeated exposure to computer games and
other digital media include reading visual images as representations of threedimensional space (representational competence), multidimensional visual-spatial skills,
mental maps, "mental paper folding" (i.e. picturing the results of various origami-like
folds in your mind without actually doing them), "inductive discovery" (i.e. making
observations, formulating hypotheses and figuring out the rules governing the behavior
of a dynamic representation), "attentional deployment" (such as monitoring multiple
locations simultaneously), and responding faster to expected and unexpected stimuli. 24
While these individual cognitive skills may not be new, the particular combination and
intensity is. We now have a new generation with a very different blend of cognitive skills
than its predecessors—the Digital Natives.
What About Attention Spans?
We hear teachers complain so often about the Digital Natives' attention spans that the
phrase "the attention span of a gnat" has become a cliché. But is it really true?
"Sure they have short attention spans—for the old ways of learning," says a professor.25
Their attention spans are not short for games, for example, or for anything else that
actually interests them. As a result of their experiences Digital Natives crave
interactivity—an immediate response to their each and every action. Traditional
schooling provides very little of this compared to the rest of their world (one study
showed that students in class get to ask a question every 10 hours)26 So it generally
isn't that Digital Natives can't pay attention, it's that they choose not to.
Research done for Sesame Street reveals that children do not actually watch television
continuously, but "in bursts." They tune in just enough to get the gist and be sure it
makes sense. In one key experiment, half the children were shown the program in a
room filled with toys. As expected, the group with toys was distracted and watched the
show only about 47 percent of the time as opposed to 87 percent in the group without
toys. But when the children were tested for how much of the show they remembered
and understood, the scores were exactly the same. "We were led to the conclusion that
the 5-year-olds in the toys group were attending quite strategically, distributing their
attention between toy play and viewing so that they looked at what was for them the
most informative part of the program. The strategy was so effective that the children
could gain no more from increased attention."27
What Have We Lost?
53
Still, we often hear from teachers about increasing problems their students have with
reading and thinking. What about this? Has anything been lost in the Digital Natives'
"reprogramming" process?
One key area that appears to have been affected is reflection. Reflection is what
enables us, according to many theorists, to generalize, as we create "mental models"
from our experience. It is, in many ways, the process of "learning from experience." In
our twitch-speed world, there is less and less time and opportunity for reflection, and
this development concerns many people. One of the most interesting challenges and
opportunities in teaching Digital Natives is to figure out and invent ways to include
reflection and critical thinking in the learning (either built into the instruction or through a
process of instructor-led debriefing) but still do it in the Digital Native language. We can
and must do more in this area.
Digital Natives accustomed to the twitch-speed, multitasking, random-access, graphicsfirst, active, connected, fun, fantasy, quick-payoff world of their video games, MTV, and
Internet are bored by most of today's education, well meaning as it may be. But worse,
the many skills that new technologies have actually enhanced (e.g., parallel processing,
graphics awareness, and random access)—which have profound implications for their
learning—are almost totally ignored by educators.
The cognitive differences of the Digital Natives cry out for new approaches to education
with a better "fit." And, interestingly enough, it turns out that one of the few structures
capable of meeting the Digital Natives' changing learning needs and requirements is the
very video and computer games they so enjoy. This is why "Digital Game-Based
Learning" is beginning to emerge and thrive.
But Does It Work?
Of course many criticize today's learning games, and there is much to criticize. But if
some of these games don't produce learning it is not because they are games, or
because the concept of "game-based learning" is faulty. It's because those particular
games are badly designed. There is a great deal of evidence that children's learning
games that are well designed do produce learning, and lots of it — by and while
engaging kids.
While some educators refer to games as "sugar coating," giving that a strongly negative
connotation—and often a sneer—it is a big help to the Digital Natives. After all, this is a
medium they are very familiar with and really enjoy.
Elementary school, when you strip out the recesses and the lunch and the in-between
times, actually consists of about three hours of instruction time in a typical 9 to 3 day. 28
So assuming, for example, that learning games were only 50% educational, if you could
get kids to play them for six hours over a weekend, you'd effectively add a day a week
to their schooling! Six hours is far less than a Digital Native would typically spend over a
weekend watching TV and playing videogames. The trick, though, is to make the
54
learning games compelling enough to actually be used in their place. They must be real
games, not just drill with eye-candy, combined creatively with real content.
The numbers back this up. The Lightspan Partnership, which created PlayStation
games for curricular reinforcement, conducted studies in over 400 individual school
districts and a "meta-analysis" as well. Their findings were increases in vocabulary and
language arts of 24 and 25 percent respectively over the control groups, while the math
problem solving and math procedures and algorithms scores were 51 and 30 percent
higher.29
Click Health, which makes games to help kids self-manage their health issues, did
clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health. They found, in the case of
diabetes, that kids playing their games (as compared to a control group playing a pinball
game) showed measurable gains in self-efficacy, communication with parents and
diabetes self-care. And more importantly, urgent doctor visits for diabetes-related
problems declined 77 percent in the treatment group.30
Scientific Learning's Fast ForWard game-based program for retraining kids with reading
problems conducted National Field Trials using 60 independent professionals at 35 sites
across the US and Canada. Using standardized tests, each of the 35 sites reported
conclusive validation of the program's effectiveness, with 90 percent of the children
achieving significant gains in one or more tested areas.31
Again and again it's the same simple story. Practice—time spent on learning—works.
Kid's don't like to practice. Games capture their attention and make it happen. And of
course they must be practicing the right things, so design is important.
The US military, which has a quarter of a million 18-year-olds to educate every year, is
a big believer in learning games as a way to reach their Digital Natives. They know their
volunteers expect this: "If we don't do things that way, they're not going to want to be in
our environment."32
What's more, they've observed it working operationally in the field. "We've seen it time
and time again in flying airplanes, in our mission simulators." Practical-minded
Department of Defense trainers are perplexed by educators who say "We don't know
that educational technology works—we need to do some more studies." "We KNOW the
technology works," they retort. We just want to get on with using it."33
So, today's neurobiologists and social psychologists agree that brains can and do
change with new input. And today's educators with the most crucial learning missions—
teaching the handicapped and the military—are already using custom designed
computer and video games as an effective way of reaching Digital Natives. But the bulk
of today's tradition-bound educational establishment seem in no hurry to follow their
lead.
55
Yet these educators know something is wrong, because they are not reaching their
Digital Native students as well as they reached students in the past. So they face an
important choice.
On the one hand, they can choose to ignore their eyes, ears and intuition, pretend the
Digital Native/Digital Immigrant issue does not exist, and continue to use their suddenlymuch-less-effective traditional methods until they retire and the Digital Natives take
over.
Or they can chose instead to accept the fact that they have become Immigrants into a
new Digital world, and to look to their own creativity, their Digital Native students, their
sympathetic administrators and other sources to help them communicate their stillvaluable knowledge and wisdom in that world's new language.
The route they ultimately choose—and the education of their Digital Native students—
depends very much on us.
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and
game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital GameBased Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001), founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based
learning company, and founder of The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to
eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He is also the creator of the sites
(www.SocialImpactGames.com), (www.DoDGameCommunity.com) and
(www.GamesParentsTeachers.com). Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in
Teaching from Yale. More of his writings can be found at
(www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp). Contact Marc at marc@games2train.com.
Notes
1. These numbers are intended purely as "order of magnitude" approximations; they obviously vary
widely for individuals. They were arrived at in the following ways ( Note: I am very interested in
any additional data anyone has on this):
Videogames: Average play time: 1.5 hours/day (Source: "Interactive Videogames, Mediascope,
June 1966.) It is likely to be higher five years later, so 1.8 x 365 x 15 years = 9,855 hours.
E-mails and Instant Messages: Average 40 per day x 365 x 15 years = 219, 000. This is not
unrealistic even for pre-teens – in just one instant messaging connection there may be over 100
exchanges per day – and most people do multiple connections.
TV: "Television in the Home, 1998: Third Annual Survey of Parent and Children, Annenburg
Policy Center, June 22, 1998, gives the number of TV hours watched per day as 2.55. M. Chen,
in the Smart Parents Guide to Kid's TV, (1994) gives the number as 4 hours/day. Taking the
average, 3.3 hrs/day x 365 days x 18 years = 21,681.
Commercials: There are roughly 18 30-second commercials during a TV hour. 18
commercials/hour x 3.3 hours/day x 365 days x 20 years (infants love commercials) = 433,620.
56
Reading: Eric Leuliette, a voracious (and meticulous) reader who has listed online every book he
has ever read (www.csr.utexas.edu/personal/leuliette/fw_table_home.html), read about 1300
books through college. If we take 1300 books x 200 pages per book x 400 words per page, we
get 10,400,000,000 words. Read at 400 words/that gives 260,000 minutes, or 4,333 hours. This
represents a little over 3 hours/book. Although others may read more slowly, most have read far
fewer books than Leuliette.
2. Paul Perry in American Way, May 15, 2000.
3. Renate Numella Caine and Geoffrey Caine, Making Connections: Teaching and the Human
Brain, Addison-Wesley, 1991, p.31.
4. Dr. Mriganka Sur, Nature, April 20, 2000.
5. Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, April 24, 2000.
6. Leslie Ungerlieder, National Institutes of Health.
7. James McLelland, University of Pittsburgh.
8. Cited in Inferential Focus Briefing, September 30, 1997.
9. Virginia Berninger, University of Washington, American Journal of Neuroradiology, May 2000.
10. Dr. Mark Jude Tramo of Harvard. Reported in USA Today December 10, 1998.
11. Newsweek, January 1, 2000.
12. They include Alexandr Romanovich Luria (1902-1977), Soviet pioneer in neuropsychology, author
of The Human Brain and Psychological Processes (1963), and, more recently, Dr. Richard
Nisbett of the University of Michigan.
13. Quoted in Erica Goode, "How Culture Molds Habits of Thought," New York Times, August 8,
2000.
14. John T. Bruer, The Myth of the First Three Years, The Free Press, 1999, p. 155.
15. G. Ried Lyon, a neuropsychologist who directs reading research funded by the National Institutes
of Health, quoted in Frank D. Roylance "Intensive Teaching Changes Brain," SunSpot,
Maryland's Online Community, May 27, 2000.
16. Alan T. Pope, research psychologist, Human Engineering Methods, NASA. Private
communication.
17. Time, July 5, 1999.
18. The Economist, December 6, 1997.
19. Kathleen Baynes, neurology researcher, University of California – Davis, quoted in Robert Lee
Hotz "In Art of Language, the Brain Matters " Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1998.
20. Dr. Michael S. Gazzaniga, neuroscientist at Dartmouth College quoted in Robert Lee Hotz "In Art
of Language, the Brain Matters " Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1998.
21. William D. Winn, Director of the Learning Center, Human Interface Technology Laboratory,
University of Washington, quoted in Moore, Inferential Focus Briefing (see 22).
22. Peter Moore, Inferential Focus Briefing, September 30, 1997.
23. Ibid.
24. Patricia Marks Greenfield, Mind and Media, The Effects of Television, Video Games and
Computers, Harvard University Press, 1984.
25. Dr. Edward Westhead, professor of biochemistry (retired), University of Massachusetts.
26. Graesser, A.C., & Person, N.K. (1994) "Question asking during tutoring,". American Educational
Research Journal, 31, 104-107.
27. Elizabeth Lorch, psychologist, Amherst College, quoted in Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point:
How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Little Brown & Company, 2000, p. 101.
28. John Kernan, President, The Lightspan Partnership. Personal communication.
29. "Evaluation of Lightspan. Research Results from 403 schools and over 14,580 students,"
February 2000, CD ROM.
30. Debra A. Lieberman, "Health Education Video Games for Children and Adolescents: Theory,
Design and Research Findings," paper presented at the annual meeting of the International
Communications Association, Jerusalem, 1998.
31. Scientific Learning Corporation, National Field Trial Results (pamphlet.) See also Merzenich et
al., "Temporal Processing Deficits of language-Learning Impaired Children Ameliorated by
Training" and Tallal, et al., "Language Comprehension in Language Learning Impaired Children
57
Improved with Acoustically Modified Speech," in Science, Vol. 271, January 5, 1996, pp 27-28 &
77-84.
32. Michael Parmentier, Director, Office of Readiness and Training, Department of Defense, The
Pentagon. Private briefing.
33. Don Johnson, Office of Readiness and Training, Department of Defense, The Pentagon. Private
briefing.
In this activity you will reflect on student thought processes.
1. Using the questions provided, reflect on your knowledge about students thinking patterns.
a. What did you learn about "neuroplasticity" from reading the article? How does
this term apply to education in the context of this course?
b. What is "malleability" through the lens of neuroscience? What implications does
this concept have on education?
c. What is the difference between "neuroplasticity" and "malleability"?
d. Why do many children have short attention spans for school but not for computer
games? Describe the disconnect.
e. Is there any information presented in the article that resonates deeply with you
when thinking about students in your classroom? Please describe the connection.
58
2. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses in the space
provided.
3. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
59
Topic 2.1.3: Why Are 21st Century Students Disengaged?
Prediscussion Activity: Student Engagement
This activity will require you to reflect on student engagement in your classroom.
1. View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
2. Read the article Engage Me or Enrage Me and Engaged Students, Engaged Adults on the
following pages and complete the checklist after reading the article.
3. On the page following the article, determine if the learning indicators are clearly
identified in your classroom. Place a checkmark in the appropriate box on the checklist.
60
"Engage Me or Enrage Me"
What Today's Learners Demand
By Marc Prensky
"Today's kids are not ADD, they're E0E."
—Kip Leland, Los Angeles Virtual Academy
Anyone who has taught recently will recognize these three kinds of students:
1. The students who are truly self-motivated. These are the ones all teachers dream about
having (and the ones we know how to teach best). They do all the work we assign to
them, and more. Their motto is: "I can't wait to get to class." Unfortunately, there are
fewer and fewer of these.
2. The students who go through the motions. These are the ones who, although in their
hearts they feel that what is being taught has little or no relevance to their lives, are
farsighted enough to realize that their future may depend on the grades and credentials
they get. So they study the right facts the night before the test to achieve a passing
grade and become at least somewhat successful students. Their motto: "We have
learned to ‘play school.' "
3. The students who "tune us out." These students are convinced that school is totally
devoid of interest and totally irrelevant to their life. In fact, they find school much less
interesting than the myriad devices they carry in their pockets and backpacks. These
kids are used to having anyone who asks for their attention—their musicians, their movie
makers, their TV stars, their game designers—work really hard to earn it. When what is
being offered isn't engaging, these students truly resent their time being wasted. In more
and more of our schools, this group is quickly becoming the majority. The motto of this
group? "Engage me or enrage me."
While our schools and education system today deal with the first two groups reasonably
well, the third group is a real challenge. In fact, for educators today, it is the challenge.
"Engage me or enrage me," these students demand. And believe me, they're enraged.
But why? That's a question that needs a good answer.
When I was a novice teacher in the late 1960s in New York City's East Harlem, things
were different. Yes, we had our college-bound students, our "doing timers," and our
dropouts. In fact, far too many dropouts. Certainly a lot of kids then were not engaged.
Many of them were on drugs. Some were engaged in trying to affect society—it was a
time of great turmoil and change—but many weren't.
61
The big difference from today is this: the kids back then didn't expect to be engaged by
everything they did. There were no video games, no CDs, no MP3s—none of today's
special effects. Those kids' lives were a lot less rich—and not just in money: less rich in
media, less rich in communication, much less rich in creative opportunities for students
outside of school. Many if not most of them never even knew what real engagement
feels like.
But today, all kids do. All the students we teach have something in their lives that's
really engaging—something that they do and that they are good at, something that has
an engaging, creative component to it. Some may download songs; some may rap,
lipsync, or sing karaoke; some may play video games; some may mix songs; some may
make movies; and some may do the extreme sports that are possible with twenty-firstcentury equipment and materials. But they all do something engaging.
A kid interviewed for Yahoo's 2003 "Born to Be Wired" conference said: "I could have
nothing to do, and I'll find something on the Internet." Another commented: "Every day
after school, I go home and download music—it's all I do." Yet another added: "On the
Internet, you can play games, you can check your mail, you can talk to your friends, you
can buy things, and you can look up things you really like." Many of today's thirdgraders have multiple e-mail addresses. Today's kids with computers in their homes sit
there with scores of windows open, IMing all their friends. Today's kids without
computers typically have a video game console or a GameBoy. Life for today's kids may
be a lot of things—including stressful— but it's certainly not unengaging.
Except in school.
And there it is so boring that the kids, used to this other life, just can't stand it.
"But school can be engaging," many educators will retort. "I don't see what is so much
more engaging about this other life, other than the pretty graphics." To answer this, I
recently looked at the three most popular (i.e., best-selling) computer and video games
in the marketplace. They were, as of June 2004: City of Heroes, a massively multiplayer
online roleplaying game; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, an action game for
the PlayStation 2; and Rise of Nations, a real-time strategy game for the PC. On their
boxes and Web sites, these games promise the kids who buy and play them some very
interesting experiences: "There's a place we can all be heroes." "The Dementors are
coming, and this time Harry needs his friends." "The entire span of human history is in
your hands."
Not exactly what we promise our kids in school.
And the descriptions of the games? "Create your own heroes." "Thrilling battles!"
"Encounter…" "Engage…" "Fly…" "Explore…" "Take on your friends." "Exciting!"
"Challenging!" "Master…" "Amass…" "Build…" "Perform…" "Research…" "Lead…"
"Don't work alone."
62
Not exactly descriptions of today's classrooms and courses!
What's more, the games deliver on these promises. If they didn't, not only wouldn't they
be best-sellers—they wouldn't get bought at all.
In school, though, kids don't have the "don't buy" option. Rather than being empowered
to choose what they want ("Two hundred channels! Products made just for you!") and to
see what interests them ("Log on! The entire world is at your fingertips!") and to create
their own personalized identity ("Download your own ring tone! Fill your iPod with
precisely the music you want!")—as they are in the rest of their lives—in school, they
must eat what they are served.
And what they are being served is, for the most part, stale, bland, and almost entirely
stuff from the past. Yesterday's education for tomorrow's kids. Where is the
programming, the genomics, the bioethics, the nanotech—the stuff of their time? It's not
there. Not even once a week on Fridays.
That's one more reason the kids are so enraged—they know their stuff is missing!
But maybe, just maybe, through their rage, the kids are sending us another message as
well—and, in so doing, offering us the hope of connecting with them.
Maybe—and I think that this is the case—today's kids are challenging us, their
educators, to engage them at their level, even with the old stuff, the stuff we all claim is
so important, that is, the "curriculum."
Maybe if, when learning the "old" stuff, our students could be continuously challenged at
the edge of their capabilities, and could make important decisions every half-second,
and could have multiple streams of data coming in, and could be given goals that they
want to reach but wonder if they actually can, and could beat a really tough game and
pass the course—maybe then they wouldn't have to, as one kid puts it, "power down"
every time they go to class.
In my view, it's not "relevance" that's lacking for this generation, it's engagement. What's
the relevance of Pokémon, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, or American Idol? The kids will master
systems ten times more complex than algebra, understand systems ten times more
complex than the simple economics we require of them, and read far above their grade
level—when the goals are worth it to them. On a recent BBC show Child of Our Time, a
four-year old who was a master of the complex video game Halo 2 was being offered
so-called "learning games" that were light-years below his level, to his total frustration
and rage.
The fact is that even if you are the most engaging old-style teacher in the world, you are
not going to capture most of our students' attention the old way. "Their short attention
spans," as one professor put it, "are [only] for the old ways of learning." They certainly
don't have short attention spans for their games, movies, music, or Internet surfing.
63
More and more, they just don't tolerate the old ways—and they are enraged we are not
doing better by them.
So we have to find how to present our curricula in ways that engage our students— not
just to create new "lesson plans," not even just to put the curriculum online. The BBC,
for example, has been given £350 million by the British government to create a "digital
curriculum." They have concluded that almost all of it should be game-based, because if
it doesn't engage the students, that will be £350 million down the tube, and they may not
get a second chance. But they are struggling in this unfamiliar world.
So how can and should they—and we— do this? As with games, we need to fund,
experiment, and iterate. Can we afford it? Yes, because ironically, creating engagement
is not about those fancy, expensive graphics but rather about ideas. Sure, today's video
games have the best graphics ever, but kids' long-term engagement in a game depends
much less on what they see than on what they do and learn. In gamer terms,
"gameplay" trumps "eyecandy" any day of the week.
And if we educators don't start coming up with some damned good curricular gameplay
for our students—and soon— they'll all come to school wearing (at least virtually in their
minds) the T-shirt I recently saw a kid wearing in New York City: "It's Not ADD—I'm Just
Not Listening!"
So hi there, I'm the tuned-out kid in the back row with the headphones. Are you going to
engage me today or enrage me? The choice is yours.
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, speaker, writer, consultant, and game
designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of Digital Game-Based Learning
(McGraw-Hill, 2001), founder and CEO of Games2train, a game-based learning company, and founder of
The Digital Multiplier, an organization dedicated to eliminating the digital divide in learning worldwide. He
is also the creator of the sites (www.SocialImpactGames.com), (www.DoDGameCommunity.com) and
(www.GamesParentsTeachers.com). Marc holds an MBA from Harvard and a Masters in Teaching from
Yale. More of his writings can be found at (www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp). Contact Marc at
marc@games2train.com.
64
Engaged Students, Engaged Adults
Teachers enter the profession for a variety of reasons: a passion for children, the love
of content, to right a wrong, the security and predictability of a schedule. Regardless of
their motivation to enter the profession, many teachers are not staying. Statistics tell us
that "annually, approximately 100,000 teachers graduate from our nation's colleges of
education. Of that number less than 60 percent will ever enter the classroom after
graduating. Of those that do, nearly 50 percent will leave teaching within the first five
years" (Hull, 2004). These are staggering statistics! Many researchers have postulated
on the reasons for the very high attrition rate of teachers.
One of the primary reasons I have observed for teacher's job dissatisfaction is the
inability to establish a relationship with their students and their discouragement with
their students' motivation. If a teacher feels he cannot relate to his students or that he
cannot connect them to his content, regardless of his efforts, he is likely to get
discouraged and flee the profession. The more isolated a teacher's work is the more
quickly a teacher becomes dissatisfied and discouraged. This text will explore why
teachers are leaving the profession and how we can change the culture to help them
find more success with their students and more community within their schools.
Why are teachers leaving?
Buckley, Schneider, and Shang, in a study funded in part by the Ford Foundation and
the 21st Century School Fund, suggest that the factors influencing a teacher's decisions
to leave the profession are divided into teacher factors, school factors, and community
factors. Teacher factors include the relatively low salary ranges, the degree of idealism
teachers bring to their job, and the effectiveness of their teacher preparation program.
These researchers found that the higher the teachers' idealism, the greater the risk of
losing them to attrition. This indicates that high expectations are easily dashed by the
demands of the job.
School factors affect the commitment of new and veteran teachers differently.
Rosenholtz and Simpson (1990) show evidence that student behavior management and
non-teaching responsibilities affect new teachers' decisions to stay in the profession,
while experienced teachers are more concerned about the freedom to make and act on
their decisions regarding instruction and curriculum. "Other important predictors of
teachers' commitment include performance efficacy and psychic rewards" (Buckley,
Schneider, Shang 2006). The way a teacher views his or her performance may affect
his or her decision to stay in the classroom. If a teacher is feeling overwhelmed and
disconnected from her students and colleagues, her psyche may be affected negatively,
causing her to consider leaving the profession. If a teacher consistently gets negative
feedback from supervisors or clients, he may consider changing his situation. Negative
feedback can come from supervisors who, for example, only use summative
65
assessments instead of ongoing feedback and support. It can come from students who
are disengaged with the content or activity that the teacher has presented or prepared.
Other school factors articulated by teachers who have left the field include scarcity of
resources, high stakes accountability, and prescribed curricula (Darling-Hammond and
Sykes, 2003). These factors may not be easily remediated, but working in a collegial,
supportive environment can soften the blow of these external factors. Shortages and
mandates can be overcome when a faculty works together toward a common goal.
Community factors contributing to the high attrition of today's teachers include
constantly changing educational policies, unfunded mandates from state legislatures
and federal government officials, and the costly credentialing processes in many states.
Lack of reciprocity among state certification boards may further discourage teachers
who relocate to a new state from getting new credentials.
"Another important factor in the retention decision may be the social status of teachers
in the broader community" (Tye and O'Brien, 2002). Teachers may feel that the public
has misguided and contradictory perceptions of their jobs. The public has high
expectations for teachers, yet shows little respect for teachers as professionals. Finally,
budget cuts affect a teacher's commitment to stay the course. Budget cuts can
determine a teacher's physical plant, supply source, and class size. The uncertainty
created by this type of environment can influence a teacher's decision to stay in
teaching.
What will make them stay?
Marc Prensky in his article, Engage me, or enrage me: What today's learners demand,
contends that teachers need to reach three types of students in meaningful ways each
day. These types are those that do school well and enjoy it, those that can manage the
system successfully but without enthusiasm, and those who refuse to participate
because they see no relevancy to their lives in school or school-related activities.
Prensky applauds the critical need to engage all students in their academic learning; I
extol the need to engage all teachers in their professional learning and development.
We are faced with students with different levels of engagement and ability every day, so
are we faced with teachers with different levels of commitment to teaching and
professional know-how. The National Education Association (NEA) suggests in its
Recruitment and retention guidebook that to keep teachers and to foster their
development as professional educators, the following retention strategies must be
carefully attended to:




Prepare teachers adequately
Nurture new teachers
Improve the working environment
Provide financial incentives
Attending to these retention strategies will engage new and veteran teachers in the
business of school and student achievement.
66
Teacher preparation programs
Recent research by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
(NCTAF) suggests that adequate preparation significantly reduces the attrition rate of
first year teachers. The commission believes strong academic preparation, strong
clinical practice, and grounding in modern learning technologies are critical components
of a quality teacher preparation program (NEA, 2003).
Modern learning technologies are those instructional strategies that encourage teachers
to use, for example, a variety of groupings, multiple assessments, student choice,
discovery activities, intentional questioning techniques, and increased wait time when
planning their lessons. Teacher preparation programs must ensure that students not
only learn about these processes, but that students have time to practice and become
proficient at implementing them successfully with children in the classroom. The
problem lies in the differences between programs and the skill sets of the candidates
who graduate from these programs. Teacher preparation programs require different
field experiences and internships for their students. Some depend on the state licensure
requirements and some depend on the value placed on these practice based
experiences within the college or university itself.
In response to these differences the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE) has developed standards for teacher education programs.
Programs accredited by NCATE are endorsed by the NEA and other teacher-governing
bodies.
One of these standards suggests the need for cultural education and the articulation of
the challenges characteristic of many rural and urban districts in our country. Classroom
demographics are ever changing, and teacher preparation programs that stress the
need to understand and practice in diverse cultures may reduce the risk of teacher
attrition in the future by preparing teachers to find success in many different school
environments.
Nurture new (and veteran) teachers
All teachers need room to learn and grow in their work environment. Many schools and
districts have programs in place to support new teachers. These include induction
programs, mentoring, and new teacher orientation.
Induction programs are designed to have new teachers spend their first year of service
orienting themselves to their new environment. Participants in these programs may be
new to the profession or to the district. The content of the induction program ranges
from administrative tasks to professional learning opportunities. Several professional
organizations suggest criteria for effective induction programs. The Southeast Center
for Teacher Quality (SCTQ) sets the following criteria for successful induction programs:
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




Provide new teachers with specific expectations
Familiarize new teachers with organizational rituals
Help new teachers to apply knowledge, skill beliefs, and attitudes necessary to be
successful in their jobs
Provide new teachers with ongoing guidance and assessment by a trained mentor
Assist new teachers in meeting licensure standards
This particular set of criteria exemplifies an exerted effort to connect the new teacher to
his or her work context and professional colleagues, thereby engaging participants
meaningfully in their own and their students' achievement and success.
Mentoring is another effective strategy for increasing teacher retention rates when it is
implemented well. Mentors must be carefully selected and well trained (NEA, 2003).
The mentoring process must be valued by the school community and monitored for
results. Mentoring relationships need time and attention to be successful.
Ingersoll and Kralik state that, "while the impact of induction and mentoring differed
significantly among the 10 studies reviewed, collectively the studies do provide support
for the claim that assistance for new teachers and, in particular, mentoring programs
have a positive impact on teachers and their retention."
It is recommended that in addition to induction programs and mentoring, new teacher
orientations be mandated for new teachers. These orientations provide administrative
information that allows new teachers to successfully negotiate the policies and
procedures of a new school and district. The Educational Research Service (ERS)
suggests that new teacher orientations:








Be held in a comfortable environment
Introduce district personnel
Include get-to-know-you activities to connect the new teacher group to one another
Provide free materials
Provide information about school policies, calendar, routines, and schedules…in a
school information binder
Include a workshop on classroom management that focuses on the need for rules,
routines, and procedures
Include specific information about district policies for violence prevention, crisis
intervention, and emergency evacuation
Introduce mentors to their new teachers and provide time for working together to
develop a calendar and next steps (NEA, 2003)
Improve the working environment
The teacher supports and outreach happen outside of the daily work of teaching. To
improve the working environment for teachers, schools must move from cultures of
isolation to cultures of collegiality and collaboration. An effective mentoring program can
begin this process, but we need to do more to engage teachers in their own learning
and growth as professional educators. We need to foster an environment that
celebrates success, encourages new strategy use, uses formative assessments, and
68
allows time for collegial collaboration and sharing. In other words we need to create a
"culture of excellence" (Ferriter and Norton, 2004).
We need to create communities of learners who share a common vision for the success
of all students. Just as students must feel connected to their learning and school
culture, so must teachers. Providing opportunities for colleagues to learn, share, create,
and problem solve together helps create the kind of environment that will connect
teachers with their school community and with their students' learning.
When teachers experience success through student achievement, they are likely to
continue to pursue that success. For example, if a teacher reconfigures her classroom
to allow for partner sharing, is clear with the students about the procedures involved in
this strategy, and is successful in giving more students a chance to share, she is more
likely to include that strategy in a future lesson. The school environment has to feel safe
for her to try such new student engagement strategies. In a learning environment that is
safe for all learners, administrators recognize this strategy as a way to include more
student voices in a classroom and encourage its use. Unfortunately, what we often see
currently is an administrator questioning the additional movement and noise in this type
of classroom.
When students feel heard and supported in their learning, they will be more attentive
and more successful with academic content. Success breeds success. Teachers need
to be supported in recognizing how their lesson planning affects the engagement and
success of students. The "enraged" students in Prensky's article need choice and voice.
They need the opportunity to choose their research topic, not whether to do a research
project, for example. They need a balance of opportunities to partner and learn in small
groups and opportunities for individual reflection and learning. Finally, they need
alternate and formative assessments for learning in addition to summative assessments
of learning (Reeves, 2004). Students need some choice in culminating unit projects.
They also need some opportunity to be creative and to use multiple intelligences, to see
the results of their labors, and to be able to edit and improve on their efforts with the
guidance of the teacher. These collaborative learning behaviors help engage students
and teachers to achieve their goals.
Students come to the classroom with a variety of skills and experiences, and we must
work together to create and implement instructional strategies that will reach all of them.
To do this we need to examine our practice collaboratively and to share plans,
processes and results with one another. We are asking teachers to develop new habits
of mind and practice. We are asking that they engage all students. We are suggesting
strategies that may mean they have a little less control in a less orderly space with, for
example, different desk configurations supporting various small groups and independent
activities--some teacher directed, some student directed. This scenario is alien to many
new teachers who come to the classroom with a lifetime experience of traditional
learning environments designed to serve the few, who might move on to higher
education.
69
We must challenge our new teachers to hang in there long enough to develop their craft
so that they can learn to engage all students so they meet their students' needs now
and into the future. This will require flexibility and willingness to take risks. The only way
to work in the new learning environment we hope to create is to forge relationships
between teachers and colleagues, between teachers and students, between teachers
and administrators, and between teachers and community. These relationships will
engage and connect teachers and students to continuous learning and success.
Professional learning opportunities in this new learning community must model the
kinds of engaging learning we are expecting teachers to facilitate with their students.
Those charged with designing and implementing these opportunities must be skilled at
designing sessions that provide teachers with relevant content and strategies and skills
they can immediately transfer into classroom practice.
Those "enraged students," Prensky describes are not unlike new teachers who want to
experience growth, success, and relevance in their learning processes. This
professional learning needs to be ongoing, site based, and collaborative. It should
mirror the kinds of engaging instruction we are expecting from all teachers of 21st
Century learners. Experience is the key to transferring theory and strategy to classroom
practice. In designing professional learning opportunities, staff developers,
administrators, coaches, and consultants must meet the needs of the teachers they are
serving. For example, it is no longer adequate to present a strategy for teachers to
implement. The facilitator of today's professional learning must have participants
experience the strategy, question the strategy, and have time to consider the strategy in
context. After the initial learning opportunity, the facilitator must provide time for
reflection, sharing, and modifying to engage teachers in their professional growth. This
learning cycle will help teachers make the connection between professional learning
and classroom practice; it also reinforces the need for teachers, and students, to be
accountable for their learning and successes.
The days of once and done, disconnected professional development opportunities are
over. Daily professional learning and engagement need to become the norm if we
expect teachers to be engaged and to engage all students.
Provide financial incentives
Although the NEA suggests financial incentives as an innovation worth considering to
boost teacher retention rates, other researchers have found it less important to the
teachers they interviewed.
Ferriter and Norton interviewed teachers from the Teacher Leaders Network (TLN)
about the motivators that keep them coming back to the classroom year after year. One
of the teachers articulated her top three motivators to excel:


Freedom to use professional judgment in making teaching decisions.
Appreciation and acknowledgement for effort and accomplishment.
70

Opportunities to help make educational decisions that impact teachers' ability to work
effectively with every student (Ferriter and Norton, 2004).
These motivators serve as connectors to the work and to the school community, making
teachers feel trusted, valued, relevant, and supported. When teachers and students find
themselves in this kind of work environment, they will be ready to stay the course and
begin a cycle of teachers working to guide and support one another.
While financial incentives are important to some teachers, in my review of the research
it is not one of the major motivators for remaining in the profession. More important, in
my estimation, are the ability to grow as a professional facilitator of learning; the feeling
of efficacy that develops over time in an environment of mutual learning and respect;
and the support of colleagues, administration, and community who are working together
to achieve a mutual goal. The goal of serving all students well: those naturally inclined
to success in school, those adept at negotiating the system, and those resistant to
complying and performing under traditional circumstances.
To achieve this goal, we need to "restructure the profession. Such an approach will
entail sharing power, providing better training, giving up some traditional assumptions
and values, and expressing enormous trust" (Heller, 2004).
Darling-Hammond sees the challenge as follows: "The problem does not lie in the
numbers of teachers available; we produce many more qualified teachers than we hire.
The hard part is keeping the teachers we prepare" (2003, p.7). The time has come to
spend time thinking about engaging teachers to engage their students by offering them
the opportunity to learn alongside their students, to be facilitators of learning rather than
imparters of knowledge. We need to reach those teachers and those students who are
"not quite burned out, but crispy on the edges" (Draper, 2001).
References
Allen, M. (2003). Eight questions on teacher preparation: What does the research say? Denver, CO:
Education Commission of the States. Retrieved December 30, 2006, from http://www.ecs.org/treport
Buckley, Jack; Scneider, Mark and Shang, Yi. (2004). Teacher Retention Research Report. Retrieved
January 2, 2007 from www.edfacilities.org
Clement, Mary. (2001) Finding and keeping high quality teachers. Alexandria, VA: Educational Research
Service.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Sykes, Gary. (2003). Wanted: A national manpower policy for education. Denver,
CO: Education Commission of the States.
Draper, Sharon M. (2001). Not quite burned out but crispy around the edges. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Ferriter, William & Norton, John. (2004). "Creating a culture of excellence: Listening to the experts:
experienced teachers describe the working conditions that most affect their decisions to stay or leave."
71
Threshold Magazine: Cable in the Classroom and NEA. Retrieved December 27, 2006 from
www.ciconline.org
Heller, Daniel A. (2004). Teachers wanted: Attracting and retaining good teachers. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
Hull, Jonathan W. (2004). Filling in the gaps: Understanding the root causes of the "teacher shortage" can
lead to a solution that works. Southern Legislative Conference of the Council of State Governments,
reprinted in Threshold, Spring 2004. Retrieved January 2, 2007 from www.ciconline.org
Ingersoll, Richard& Kralik, Jeffrey. (2004). The impact of mentoring on teacher retention: What research
says. Denver, CO: Education Commission of the States. Retrieved January 2, 2007 from
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/50/36/5036.htm
Landgraf, Kurt. Solving the teacher shortage: A matter of professional standards. Received January 2,
2007 from www.nea.org
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future. (2003). No dream denied: A pledge to
America's children. Washington, D.C.: NCATE. Received December 27, 2006 from www.ncate.org
National Education Association (2003). Recruitment and retention guidebook. Received January 1, 2007
from www.nea.org
Reeves, Douglas B. (2004). Accountability for learning: How teachers and school leaders can take
charge. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Sparks, Dennis. (2002). High performing cultures increase teacher retention. National Staff Development
Council: Results.
Southeast Center for Teaching Quality. (2001). Recruiting teachers for hard to staff schools: Solutions for
North Carolina and the nation. Teaching Quality in the Southeast Policy Brief: North Carolina.
Tye, B.B., & O'Brien, L. (2002). Why are experienced teachers leaving the profession? Phi Delta Kappan
84(1): 24-32.
Yorks, L. (2005). Adult learning and the generation of New Knowledge and Meaning: Creating liberating
spaces for fostering adult learning through practitioner-based collaborative action inquiry. New York, NY:
Teachers College Press: TC Record. Received December 23, 2006 from http://tcrecord.org
© 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
72
Learning Indicators for Engagement
The following text can be use as a reference when completing the Engaging Instruction
Checklist located in the Learning Guide.
1. Vision of Engaged Learning
 Responsible for Learning. Students take charge of their own learning and are
self-regulated. They define learning goals and problems that are meaningful to
them; understand how specific activities relate to those goals; and, using
standards of excellence, evaluate how well they have achieved the goals.
Successful, engaged learners also have explicit measures and criteria for
assessing their work as well as benchmark activities, products, or events for
checking their progress toward achieving their goals.
 Energized by Learning. Engaged learners find excitement and pleasure in
learning. They possess a lifelong passion for solving problems and
understanding ideas or concepts. To such students, learning is intrinsically
motivating.
 Strategic. Engaged learners continually develop and refine learning and problemsolving strategies. This capacity for learning how to learn includes constructing
effective mental models of knowledge and resources, even though the models
may be based on complex and changing information. Engaged learners can
apply and transfer knowledge in order to solve problems creatively and they can
make connections at different levels.
 Collaborative. Engaged learners understand that learning is social. They are able
to see themselves and ideas as others see them, can articulate their ideas to
others, have empathy for others, and are fair-minded in dealing with contradictory
or conflicting views. They have the ability to identify the strengths and
intelligences of themselves and others.
2. Tasks for Engaged Learning
 Challenging. Unlike tasks usually offered in schools, challenging tasks are
typically complex and required sustained amounts of time. Such tasks also
require students to stretch their thinking and social skills in order to be
successful.
 Authentic. Authentic tasks correspond to tasks in the home and workplace. They
are closely related to real-world problems and projects, build on life experiences,
require in-depth work, and benefit from frequent collaboration. Such collaboration
can take place with peers and mentors within school or with diverse people
outside of school.
 Integrative/interdisciplinary. Challenging and authentic tasks often require
integrated instruction, which blends disciplines into thematic or problem-based
pursuits, and instruction that incorporates problem-based learning and curriculum
by project.
3. Assessment of Engaged Learning
 Performance-Based. Students construct knowledge and create artifacts to
represent their learning. Ideally, students also are involved in generating
performance criteria and are instrumental in the overall design, evaluation, and
reporting of their assessment.
73

Generative. The overriding purpose of assessment is to improve learning. To that
end, assessment should closely match the goals of the curriculum; represent
significant knowledge and enduring skills, content, and themes; and provide
authentic contexts for performance. The performance criteria should be clear,
well articulated, and part of the students' learning experience prior to
assessment. Indeed, developing standards of excellence for learning and
thinking is an important part of learning.
 Interwoven with Curriculum and Instruction. Assessment should include all
meaningful aspects of performance. It should encompass the evaluation of
individual as well as group efforts; self-, peer, and teacher assessments;
attitudes and thinking processes; drafts or artifacts of developing products as well
as final products; open-ended as well as structured tasks; and tasks that
emphasize connections, communication, and real-world applications. Multiple
measures (e.g., surveys, inventories, journals, illustrations, oral presentations,
demonstrations, models, portfolios, and other artifacts of learning) are needed to
assess "big ideas" and complex learning outcomes over time.
 Equitable Standards. Parents and students should be familiar with the standards
that apply to all students and be able to evaluate the performance of an individual
or group using those standards.
4. Instructional Models and Strategies for Engaged Learning
 Interactive. Instruction actively engages the learner.
 Generative. Generative instruction encourages learners to construct and produce
knowledge in meaningful ways by providing experiences and learning
environments that promote deep, engaged learning. Generative instruction also
encourages learners to solve problems actively, conduct meaningful inquiry,
engage in reflection, and build a repertoire of effective strategies for learning in
diverse social contexts.
5. Learning Context for Engaged Learning
 Knowledge-Building Learning Community. The learning community resists
fragmentation and competition and enables students to learn more
collaboratively.
 Collaborative. In learning communities, intelligence is assumed to be distributed
among all members. Collaborative classrooms, schools, and communities
encourage all students to ask hard questions; define problems; take charge of
the conversation when appropriate; participate in assessments and in setting
goals, standards, and benchmarks; have work-related conversations with various
adults in and outside school; and engage in entrepreneurial activities.
 Empathetic. Learning communities search for strategies to build on the strengths
of all members. These strategies are especially important for learning situations
in which members have very different prior knowledge.
6. Grouping for Engaged Learning
 Heterogeneous. Heterogeneous groups include males and females and a mix of
cultures, learning styles, abilities, socioeconomic status, and ages. This mixture
brings a wealth of background knowledge and differing perspectives to authentic,
challenging tasks.
 Flexible. Flexible groups are configured and reconfigured according to the
purposes of instruction. This flexibility enables educators to make frequent use of
heterogeneous groups and to form groups, usually for short periods of time,
based on common interests or needs.
74

Equitable. The use of both flexible and heterogeneous groups is one of the most
equitable means of grouping. It ensures increased opportunities to learn for all
students.
7. Teacher Roles for Engaged Learning
 Facilitator. The teacher provides rich environments, experiences, and activities
for learning by incorporating opportunities for collaborative work, problem solving,
authentic tasks, and shared knowledge and responsibility.
 Guide. In a collaborative classroom, the teacher must act as a guide - a complex
and varied role that incorporates mediation, modeling, and coaching. When
mediating student learning, the teacher frequently adjusts the level of information
and support based on students' needs and helps students to link new information
to prior knowledge, refine their problem-solving strategies, and learn how to
learn.
 Co-Learner and Co-Investigator. Teachers and students participate in
investigations with practicing professionals. Using this model, students explore
new frontiers and become producers of knowledge in knowledge-building
communities. Indeed, with the help of technology, students may become the
teachers as teachers become the learners.
8. Student Roles for Engaged Learning
 Explorer. Students discover concepts and connections and apply skills by
interacting with the physical world, materials, technology, and other people. Such
discovery-oriented exploration provides students with opportunities to make
decisions while figuring out the components/attributes of events, objects, people,
or concepts.
 Cognitive Apprentice. Students become cognitive apprentices when they
observe, apply, and refine through practice the thinking processes used by realworld practitioners. In this model, students reflect on their practice in diverse
situations and across a range of tasks, and they articulate the common elements
of their experiences.
 Producers of Knowledge. Students generate products for themselves and their
community that synthesize and integrate knowledge and skills. Through the use
of technology, students increasingly are able to make significant contributions to
the world's knowledge.
Adapted from Indicator: Range of Use by Learning Point Associates, available online at
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/efp/range/efpranin.htm.
Copyright © 2007 by Learning Point Associates. Adapted with permission of the publisher.
75
Engaging Instruction Checklist
Learning Indicators for Engagement
My Classroom does
not address
Students are…
Responsible for Learning
Energized by Learning
Strategic
Collaborative
Classroom Instruction is…
Challenging
Authentic
Integrative/interdisciplinary
Classroom Assessments are…
Performance-Based
Generative
Interwoven with Curriculum and Instruction
Equitable Standards
Instructional Strategies are…
Interactive
Generative
Learning Context contains…
A Knowledge-Building Learning Community
Collaboration
Empathy
Classroom environment contains…
Heterogeneous Groups
Flexible Groups
Equitable Groups
76
My Classroom
addresses
Engaging Instruction Checklist (continued)
Learning Indicators for Engagement
My Classroom does not
address
I am a…
Facilitator
Guide
Co-Learner and Co-Investigator
Students play the role of a/an…
Explorer
Cognitive Apprentice
Producers of Knowledge
77
My Classroom
addresses
4. Using the Learning Indicators for Engagement article, develop student interview
questions to identify your students' level of engagement. Here are a few examples to get
you started.
a. Are you excited to learn in my classroom?
b. Do you find the tasks that I give you challenging?
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
5. Using the questions you created, interview the six students in your student focus group.
6. Answer the following questions.
a. Do you identify with the views of your students? Please describe.
b. How do you engage students in your classroom?
78
c. Is there evidence of disengagement in your classroom? If yes, please describe.
d. What could be causing disengagement in your classroom?
e. What specific steps could you take to increase student engagement?
7. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses in the space
provided.
8. Fill in the "L" and "D" column of your "Rationale for 21st Century Change K-L-D
Chart."
9. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
79
Section 2.2: The 21st Century Workplace
Topic 2.2.1: How Is the 21st Century Workplace Different Than the 20th Century Workplace?
View Multimedia Segment (www.emeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article Technology, Workplace and Educaiton: What is the Link? on the following
pages.
80
Technology, Education, and Workplace: What Is the Link?
The economy of the United States has undergone major changes from the 20th to the
21st century. These changes have impacted every aspect of our society and our
relationships with others, including our educational systems. Technological advances,
globalization, and an overall shift in the workforce have made it imperative for our
schools to re-examine how they are preparing the youngest members of the population
for the world that lies ahead of them. Thomas Friedman, author of "The World is Flat"
(2005), and other proponents of forward and creative thinking offer some crucial insights
into what our world has become and where we are going. While jobs are being
outsourced to other countries daily, we should take note and begin to make changes, or
we may fall even further behind.
Our Nation in the 20th Century
Looking back on the 20th century, a number of job sectors drove the economy.
Manufacturing of a wide range of products and services was in high demand. Technical
advances, better machinery, and strong fertilizers helped increase the productivity of
crop development. Farming provided enough agricultural products, through livestock,
grains, and other major staples of the human diet, to feed the nation. And the mining of
coal, iron, and steel helped sustain the economy by providing resources that could be
used to create goods for use both inside and outside the United States (U.S.
Department of State, 2007).
The 1900s were witness to many economical changes. During the 1950s, people began
buying goods that were not available during World War II. This created corporate
expansion and more jobs, as the demand for products increased. The 1970s saw a
surplus in agricultural products. This brought more money to farmers, but also
demanded more government assistance to determine ways to distribute the surplus
(U.S. Department of State, 2007).
As the century advanced into the 1980s and 1990s, technology exploded. It moved from
base-level computing systems to highly advanced cell phones, hand-held computers,
and satellite technology. This new technology runs internet communication, databases,
and other information-sharing tools, all allowing communication to take place with
people a world away, at the touch of a button. With this technology came even more job
opportunities for everyone from established employees with varied levels of work
experience to college graduates, well-schooled in the use of this technology. The rise in
technology allowed people from all over the world the opportunity to compete for higherlevel and high-paying jobs (Friedman, 2005).
The changing economy allowed the population to choose to move into a variety of
fields, one of which was manufacturing. In the early to mid 1900s, manufacturing jobs
increased and even provided women who had been working from home a place in the
81
workforce, as the need for more employees in factories and on assembly-lines
increased. As the century progressed, however, many of these factory jobs diminished
as people were replaced by machines, companies were sent overseas, or the need for
certain products disappeared. Production occupations, such as farming, decreased from
almost 40 percent to as low as 3 percent. Even goods-producing industries dropped
almost 20 percent. The only jobs that continued to grow were those within the serviceindustry. People who desired to work with finances, real estate, government and even
retail trade had their pick of work opportunities. Many of these people came from the
manufacturing sector looking for employment (Fisk, 2001).
The changing workforce had dramatic effects on American society and schools. Once
the 1980s and 1990s brought more technological advances, the competition for jobs
began to take a turn. Skills taught in the schools during the 1950s were no match for the
new schools and society of the 1990s. A change needed to be made to get students
ready for what they would encounter (Wells & Steptoe, 2006).
What This Meant for Education
Education has always played a major role in how the economy is shaped. There are
staggering statistics that demonstrate this point. “In 1900, less than 14 percent of all
Americans graduated from high school. By 1999, that figure had increased to 83
percent. In 1910, less than 3 percent of the population had graduated from a school of
higher learning. By 1999, the figure was 25 percent. Furthermore, increased education
resulted in substantial monetary payoff for the individual worker. Men with college
degrees earned 62 percent more and women 65 percent more in hourly compensation
than did those with a high school degree at the end of the century (1997). A substantial
part of the growth of the economy is attributable to increased education” (Fisk, 2001).
Educational institutions in the 20th century provided opportunities for students to gain
skills for what could be considered blue-collar (manual labor) or white-collar
(professional, administrative, or managerial) jobs. It could be seen in schools around the
United States. School curriculums allowed for more trade-oriented or basic courses for
one group; basic math, science, English, and history courses allowed them to easily
transition into jobs once they graduated high school. The students who desired to
continue their educational studies beyond high school could take more rigorous
courses: higher level math and science, foreign languages, advanced placement
history. The “tracks” were different, but educational opportunities were available for
each group to succeed. There were even business-related courses (typing, computers,
accounting) if a student wished to train for a job in this field.
Liberal arts courses added to the curriculum. Art, music, and choral classes allowed
students to foster their interests or become masters of their craft. Foreign language
programs, on the average, covered four basic languages: Latin, German, French, and
Spanish; however, most courses were begun at the middle or high school level and
there were not always stringent requirements for mastery of any of these languages to
graduate. Based on this fact, as the world was becoming more globally business82
oriented, many students could not compete linguistically. This one major barrier in
communication would prove to be a major cause of other issues in the future.
At times, historical events had a major effect on education. The 1950s and 1960s
brought an increased demand for space exploration, to compete with other countries,
thereby pushing more students to increase their studies of mathematics, science, and
engineering courses. As the drive to compete with other nations in space travel
exploration began to diminish in the 1980s and 1990s, the number of students enrolled
in higher level mathematics and science courses followed suit. Other countries
continued to advance in these areas, giving them the upper hand in developing
technology and their overall business structure. This, in turn, provided even more job
opportunities for these countries. Looking ahead, we can see that if our country does
not continue programs that foster a variety of important and life-changing skills, we
stand to fall behind (Friedman, 2005).
Our Nation in the 21st Century
The 21st century has come about on the tails of globalization. Companies rely on
technology that provides immediate results to carry out their day-to-day business
transactions, from their office to anywhere in the world, with an internet connection.
Products and services are readily transported and traded with overseas partners set on
achieving a world-wide goal of sustaining or developing a strong economy. There is a
growing interdependence on world markets, but there remains the issue of
overproduction and surplus while employment in areas such as farming is on the
decreasing (U.S. Department of State, 2007).
Technology is constantly changing to make everything we do more efficient, time-wise
and money-wise. There is still manufacturing and agriculture, but many of the tasks that
were once performed by humans have been replaced by machines. These changes
have drastic implications on the economy and the types and number of jobs available at
any given time. In the 21st century, Americans are competing not just with other
Americans, but also with citizens of India, China, or even Japan. Outsourcing is
common with major corporations. Jobs are sent to companies overseas, where people
will work for less money and perform just as well as their American counterparts
(Friedman, 2005).
Because of the fierce competition, American employees need to be versatile, having a
wide array of skills that can be adapted to a wider array of job opportunities and tasks.
These kinds of people, called “versatilists,” are unique individuals. They can apply a
greater depth of skills to a variety of situations and experiences. They have creative
thinking to come up with new solutions to problems and new ideas to make the world
run more efficiently and effectively. Overall, companies want employees that can
improve the way that work is being done while effectively carrying out the overall goals
of the organization. This is what the technologically, ever-changing American society is
coming to (Friedman, 2005).
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What This Means for Today's American Schools
From the 20th century to today, very little has changed from the manner in which
schooling is carried out. There are still teachers who lecture and provide few
opportunities for students to truly use what they are learning in creative or useful ways,
beyond the classroom. The world has changed and the classroom needs to change with
it (Wells & Steptoe, 2006).
What do today's schools need? Teaching needs to be brought into the 21st century. Our
students need to be ready to join in with the global economy and work in jobs that will
help advance our society. To compete, there are a number of important skills that
should be honed before they leave the comfort of their high school walls (Wells &
Steptoe, 2006).
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High competence in traditional academic subjects
Knowledge of the world
Creative and innovative skills
Cross-curriculum thinking
Good people skills
It is necessary for students to be knowledgeable in a variety of basic subject areas
before graduating. They select from English, mathematics, science, history and even
foreign language courses. The level of competence they have in these subject areas will
allow them to compete, or fall behind, when they graduate. Standardized tests, many
given in light of No Child Left Behind, focus on reading and math skills. Our schools
have begun to focus so much on these areas, where there are still major shortages in
learning compared to other countries, so other subjects are beginning to falter as well
(Wells & Steptoe, 2006). Students need to push harder and truly grasp all of the
subjects they study, as many countries already accomplish this task.
Being knowledgeable about what goes on in the world is a major step toward becoming
a more global citizen. To compete with other countries, students need to be literate in
global trade and fluent in a foreign language. They also need to be aware of and
sensitive to foreign cultures (Wells & Steptoe, 2006). Foreign language skills are
disastrously lacking in our American youth. Many schools still require only 2 years of
foreign language study, many times being offered at the middle or high school level,
making it nearly impossible for mastery at any level to take place. And, with the global
market focusing more on languages such as Chinese and Arabic, the main course
offerings of Spanish, German, French, and Latin are not even allowing the students the
opportunity to compete. Some schools are changing this, however, taking on courses in
Chinese and even offering language study programs abroad. This is a step in the right
direction.
How else must our students change in order to make it in this more global economy? In
an age where some schools are still selective about course offerings for different types
of students, it is only possible to change our schools if we re-examine what we are
doing, what we have done, and where we want to go and align it with what is going on
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in the world around us. Standardized tests have become the answer to determining the
health of our schools. But what can the students do with basic facts and information if
they have not been pushed to put it to use in simulations of real-life situations? Complex
thinking and problem solving skills allow students to “think outside the box” and really
see what they can do (Wells & Steptoe, 2006). These skills, teamed with technologysavvy thinking, will greatly increase a student's ability to adapt to the global economy.
Cross-curriculum thinking is possibly one of the most innovative ways to make it in a
global economy. YouTube and Google are two examples of what happens when you
combine disciplines. Inventors of these two popular internet tools took mathematics and
art and combined them in a way to make a product that the public would use on a
regular basis. These kinds of innovative ideas, taken across the curriculum, can easily
be translated into what students can accomplish in their own schools (Friedman, 2005).
Our society has become increasingly more team-oriented when it comes to getting jobs
accomplished. It is imperative that our students be educated in manners of developing
good people skills. They will be required to work with groups of people from varied
educational and cultural backgrounds. In order to effectively accomplish what
companies require, they will need to be a team player. This ties in with thinking globally
and truly learning about and understanding other cultures, personalities, and learning
styles (Wells & Steptoe, 2006).
The bottom line: Our schools must become global to compete with the real world.
Thomas Friedman (2005) explains that there needs to be an adapting of business
processes, study habits, and innovative ideas to go along with the “flattening” of the
world, where everything is becoming more interconnected and collaborative. We need
to think about what will make these students stand out from the rest. Teachers must
allow for creativity to take place in their classrooms. Hands-on projects, real-life
simulations, rigorous language programs, strong academic courses, and tasks that
require problem-solving and creative thinking are ways to help keep our students
involved and in fierce competition with other students and people from around the world.
Only then will our students be better prepared for what awaits them in the “real world
(Friedman, 2005).”
Maybe even more important than what the schools need to do, is what the parents need
to do. Parents must step-up and be challenged to prepare our students for the global
world. Families that encourage their children to work hard, reach for their goals, and
realize their true potential have children who are better prepared for life beyond the
classroom. Parents and schools can do much to shape the children of today, and make
them truly see what they are capable of (Friedman, 2005).
The Road Ahead
Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, offers deeper insights into
what she has seen happening with our global world. “The sky is not falling, nothing
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horrible is going to happen today. The U.S. is still the leading engine for innovation in
the world. It has the best graduate programs, the best scientific infrastructure, and the
capital markets to exploit it. But there is a quiet crisis…that we have to wake up to. The
U.S. today is in a truly global environment, and those competitor countries are not only
wide awake, they are running a marathon while we are running sprints. If left
unchecked, this could challenge our preeminence and capacity to innovate” (Friedman,
2005, p.253).
World globalization has created newer and greater job opportunities. Having
imagination, strong academic skills, and the adaptability to work with a wide background
of people, technology and ideas is necessary for people to excel in this ever-advancing
global economy. Our schools have a responsibility to prepare students for what
opportunities await them. (Friedman, 2005). After all, Friedman (2005) states, “we have
within our society all the ingredients for American individuals to thrive in this world, but if
we squander those ingredients, we will stagnate” (p.306). We cannot afford to let this
happen, after everything we have accomplished. Our children will be the next
individuals to take our society and continue to make it great, if they have the tools to
accomplish that.
References
Fisk, Donald M. (Fall 2001). “American Labor in the 20th Century.” Compensation and Working
Conditions. Retrieved January 13, 2007, from http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20030124ar02pl.htm
Friedman, Thomas L. (2005). The World is Flat. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
U.S. Department of State. “Farming Post World-War II.” Retrieved January 12, 2007, from
http://economics.about.com/od/americanagriculture/a/farming.htm
Wallis, C., & Steptoe, S. (2006). “How to Bring Schools Out of the 20th Century.” Retrieved January 10,
2007, from www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html
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Course Activity: Classroom Organization
In this activity you will reflect on the organization of your classroom and draw conclusions about
student preparedness for the 21st workplace.
1. Answer the following questions.
a. Is your current classroom organization preparing students for the 20th Century
workplace or the 21st Century workplace? Please describe.
b. What role do classroom management and organization play in student preparation
for the 21st Century workplace? Please describe.
c. What changes would you make to better prepare your students?
2. Summarize your responses in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to
your Learning Log.
3. Enter your summary on the Embedded Learning Academy web site
(www.embeddlearningacademy.com/pde) in your Learning Log by clicking on
"Resources" and then "Learning Log." (Label your entry "Classroom Organization.")
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4. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
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Topic 2.2.2: What Are the 21st Century Skills Needed by Students?
View Multimedia Segment (www.emdbeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read article titled 21st Century Workplace: Skills for Success on the following pages
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21st Century Workplace: Skills for Success
Most Americans agree that the workplace is changing and that the skills necessary for
success in the 21st century workplace are different from those needed in the 20th
century. In his book A Whole New Mind, author Daniel H. Pink writes that we are
"moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age" [Pink, 2005, p. 33]. He argues
that the workplace is changing as a result of three factors--Asia, abundance,
automation-and that to remain competitive workers will need new skills [Pink, 2005, p.
46]. According to Pink "in the Conceptual Age, what we need . . . is a whole new mind"-one that incorporates both right brain and left brain directed aptitudes (Pink, 2005, p.
51). Where the left brain is "sequential, logical, and analytical," the right brain is
"nonlinear, intuitive, and holistic." He notes that while the "defining skills of the previous
era are necessary," they are "no longer sufficient." Instead he argues, the "right brain
qualities of inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness, and meaning increasingly will determine
who flourishes and who flounders" (Pink, 2005, p. 3).
The Changing Workplace
Pink's findings concur with those of other experts and researchers who have studied the
changing workplace and the skills that will be needed for continued work success. The
enGauge 21st Century Skills notes in its report on Literacy in the Digital Age that
"experts at the U.S. Department of Labor... assert, ‘The influence of technology will go
beyond new equipment and faster communication, as work and skills will be redefined
and reorganized' " (enGauge, 2003, p. 8). The enGauge report asserts that "rapid
change and increased competition require that workers use their ‘soft skills' to adapt
quickly to changing technologies and organizational structures" (enGauge, 2003, p. 8).
According to this study "As society changes, the skills needed to negotiate the
complexities of life also change. In the early 1900s, a person who had acquired simple
reading, writing, and calculating skills was considered literate. Only in recent years has
the public education system expected all students to build on those basics, developing a
broad range of literacies. To achieve success in the 21st century, students also need to
attain proficiency in science, technology, and culture, as well as gain a thorough
understanding of information in all its forms" (enGauge, 2003, p.15).
The workplace and employer expectations have changed over time. "For businesses,
it's no longer enough to create a product that's reasonably priced and adequately
functional. It must also be beautiful, unique, and meaningful...," writes Pink [Pink, p. 35].
In addition many jobs are being outsourced. "White collar work of all sorts is migrating to
other parts of the world," Pink notes [p. 38]. "The main reason is money." Workers in
other parts of the world can do what American workers can do--only for less money.
Automation is also changing the workplace as we know it: Computers are now doing
tasks better, faster, and cheaper [Pink, 2005].
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"The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different type of mind,"
warns Pink [p.1]. Workers will need to build on the skills of the 20th Century by
mastering a new and different set of skills in the 21st Century. "We must perform work
that overseas knowledge-workers can't do cheaper, that computers can't do faster, and
that satisfies the aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual demands of a prosperous time,"
writes Pink [p. 61]. For example, "engineers and programmers will have to master
different aptitudes, relying more on creativity than competence, more on tacit knowledge
than technical manuals, and more on fashioning the big picture than sweating out the
details," Pink writes. [p. 44-45].
In their book The new division of labor: How computers are creating the next job market,
Frank Levy and Richard Murnane argue that two categories of skills will be more
valued: "expert thinking--solving new problems for which there are no routine answers"
and "complex communication--persuading, explaining, and in other ways conveying a
particular interpretation of information" [Pink, 333].
Schools must prepare students for a different workplace--one that values innovation,
imagination, creativity, communication, and emotional intelligence [Pink, 233].
The 21st Century Workplace Skills
The enGauge report identified four skill clusters as essential to success in the 21st
Century workplace. These skills "were developed through a process that included
literature reviews, research on emerging characteristics of the Net Generation, a review
of current reports on workforce trends from business and industry, analysis of nationally
recognized skill sets, input from educators, data from educator surveys, and reactions
from constituent groups. In addition, data was gathered from educators at state-level
conference sessions in 10 states, surveys, and focus groups Chicago and Washington,
D.C." (enGauge, 2003, p. 13).
The four skill clusters are:
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Digital-age literacy, which includes the various competencies expected in a 21st
century workplace.
Inventive thinking, which includes the ability to think outside the box.
Effective communication, which is the ability to clearly communicate with a wide range
of audiences.
High productivity, which will be a requirement of success in the 21st Century
workplace.
Mastering the Skills
Within these skill clusters are a subset of skills and competencies that workers will be
expected to have mastered. EnGauge further defines the subset of skills for each skill
as follows:
Digital-age literacy encompasses:
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
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Basic literacy: This is defined as the ability to read, write, listen and speak as well as to
compute numbers and solve problems.
Scientific literacy: This is defined as a general knowledge and understanding of
scientific concepts and processes.
Economic literacy: This includes an understanding of basic economic concepts,
personal finance, the roles of small and large businesses, and how economic issues
affect them as consumers and citizens.
Technological literacy: This includes an understanding about technology and how it
can be used to achieve a specific purpose or goal.
Visual literacy: This includes good visualization skills and the ability to understand, use,
and create images and video using both conventional and new media.
Information literacy: This includes the ability to find, access, and use information as
well as the ability to evaluate the credibility of the information.
Cultural literacy: This includes the ability to value diversity, to exhibit sensitivity to
cultural issues, and to interact and communicate with diverse cultural groups.
Global awareness: This is an understanding of how nations, individuals, groups, and
economies are interconnected and how they relate to each other.
Inventive thinking will be prized in the 21st Century and a successful individual needs
to develop and cultivate these essential life skills: (enGauge, 2003, p. 35)
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Adaptability and managing complexity: This is the ability to recognize and understand
that change is a constant, and to deal with change positively by "modifying one's
thinking, attitude or behavior" to accommodate and handle this new environment.
Self-direction: This is the ability to work independently, whether developing goals or
plans, managing one's time and work, or evaluating one's knowledge or learning
process.
Curiosity: This is the desire to learn more about something and is an essential
component of lifelong learning.
Creativity: This is the means of producing something new or original that is either
personally or culturally significant
Risk taking: This is a willingness to think about a problem or challenge, to share that
thinking with others, and to listen to feedback. It is a willingness to go beyond a safety
zone, to make mistakes, to creatively tackle challenges or problems with the ultimate
goal of enhancing personal accomplishment and growth.
Higher-order thinking and sound reasoning: The higher-level thinking processes
include the ability to analyze, compare, infer, interpret, evaluate, and synthesize. Sound
reasoning applies common sense and acquired knowledge and skills to ensure good
problem solving and decision making.
Effective communication is the ability to communicate with both individuals and
groups in a positive manner. Effective communication involves: (enGauge, 2003, p. 47)

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Teaming and collaboration: Teaming is a situation in which individuals share a
common goal, bring unique capabilities to the job of achieving, work in a structured
environment, and exhibit trust and respect towards one another. Collaboration is the
cooperative interaction between the members of the team as they work together to
achieve their goal.
Interpersonal skills: This is the ability to manage one's behavior, emotions, and
motivations to foster positive interactions with other individuals and groups. The ability to
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effectively manage conflict is also an important interpersonal skill necessary for success
in the 21st Century workplace. These skills are exhibited both in one-on-one situations
and in emails, conference calls, and videoconferences.
Personal responsibility: Personal responsibility in the 21st Century workplace requires
one to understand the legal and ethical issues related to technology and to mange and
use technology in a responsible manner.
Social and civic responsibility: This requires that individuals use and manage
technology to promote the public good and to protect society and the environment.
Interactive communication: This requires that individuals learn to communicate using
a wide range of media and technology. They must select the most effective method of
communication for the intended audience and use it responsibly and effectively to
enhance the dissemination of information.
High productivity is expected of workers in the 21st Century workforce. Individuals
need to master these skills if they are to be productive. (enGauge, 2003, p.59)
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Prioritizing, planning, and managing for results: These organizational skills help an
individual achieve the goals that have been set through efficient management of time
and resources, effective problem solving, and strong leadership skills.
Effective use of real-world tools: This requires that individuals master current and new
technology to communicate and collaborate with others, to effectively problem solve, and
to accomplish tasks. They must learn how to select the appropriate tools for the task at
hand and to apply these tools efficiently and effectively to achieve results.
Ability to produce relevant, high-quality products: This is the "ability to produce
intellectual, informational, or material products that serve authentic purposes and occur
as a result of students using real-world tools to solve or communicate about real-world
problems" (enGauge, 2003, p. 59).
Conclusion
Our changing workplace requires that all 21st Century workers master the skills
required in a knowledge-society as well as the new skills necessary to move beyond the
Information Age into the Conceptual Age. The enGauge report identifies "three
significant things that need to occur if students are to thrive in today's knowledge-based,
global society. These are: (enGauge, 2003, p. 2)

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The public must acknowledge 21st century skills as essential to the education of today's
learner.
Schools must embrace new designs for learning based on emerging research about how
people learn, effective uses of technology, and 21st century skills in the context of
rigorous academic content.
Policymakers must base school accountability on assessments that measure both
academic achievement and 21st century skills.
As the workplace changes and evolves, so must its workers if they are to be successful.
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References
NCREL and Metiri Group. (2003). "enGauge 21st century skills: Literacy in the digital age." Napierville, IL
and Los Angeles, CA: NCREL and Metiri.
Pink, Daniel H. (2005). A whole new mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age. New
York: Penguin Group.
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21st Century Skills
Classroom Application
21st Century
Workplace Skill
Examples of Application in Social Studies
Digital-age Literacy
Basic, scientific, economic, and
technological literacies
Use understanding of statistical techniques, sampling bias, and population parameters in simulated settings to study the effects on
outcomes. Analyze these factors in published scientific or economic reports, and use knowledge of statistical techniques to evaluate
the validity of the reports' findings.
Visual and informational literacy
Create an age-appropriate electronic portfolio of maps and other geographic projects, and write a reflective essay explaining how
selected portfolio pieces reflect what they have learned about specific topics
Cultural literacy and global
awareness
Conduct analysis using demographic data in a geographic information system to analyze voting patterns and determine redistricting
guidelines
Inventive Thinking
Adaptability/ability to manage
complexity
Create a high-quality digital map product, including data that has been gathered in the local area, to submit to an agency outside the
classroom (e.g., national contest, local newspaper, community member)
Self-direction
Create a culminating project that demonstrates content knowledge and conceptual understanding in at least three distinct content
areas; project should demonstrate problem-solving ability and ability to draw connections between social studies content and real
world settings.
Curiosity, creativity, and risk
taking
Use a geographic information system to analyze information on soil, hydrology, and other factors in order to choose the best site for
a sanitary landfill in an urban region, and prepare an informational video to present findings
Higher-order thinking and sound
reasoning
Using the Internet and digital libraries, identify and compare alternative, sustainable economic activities in regions of significant
resource depletion
Effective Communication
Teaming, collaboration, and
interpersonal skills
Create a public awareness campaign to encourage product recycling in order to reduce the amount of refuge that is deposited in the
local landfill each week.
Personal, social and civic
responsibility
Collect, analyze, and comply data that reflects current political candidates position on pending legislation and future agenda as a
public service tool.
Interactive communication
Prepare an informative oral presentation that evaluates alternative land use proposals using various presentation tools (e.g.,
multimedia slide show) and incorporating spatial data and maps.
High Productivity
Ability to prioritize, plan and
manage for results
Employ more complex problem-solving methods to develop a deeper understanding of the planning and management of a
construction project (within certain material & budget constraints).
Effective use of real-world tools
Formulate, approach, and solve problems beyond those studied using a variety of problem-solving tools such as graphing
calculators, probes, GPS, and geometry tool software.
Ability to produce relevant, high
quality products
Use data and maps prepared in a geographic information system to compare and analyze alternative land use proposals and
communicate conclusions using such tools as html, advanced multimedia applications, and video technologies
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21st Century
Workplace Skill
Examples of Application in Language Arts
Digital-age Literacy
Basic, scientific, economic,
and technological literacies
Choose a social issue or controversy that has been a subject of protest songs. Primary sources (print, digital, or community resources),
research an aspect of the issue to use as background in writing an original protest song or lyrics.
Visual and informational
literacy
Create a visual representation (any media) of life combining family interviews and historical significant events.
Cultural literacy and global
awareness
Analyze the portrayal of bosses in popular media (comic strips, TV comedies, dramas, movies), identifying stereotypes found and
identifying the kinds of "real life" bosses that are not included.
Inventive Thinking
Adaptability/ability to
manage complexity
Create digital videos that present a persuasive argument that calls for social action or community change.
Self-direction
Create and produce a DVD or website promoting personal responsibility.
Curiosity, creativity, and risk
taking
Develop a "Frequently Asked Questions" type research paper (that explains a topic thoroughly, based on likely questions about the
subject) as a webpage.
Higher-order thinking and
sound reasoning
Evaluate information found on the internet to distinguish between information and propaganda, satire, or commercialism on the Internet.
Effective Communication
Teaming, collaboration, and
interpersonal skills
As a team use video cameras and editing software to create a DVD of a collaboratively written play.
Personal, social and civic
responsibility
Maintain a generative self-reflective journal (either print or online) that is utilized and referenced throughout the development of a project
or unit that has social and or civil implications. For example researching the legal, moral, health, and social consequences of lowering the
legal drinking age to 18.
Interactive communication
Select and organize abundant materials (digital and print) according to the basic principles of information management. Read and
understand the organizational efforts of others. Students can demonstrate this by creating a substantial web site of personal portfolio
materials that is not only easy to navigate and read at the interface level, but also organized and understandable at the file-management
level.
High Productivity
Ability to prioritize, plan and
manage for results
Participate in an online interactive debate with student panels and evaluator-experts.
Effective use of real-world
tools
For a selected topic, evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources.
Ability to produce relevant,
high quality products
Create digital videos that present a persuasive argument that calls for social action or community change.
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21st Century
Workplace Skill
Examples of Application in Science
Digital-age Literacy
Basic, scientific, economic, and
technological literacies
Read and evaluate technical information about measuring instruments for the purpose of deciding which instrument is the most
economic for the job.
Visual and informational literacy Develop a graph to illustrate the optimal amount of fertilizer and pesticides for maximum crop yield from tables of experimental data.
Cultural literacy and global
awareness
Investigate the impact of genetic engineering of crops on global and local food production, and populations.
Inventive Thinking
Adaptability/ability to manage
complexity
Devise a strategic plan to network all the company computers. At the last minute a division is added. You changed design to a
wireless network to accommodate the additional computers.
Self-direction
Research a scientific problem by writing grants and supporting the research.
Curiosity, creativity, and risk
taking
Conventional belief is that stomach ulcers are created by excess stomach acid. You observe a certain type of bacteria in all stomach
ulcers and suggest that the bacterium is the cause of the stomach ulcer. Colleagues laugh at you and you lose grant support. Years
later, antibiotics are standard treatment for stomach ulcers.
Higher-order thinking and
sound reasoning
Cancer drugs work by killing cancer cells. You have an idea that by cutting off blood supply to the tumor, you kill the tumor. You find
the chemical signal to make blood vessels grow and devise a drug to block the chemical signal.
Effective Communication
Teaming, collaboration, and
interpersonal skills
A team designs a new candy. The candy is tested by the sensory and marketing departments. The design, sensory, and marketing
teams meet and recommend changes in the candy formulation.
Personal, social and civic
responsibility
Test and analyze results of local water systems. Share the results of an investigation of water quality with neighboring communities in
order to increase public awareness.
Interactive communication
Design an educational software site to aid in teaching specific content material. Run a beta test program with teachers. Analyze and
incorporate the suggestions from the teachers into the program. Run a beta test again and make the necessary changes. Continue
with the design cycle until desired results are accomplished.
High Productivity
Ability to prioritize, plan and
manage for results
Create a report for local authorities highlighting the pros and cons (E.G. economic, personal, and scientific factors) of long term
storage of radioactive waste materials.
Effective use of real-world tools
Run a computer simulation and design an aircraft wing. Build a scale model and test the wing in a wind tunnel. Repeat cycle several
times until the wing design uses 5% less fuel.
Ability to produce relevant, high
quality products
Design a new computer operating system that runs on a wide variety of computers, adapts to new hardware easily, and boots up very
quickly.
97
21st Century
Workplace Skill
Examples of Application in Mathematics
Digital-age Literacy
Basic, scientific, economic, and
technological literacies
Research, graph and analyze school attendance and the effect it has on the school and the community.
Visual and informational literacy
Use physical and digital models to demonstrate mathematical concepts. Research, design, and create model of a safe playground
for a day-care center.
Cultural literacy and global
awareness
Use online bulletin boards to engage in discussions of math concepts with people (students and/or experts) from around the world;
demonstrate tolerance and respect for the points of view of others.
Inventive Thinking
Adaptability/ability to manage
complexity
Provided with a salary, setup a workable budget for living independently as an adult.
Self-direction
Create a culminating project that demonstrates content knowledge and conceptual understanding in at least three distinct content
areas; project should demonstrate problem-solving ability and ability to draw connections between mathematics content and real
world settings.
Curiosity, creativity, and risk
taking
Use graphing calculators and probes to collect and analyze environmental data (e.g., pH of streams) or contextual data (e.g., speed
of cars in school zones).
Higher-order thinking and sound
reasoning
Develop an audience-appropriate presentation that uses analysis, interpretation and display of data and related inferences to
describe the situation and possible solutions for the speeding cars in a school zone.
Effective Communication
Teaming, collaboration, and
interpersonal skills
After researching community needs/restrictions, design and layout the dimensions for a community multi-purpose entertainment
center.
Personal, social and civic
responsibility
Use estimation to determine the reasonableness of an answer and use word-processing software to explain the process. How soon
will the local landfill be full based upon the property availability dimensions and the rate of refuge deposited weekly?
Interactive communication
Design a presentation to sell the multi-purpose entertainment center concept to an entrepreneur for financial packing. Include
startup, construction cost compared to potential revenue generated.
High Productivity
Ability to prioritize, plan and
manage for results
Employ more complex problem-solving methods to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics, such as simulating a
construction project (within certain material & budget constraints).
Effective use of real-world tools
Select and research a stock listed on the New Stock Exchange. Estimate the projected outlook and profit margin, track, document,
and offer rationale for its gain or loss over a period of time.
Ability to produce relevant, high
quality products
Design a cost effective efficient container to mass produce for industry according to specific requirements.
98
Job Embedded Activity: 21st Century Skills
In this activity you will analyze your infusion of technology when teaching 21st Century skills.
Then, you will survey your student focus group about their career choices and investigate the
skills needed for success.
1. Use the following chart to analyze your infusion of technology when teaching 21st
Century skills. Place an "X" in the column that best represents your infusion of
technology when teaching a specific 21st Century skill.
Low
Medium
High
Digital Age Literacy
Basic, scientific, mathematical, technological
literacies
Visual and information literacies
Cultural literacy and global awareness
Inventive Thinking
Adaptability/ability to manage complexity
Curiosity, creativity, and risk taking
Higher-order thinking and sound reasoning
Effective Communication
Teaming, collaboration, and interpersonal skills
Personal and social responsibility
Interactive communication
High Productivity
Ability to prioritize, plan, and manage for results
Effective use of real-world tools
Relevant, high-quality products
*Chart Adapted with Permission from NCREL-EnGauge 21st Century Skills Report
2. Survey the members of your student focus group about the types of careers that they are
considering pursuing using the provided tool. Record responses in the chart on the
following page.
a. First, interview your student focus group members and document their career
choices in the left column.
99
b. Second, use the Internet to research the skill sets required to be successful in the
identified professions for the 21st Century and document your results in the right
hand column.
Career Choice
Required Skill Sets/Technology
3. Answer the following questions.
a. Does your instruction currently meet the skill sets necessary for success in the
careers your students have chosen?
 If yes, please describe the instructional techniques that you employ.
 If no, what adjustments can be made to your instruction
b. What types of programs does my school offer that will encourage the
development of skills and characteristics conducive to success in the 21st Century
workplace?
100
4. Summarize your responses in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to
your Learning Log.
5. Enter your summary on the Embedded Learning Academy web site
(www.embeddlearningacademy.com/pde) in your Learning Log by clicking on
"Resources" and then "Learning Log." (Label your entry "21st Century Skills.")
6. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
101
Sync Point Discussion Activity
Now that you have reached the end of this unit, you will take part in a sync point discussion with
other members of your study group. There are two different ways this can occur but your study
group will be as described below:
1. Your study group will be asked to meet for a 1 hour face-to-face meeting with your
facilitator
Your facilitator will contact you to let you know the date on which you will meet and the
location where you will meet at the end of this unit. Once you are notified, please follow the
corresponding instructions below:
Instructions: Face-to-Face Sync Point Meeting
This option will have you meet with your study group members and your facilitator for a 1 hour
face-to-face meeting. For this meeting, be prepared to discuss the following with the group
a. The disconnect between what effective instruction looked like in the 20th Century
and what effective instruction should look like in the 21st Century was not
established overnight. From the information presented in this unit and from your
personal experience, what do you identify as the most critical reason that many
schools are "stuck" in the 20th Century modality? Why do you feel that the world
changed but not our schools? What is your rationale for identifying this reason as
the most critical?
b. What have you learned and what insights gained from this unit?
c. What unanswered questions have been raised in your mind?
Your facilitator will let you know where and when this meeting will be. Follow his/her
instructions. Be sure to participate conscientiously, as part of your course grade will be based on
your contribution to this discussion.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
102
103
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 2 Multiple Choice Questions.
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 2 Essay Question. The Rubric for Unit #2 Essay Question can be found on the
following page.
104
Rubric for Unit #2 Essay Question
Score point
Summary and
rationale behind
the need for
change in the 21st
Century
Examples of how
technology is used
in instruction to
promote higher
level thinking
67 Points
(Advanced)
57 Points
(Proficient)
45 Points
(Emerging)
34 Points
(Novice)
Summarizes all of
the major reasons
change is necessary
and provides many
pieces of authentic
and appropriate
evidence from their
personal experience.
Summarizes most of
the major reasons
change is necessary
and provides a few
pieces of authentic
and appropriate
evidence from their
personal
experience.
Summarizes some
of the major
reasons change is
necessary and
provides very few
pieces of authentic
and appropriate
evidence from their
personal
experience.
Summarizes some
of the major
reasons change is
necessary and
provides no
authentic and
appropriate
evidence from
their personal
experience.
Provides numerous
highly relevant
examples of how
technology is
currently or could
potentially be used
in their classroom to
promote higher
order thinking skills.
Provides relevant
examples of how
technology is
currently or could
potentially be used
in their classroom to
promote higher
order thinking skills.
Provides few
examples of how
technology is
currently or
potentially could be
used in their
classroom and
minimal support for
how this use
promotes higher
order thinking skills.
Provides few
examples of how
technology is
currently or
potentially could
be used in their
classroom and no
support for how
this use promotes
higher order
thinking skills.
Explains the
disconnect that
exists between
current classroom
use of technology
and student use in
their personal lives
citing adequate
examples and in
depth descriptions.
Explains the
disconnect that
exists between
current classroom
use of technology
and student use in
their personal lives
citing adequate
examples.
Explains the
disconnect that
exists between
current classroom
use of technology
and student use in
their personal lives
citing minimal
examples.
Adequate evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 5 errors
Some evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 10 errors
Limited evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — More
than 10 errors
Explains the
disconnect that
Description of the exists between
disconnect
current classroom
between classroom use of technology
use of technology and student use in
and student use in their personal lives
their personal lives citing numerous
examples and in
depth descriptions.
Conventions
Excellent evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 2 errors
Note: This will be used as a holistic rubric. Therefore, the facilitator will look for the score column which seems to be a best match to the learner's
105
performance. Total points for the activity are indicated at the top of each column.
Unit 3: The 21st Century Teacher
Unit Overview:
This unit will explain that building the skills of students to critically think and collaborate with
others will prepare students for the 21st Century workplace.
In this unit the learner will explore the new role of the 21st Century classroom teacher and the
pedagogical skills needed to carry out the new responsibilities. Finally, the learner will be
exposed to the perceived challenges to 21st Century teaching.
View Multimedia Segment – Unit Overview (www.emdbeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
106
Unit 3 Activity Time Breakdown
Course Objectives
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
1. Identify the needs and preferences of the 21st Century learners
2. Recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st Century workplace
3. Understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st Century
classroom
4. Establish more effective communication among stakeholders
*For each activity/experience the relevant objectives are identified in the third column of
the chart.
Unit 3: The 21st Century Teacher
Section 3.1: The 21st Century Teacher
Topic 3.1.1: What Is the Role of the Teacher in a 21st Century Classroom?
Title
Objectives
Identified
Estimated Time
View Multimedia Segment—Unit Overview
5 minutes
NA
Complete Course Activity—Rationale for 21st Century Change KL-D Chart
10 minutes
NA
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Characteristics of a 21st Century Classroom
15 minutes
1,2
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Complete Course Activity—Instructional Practice Analysis
40 minutes
1,2
Complete Course Activity—Personal Change
30 minutes
1,2,4
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Topic 3.1.2: What Knowledge and Skills Are Needed by the Teacher to Meet the Needs of 21st Century
Students?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Elements of Differentiation
15 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Defining Inquiry-Based Learning
10 minutes
1,2
Read article titled Defining Project Learning
10 minutes
1,2
Complete Course Activity—Skill Application Reflection
20 minutes
2
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Successes and Challenges
10 minutes
3
Participate in Discussion Activity—Successes and Challenges
20 minutes
3
Topic 3.1.3: What Are the Perceived Obstacles to 21st Century Teaching?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
2,3,4
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Current State of Readiness
10 minutes
2,3,4
Participate in Discussion Activity—Current State of Readiness
20 minutes
2,3,4
Participate in Sync Point Discussion
75 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 3 Multiple Choice Questions
20 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 3 Essay Question
60 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 3 Time Totals
Blended Study Group Version
6 hours & 30 minutes
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
108
Section 3.1: The 21st Century Teacher
Topic 3.1.1: What Is the Role of the Teacher in a 21st Century Classroom?
Course Activity: The 21st Century Teacher K-L-D Chart
In this activity you will reflect on the characteristics of the 21st Century teacher.
1. Complete the "K" column of “The 21st Century Teacher K-L-D Chart” on the following
page, recording what you already know about the topic.
2. Save the chart for later use. You will be directed when to fill in the "L" and "D" columns.
This information will be used to complete the culminating activity.
109
Characteristics of the 21st Century Teacher K-L-D Chart
Teacher _____________________ Date _____________
What I Already Know (K)
What is your current
knowledge (K) of this
topic? Consider:



college courses
professional reading
peer conversations
List key points or phrases
below.
What I Learned (L)
Fort LeBoeuf SD
What I Will Do (D)
What new or extended
How will what you learned impact
learning (L) have you gained what you do (D) in your classroom?
from this module?
Think about your instructional
What knowledge, strategies, practices and reflect on how they may
and/or practices have you
be changed or revised based on data
experienced or extended
collection and interpretation, course
with this content?
content knowledge, and researchbased practices that were present in
this course.
List key words or phrases
below.
List key points and phrases below.
Learning into Doing
Data Collection and Analysis
Based on a document developed and written by the CAIU Writing Team:
A. Morton, C. Eisenhart, M. Bigelow, P. Conahan, M.K. Justice (2004)
110
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International
All Rights Reserved.
3. View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Personal Notes for Implementation:
Read article titled Characteristics of a 21st Century Classroom on the following pages.
111
Characteristics of a 21st Century Classroom
As we move further into the new millennium, it becomes clear that the 21st Century
classroom needs are very different from the 20th Century classroom needs. In the 21st
Century classroom, teachers are facilitators of student learning and creators of
productive classroom environments in which students can develop the skills they will
need in the workplace. The focus of the 21st Century classroom is on students
experiencing the environment they will enter as 21st Century workers. The collaborative
project-based curriculum used in this classroom develops the higher order thinking
skills, effective communication skills, and knowledge of technology that students will
need in the 21st Century workplace. The interdisciplinary nature of the 21st Century
classroom sets it apart from the 20th Century classroom. Lectures on a single subject at
a time were the norm in the past and today collaboration is the thread for all student
learning.
20th Century teaching strategies are no longer effective. Teachers must embrace new
teaching strategies that are radically different from those employed in the 20th Century
classroom. The curriculum must become more relevant to what students will experience
in the 21st Century workplace.
Changes in the Classroom
The 21st Century classroom is student centered, not teacher centered. Teachers no
longer function as lecturers but as facilitators of learning. The students are learning by
doing, and the teacher acts as a coach, helping students as they work on projects.
Students learn to use the inquiry method, and to collaborate with others--a microcosm
of the real world they will experience once they leave the classroom.
Students no longer study each subject in isolation. Instead, they work on
interdisciplinary projects that use information and skills from a variety of subjects and
address a number of essential academic standards. For example, books assigned in
reading or English, may be set in a country that is also being explored in social studies.
The final reading of an English book report may require that specific social studies
standards be met as well.
Textbooks are no longer the major source of information. Students use multiple
sources, including technology, to find and gather the information they need. They might
keep journals, interview experts, explore the Internet, or use computer software
programs to apply what they have learned or to find information. Instead of being
reserved only for special projects, technology is seamlessly integrated into daily
instruction.
112
In this new classroom, flexible student groupings, based on individual needs, are the
norm. The teacher still uses whole group instruction, but it is no longer the primary
instructional method used. Teachers assess student instructional needs and learning
styles and then draw on a variety of instructional and learning methods to meet the
needs of all the students in the classroom.
The focus of student learning in this classroom is different. The focus is no longer on
learning by memorizing and recalling information but on learning how to learn. Now,
students use the information they have learned and demonstrate their mastery of the
content in the projects they work on. Students learn how to ask the right questions, how
to conduct an appropriate investigation, how to find answers, and how to use
information. The emphasis in this classroom is on creating lifelong learners. With this
goal in mind, students move beyond the student role to learn through real world
experiences.
Just as student learning has changed so has assessment of that learning. Teachers use
a variety of performance-based assessments to evaluate student learning. Tests that
measure a student’s ability to memorize and to recall facts are no longer the sole means
of assessing student learning. Instead, teachers use student projects, presentations,
and other performance-based assessments to determine students’ achievement and
their individual needs.
The goal of the 21st Century classroom is to prepare students to become productive
members of the workplace.
Changes in Teacher Behavior
Just as the classroom is changing, so must the teacher adapt their roles and
responsibilities. Teachers are no longer teaching in isolation. They now co-teach, team
teach, and collaborate with other department members. Teachers are not the only ones
responsible for student learning. Other stakeholders including administrators, board
members, parents, and students all share responsibility with the teacher for educating
the student.
Teachers know that they must engage their students in learning and provide effective
instruction using a variety of instructional methods as well as technology. To do this,
teachers keep abreast of what is happening in the field. As lifelong learners, they are
active participants in their own learning. They seek out professional development that
helps them to improve both student learning and their own performance.
The new role of the teacher in the 21st Century classroom requires changes in
teachers’ knowledge and classroom behaviors. The teacher must know how to:

act as a classroom facilitator. They use appropriate resources and opportunities to
create a learning environment that allows each child to construct his or her own
knowledge. The teacher is in tune with her students and knows how to pace lessons and
provide meaningful work that actively engages students in their learning.
113









establish a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment for all students. This
requires planning on the part of the teacher to avoid safety risks, to create room
arrangements that support learning, and to provide accessibility to students with special
needs. The teacher is skilled in managing multiple learning experiences to create a
positive and productive learning environment for all the students in the classroom.
Classroom procedures and policies are an important part of creating a positive learning
environment. The teacher evaluates and implements effective classroom management
techniques in a consistent manner. She uses routines and procedures that maximize
instructional time. Students know what is expected of them, and the teacher knows how
to effectively handle disruptions so there is no adverse impact on students’ instructional
time.
plan for the long-term and short-term.
foster cooperation among students within the classroom. The teacher models and
promotes democratic values and processes that are essential in the real world.
encourage students’ curiosity and intrinsic motivation to learn. The teacher helps
students become independent, creative, and critical thinkers by providing experiences
that develop his/her students’ independent, critical and creative thinking and problem
solving skills. The teacher provides enough time for students to complete tasks, and is
clear about her expectations. Students are actively involved in their own learning within a
climate that respects their unique developmental needs and fosters positive expectations
and mutual respect.
make students feel valued. The teacher emphasizes cooperative group effort rather than
individual competitive effort through collaborative projects and a team spirit.
communicate effectively with students, parents, colleagues, and other stakeholders. The
teacher uses written, oral, and technological communication to establish a positive
learning experience and to involve other stakeholders in student learning.
use language to foster self-expression, identity development, and learning in her
students.
listen thoughtfully and responsively.
foster cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity in her students. The teacher
encourages students to learn about other cultures and instills in her students a respect
for others and their differences.
(Commitment to the Role of Teacher as a Facilitator of Learning, 2007)
Conclusion
If students are to be productive members of the 21st Century workplace, they must
move beyond the skills of the 20th Century and master those of the 21st Century.
Teachers are entrusted with mastering these skills as well and with modeling these
skills in the classroom. The characteristics of the 21st Century classroom will be very
different from those of in the classrooms of the past because the focus is on producing
students who are highly productive, effective communicators, inventive thinkers, and
masters of technology.
References
Commitment to the role of the teacher as a facilitator of learning. (2007). Retrieved January 30, 2007 from
http://www.onu.edu/a+s/cte/knowledge/facilitator.shtml
114
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Teacher-centered
Teachers spend time disseminating
information to students through direct
instruction
Student-centered
Teachers act as facilitators, coaching
students as they work on authentic
projects
Content Coverage
Teachers cover content through direct
instruction and move at a pace to
ensure that all material is presented,
whether it is learned or not.
Learning and Doing
Teachers design projects to address
essential academic standards. Student
performance on projects demonstrates
proficiency or deficiency with respect to
standards. Intervention is done for
students not meeting standards.
Memorizing information
Teachers spend most time involved in
direct instruction, with assessment
occurring as a test at the end where
recall of information is tested.
Using information
Teachers have students use information
to develop authentic projects where
mastery of information is demonstrated
in the way information is used in the
project.
Lecturer
Teachers spend most of their time
involved in “stand and deliver”.
Knowledge comes from the teacher.
Facilitator
The teacher provides projects that
involve students doing research and
assimilating the knowledge themselves.
Teachers act as coaches and provide
support as needed by students. They
take on the role of project manager.
Whole Group Configuration
All students receive the same
instruction. One size fits all.
Flexible Grouping Configuration Based
on Individual Student Needs
Teachers group students based on
needs. Instruction seldom is to the
whole group. Rather, instruction occurs
with individuals, pairs, or small groups
as needed.
Single Instructional and Learning
Modality
Memorization and Recall
Multiple Instructional and Learning
Modalities to Include All Students
Tests are the primary means of
assessment and focus on recall and
lower level thinking.
Higher Order Thinking Skills
Teachers assign projects to the class
that requires higher order thinking
(synthesis, analysis, application, and
evaluation).
The class is conducted in an isolated
manner without connections to other
classes or subjects.
Interdisciplinary
Teachers have students complete
projects that are designed to use
information and skills that cut across
other subject areas. Some projects and
assignments may be done
collaboratively between two or more
classes (e.g., history, science, and
language arts – a study of what really
might have happened at the Little Big
Horn)
Isolated
Students are encouraged to work
individually
Collaborative
Teachers allow students to work
collaboratively on projects and network
with others in the class, as well as
experts outside of school.
Quiz and Test Assessments
Students are assessed through tests
only.
Performance-based Assessments
Teachers utilize projects as well as
other products and performances as
assessments to determine student
achievement and needs. Assessments
are tailored to the talents/needs of the
Single Discipline
115
students.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Textbook Dependent
The teacher may follow the textbook
chapter by chapter, page by page. The
text book is the major source of
information.
Multiple Sources of Information
Including Technology
Teachers use the textbook as just
another resource, which is used in
conjunction with the internet, journals,
interviews of experts, etc.
Technology as a luxury
The teacher is the main user of
technology, primarily as a means of
presenting information.
Technology fully integrated into the
classroom
Teachers have students regularly use
technology to find information,
network/communicate with each other
and experts, and to produce and
present their projects, assignments, and
performances.
Teachers teaching to the one learning
style
Teachers teach to one learning style
(nearly) all the time (e.g., always talking
only, or always giving notes on the
board only). Teachers also expect
student submissions to always be the
same most or all of the time (e.g., all
work is submitted in written form).
Teachers addressing the learning styles
of all learners
Teachers use different means of
presenting information. Methods are
based on the preferences of individual
students or groups. Students are able to
convey information to the teacher via
their projects/ performances/
assignments in a variety of modalities,
based on their preferences (written,
spoken, music, acted out, etc.).
Learning content
The focus is on covering content
Learner-directed Learning
Through projects, teachers have
students learn how to ask the right
questions, do an appropriate
investigation, get answers, and use the
information so they can continue to
learn all their lives.
Learning isolated skills and factoids
Facts and skills are learned out of
context and for their own sakes.
Using a variety of types of information
to complete authentic projects
Teachers devise projects that help
students learn information and skills
through using them in situations similar
to the way they would in real life.
Acting purely as a student
Students are involved in strictly
academic endeavors (e.g., note taking,
listening to lectures).
Students acting as a worker in the
discipline
Teachers set up student assignments,
projects, and performances to allow
students to operate the way a person
would working in the field in the real
world (as a scientist, writer,
mathematician, etc).
Teaching in isolation
Closing the door and working alone with
no contact or help from outside the
classroom
Teaching in collaboration
Teachers take part in co- and team
teaching, as well as working
collaboratively with department
members to improve learning for
students
Engaging the 21st Century student
Teachers consider how to utilize the
unique characteristics of the 21st
century brain and the habits of the 21st
century digital native to provide
engaging and effective instruction.
Teaching in such a way as to disengage Students become bored because
students
school is not engaging and they feel
they have to power down.
Teaching content
Teachers focus on subject matter alone. Teaching to prepare students for the
21st Century workplace.
116
Teachers incorporate elements of the
21st Century workplace into the
classroom to prepare the student with
21st century workplace experiences
and skills.
Change From
Description
Change To
Description
Teachers alone educate the student
Teachers have the primary
responsibility for educating the student
and focus most if not all of the load.
Shared responsibility for educating the
student
Teachers communicate with all
stakeholders (administrators, school
board, parents, students) and enlist the
help and inputs of all to effectively
educate students.
“Sit and get” professional development
Teachers take part and accept passive
and ineffective professional
development
21st Century professional development
and learning communities
Teachers take an active part in planning
and participating in professional
development that regularly utilize
learning communities to improve
student learning and achievement.
Teacher looks for one answer for
students
Teachers pose low-level questions that
require recall answers. Emphasis
placed on correct answer.
Teacher looks for multiple answers from
students.
Teachers pose questions that require
high level thinking with multiple
solutions. Emphasis placed on the
types of questions.
Teachers reflect on student results
Teachers analyze assessment scores
for the sake of progress reporting
progress.
Students reflect on student results with
teachers.
Teachers with students analyze
assessment scores for the purpose of
identifying strengthens and weakness to
prescribe instruction and academic
supports.
117
Course Activity: Instructional Practice Analysis
View Multimedia Segment (www.emdbeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
In this activity you will analyze your overall instructional practices.
1. Follow the directions and complete the “Instructional Practice Analysis Tool” analysis
tool on the following pages.
118
Instructional Practice Analysis Tool
1. Identify the amount of time you spend using each of the following instructional strategies.
Instructional Strategy
Never
Drill & Practice
Lecture or Demonstration
Teacher-led discussion—low level, factual
Teacher-led discussion w/ purposeful questions to
students
Working with individual students
Working with small groups
Integrated Learning Systems
Productivity Tools
Expression and Visualization Tools
Online Research
Collaborative learning—informal
Collaborative learning—formal roles
Communication and Virtual Collaboration
Simulations
Problem Solving with Real Data Sets
119
Little
Frequent
Always
For #2 through #4 think of a specific lesson or unit that you and your students
experienced a high degree of success.
2. Analyze the complexity of your instruction and assign a percentage that represents the
time you have student spending on the different levels of complexity. The total should
equal 100%.
_____%
Creation-To put information together in a unique way to solve a problem
_____%
appraisal
Evaluation-To make quantitative or qualitative judgments using standards of
_____%
Analysis-To examine a concept and break it down into its parts
_____%
Application-To apply or use information in a new situation
_____%
Understand-To interpret, classify, summarize, infer or explain information
_____%
Remember-To recall and memorize
*For more information about the revised taxonomy please visit one of the
following websites:
a. http://www.coe.uga.edu/epltt/bloom.htm
b. http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/learning/bloom.htm
c. http://www.odu.edu/educ/llschult/blooms_taxonomy.htm
Please note: website(s) at the time of course development were active.
3. Analyze your instructional style on a scale from “Didactic” or teacher-directed, to
“Constructivist” or student-directed and student-centered. Place an “X” on the continuum
to represent your style.
Didactic
Constructivist
Analyze the authenticity of your instruction. Does your instruction have a “real-world” context or is it
characterized as artificial and exercise based, such as worksheets or essays that summarize
content for teacher use only? Place an “X” on the continuum to represent your style.
120
Artificial
Real World
4. In order to build on your previous success, how will you improve this specific
lesson or unit to make the learning more authentic for students?
For #5 and #6 consider your overall instruction when completing the questions.
5. To what extent do you make an effort to provide explicit instruction or to employ
strategies to develop the following 21st Century skills: Please refer to the course
document entitled 21st Century Workplace: Skills for Success for the specific definitions
of the following skills.
21st Century Skill
Not at all
Digital-age literacy
Basic literacy
Scientific literacy
Economic literacy
Technological literacy
Visual literacy
Information literacy
Cultural literacy
Global awareness
Inventive thinking
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Somewhat
Substantially
Adaptability and managing complexity
Self-direction
Curiosity
Creativity
Risk taking
Higher-order thinking and sound reasoning
Effective communication
Teaming and collaboration
Interpersonal skills
Personal responsibility
Social and civic responsibility
Interactive communication
High productivity
Prioritizing, planning, and managing for results
Effective use of real-world tools
Ability to produce relevant, high-quality products
6. Give examples of how you provide explicit instruction or employ strategies to develop
the following 21st Century skills:
21st Century Skill
Examples
Digital-age literacy
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Basic literacy
Scientific literacy
Economic literacy
Technological literacy
Visual literacy
Information literacy
Cultural literacy
Global awareness
Inventive thinking
123
Adaptability and managing complexity
Self-direction
Curiosity
Creativity
Risk taking
Higher-order thinking and sound reasoning
Effective communication
Teaming and collaboration
Interpersonal skills
124
Personal responsibility
Social and civic responsibility
Interactive communication
High productivity
Prioritizing, planning, and managing for
results
Effective use of real-world tools
Ability to produce relevant, high-quality
products
Adapted from Indicator: Range of Use by Learning Point Associates, available online at
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/efp/range/efpranin.htm.
Copyright © 2007 by Learning Point Associates. Adapted with permission of the publisher.
125
2. Answer the following questions.
a. Can you identify a correlation between your frequently used instructional
activities, levels of complexity and student engagement levels?
b. What do you identify as your strongest areas of 21st Century skill development?
Where are there major opportunities for improvement?
What information do you need to begin to address your improvement areas?
Where will you seek out this information?
3. Summarize your responses in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to
your Learning Log.
4. Enter your summary on the Embedded Learning Academy website
(www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde) in your Learning Log by clicking on
"Resources" and then "Learning Log." (Label your entry "Instructional Practice
Analysis")
5. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
6. Return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
126
Course Activity: Personal Change
In this activity you will analyze the results of the Instructional Practice Analysis activity and
determine what personal changes you need to make in order to make the 21st Century
transformation.
1. For each item in the following chart place an "X" in the appropriate column that
represents your reaction to each statement.
To a
Some Very Not
Great
what Little at All
Extent
Statement
I prepare a classroom environment that promotes the skills students
will need to be successful in the 21st Century workplace.
I make use of local and community resources in planning lessons.
I effectively plan my instruction to meet the needs of all learners
through readiness, interest, and learning profile.
I am comfortable allowing my students to take a greater role in
prescribing their learning.
I effectively develop challenging situations where students take the
role of explorer, scientist, engineer etc; using inquiry to guide their
learning.
I effectively design and deliver authentic and engaging projectbased activities in my classroom.
I currently teach skills and use activities that engage students.
My instruction could be considered “facilitation of learning”.
I prepare authentic experiences for my students.
My instruction engages students of diverse backgrounds.
I adapt my lessons based on student feedback.
I maintain accurate records in order to provide immediate feedback
on student progress.
I have identified the deficiencies that exist between my current
practices and the best practices of a 21st Century classroom.
I feel that there are changes that could be made in my classroom
that could promote a 21st Century shift.
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2. Discuss the following items with your principal or department leader via email or face to
face communication. Be sure to elicit feedback from your principal or department leader.
a. What did you learn about yourself after completing the Instructional Practice
Analysis and the previous chart? Summarize your personal findings.
b. What areas of personal change do you plan to make in order to improve your
instruction?
c. What are professional development and pedagogical supports currently available
to you that will help you improve your instruction?
d. What professional development and pedagogical supports do you need to
investigate to improve your instruction and make the 21st Century transition?
3. Summarize your personal reflection and your principal or department leaders
correspondence in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to your Learning
Log.
128
4. Enter your summary on the Embedded Learning Academy web site
(www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde) in your Learning Log by clicking on
"Resources" and then "Learning Log." (Label your entry "Personal Change.")
5. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
129
Topic 3.1.2: What Knowledge and Skills Are Needed by the Teacher
to Meet the Needs of 21st Century Students?
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the three articles on the following pages:
Elements of Differentiation
Defining Inquiry-Based Learning
Defining Project Learning
130
Elements of Differentiation
The biggest mistake of past centuries in teaching has been to
treat all children as if they were variants of the same
individual, and thus to feel justified in teaching them the
same subjects in the same ways.
Howard Gardner (in Siegel & Shaughnessy, 1994)
Phi Delta Kappan
Most effective teachers modify some of their instruction for students some of the time.
Many of those teachers also believe they differentiate instruction, and, to some degree,
they do. It is not this book's goal, however, to recount the sorts of modifications
sensitive teachers make from time to time, such as offering a student extra help during
lunch or asking an especially able learner a challenging question during a review
session. This book offers guidance for educators who want to develop and facilitate
consistent, robust plans in anticipation of and in response to students' learning
differences.
The Teacher Focuses on the Essentials
No one can learn everything in every textbook, let alone in a single subject. The brain is
structured so that even the most able of us will forget more than we remember about
most topics. It is crucial, then, for teachers to articulate what's essential for learners to
recall, understand, and be able to do in a given domain.
In a differentiated classroom, the teacher carefully fashions instruction around the
essential concepts, principles, and skills of each subject. She intends that students will
leave the class with a firm grasp of those principles and skills, but they won't leave with
a sense that they have conquered all there is to know. The teacher's clarity ensures that
struggling learners focus on essential understandings and skills; they don't drown in a
pool of disjointed facts. Similarly, the teacher ensures that advanced learners spend
their time grappling with important complexities rather than repeating work on what they
already know. Clarity increases the likelihood that a teacher can introduce a subject in a
way that each student finds meaningful and interesting. Clarity also ensures that
teacher, learners, assessment, curriculum, and instruction are linked tightly in a journey
likely to culminate in personal growth and individual success for each child.
The Teacher Attends to Student Differences
From a very young age, children understand that some of us are good with kicking a
ball, some with telling funny stories, some with manipulating numbers, and some with
making people feel happy. They understand that some of us struggle with reading
words from a page, others with keeping tempers in check, still others with arms or legs
that are weak. Children seem to accept a world in which we are not alike. They do not
131
quest for sameness, but they search for the sense of triumph that comes when they are
respected, valued, nurtured, and even cajoled into accomplishing things they believed
beyond their grasp.
In differentiated classrooms, the teacher is well aware that human beings share the
same basic needs for nourishment, shelter, safety, belonging, achievement,
contribution, and fulfillment. She also knows that human beings find those things in
different fields of endeavor, according to different timetables, and through different
paths. She understands that by attending to human differences she can best help
individuals address their common needs. Our experiences, culture, gender, genetic
codes, and neurological wiring all affect how and what we learn. In a differentiated
classroom, the teacher unconditionally accepts students as they are, and she expects
them to become all they can be.
Assessment and Instruction Are Inseparable
In a differentiated classroom, assessment is ongoing and diagnostic. Its goal is to
provide teachers day-to-day data on students' readiness for particular ideas and skills,
their interests, and their learning profiles. These teachers don't see assessment as
something that comes at the end of a unit to find out what students learned; rather,
assessment is today's means of understanding how to modify tomorrow's instruction.
Such formative assessment may come from small-group discussion with the teacher
and a few students, whole-class discussion, journal entries, portfolio entries, exit cards,
skill inventories, pre-tests, homework assignments, student opinion, or interest surveys.
At this stage, assessment yields an emerging picture of who understands key ideas and
who can perform targeted skills, at what levels of proficiency, and with what degree of
interest. The teacher then shapes tomorrow's lesson—and even today's—with the goal
of helping individual students move ahead from their current position of competency.
At benchmark points in learning, such as the end of a chapter or unit, teachers in
differentiated classrooms use assessment to formally record student growth. Even then,
however, they seek varied means of assessment so that all students can fully display
their skills and understandings. Assessment always has more to do with helping
students grow than with cataloging their mistakes.
The Teacher Modifies Content, Process, and Products
By thoughtfully using assessment data, the teacher can modify content, process, or
product. Content is what she wants students to learn and the materials or mechanisms
through which that is accomplished. Process describes activities designed to ensure
that students use key skills to make sense out of essential ideas and information.
Products are vehicles through which students demonstrate and extend what they have
learned.
132
Students vary in readiness, interest, and learning profile. Readiness is a student's entry
point relative to a particular understanding or skill. Students with less-developed
readiness may need




someone to help them identify and make up gaps in their learning so they can move
ahead;
more opportunities for direct instruction or practice;
activities or products that are more structured or more concrete, with fewer steps, closer
to their own experiences, and calling on simpler reading skills, or
a more deliberate pace of learning.
Advanced students, on the other hand, may need



to skip practice with previously mastered skills and understandings;
activities and products that are quite complex, open-ended, abstract, and multifaceted,
drawing on advanced reading materials; or
a brisk pace of work, or perhaps a slower pace to allow for greater depth of exploration
of a topic.
Interest refers to a child's affinity, curiosity, or passion for a particular topic or skill. One
student may be eager to learn about fractions because she is very interested in music,
and her math teacher shows her how fractions relate to music. Another child may find a
study of the American Revolution fascinating because he is particularly interested in
medicine and has been given the option of creating a final product on medicine during
that period.
Learning profile has to do with how we learn. It may be shaped by intelligence
preferences, gender, culture, or learning style. Some students need to talk ideas over
with peers to learn them well. Others work better alone and with writing. Some students
learn easily part-to-whole. Others need to see the big picture before specific parts make
sense. Some students prefer logical or analytical approaches to learning. Other
classmates prefer creative, application-oriented lessons. (See the Appendix and the end
of this chapter for sources to learn more about readiness, interest, and learning profile.)
Teachers may adapt one or more of the curricular elements (content, process, products)
based on one or more of the student characteristics (readiness, interest, learning
profile) at any point in a lesson or unit. However, you need not differentiate all elements
in all possible ways. Effective differentiated classrooms include many times in which
whole-class, nondifferentiated fare is the order of the day. Modify a curricular element
only when (1) you see a student need and (2) you are convinced that modification
increases the likelihood that the learner will understand important ideas and use
important skills more thoroughly as a result.
All Students Participate in Respectful Work
In differentiated classrooms, certain essential understandings and skills are goals for all
learners. However, some students need repeated experiences to master them, and
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other students master them swiftly. The teacher in a differentiated classroom
understands that she does not show respect for students by ignoring their learning
differences. She continually tries to understand what individual students need to learn
most effectively, and she attempts to provide learning options that are a good fit for
each learner whenever she can. She shows respect for learners by honoring both their
commonalities and differences, not by treating them alike.
For example, some students grasp an idea best when they see it directly tethered to
their own lives and experiences. Others can think about the idea more conceptually.
Some students strive for accuracy and eschew the uncertainty of creativity. Others thirst
for the adventure of divergence and deplore the tedium of drill. Some students want to
sing their understanding of a story, some want to dance the story's theme, some want to
draw it, and some want to write to the author or a character.
In the end, it is not standardization that makes a classroom work. It is a deep respect for
the identity of the individual. A teacher in a differentiated classroom embraces at least
the following four beliefs.




Respect the readiness level of each student.
Expect all students to grow, and support their continual growth.
Offer all students the opportunity to explore essential understandings and skills at
degrees of difficulty that escalate consistently as they develop their understanding and
skill.
Offer all students tasks that look—and are—equally interesting, equally important, and
equally engaging.
The Teacher and Students Collaborate in Learning
Teachers are the chief architects of learning, but students should assist with the design
and building. It is the teacher's job to know what constitutes essential learning, to
diagnose, to prescribe, to vary the instructional approach based on a variety of
purposes, to ensure smooth functioning of the classroom, and to see that time is used
wisely. Nonetheless, students have much to contribute about their understanding.
Students can provide diagnostic information, develop classroom rules, participate in the
governing process grounded in those rules, and learn to use time as a valuable
resource. Students can let teachers know when materials or tasks are too hard or too
easy, when learning is interesting (and when it isn't), when they need help, and when
they are ready to work alone. When they are partners in shaping all parts of the
classroom experience, students develop ownership in their learning and become more
skilled at understanding themselves and making choices that enhance their learning.
In a differentiated classroom, the teacher is the leader, but like all effective leaders, she
attends closely to her followers and involves them thoroughly in the journey. Together,
teacher and students plan, set goals, monitor progress, analyze success and failures,
and seek to multiply the success and learn from failures. Some decisions apply to the
class as a whole. Others are specific to an individual.
134
A differentiated classroom is, of necessity, student-centered. Students are the workers.
The teacher coordinates time, space, materials, and activities. Her effectiveness
increases as students become more skilled at helping one another and themselves
achieve group and individual goals.
The Teacher Balances Group and Individual Norms
In many classrooms, a student is an "unsuccessful" 5th grader if he falls short of 5th
grade "standards." That the student grew more than anyone in the room counts for little
if he still lags behind grade-level expectations. Similarly, a child is expected to remain in
5th grade even though she achieved those standards two years ago. About that student
we often say, "She's fine on her own. She's already doing well."
Teachers in a differentiated classroom understand group norms. They also understand
individual norms. When a student struggles as a learner, the teacher has two goals.
One is to accelerate the student's skills and understanding as rapidly as possible for
that learner, still ensuring genuine understanding and meaningful application of skills.
The second is to ensure that the student and parents are aware of the learner's
individual goals and growth and the student's relative standing in the class. The same is
true when a learner has advanced beyond grade-level expectations.
A great coach never achieves greatness for himself or his team by working to make all
his players alike. To be great, and to make all his players great, he must make each
player the best that he or she possibly can be. No weakness in understanding or skill is
overlooked. Every player plays from his or her competencies, not from a sense of
deficiency. There is no such thing as "good enough" for any team member. In an
effectively differentiated classroom, assessment, instruction, feedback, and grading take
into account both group and individual goals and norms.
The Teacher and Students Work Together Flexibly
As in an orchestra composed of individuals, varied ensemble groups, sections, and
soloists, the differentiated classroom is built around individuals, various small groups,
and the class as a whole. They all work to "learn and play the score," albeit with varied
instruments, solo parts, and roles in the whole.
To address the various learning needs that make up the whole, teachers and students
work together in a variety of ways. They use materials flexibly and employ flexible
pacing. Sometimes the entire class works together, but sometimes small groups are
more effective. Sometimes everyone uses the same materials, but it is often effective to
have many materials available. Sometimes everyone finishes a task at 12:15, but often
some students finish a task while others need additional time for completion.
Sometimes the teacher says who will work together. Sometimes students make the
choice. When the teacher decides, she may do so based on similar readiness, interest,
or learning profile needs. Sometimes assignment to tasks is random. Sometimes the
135
teacher is the primary helper of students. Sometimes students are one another's best
source of help.
In a differentiated classroom, the teacher also draws on a wide range of instructional
strategies that help her focus on individuals and small groups, not just the whole class.
Sometimes she finds learning contracts helpful in targeting instruction; at other times,
independent investigations work well. The goal is to link learners with essential
understandings and skills at appropriate levels of challenge and interest.
Two Organizers for Thinking About Differentiation
Figure 2.1 presents an organizer for thinking about differentiation, and it is a way of
thinking about this book as well. In a differentiated classroom, a teacher makes
consistent efforts to respond to students' learning needs. She is guided by general
principles of facilitating a classroom in which attention to individuals is effective. Then
she systematically modifies content, process, or product based on students' readiness
for the particular topic, materials, or skills; personal interests; and learning profiles. To
do so, she calls upon a range of instructional and management strategies.
The teacher does not try to differentiate everything for everyone every day. That's
impossible, and it would destroy a sense of wholeness in the class. Instead, the teacher
selects moments in the instructional sequence to differentiate based on formal or
informal assessment. She also selects a time in her teaching plans to differentiate by
interest so that students can link what is being studied to something that is important to
them. She often provides options that make it natural for some students to work alone
and others together, for some to have a more hands-on approach to making sense of
ideas and for others to arrive at learning in a visual way. Differentiation is an organized
yet flexible way of proactively adjusting teaching and learning to meet kids where they
are and help them to achieve maximum growth as learners.
All classrooms are multifaceted. A differentiated classroom, however, differs in key
ways when compared with traditional classrooms. Figure 2.2 (p. 16) suggests some
ways in which the two approaches to teaching may vary. Feel free to add your own
comparisons to the chart as you think about your own classroom and as you read
through the rest of the book. Remember that there is much middle ground between an
absolutely traditional classroom and an absolutely differentiated one (assuming either
extreme could ever exist). For an interesting self-assessment, think of the two columns
in the chart as continuums. Place an X on each continuum where you believe your
teaching is now, and place an X on where you'd like it to be.
For More Information
To learn more about the concept of differentiating instruction through readiness,
interest, and learning profile, see the Appendix and the following sources:
Kiernan, L. (producer) (1997). Differentiating instruction: A video staff development set. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
136
Tomlinson, C. (1995). How to differentiate instruction in mixed ability classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tomlinson, C. (1996). Good teaching for one and all: Does gifted education have an instruction identity?
Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 20, 155-174.
Tomlinson, C. (1996). Differentiating instruction for mixed-ability classrooms. [An ASCD professional
inquiry kit]. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
137
138
Figure 2.2Comparing Classrooms
Traditional Classroom

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
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


Student differences are masked
or acted upon when problematic
Assessment is most common at
the end of learning to see "who
got it"
A relatively narrow sense of
intelligence prevails
A single definition of excellence
exists
Student interest is infrequently
tapped
Relatively few learning profile
options are taken into account
Whole-class instruction
dominates
Coverage of texts and
curriculum guides drives
instruction
Mastery of facts and skills outof-context are the focus of
learning
Single option assignments are
the norm
Time is relatively inflexible
A single text prevails
Single interpretations of ideas
and events may be sought
The teacher directs student
behavior
The teacher solves problems
The teacher provides wholeclass standards for grading
A single form of assessment is
often used
Differentiated Classroom

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
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











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Student differences are studied as a basis
for planning
Assessment is ongoing and diagnostic to
understand how to make instruction more
responsive to learner need
Focus on multiple forms of intelligences is
evident
Excellence is defined in large measure by
individual growth from a starting point
Students are frequently guided in making
interest-based learning choices
Many learning profile options are provided
for
Many instructional arrangements are used
Student readiness, interest, and learning
profile shape instruction
Use of essential skills to make sense of
and understand key concepts and
principles is the focus of learning
Multi-option assignments are frequently
used
Time is used flexibly in accordance with
student need
Multiple materials are provided
Multiple perspectives on ideas and events
are routinely sought
The teacher facilitates students' skills at
becoming more self-reliant learners
Students help other students and the
teacher solve problems
Students work with the teacher to establish
both whole-class and individual learning
goals
Students are assessed in multiple ways
Defining Inquiry-Based Learning
What is inquiry-based learning? There are as many specific answers as there are
people to ask, but there are common themes to the descriptions that represent a core of
belief about inquiry. The list below is loosely based on Nickerson (1988), but includes
some additional thematic elements and some connections to technology.
Constructivism. The major claim of this theme is that learning is an active process,
described as forming new mental models rather than as assimilating information.
Students continually create their own mental models as they encounter new material. It
is questionable if "passive learning" could even exist. Integral to the concept of
constructivism is the notion that much of learning comes from grappling with complex
problems, for which there may be multiple approaches. The interaction a learner has
with others engaged in the task adds to the learning potential; language is the most
important carrier of these inquiry-supporting interactions. Out of such experiences,
learners build their own knowledge.
Importance of conceptual understanding, rather than procedural efficiency. Especially in
math and science, much of the knowledge students are often expected to know is
procedural; that is, how to follow particular rote recipes. If this knowledge is not situated
in an understanding of how and why the procedures work, students may not be able to
know when and how to use them. Conceptual understanding includes a much richer
and more flexible array of knowledge that makes it possible for students to think deeply
even without a procedure, to know when and how to apply proper procedures, and to
interpret their results appropriately.
Responsiveness to what students already know. No student enters a class as an empty
vessel. Education must take account of what students bring with them. Based on life
and school experiences, every student has formed many ideas about math, science,
social studies, writing, etc. Some of these pre-existing ideas are valuable bases for
continued learning; others are wrong and would lead the student further into territory
that is not educationally useful. Students' incorrect ideas have sometimes been called
"misconceptions" and inquiry-oriented methods to help students reform their ideas into
more correct conceptions have been designed. Technology can play a role in this
regard by assisting teachers in understanding students' knowledge and current
conceptions, as many pieces of software help students display their thinking and
procedures in a more accessible form.
Connections to the world outside of schools. Research is beginning to show that one
problem with school learning is that students often fail to connect it to what they have
learned outside school. Students often bring knowledge to class that is directly relevant
to what they are learning, but fail to see the connection. In response to this issue, some
of the new curriculum efforts are focusing on the creation of authentic tasks which meet
needs and goals that students either have already or might have in the future.
140
Furthermore, students often fail to see how the work they do in school is related to their
lives at home. Parents can do much to support home-school connections, but research
has documented most parents' lack of connection with their children's schools. Chris
Dede (O'Neil, 1995) claims that "We know that the biggest single impact that we could
make in the lives of many children would be to involve their parents more deeply in their
learning" (p. 10).
Metacognition. Students need to know how to take responsibility for managing and
monitoring their own thinking and learning activities. These kinds of skills (e.g., knowing
when you have learned something or planning to use your most effective learning
strategies to master some content) are sometimes called "metacognitive skills" because
they require the students to examine their own learning practices. In an inquiry-based
perspective, students need to reflect on the steps they take to generate questions about
a new topic, how they collect information to help focus on a smaller set of questions,
how they evaluate the relevance of the information, how they decide to what steps to
take next, and how they communicate their conclusions. Unfortunately, most curricula
do not explicitly call for a focus on metacognitive learning.
Lifelong learning. The students of today will need to learn throughout their lives. In the
past, technology and jobs changed relatively slowly, but today's world can change
practically overnight. Many of today's jobs require facility with technologies that didn't
exist 20 years ago, and reeducation is the only way some people can continue to work
at skilled jobs. Students need to prepare in school to continue to learn for the rest of
their lives; in terms of inquiry, this means cultivating curiosity, knowing where learning
resources might be, having experience with tacking complex problems, and knowing
how to work with others in crafting approaches to difficult situations.
What does a classroom in which inquiry is taking place look like? Commonly, some or
all of the following characteristics are present:

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

Questions are, in general, complex.
Answers to questions are open-ended.
Most questions have more than one right answer or more than one way to get to a right
answer or both.
Students are assessed by how they get to the answer, as well as the answer itself.
Discussion among students or between students and teacher is part of the process.
Students have to plan and organize as part of their work on a problem.
Communication takes place in multiple modalities and forms--both oral and written,
pictorial, graphical, and symbolic.
Teachers play a role as facilitators of learning, rather than as transmitters of information.
Used with permission from TERC (Cambridge, MA)
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Defining Project-Based Learning
by Diane Curtis
Start with the Pyramid
Ask Seymour Papert, renowned expert on children and computing, why students are
turned off by school, and he quickly offers an example:
"We teach numbers, then algebra, then calculus, then physics. Wrong!" exclaims the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician and pioneer in Artificial
Intelligence. "Start with engineering, and from that abstract out physics, and from that
abstract out ideas of calculus, and eventually separate off pure mathematics. So much
better to have the first-grade kid or kindergarten kid doing engineering and leave it to
the older ones to do pure mathematics than to do it the other way around."
In a growing number of schools, educators are echoing Papert's assertion that engaging
students by starting with the concrete and solving hands-on, real-world problems is a
great motivator. Ultimately, they say, such project-based learning that freely crosses
disciplines provides an education superior to the traditional "algebra at 9, Civil War at
10, Great Expectations at 11" structure.
Advocates also say that the availability of technology that can call up the knowledge of
the world's best thinkers with the click of a mouse, that can graph in two seconds what
once took hours, and that can put scientific instrumentation in a pocket-sized computer
further argues for moving away from century-old models of instruction.
"Everybody is motivated by challenge and solving problems, and we don't make use of
that in schools enough," says Bruce Alberts, distinguished cell biologist and president of
the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). "Project-based learning gives everybody a
chance to sort of mimic what scientists do, and that's exciting. And it's fun if it's done
well."
Projects Run the Gamut
Examples of projects applicable to the here and now abound.
At Mountlake Terrace High School in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, teams of
students in a high school geometry class design a state-of-the-art high school for the
year 2050. The students create a site plan, make simple architectural drawings of
rooms and a physical model, draw up a budget, and write a narrative report. They
present their work to real architects, who judge the projects and "award" the contract.
142
At Newsome Park Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, second graders
curious about the number of medicines a classmate takes and her frequent trips to the
doctor investigate — with the classmate's permission — the causes of cystic fibrosis.
They invite experts to tell them about the disease, write up their research, use graphs
and PowerPoint® to tell the story, sell pledges to a cystic fibrosis walkathon, and
participate in the walkathon.
At The Mott Hall School in New York's Harlem, a fifth-grade project on kites involves
using creative writing skills in poems and stories with kite themes. While designing their
own kites on the computer and then making them by hand, students learn about
electromagnetism and the principles of ratios and proportions. A casual remark by one
student leads to an in-depth study of the role of kites in various cultural celebrations.
The Big Picture
In project-based learning, students try to answer a question — one that has relevance
for them — that is greater than the immediate task at hand. In its book Connecting the
Bits, the NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education gives the example of
students at a Kentucky elementary school conducting surveys, doing research, building
models, and taking field trips with the goal of determining the best kind of new bridge to
build over the Ohio River.
Students conduct research using a variety of sources, from the Internet to interviews
with experts. They work on the project over an extended period of time — six weeks or
more — because of the in-depth nature of the investigation. Like adults trying to solve a
problem, they don't restrict themselves to one discipline but delve into math, literature,
history, science — whatever is appropriate to the study.
"One of the major advantages of project work is that it makes school more like real life,"
says Sylvia Chard, professor of elementary education at the University of Alberta and
co-author of Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach, a popular guide for
teachers and others on project learning.
"In real life, we don't spend several hours at a time listening to authorities who know
more than we do and who tell us exactly what to do and how to do it," she says. "We
need to be able to ask questions of a person we're learning from. We need to be able to
link what the person is telling us with what we already know. And we need to be able to
bring what we already know and experiences we've had that are relevant to the topic to
the front of our minds and say something about them."
Chard doesn't like the term project-based because she says it implies a focus on
projects to the exclusion of other legitimate learning methods. "Younger children will
play and explore as well as engage in projects," says the The Project Approach Web
site. "Older children's project work will complement the systematic instruction in the
program."
143
In-Depth Investigation
She defines project learning as an "in-depth investigation of a real-world topic worthy of
children's attention and effort." She advocates a three-phased approach: Phase 1
involves an initial discussion of a project topic, including children's firsthand experiences
related to the topic. Phase 2 involves fieldwork, sessions with experts, and various
aspects of gathering information, reading, writing, drawing, and computing. Phase 3 is
the presentation of the project to an audience.
The NAS' Alberts says one reason he believes project-based learning hasn't caught on
more is that parents weren't taught that way. But many parents who witness the
transformation of their children become ardent converts. "There's a visible hunger to
learn," says Ingo Schiller, parent of two children at Newsome Park Elementary in
Virginia. "When we sit down to dinner, the kids talk nonstop for 20 minutes, telling us
what they did and what they saw. This is literally every day!"
And conversations with teachers who use project-based learning in a meaningful way
tend to use the same words: "excitement," "engagement," "enthusiasm."
A Host of Benefits
Enthusiasm alone isn't enough of a justification to advocate project-based learning, but
the results of that enthusiasm argue in its favor, say educators and researchers who
have studied or used project-based learning.
Kids who are excited about what they learn tend to dig more deeply and to expand their
interest in learning to a wide array of subjects. They retain what they learn rather than
forget it as soon as they disgorge it for a test. They make connections and apply their
learning to other problems. They learn how to collaborate, and their social skills
improve. They are more confident talking to groups of people, including adults. And, as
a number of research reports suggest, project-based learning correlates positively with
improved test scores, reduced absenteeism, and fewer disciplinary problems.
"I've seen test scores of students rise because of the engagement in project-based
learning," says Gwendolyn Faulkner, former technology coordinator at Harriet Tubman
Elementary School in Washington, D.C. "I saw my students mainstream out of ESL
(English as a Second Language) into the mainstream classroom. I saw my mainstream
students scoring three and four grades above their grade level on standardized tests. ...
I'm a convert."
Three Good Reasons
144
Eeva Reeder, the math teacher who led the project on designing a school for the year
2050, said she started project-based learning for three reasons: First, her students were
not learning concepts deeply enough to apply or even remember them for a long period.
Second, a growing body of research upheld the view that concepts are best understood
using concrete examples constructed by the students themselves. Third, while taking a
break from teaching to finish a master's thesis, Reeder took a job at a bridge design
company and realized, when she was asked to do a task, that she had never applied
her knowledge of mathematics in a real-world situation.
"And that, fundamentally, was the final piece that shifted my thinking to the point where I
realized I can't go back to the classroom and do things the same way I always have."
If schoolchildren are given the gift of exploration, society will be the beneficiary, both in
practical and in theoretical ways, scholars say. "This is the way that mathematics
started," notes Papert. "It started not as this beautiful, pure product of the abstract mind.
It started as a way of ... controlling the water of the Nile, building the pyramids, sailing a
ship. ... And gradually it got richer and richer."
The following Web sites appeared in this article:
Seymour Papert: www.glef.org/php/people.php?id=C502225
Bruce Alberts: www.glef.org/php/people.php?id=C517672
Mountlake Terrace High School: www.glef.org/php/orgs.php?id=org_403694
Newsome Park Elementary School: www.glef.org/php/orgs.php?id=org_403686
The Mott Hall School: www.glef.org/php/orgs.php?id=org_403863
Connecting the Bits: www.glef.org/php/resources.php?id=item_217267
NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education: www.glef.org/php/orgs.php?id=org_300316
Sylvia Chard: www.glef.org/php/people.php?id=C517804
Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach,: www.glef.org/php/resources.php?id=item_217200
The Project Approach: www.glef.org/php/resources.php?id=item_217283
research reports: www.glef.org/php/article.php?id=Art_887
Eeva Reeder: www.glef.org/php/people.php?id=C517711
145
Copyright © 2005 The George Lucas Educational Foundation | All Rights Reserved
Course Activity: Skill Application Reflection
In this activity you will analyze your current use of differentiated instruction, inquiry-based
learning, and project-based learning.
1. Use the following questions to analyze your current use of differentiated instruction:
a. What did you learn after reading the article focusing on differentiated instruction?
b. Describe an activity where you currently employ differentiated instruction in your
classroom. If you do not currently use this strategy, please identify opportunities
that exist in your current curriculum.
c. How does differentiated instruction enhance student learning in your discipline?
d. Where specifically in your curriculum can you apply differentiated instruction to
enhance student learning? Please provide examples and rationale.
2. Use the following questions to analyze your current use of inquiry-based learning:
146
a. What did you learn after reading the article focusing on inquiry-based learning?
b. Describe an activity where you currently employ inquiry-based learning in your
classroom. If you do not currently use this strategy, please identify opportunities
that exist in your current curriculum.
c. Why is inquiry-based learning a viable option for instruction in your discipline?
d. Where specifically in your curriculum can you use inquiry-based learning as an
effective teaching tool? Please provide examples and rationale.
3. Use the following questions to analyze your current use of project-based learning:
a. What did you learn after reading the article focusing on project-based learning?
b. Describe an activity where you currently employ project-based learning in your
classroom. If you do not currently use this strategy, please identify opportunities
that exist in your current curriculum.
147
c. Why is project-based learning a viable option for instruction in your discipline?
d. Where specifically in your curriculum can you use project-based learning as an
effective teaching tool? Please provide examples and rationale.
4. Fill in the "L" and "D" column of your "The 21st Century Teacher K-L-D Chart."
5. Return to the course to continue.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
148
Prediscussion Activity: Success and Challenges
In this activity you will reflect on your prior successes and challenges in utilizing the 21st
Century instructional techniques.
1. Reflect on the previous articles and activity focusing on differentiated instruction,
inquiry-based learning, and project-based learning.
2. Answer the following questions.
a. What technique do you utilize most prominently (inquiry-based learning,
differentiated instruction, project-based learning)?
b. What is your most significant success in implementing this technique? Describe
why you consider this a success.
c. What is your most challenging 21st Century technique to implement (inquirybased learning, differentiated instruction, project-based learning)? Describe why
you consider this a challenge.
d. What can you do to overcome this challenge?
149
3. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses in the space
provided.
4. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
150
Topic 3.1.3: What Are the Perceived Obstacles to 21st Century
Teaching?
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Prediscussion Activity: Current Status of Readiness
In this activity you will reflect on whether you are ready to initiate the necessary changes and
identify the challenges that must be overcome during your 21st Century shift.
1. Reflect back to the personal change activity located in topic 3.1.1.
2. In addition to the aforementioned chart, please consider the challenges identified in the
multimedia segment and previous readings. Those challenges included, but are not
limited to:
a. Student engagement
b. Classroom control
c. Teacher to teacher interaction
d. Meeting academic standards
e. Diversity
f. Stakeholder buy in
3. Based on your reflection, what potential challenges do you face in making the
transformation?
4. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses in the space
provided. When responding to other learners, be sure to offer suggestions for overcoming
their challenges.
5. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
151
Sync Point Discussion Activity
Now that you have reached the end of this unit, you will take part in a sync point discussion with
other members of your study group as described below:
1. Your study group will be asked to meet for a 1 hour face-to-face meeting with your
facilitator
Your facilitator will contact you regarding the date, the time and the location. Once you are
notified, please follow the corresponding instructions below:
Instructions: Face-to-Face Sync Point Meeting
This option will have you meet with your study group members and your facilitator for a 1 hour
face-to-face meeting. For this meeting, be prepared to discuss the following with the group
a. Knowing what you have learned about 21st Century instruction, how would you
assist a brand new teacher coming into your school make the 21st Century
transformation? What would you teach him/her first? How would you teach them
this? What would you teach them last? Would your assistance change if it was a
veteran teacher coming into your school? What would be the difference?
b. What have you learned and what insights gained from this unit?
c. What unanswered questions have been raised in your mind?
Your facilitator will let you know where and when this meeting will be. Follow his/her
instructions. Be sure to participate conscientiously, as part of your course grade will be based on
your contribution to this discussion.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 3 Multiple Choice Questions.
152
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 3 Essay Question. The Rubric for Unit #3 Essay Question can be found on the
following page.
Rubric for Unit #3 Essay Question
Score point
The differences
between current
instruction and
21st century
instruction
(Advanced)
(Proficient)
(Emerging)
Provides numerous
differences between
current instruction
and 21st century
instruction.
Provides adequate
differences between
current instruction
and 21st century
instruction
Provides a few
differences between
current instruction
and 21st century
instruction.
Detailed examples of
Essential qualities the essential qualities
of effective 21st
are supplied in a
clear, succinct
century teacher
fashion.
(Novice)
Provides limited
differences
between current
instruction and
21st century
instruction.
Adequate examples Few examples of the
of the essential
essential qualities are
qualities are
supplied.
supplied in a clear,
succinct fashion.
Limited examples
of the essential
qualities are
supplied.
Provides at least 3
clear and concise
examples that 21st
century instruction
contributes to
student achievement
Provides at least 2
clear and concise
examples that 21st
century instruction
contributes to
student
achievement
Provides at least 1
clear and concise
example that 21st
century instruction
contributes to
student achievement
Example does not
support that 21st
century
instruction
contributes to
student
achievement
Provides detailed
description of several
Obstacles that
obstacles and
make change
provides a superior
difficult and how analysis of how to
to overcome them overcome them.
Provides an
adequate
description of
obstacles and
provides an
effective analysis of
how to overcome
them.
Provides a
satisfactory
description of
obstacles and
provides a
satisfactory analysis
of how to overcome
them.
Provides a limited
description of
obstacles and
provides a poor
explanation for
how to overcome
them.
Excellent evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No
more than 2 errors
Adequate evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 5 errors
Some evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No
more than 10 errors
Limited evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation —
More than 10
Examples of how
21st century
instruction
contributes to
student
achievement
Conventions
153
errors
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International
All Rights Reserved.
Unit 4: Working Together to Accomplish the 21st Century
Transformation
Unit Overview:
In this unit, learners will understand how the supporting systems must align in order to
accomplish the 21st Century transformation in the classroom. The supporting systems include
teachers, departments, and stakeholders.
154
Teaching in the 21st Century — The Need for Change
Unit 4 Activity Time Breakdown
Course Objectives
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
1. Identify the needs and preferences of the 21st Century learners
2. Recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st Century workplace
3. Understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st Century
classroom
4. Establish more effective communication among stakeholders
*For each activity/experience the relevant objectives are identified in the third column of
the chart.
Unit 4: Working Together to Accomplish the 21st Century Transformation
Section 4.1: Accomplishing the Transformation
Topic 4.1.1: What Is the Importance of a Shared Vision?
Title
Objectives
Identified
Estimated Time
View Multimedia Segment—Unit Overview
5 minutes
NA
Complete Course Activity—Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D
Chart
10 minutes
NA
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
3,4
Complete Prediscussion Activity—Shared Vision
15 minutes
3,4
Participate in Discussion Activity—Shared Vision
20 minutes
3,4
Topic 4.1.2: How Is the Interaction Between Teachers Different in the 21st Century?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
155
3,4
Read article titled Effective Teamwork
15 minutes
3,4
Complete Course Activity—Teacher Interaction
15 minutes
3,4
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
3,4
Complete Course Activity—Specific Actions
10 minutes
3
Topic 4.1.3: How Do Academic Departments Transform in the 21st Century?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
3
Read article titled 21st Century Department Activities
20 minutes
3
Read case study titled 21st Century Department Case Study
15 minutes
3
Complete Course Activity—Department Analysis
30 minutes
3,4
Topic 4.1.4: How Do you Communicate 21st Century Approaches to Stakeholders?
View Multimedia Segment
5 minutes
5
Read article titled Partnering with Stakeholders to Improve Student
Achievement
20 minutes
5
Complete Course Activity—Stakeholder Communication Analysis
20 minutes
5
Participate in Sync Point Discussion (Blended Study Group Version)
210 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 4 Multiple Choice Questions (excluding Self-study Version)
20 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 4 Essay Question (excluding Self-study Version)
60 minutes
1,2,3,4
Unit 4 Time Totals
Blended Study Group Version
8 hours & 30 minutes
156
Section 4.1: Accomplishing the Transformation
Topic 4.1.1: What Is the Importance of a Shared Vision?
View Multimedia Segment – Unit Overview (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Course Activity: Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D Chart
In this activity you will reflect on the accomplishments of the transformation.
1. On the following page, complete the "K" column of the chart, recording what you already
know about the topic.
2. Save the chart for later use. You will be directed when to fill in the "L" and "D" columns.
This information will be used to complete the culminating activity.
157
Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D Chart
Teacher _____________________ Date _____________
What I Already Know (K)
What is your current
knowledge (K) of this
topic? Consider:



college courses
professional reading
peer conversations
List key points or phrases
below.
What I Learned (L)
Fort LeBoeuf SD
What I Will Do (D)
What new or extended
How will what you learned impact
learning (L) have you gained what you do (D) in your classroom?
from this module?
Think about your instructional
What knowledge, strategies, practices and reflect on how they may
and/or practices have you
be changed or revised based on data
experienced or extended
collection and interpretation, course
with this content?
content knowledge, and researchbased practices that were present in
this course.
List key words or phrases
below.
List key points and phrases below.
Learning into Doing
Data Collection and Analysis
Based on a document developed and written by the CAIU Writing Team:
A. Morton, C. Eisenhart, M. Bigelow, P. Conahan, M.K. Justice (2004)
158
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International
All Rights Reserved.
3. View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Personal Notes for Implementation:
159
Prediscussion Activity: Shared Vision
In this activity you will reflect on your school's current status in terms of developing a shared
vision.
1. Answer the following question. Using your response of yes or no, identify the appropriate
column and complete the items in that column of the chart.
a. Do you feel that your school has a shared vision?
Yes
Describe your school's shared vision:
No
Describe what is preventing your school from
establishing a shared vision.
Describe the process used to establish the shared Describe the process that your school could use
vision:
to develop a shared vision.
Describe the roles that the following individuals
played in developing the shared vision:
Describe the roles that the following individuals
should play in developing a shared vision.
Principal:
Principal:
Faculty:
Faculty:
Community Members:
Community Members:
How is the shared vision reinforced on a regular
basis?
How could the shared vision be maintained over
time?
160
Describe opportunities for improvement:
Describe the steps that you need to help your
school develop a shared vision.
2. For the purpose of the online discussion, summarize your responses from the chart in the
space provided.
3. Return to the course and advance to the next screen in order to receive further
instructions to share your summary online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
161
Topic 4.1.2: How Is the Interaction Between Teachers Different in
the 21st Century?
Course Activity: Teacher Interaction
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article Effective Teamwork on the following pages.
162
Effective Teamwork
The following is a chapter excerpt from Michael Schmoker's book, Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement, Second Edition. For
more information, feel free to contact Mike Schmoker at schmoker@futureone.com.
The best thing to invest in right now is collegiality. The number
one skill that teachers will need is to be team-based, collegial,
sharing their knowledge and wisdom.
—Alan November 1998 (p. 6)
Teams get results.
—Katzenbach and Smith 1993
In Chapters 1-3, I examine the key components that favor results and improvement:
teamwork, goals, and the selective and judicious use of data. Individually, they have
limited impact; combined, they constitute a powerful force for improvement—without
necessarily consuming large amounts of time or money (though, if properly spent, more
of each is always desired). Together, these elements cannot help but promote better
results in any context, as the many school examples in these pages will affirm.
Success depends on the interdependency between collaboration and goals; between
both of these and purpose. Though teamwork is fundamental in this scheme, it is "the
means, not the end" (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993, p. 12). Similarly, Huberman says
that collegiality is not a "legitimate end in itself unless it can be shown to affect...the
nature or degree of pupil development" (Huberman, in Fullan 1991, p. 136). Chapter 1
defines and discusses the importance and interdependence of effective team
collaboration, goals, and data, essential yet often misunderstood issues.
Teacher Isolation
When Thomas Edison was asked why he was so prolific an inventor, he replied that it
was a result of what he called the "multiplier effect." He placed his team of inventors
near each other to encourage them to consult with one another so that each member of
the team benefited from the collective intelligence of the group. His teams not only
worked better but faster (Smith 1985).
We must acknowledge that schools would perform better if teachers worked in focused,
supportive teams:
Collegiality among teachers, as measured by the frequency of communication, mutual support,
help, etc., was a strong indicator of implementation success. Virtually every research study on
the topic has found this to be the case (Fullan 1991, p. 132).
163
Unfortunately, teacher isolation—the opposite of teamwork—is one of the most obvious
realities of a teacher's life (Lortie 1975). Lortie saw the negative effects of this isolation:
"Teacher individualism is not cocky and self-assured; it is hesitant and uneasy" (p. 210).
Such isolation promotes professional insecurity. Many teachers, comfortable in their
isolation, may find the transition to teamwork a little daunting. But the teachers Lortie
(1975) interviewed were wise enough to know that the limited, hermetically sealed world
of the classrooms they inhabited did not favor their growth or a sense of confidence that
they were doing a job well. Why? Because, as he discovered,
Individualism combines with presentism to retard the search for occupational knowledge.
Teachers who work in isolation cannot create an empirically grounded, semantically potent
common language. Unless they develop terms to indicate specific events, discussion will lack
the clarity it needs to enlighten practice...Individualism supports presentism by inhibiting work
with others in a search for common solutions. Teachers do not undertake the collegial effort
which has played so crucial a role in other occupations (p. 212).
This passage is worth rereading. The first point it makes is that teachers, the front line in
the battle for school improvement, are working in isolated environments that cut the
lifeline of useful information. Such isolations thwarts them in developing common
solutions through dialogue. Isolation tacitly assumes that practitioners have nothing to
learn from each other. When I look back on when I taught English, nothing is more
apparent to me than the fact that isolated experience, by itself, was not the best
teacher. And I had virtually no opportunity to learn from my colleagues. We did come
together for periodic department meetings, but that type of gathering is not what is
meant here by collaboration or teamwork.
The crush of what Lortie calls "presentism" —of myriad daily events and duties—kept us
from reflecting collaboratively on such obvious and challenging concerns as how to
teach composition more effectively, how to conduct discussions about literature more
effectively, and how to make literature exciting. We did not know if or how anyone was
teaching composition—or even what that meant. So we worked, consciously or
unconsciously, toward our own goals, within the limitations of what each of us knew and
did not know. Day-to-day concerns kept us from reflecting on what our most important
goals should be.
The absence of a common focus and, by extension, common solutions, can be
explained by the absence of what Goodlad (Goodlad et al. 1970) calls clear-cut, specific
goals for school at all levels of responsibility. These kinds of goals can only be obtained
when professionals regularly collaborate and communicate in an effort to define and
reach such goals.
An irrational and indefensible isolation continues to prevent professionals from learning
from each other. The bottom line is what kids continue to miss out on as a result.
Isolation is unique to the teaching profession and, by implication, to the whole
educational system (Lortie 1975). This observation should shock us, as it did Donald
164
Peterson (1991), former president of Ford Motor Company; Peterson was dismayed by
the isolation in which teachers work. A number of circumstances account for this
situation: "the organization of space, time, and task seriously constrains interactions"
(Little 1990, p. 514); and "the traditional school organization minimizes collective,
collegial behavior" (Donahoe 1993, p. 299). School systems in other countries do a far
better job of creating regular opportunities for productive planning and interaction
(Stevenson 1998).
Because so much inhibits work-related teacher interaction, we might be persuaded to
believe that this problem is insurmountable. Not so, as the teacher teams highlighted in
this book demonstrate. Everyone in the educational community must work diligently to
change the structures that impede teamwork. But meanwhile, we must take advantage
of the opportunities that already present themselves—and which others have
demonstrated can eventuate in better results.
Benefits
Teachers at Donaldson Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, were reluctant to spend
large chunks of their early-out times in meetings supposedly intended to promote
"continuous improvement." But when they began to see collective progress, a direct
result of their focused collaboration, the meetings became more meaningful. A good
example is what happened when we discussed a key weakness in 2nd grade writing:
students' difficulty in writing descriptive settings. After the team brainstormed, a team
member proposed having students first draw then describe in writing the setting they
imagined for their stories. The number of students able to write high-quality descriptions
went from just a few to almost the entire 2nd grade class.
Evidence for the benefits of collaboration, rightly conducted, are overwhelming. The
nature of the complex work of teaching "cannot be accomplished by even the most
knowledgeable individuals working alone" (Little 1990, p. 520). In the typical school,
however, teacher practice is "limited to the boundaries of their own experience," without
any outside scrutiny or objective analysis. Such boundaries introduce a "conservative
bias," which is the enemy of risk and innovation and a recipe for perpetuating the status
quo at a time when change is manifestly necessary (Little 1990, pp. 526-527). Little
found a strong relationship between the right kind of collegiality and improvements for
both teachers and students:







Remarkable gains in achievement.
Higher-quality solutions to problems.
Increased confidence among all school community members.
Teachers' ability to support one another's strengths and to accommodate weaknesses.
The ability to examine and test new ideas, methods, and materials.
More systematic assistance to beginning teachers.
An expanded pool of ideas, materials, and methods.
Little also quotes Lortie to make the point that the prevailing isolation in which teachers
work does little to "add to the intellectual capital of the profession" (Lortie, in Little 1987,
165
pp. 501-502). In the business of teaching and school improvement, intellectual capital—
ideas, fresh solutions, and effective teaching methods—is the most precious
commodity.
Business literature from theorists such as such as Tom Peters and W. Edwards Deming
is equally as emphatic about how teamwork benefits intellectual and professional
capital. For Deming, "there is no substitute for teamwork"; without it, "dissipation of
knowledge and effort, results far from optimum," exists (1986, p. 19).
An excellent resource for this topic is The Wisdom of Teams (1993) by Jon Katzenbach
and Douglas Smith. Their study of teams in 47 organizations corroborates educational
studies by educators like Judith Little and Michael Hubermann. "It is obvious that teams
outperform individuals," that "learning not only occurs in teams but endures"
(Katzenbach and Smith 1993, p. 5). Teams "bring together complementary skills and
experiences that, by definition, exceed those of any individual on the team...bringing
multiple capabilities to bear on difficult issues" (Katzenbach and Smith 1993, pp. 18-19).
Both author Michael Fullan (private communication 1998) and Dennis Sparks, Executive
Director of the National Staff Development Council, have recently remarked that
effective collaboration is perhaps the most effective form of staff development. For
Sparks,
The image of the future would be a group of teachers sitting around a table talking about their
student's work, learning and asking, "What do we need to do differently to get the work we
would like from the kids?" (1998b, p. 19)
We must not undervalue research or the best kind of staff training (the subject of
Chapter 5). Nonetheless, as Fullan and Hargreaves (1996) point out, we often
underestimate teacher expertise—which emerges in the right kind of focused, targeted
teamwork. They exhort us to "avoid creating a culture of dependency among teachers
by overrating the expertise of published research and underrating the practical
knowledge of teachers" (p. 24). We need more—lots more—of both research and
optimistic, instructionally-focused collaboration. Teachers—this may surprise us—learn
best from each other (Rosenholtz 1991). The best research on teaching is grossly
underused. But it is often the logistical and practical knowledge of teachers that makes
or breaks the successful implementation of a research-based strategy or program. And
we have all seen improvements occur without the help of published research.
Two 1st grade teachers at Prince Elementary School in Tucson, Arizona, have been
getting exceptional results for years with students from one of its least advantaged
areas, many of whom arrive with very limited skills. What they have learned from each
other has enabled them to ensure that an exceptional percentage of their students
leaves 1st grade able to read and write on grade level.
Thunderbolt Middle School in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, adopted the highly effective,
research-based "Accelerated Reader" program. But no program is context-proof. The
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two Title I teachers at this school met regularly to review data on progress and to
brainstorm for solutions to time and logistical problems—which will always be with us.
As a result of this dialogue, the program—and the results—improved significantly.
At Wilkerson Middle School in Birmingham, Alabama, teacher teamwork was the key to
immediate, dramatic improvements in every category and at every grade level. Their
home-grown strategies and programs led to a 26-percent increase in reading;
schoolwide math gains included a 46-percent improvement in the 6th grade (Cox 1994).
In the area of reading improvement, a tremendous opportunity may await us. I am
always impressed with what happens when teachers meet to honestly scrutinize and
improve their early elementary reading program after carefully reviewing the research
on the improvement. Teachers from Peck Elementary School in Arvada, Colorado,
chose reading as one of their improvement goals. We met one afternoon to (1) review
the research on effective reading instruction and then (2) refine instruction, structures,
and time allotments to conform to best practice. Fullan is right: Progress is indeed "a
social process." The teams worked both within and among the grade levels to share and
develop complementary strategies to ensure better results. At every grade level, the
teachers helped one another to see opportunities for significant, positive changes that
they could not have implemented by themselves.
As Judith Little discovered, the right kind of teamwork leads to a more effective
examination and implementation of best practice. Research, by itself, has had less
impact than we would like. Let's face it: The solutions to many local, personal, and
logistical problems simply aren't spelled out in the research. In Lake Havasu City, teams
focused on improved reading performance. This led to a districtwide examination of best
practices and programs. This study required us to review our own resources, to
collaborate yet further to allocate those resources, and to invent and then adjust
structures and new procedures. This combination of best practice and ongoing
collaboration led to better results at several schools—most of them coming in the first
year. A school with the district's highest poverty rate—72 percent—made particularly
dramatic gains at the end of the 1998 school year.
Collaboration works. And it also addresses an essential social dimension of
improvement. Successfully implementing innovative procedures "is very much a social
process" (Fullan 1991, p. 84). Studies show that people who are members of effective
teams "consistently and without prompting emphasized the fun aspects of their work
together" (Katzenbach and Smith 1993, p. 19).
I was struck by this same spirit in dozens of workers from the Toyota plant in Kentucky.
When I visited them, miles away from their employment, an ex-jockey told me that on
Sunday evenings, he "couldn't wait to get with his team to hit the ground running on
Monday mornings." Meaningful, purposeful collaboration addresses the social and
emotional demands of teaching (Little 1990). And we should not underestimate the
social significance of Little's observation that effective collaboration creates that rear
arena in which teachers can receive credit and praise for their "knowledge, skill, and
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judgment" (pp. 18-19). Teamwork provides opportunities to enjoy the social and psychic
satisfactions of collective effort.
The Dark Side of Collegiality
In the face of all this evidence, why do we persist in denying these benefits to the
profession? The explanation can be found in our failure to be results oriented. Industry
is littered with stories about "quality circles" that came and went. Why? Few realized
any palpable results, and so they were regarded as a waste of time—the kiss of death
for any innovation. Similarly, many teachers find their first attempts at collaboration
clumsy and unrewarding. Subsequently, the time they spend in meetings appears to
take away from lesson planning and instruction. Predictably, "unproductive" meetings
are abandoned (Little 1987, p. 493).
Unproductive, unrewarding meetings—we have all been to them. And because of these
experiences, many people simply do not believe that teams perform better than
individuals. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) saw how "members waste time in
unproductive discussions, which cause more trouble than they are worth...and actually
generate more complaints than constructive results" (p. 20). They regard this problem
as a lack of discipline and disciplined action, which embodies the essential conditions
that favor productive collaboration.
We must clearly distinguish between effective collaboration and the appearance of
teamwork. We can begin by stating what teamwork, for the purposes of this book, is not.
"The term collegiality has remained conceptually amorphous....Much that passes for
collegiality does not add up to much" (Little 1990, p. 509). Similarly, the word teamwork
"courts imprecision" (Katzenbach and Smith 1993, p. 19). Much of what we call
teamwork or collegiality does not favor nor make explicit what should be its end: better
results for children. The unfortunate reality is that most of what goes on in the name of
collegiality is ineffective or counterproductive. "Most alliances among teachers" are not
task oriented at all. Instead, they "appear to be informal, voluntary, and distant from the
real work in and of the classroom" (Little 1987, p. 507.) This kind of collegiality not only
consumes valuable time but can also promote the consequences of isolation that we
deplore:
I argue that the most common configurations of teacher-to-teacher interaction may do more to
bolster isolation than to diminish it; the culture that Lortie described as individualistic, present
oriented, and conservative is thus not altered but is indeed perpetuated by the most prevalent
examples of teacher collaboration and exchange (Little 1990, p. 511).
Alas, the weaker, more common forms of collegiality "serve only to confirm present
practice without evaluation its worth." Collegiality may "supply sympathy of the sort that
dissuades teachers from the kind of closer analysis of practice that might yield solutions
to recurrent problems" and thus accounts for continuing practices that are its ostensible
enemy (Little 1990, p.517). Less formal kinds of collegiality accommodate, even
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promote, the course of least resistance. This characteristic is part of the "dark side" of
collegiality (Fullan 1991, p. 131).
The "bright side" (if you will) is found less frequently. It is rooted in a concern with
results, with what Little calls "joint work" that affects gains and classroom performance
and involves monitoring student progress and the "thoughtful, explicit examination of
practices of their consequences" (Little 1990, p. 519). Huberman writes that collegiality
"is not a fully legitimate end in itself, unless it can be shown to affect...the nature or
degree of pupil development" (Huberman, in Fullan 1991, p. 136).
The bright side of collegiality can be found at Northview Elementary School in
Manhattan, Kansas. Students realized huge gains between 1983 and 1989, when
teachers began to collaborate. In reading, 4th and 6th grade scores on district
achievement tests rose from 59 to 100 percent, and from 41 to 97 percent, respectively.
In math, 4th grade scores rose from 70 to 100 percent; 6th grade scores, from 31 to 97
percent. How? Principal Dan Yunk began to arrange for teams of teachers to meet
routinely to analyze scores, identify strengths and weaknesses, and develop ways to
effectively address them (Schmoker and Wilson 1993). Something powerful happens
when teachers begin to regularly discuss instructional challenges and their solutions.
Collaboration as Action Research
Effective teamwork that leads to results is a discipline—and requires a scientific
disposition. The experience of teams I have worked with confirms Little's 1990 findings
that collaboration is not often enough characterized by a "thoughtful, explicit
examination of practices and their consequences" (p. 519, emphasis added). Effective
collaboration is really action research—carefully conducted experimentation with new
practices and assessment of them.
Listen Before You Leap
To be more effective, teams must resist the impulse to leap prematurely to solutions
and actions. Before selecting and elaborating on a potential solution, we should
carefully consider (1) its consistency with what we know from pertinent research and (2)
our sense of its probable or potential impact on student learning. To take full advantage
of the collective expertise of the team, we can listen carefully—and nonjudgmentally—to
each other's best ideas (brainstorming is a fast, efficient way to do this both well and
quickly). Listening helps to ensure that we select the best of several alternatives. The
collective wisdom of the team can then inform the all-important direction the team will
take. This kind of thoughtful approach will have a high payoff in student learning.
Provide Follow-Up
Another problem is lack of follow-up, the failure to begin each meeting with a concise
discussion of what worked—and didn't. Too many meetings begin with no reference to
commitments made at the last meeting. A teacher at an elementary school recently
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informed me that he and his colleagues were "burned out" on brainstorming (a method
we were using to generate and select effective reading improvement strategies). His
frustration was justifiable. He was tired, he said, of filling chart paper with ideas and that
is the end of it—no follow-up on if or how well the ideas had even been implemented or
if they had in fact helped students learn.
Careful, methodical follow-up, essential as we know it to be, has not been education's
strong suit. But if we want results, a scientific, systematic examination of effort and
effects is essential—and one of the most satisfying professional experiences we can
have. For all the relentless search for better methods and structures puts the odds of
improvement heavily in our favor.
Create Effective Structures
Collaborative teams must carefully design the format for their work (see the Appendix
for a suggested format for an effective 30-minute meeting). Participants should arrive
knowing that the meeting will open with questions like the following:




Were you able to successfully implement the strategy we decided to try at the last
meeting? (e.g., provide more time for sustained silent reading).
What was the impact of the strategy on learning and achievement? What evidence or
results can you report? (e.g., students read more fluently or performed better on
comprehension tests when we provided more silent reading time; student work revealed
growth in an identified area of difficulty or weakness).
What difficulties did you encounter? (e.g., students are selecting books that are too easy
or too difficult for sustained reading time).
How can we overcome these difficulties? (e.g., by developing a system with the librarian
that ensures that students select books at appropriate level).
When the group is ready, it can move on to the next most urgent learning problem
relative to the measurable goal (e.g., many students are still having difficulty
comprehending main ideas from their reading).
Then the group might do the following:
1. Carefully explore a variety of possible alternatives in light of collective deliberation or
proven practice—through brainstorming or discussion of a research-based strategy.
2. Carefully select a strategy or solution that they believe has the greatest potential for
impact.
3. Commit—as a team—to experimenting with the new strategy and to being ready to
report on student impact and implementation at the next meeting.
Successful teams need to have such focused interaction on a fairly regular basis—
probably once a month for each student learning goal that we set. Experience has
taught us that any less than six strategically scheduled opportunities per year can kill
momentum and severely jeopardize the chances of improvement.
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Teamwork That Gets Results
Teams in Amphitheater Schools began to brainstorm for solutions to student problems
they had identified by using data. A team from Holaway Elementary School met
regularly and used data to determine that the greatest area of difficulty in solving
multistep math problems was students' ability to write out the steps that led to math
solutions. The team then generated possible strategies:





Provide students with good examples and models of what the writing should look like.
Ask students to write each step as they complete it, rather than write the entire problem
after they have completed the problem.
Share the writing rubric more explicitly with the students; give them copies.
Ask students to start their explanation for each step with the phrase, "I did this because."
Require that students self-assess their work against a specific rubric before they hand in
their work.
These ideas were among others that the team generated during only seven minutes of
brainstorming (the entire meeting took only about 30 minutes). Implementing these
ideas brought the team closer to its improvement goal by the next month. Such activity
generates "intellectual capital," and by not tapping into it, we deny teachers and
students a precious and essential resource in helping greater numbers of students
receive a higher-quality education.
A good example attesting to the power of teamwork, clear goals, and data analysis is
Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. Teachers work in department
teams that conduct ongoing analyses of performance data. Superintendent Richard
DuFour said that each team meets once a month to collaborate. They analyze results at
least four times a year, and the times are built into the calendar. Nine times a year,
students come to school at 10:30a.m. to give teachers time to collaborate. Many
schools have benefited from such late-ins and early-outs, which have been incorporated
into school schedules across the United States.
At Stevenson High School, what happened when time was provided for results-oriented
teamwork? In 1985, before the process was introduced, the school did not rank in the
top 50 schools in the 13-state Midwest region. In 1992, when goals were established
and collaborative time was instituted:
The school ranked first in the region, and by 1994, it was among the top 20 schools in the
world....Last year, the school established new records in every traditional indicator of student
achievement, including grade distributions, failure rates, average ACT scores, average SAT
scores, percentage of honor grades on Advanced Placement examinations, and average scores
in each of the five areas of the state achievement test (DuFour 1995, p. 35).
Administrative Collaboration
We have been speaking of teacher collaboration—which is of primary importance. But
there is a precious shortage of achievement-focused administrative collaboration. It is
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well documented that as often as administrators meet, they seldom discuss student
learning issues; instead, they focus almost exclusively on procedural or political matters
(Smith and Andrews 1989). What would happen if administrative teams carved out even
30 minutes, once a month, to more directly share and discuss triumphs and frustrations,
to identify problems, and then brainstorm for ideas and solutions for managing
academic improvement?
Just imagine the benefits if administrators began to do their own action research on
effective ways to promote a culture of effective collaboration and data-driven
improvement? Have administrators nothing to learn from each other? Can we afford to
assume that they will learn all they need about improvement on their own? If we can't
engage in such action research at the district level, how can we expect teachers to
engage in it at the grade and site level?
In many school districts, such discussion is long overdue. Administrators and schools
and students have everything to learn and much to gain from doing so.
The Need for Hope and Optimism
For all we have said about an intelligent, scientific approach to improvement, there is an
element that transcends any method or mechanism or approach. It is the attitude and
spirit of the team.
For starters, learning always requires a measure of humility. Fullan and Hargreaves
(1996) found that improved schools are marked by a profound if seemingly obvious
feature—the belief that they will never stop learning. As we have seen, there is a strong
strain of independence in the teaching profession. It is not always easy to admit that
there may be a better way to teach something than the way we have always done it.
Unless...



the team believes strongly in each member's capacity to develop practical solutions to
everyday teaching and learning problems;
there is a belief that regardless of a school's social or economic circumstances,
improvement can and will occur, gradually, but inexorably; and
the team arrives at each meeting anticipating that informed trial and error will inevitably
lead to better teaching and hence to higher learning,
...then no mechanism or set of practices will succeed.
To help us maintain this hope, we must celebrate and elevate success. We should
regularly read and learn about schools that have overcome great odds. Staff
development in practices that have manifestly had an effect on learning must be a
regular feature of our school life. This should not be left to chance. One of the primary
roles of the staff development or district office staff should be the collection,
dissemination, analysis, and discussion of success stories from within and outside the
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district. Through such positive and proactive means, we can fill the air with hope and
optimism about the results that are, in fact, within our reach.
Good teamwork among grade-level, department, school, and administrative teams will
give us results we once only dreamed of. Chapter 2 defines the most salient feature of
good teamwork, or the "serious collaboration," which Little found to be so rare (1987, p.
513). We have already touched on it: the importance of clear, specific performance
goals.
Excerpted with permission from Results: The Key to Continuous School Improvement, Second Edition by Mike Schmoker
(schmoker@futureone.com)
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In this activity you will analyze the types of interaction currently occurring in your school.
1. For each item in the following chart place an "X" in the appropriate column.
Strongly
Agree
Statement
I seek out mentors and/or coaches frequently.
I consider myself a leader in my school.
Collaborative activities occur at a high frequency
in my school.
My classroom is open to coaches, mentors, or
other colleagues.
My school is accepting of new staff members by
providing resources needed for success.
My school has a process for working through
disagreements among colleagues.
My school interacts and really feels like a team.
My colleagues and I frequently share information
that will benefit instruction and student needs.
I collaborate with my colleagues to create lessons
and we review the results.
I interact with my colleagues frequently and in a
meaningful way within my discipline.
I interact with my colleagues frequently and in a
meaningful way outside my discipline.
I approach my principal with an open mind and
seek instructional advice.
I collaborate with colleagues outside of my
department to design lessons.
Co and team teaching occurs in my school.
My colleagues and I explore professional
resources and share the information with each
other.
I use student data to develop instruction with my
fellow teachers.
I can expand my role in promoting meaningful,
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Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
collaborative activities among colleagues.
175
Strongly
Agree
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Student work and achievement is frequently the
subject of collegial interaction within my
department.
Student work and achievement is frequently the
subject of collegial interaction outside of my
department.
2. Fill in the "L" and "D" column of your "Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D
Chart."
3. Return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
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Course Activity: Specific Actions
In this activity you will identify specific actions that will enable you to better serve as a change
agent in your school.
1. Complete the following chart.
a. Identify a specific action to promote change in your school.
b. Explain how this action will contribute to change in your school.
Specific Actions
in My Classroom
Contribution to Change
Specific Actions
in My School
Contribution to Change
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Specific Actions
in My Community
Contribution to Change
2. Summarize your responses in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to
your Learning Log.
3. Enter your summary in your Learning Log by clicking on "Resources" and then
"Learning Log." (Label your entry "Specific Actions.")
4. Close the Learning Log window to return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
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Topic 4.1.3: How Do Academic Departments Transform in the 21st
Century?
Course Activity: Department Analysis
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article 21 Century Department Activities and the article 21st Century Department Case
Study found on the following pages.
179
21st Century Department Activities
The world in the 21st century is a very different place than just a hundred years ago
and that cannot be more evident than in our schools. Our school systems are in
transition, struggling to meet the changing needs of society while balancing the needs of
the students. The departmental meeting must evolve into more than an avenue for
bureaucratic deadlines. It must be a starting point for change by offering purposeful
conversation among an interdisciplinary team about what works and what does not work
for students that will ultimately lead to establishing a supportive, empowered, learning
team. While the departmental meeting must look and function differently, it must remain
true to the strong moral conviction that reflects back to the question, "What is best for
the student?" The ultimate goal must first and foremost center upon improving student
achievement.
The first step to reaching the goal of improved student achievement in the departmental
meeting is to create a democratic process of education that corresponds with joint
responsibility by identifying collective student needs. Why is Johnny failing? Schools do
not improve without educators asking hard, concrete questions. Identifying a trend is not
a method used to place blame, but is simply a means to reflect upon what is and what
could be. In order to identify a starting point, review as a group various sources and
forms of student data, such as state-based performance assessments, school-wide
assessments, content specific, and/or school performance statistics—to name a few—in
order to focus on a student need.
The second step is to recognize and embrace the philosophy that learning is cumulative
and teaching is a lifelong pursuit. Teachers will need to embrace learning in order to
change and improve student outcome. The departmental meeting is an arena to explore
and change the elements of the learning environment as it reflects upon the identified
area of student need. As a result, the second step must reveal what the teacher will
study to become knowledgeable and skillful in order to meet those needs of the
students.
Finally, the third step is to develop a collaborative group that functions as a research
team in order to identify the strategies the group will use to master the new knowledge
and skills learned. The team will research, plan, create, test, and assess the change
process based upon student need. The following specific strategies that will enable the
departmental meeting to evolve into an interdependent learning community will be
explained here (Murphy & Lick, 2005).





Examining student work
Sharing observations of student work
Providing professional development
Researching action
Studying lessons
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





Co-mentoring
Listening to and shadowing students
Videotaping
Developing curriculum
Reading professional resources and academic content
Creating journals and portfolios
Examining Student Work
A key strategy to identifying student need is to look at student-produced work. This
strategy immediately asks teachers to step out of their comfort zone for a variety of
reasons. The most obvious is that examining and critiquing is not a common practice
and hits upon the workplace tradition of noninterference. Teachers naturally look at
student work daily and possibly with the student and/or parents. However, the focus is
usually limited to establishing a grade for the produced work. Specific student work and
the overall implications of the work are usually never discussed with a colleague. In
addition teachers may feel that examining student work is subjecting themselves to
criticism or fault-finding, or that the student work examination is really to view the result
of their teaching.
Examining student work is a basic element of collaboration and the acceptance of joint
responsibility for student learning. It is the logical starting point to understanding student
need. It is the student work that will support and generate the action plan for change.
Researcher Megan Tschannen-Moran found that if collaboration is an "important
mechanism" for finding solutions to problems, trust will be necessary for schools "to
reap the benefits of greater collaboration" (Tschannen-Moran 2001, p.327). The use of
protocols will help build trust, frame the discussion, and secure a safe avenue for
growth with colleagues. Framing precise dialog with group-established protocols will
take the focus and pressure off the teacher while offering supportive alternatives.
Specifically, a protocol is an agreed-upon set of guidelines that fosters purposeful
conversation about teaching and learning. It provides a safe method for exchanging and
asking challenging questions, allows the participants to practice active and reflective
listening skills, manages the time, and creates an environment that fosters new or
different perspectives that could enable new instructional or assessment approaches.
The latter result is, of course, most important.1
A member of the group will provide student work, teacher-made tests, rubrics, or
anything that requires discussion or raises a question that reflects back to the area of
student need identified earlier by the group. A facilitator will be designated to manage
both the time and the focus of the group.
1
More information at www.lasw.org/protocols.html or http://scs.aed.org/rsw
The basic models of a student work protocol will vary but should include:
1. Preparing or Focusing
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
a. A question, problem, or task is posed by the teacher/presenter and generated
from the student-need topic
Presenting
a. Presenter explains the purpose of the material
b. Removes student names — focus must remain on what can be learned from the
work
Analyzing and Responding
a. Group examine the material
b. Ask clarifying questions
c. Suggest what can be identified or learned from the examination concerning the
students' performance
d. Respond directly to the question, problem, or task posed
e. Focus on positive comments that reflect the students' understanding
f. Presenter becomes an active listener
g. Group offer specific solutions or suggestions
Reacting or Providing feedback
a. Presenter again moderates
b. Group listens
c. Presenting teacher offers feedback concerning the group responses (This is not
a time to be defensive or feel a need to explain. It should be a time to think aloud
about the original concern of the material and the process that was shared by the
group.)
Reflecting or Conversing
a. Group open dialog among all members
b. Brainstorm solutions
Debriefing
a. Formulate action plan – what will be done differently?
The group should keep the focus of the work on student achievement as well as teacher
growth and support by identifying issues they see in the student work and by working
together as a group to address the issue.
Sharing Observations of Students at Work
Observing students at work in a classroom is another tradition-breaking concept.
Teachers usually are not comfortable with inviting other teachers into their isolated
worlds. It's a scary and possibly intimidating thing to say, "Come on in and tell me what
you see." It requires the need for mutual respect and trust within the group setting which
only truly comes as a result of talking, working, and learning together. The real
difference here is that the observation is based upon a shared collaboratively developed
lesson based upon student need. The true focus of the observation is how the student is
responding to the instruction. While the whole group has collaboratively developed the
lesson for the student observations members will pair with a partner to share the
observation duties. The whole process can be managed with group-established norms
that reflect exactly how the observation will be handled and may include some of the
following (Murphy & Lick, 2005):


Observation is focused on student response to instruction and upon student need
Specific required data is identified
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





Data is used for ongoing intervention
Information is shared only with group members
Since it is a collaboratively developed lesson – observation needs to be only 10 minutes
in length
Purpose is to observe student reaction
Observations should be used monthly as an ongoing data-collection system
Gathered data should be entered into specific observation log
Providing Professional Development
The departmental meeting is a perfect avenue for professional development based
upon hearing the expert voice. The expert voice references both the critically acclaimed
expert in the field, which may include an author, college professor, researcher and/or
trainer as well as colleagues who are considered experts in their work. The expert voice
may take on many facets and be reflected in a variety of ways but must always reflect
the principle that the "work is public" which means that teachers need to be encouraged
to share the good, the not-so good, and their failures even when it may be
uncomfortable. It is through the sharing that collaborative learning develops. It should
also be recognized that professional development in a departmental meeting is not a "sit
and get" process but an actively engaged pursuit, where learning can be applied in the
classroom. The expert voice should include but not be limited to the following (Murphy &
Lick, 2005):




Group invites guest speaker
o Outside school faculty
o Member of school faculty
 Connect with a resource person for ongoing support
Training is ongoing for area of need
Group take a course together off-campus
One member takes a course off-campus and then shares the resources with the group
who then develop and practice the application of the new information
Researching Action
The departmental group meetings will be by the very nature of design, a research team.
The ultimate goal of the meetings is to improve student achievement, and that requires
research. The first step of action research requires the use of data for decision-making
instruction, which for many is not a familiar or routine practice. It's impossible to plan
ahead if you don't know where you are beginning. Using data is the logical first step but
until lately, very limited in its use, especially by the classroom teacher who is dealing
with time restraints and/or lack of experience in data analysis. In certain incidences,
data has also received a bad reputation because of its purpose of placing blame in the
past.
Data should be used to recognize a need and then used to establish an instructional
plan for meeting that need. It is the catalyst that forces reflection, growth, and change.
Often the data reveals information that was simply not available or not accurate until
made visual.
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Action research should look like a continuous cycle of the following steps (Murphy &
Lick, 2005):






Establish baseline data
Review current research that addresses the student need
Develop lesson
Evaluate student work as a result of the lesson
Re-evaluate classroom data to determine whether the need has been met
Repeat cycle either by revisiting a need or by identifying a different need
o Repeating cycle of Plan-Act-Reflect
Studying Lessons
The difference between lesson planning and lesson study is that lesson study is a
collaborative effort and focuses on what the group want the student to do (Richardson
2004). Richardson stated that in a lesson study the group develops the lesson. While
one member teaches the lesson, the others observe the students responding.
Reflection and revision are part of the debriefing that follows.
Use the following steps to conduct a lesson study in the departmental meeting (Murphy
& Lick, 2005):






Focus of lesson will be based on the identified student need
Plan for the lesson (This may take a month if meeting weekly.)
o Research
o Assess current knowledge
o Estimate student response
Prepare for the lesson observation
o Create norms for observations
o Design specific recording material
Teach and observe the lesson
o Observe how students construct understanding
o Devise methods for problem solving
Debrief the lesson
Reflect and plan — group may decide to revise and re-teach or apply their knowledge to
a new area
Co-mentoring
The simple fact is that all people regardless of their age or experience have something
to offer if we only stop and listen. The other simple fact is that for many, asking for or
accepting feedback or help is viewed as a weakness, a negative image that creates
tension, anxiety, and resistance. Still another consideration that could explain the
resistant factor to mentoring is the belief that what an observer sees or hears in your
classroom could be turned against you in the form of administrative spying. To reiterate
the purpose of the group, improving student achievement can only be accomplished
when we focus on what can be changed for improvement instead of placing blame. Comentors among the department group decide when and how to offer assistance whether
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it is to plan together, teach lessons, demonstrate effective practices or serve as
coaches. Regardless of the involvement level, the atmosphere must be one of trust and
support for the good of the student.
Listening to and Shadowing Students
Students themselves are probably the most under-utilized resource for school
improvement. Students are stakeholders and when asked, can provide valuable
information about school climate, instruction, and classroom structure, which can help
shape and identify student needs. When students are provided a voice and realize that
that voice is heard, it empowers them to take ownership in the school improvement
plan. Various methods exist for activating student voices whether it is a select group of
students or the whole school being interviewed or surveyed. Involving students also
forces the group into more of an action mode. The departmental group should decide
exactly what they want to learn from an interview or survey as it reflects the student
needs that have been identified.
As the expression, "walk a day in my shoes," implies there is no quicker way to learn
what is working and what is not in the real world than actually walking the walk, in this
situation, shadowing the student.
As with the other suggested activities, the beginning focus should be student needs.
From there, participants can further identify what exactly will be the subject target while
shadowing. For example, perhaps effective communication skills are the group focus,
so the activity should be to observe and document where and when students use those
skills. A variation of the student shadowing is "Data in a Day" which incorporates
educators from outside the school, students, and community members to review a
predetermined focus point or student need. An adult and student are paired up to
observe informally and document specific instances that exemplify the focal point.
Whatever method is used, the most valuable component of the shadowing procedure is
compiling and analyzing the information in order to get a clear view of the whole system
by viewing individual parts. An issue may arise when students, teachers, or both are
reluctant to permit the observing process due to the fact that a taboo is, once again,
being broken. In order to ensure cooperation, concern will need to be expressed that
this step in the process is not a fault-finding mission but one in which potential growth
and school improvement is the goal.
Videotaping
As the group develops and implements intervention methods for meeting the student
needs, videotaping a lesson may add new insight into the process. As has been the
case, the focus is on student response during the lesson. The teacher videotapes the
student learning, evaluates the effectiveness of the lesson based upon the student
response and uses it as a tool for improving instruction. The procedure is as follows
(Murphy & Lick, 2005):
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






Teacher from the group videotapes a lesson that addresses the focal point
The actual videotaping should be recording student responses
Reviews the lesson in private
o Makes notes of positive elements
o Lists areas for change
Erases the tape
Discusses the information with the group
Process repeated by other members of group
May share and critique tape (if comfortable) with group
Developing Curriculum
While the department meetings will not be responsible for writing the curriculum, it can
be a systematic component of the curriculum-writing process. Because the
departmental meeting focus is consistently on student need, when the curriculum is to
be revised, the departmental groups should be involved. They would be the best vehicle
to assist the curriculum committee in identifying student need, searching for best
practices and materials, applying materials and strategies, and then assessing the
results of the instruction.
Reading Professional Resources and Academic Content
Teachers need to be experts in their fields in order to stimulate and expand student
knowledge. As a result, teachers need to immerse themselves in their academic content
area and best-practice strategies. Teachers, during the meetings, can expand and
enrich their expertise by talking with each other to gain understanding, and searching
for new ways to apply knowledge or enable more effective teaching. Experience is the
best teacher, and case studies illustrate elements of the school improvement process
that worked and those that did not. Research and review case studies that support,
encourage, and offer suggestions for the continuing development of the learning
community.
Professional readings are a generally accepted practice of all professions, and
education is no exception, whether they are in the form of books or articles. The
department meetings are a perfect avenue for sharing and learning about the everchanging teaching profession. The group decides which resources to read to enhance
the knowledge of the identified student need. They then follow this pattern:





Identify resources to read
o All participants do not need to read the same material — numerous methods for
shared or group readings
Debrief
Act on the new information by implementing the technique
Respond or reflect
Begin cycle again
o Plan-Act-Reflect
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Creating Journals and Keeping Portfolios
Writing a journal is an excellent technique for documenting change. It is highly
encouraged as a means not only to document the process of school improvement, but
also to track the impact on student learning. A reflective journal can also provide an
outlet for personal release of frustrations, anxieties, joys, and successes of a new
initiative.
Portfolios are an excellent tool for reflecting upon the process, the struggles, and the
successes of the departmental meetings, especially since change (student
achievement) is the cornerstone of the meetings. The group and/or individuals may
decide to maintain a portfolio as a tool to document the professional growth.
Regardless, it can become a powerful tool for growth that then can be shared at the end
of the year or used as a resource for the following year.
Departments Collaborating
Each interdisciplinary departmental group is unique and holds great potential but only if
acted upon in the classroom and if the knowledge learned is shared within the
organization — specifically among the departments. The vital link to moving from a
collaborating department team to a learning organization is effective communication.
Good communication not only shares information but encourages trust among the
organization because all stakeholders know what is happening in the departmental
meetings. No hidden secretive agenda exists; everything from the department meeting
is open for public examination and use.
Suggestions for effective communication among departments include (Murphy & Lick
2005):











On a rotating basis, one member of the departmental group shares the group process
and progress with other departmental groups, usually every 4-6 weeks.
Highlights of departmental meetings will be added to the agenda for grade-level, team,
and/or whole faculty meetings.
Institute whole-faculty sharing, usually twice a year — to celebrate the work.
Share with board members, district leaders, parents, students, and the general public.
Sharing with students, parents, and community members models the life-long learning
process in action.
Post in a public place an electronically written documentation of the meeting process,
action, and progress.
Share new resources, instructional techniques or post questions at a faculty website.
Showcase what works — invite observations
Provide for newsletters for faculty, home, and community.
Create brochures to illustrate helpful findings.
Present exhibits and seminars of departmental meeting results during open house, PTA
meetings, or parent/ teacher conferences.
Create bulletin boards to share successes or tips.
187
Challenges, Barriers, and Tips
Any type of change is often viewed with skepticism because the immediate question is
always, "How will this affect me?" Skepticism is relative to the opening question of,
"What is best for the students?" Viewed by an educator, the two questions are
intertwined, and in the process of providing what is best for the students, the educator
will inevitably be changed. As with most change, people are asked to move into areas
that have traditionally not been opened. In initiating the process, working slowly is good
in a way that offers support, guidance, and learning to change. Working together in
steps provides no surprises as to expectations except in what group efforts provide in
student understanding and school improvement.
The changes in the departmental meeting must be supported by all stakeholders,
including the school board, central office, superintendent, principal, and faculty. It must
be recognized that while the collaboration is valuable, the true value of the collaboration
is when it results in student achievement. While the departmental meetings can
establish a shared leadership role, the department chairs, principals, and/or district
leaders will be central for success. The department chairs, principal, and/or district
leaders will not only be initiators and implementers but will also provide sources of
continual support by making connections with teachers about the specifics of the group
process, the progress of the groups, and maintaining the idea that the groups must
keep on target.
Time during the workday must be found and allocated for department meetings and
must be a top priority supported from all levels of administration and the community.
The idea of time for professional development and collaboration is usually rare, but it is
a vital component for success. Teachers need time to talk about their work with other
teachers. This is a non-negotiable component. It is that important that days and weeks
should be restructured to accommodate the needs of the student. This first step begins
with providing teachers time for collaboration.
Finally, everyone on the professional staff has to be involved and focused on school
improvement and student achievement; there is no room for exceptions. Many teachers
may not value collaboration with colleagues for a number of reasons suggested earlier
in this article, but the quick and constant message from the administration must be that
this how business is done in the school, and all teachers are expected to participate if
employed there. Change is difficult but the goal of building a team of learners that will
transform the school into a community of learners is noble.
188
References
Bambino, D. (2002 Spring) Protocols in practice. [Electronic version] Connections: a journal of the
national school reform faculty, 14-15. Retrieved December 19, 2006 from
http://www.harmonyschool.org/www/pdf/connections/connections1.2.p15.pdf
Bambino, D. (n.d) Student as learner, teacher as coach: putting collaboration to work at s. a. douglas high
school. [Electronic version] Retrieved December 19, 2006 from
http://www.nsrfharmony.org/centers_pa.html
Barnes, F. (2004 April). Making school improvement part of daily practice. Retrieved December 19, 2006
from http://www.annenberginstitute.org/tools/guide/SIGuide_intro.pdf
Barnes, N. (2000). Teachers teaching teachers. Education Weekly, 19(19), 38,42.
Brewster, C & Railsback, J (2003 September) Building trusting relationships for school improvement:
implications for principals and teachers. [Electronic version] Retrieved December 19, 2006, from
www.nwrel.org/request/2003sept/trust.pdf
Davidson, J. (2005). Talks with Warren Simmons: "smart districts". Horace, 21(3).
Lick, D.W. & Murphy, C.U (2007). The whole -faculty study groups fieldbook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Listening to student voices (2001). Retrieved December 18, 2006 from
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/scc/studentvoices/toolkit.shtml
Murphy, C.U. & Lick, D.W. (2005). Whole-faculty study groups. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Protocols (n.d.) Retrieved December 19, 2006, from http://www.lasw.org/protocols.html
Richardson, J. (2004). Lesson study. Tools for schools. NSDC. February/March 2004.
Sample protocol to guide a structured conversation (n.d) Retrieved December 19, 2006, from
http://www.annenberginstitute.org/tools/guide/SIGuide_intro.pdf
Tschannen-Moran, M. (2001). Collaboration and the need for Trust. Journal of educational administration,
39(4), 308-33
189
21st Century Department Case Study
Location
Southridge High School
9625 S.W. 125th Avenue
Beaverton, OR 97008
Contact
Sarah Boly, Principal
Phone: (503) 259-5400
E-mail: sarah_boly@beavton.k12.or.us
Web site: www.beavton.k12.or.us/southridge
Setting: Suburban
Size: 1,950 students
Student mix: 7 percent enrolled in the free and reduced-price lunch program, 4.6
percent receiving English as a Second Language services, and 11 percent receiving
Special Education services.
Introduction
Southridge High School is profiled on NWREL's Web site as part of NWREL's Schools
Making Progress Series. The series highlights the U.S. Department of Education's
Smaller Learning Communities grantees that are making considerable progress toward
attaining the benefits of smaller learning communities. Schools receive technical
assistance from regional centers coordinated nationally by NWREL.
We chose to highlight Southridge for this By Request because of the school faculty's
emphasis on creating professional learning communities using Critical Friends Groups,
a program developed by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. CFGs provide staff
a safe, structured setting of mutual support and honest feedback from trusted peers to
work on student learning strategies. In 2002 Southridge was recognized as an
Exemplary Smaller Learning Communities Project site by the U.S. Department of
Education.
By Request authors thank Sarah Boly for her insights, and Bruce Miller for graciously
allowing us to adapt parts of his Schools Making Progress profile. To read the entire
profile, visit the Schools Making Progress Series site at
www.nwrel.org/scpd/sslc/descriptions/index.asp
Background
190
Southridge High School is the newest of five high schools in Beaverton, the third largest
school district in Oregon. From its architecture to its modes of communication, the
school is designed to promote learning, a sense of community, and shared decision
making. This emphasis on relationships— among school staff members, students,
parents, and community members—was central to the design and planning of the new
high school, a project led by Principal Sarah Boly.
In 1997, Boly formed a planning team of 18 teachers and counselors from across the
district who spent a year researching design concepts that explored aspects of school
culture, organization, and curriculum and instruction. The school sought prospective
employees who shared this commitment and were willing to tolerate ambiguity as
practices were developed and implemented in the school's first years of operation. All
employees were hired through a review and screening process involving students,
parents, and community members.
The invitation letter to faculty members to be on the planning committee emphasized
the active participation of all planning group members. Team members, the letter said,
"would have the responsibility for conceptualization of learning communities within the
school, for the development of a coherent curriculum … and have the primary
responsibility for the implementation of a substantive professional development program
that ensures all staff are prepared to meet their new roles and responsibilities and for
the support of school governance and leadership structures."
The planning committee worked closely with the community in the planning process.
Through surveys, phone interviews, focus groups, and numerous forums with students,
families, and members of the business community and community groups, the following
priorities were identified and underlie the core values of the school:





Personalized learning
Real-world application of knowledge through contextual learning
Professional learning communities to promote shared decision making and continuous
learning
Democratic decision making
Community engagement
After reviewing research findings, attending conferences, visiting schools, and reflecting
on how to incorporate the community's goals in a school design, the planning team
developed a framework of shared leadership that included strategies, ideas, and
programs. Southridge opened in 1999 with shared decision making and mentoring
relationships as essential features of life. This is evident in nearly every aspect of its
structure and practices, as described below.
Neighborhoods. Four neighborhoods bring together a cohort of teachers and school
staff members with about 475 students. Students are assigned to each neighborhood in
heterogeneous groups. Each neighborhood has its own identity and governance
structure and functions as a "smaller learning community" under the direction of its
neighborhood faculty. Each faculty cohort includes ninth-, tenth-, and eleventh-grade
191
interdisciplinary teams, a counselor, an administrator, and classified support staff.
Teachers in teams share responsibility for the curriculum, instruction, evaluation, and
sometimes scheduling, and have a shared planning time at the ninth- and tenth-grade
levels. Students stay within their assigned neighborhood for all three years of teaming
although they may take electives outside their neighborhood. These teams build a
sense of community, and help ensure that all students are known well by their teachers
who understand their specific learning needs. This enables students to learn more and
meet increasingly higher standards.
Advisory program. Teacher advisory programs are at the heart of smaller learning
communities. One teacher is assigned to advise 20–25 students during the course of
their high school careers, ensuring personalized attention to students' needs. Advisory
periods are scheduled each month to deliver a wide range of academic advisement
functions such as assisting students to manage their academic plan and profile (MAPP),
plan a course of study, assist with career academy contracts, and assist with the
management of state testing completion and work sample collection. The advisory
periods also help solve school culture issues through the student/ staff action
democratic process, and serve as a vehicle for accomplishing student-developed
diversity awareness and appreciation agendas.
Skytime. During a 45-minute period twice a week, students can choose to meet with
teachers or counselors, complete laboratory activities, or work on projects. The Skytime
teacher is also the student's adviser and the student will stay in that mentoring
relationship for as long as the student remains at Southridge. This helps ensure that
every student is known well by a caring adult in the school.
Link Crew. A transition program for ninth-graders in which 12th-grade students serve
as mentors.
Trimester schedule. A trimester schedule makes it possible to offer students more
options, more instructional time, while promoting a depth of learning. The district
requires students to take 23 credits to graduate; however, Southridge students can take
28 credits, which results in acceleration of learning in many areas.
Depth of learning. All students are required to take advanced study in a career
academy (focus area) or be an International Baccalaureate Diploma Candidate to
graduate. During their junior or senior year, students will take up to 15 additional
courses (some at Portland Community College), and complete career-related learning
experiences, 60 hours of service learning, and a senior exhibit, all of which must be tied
to their focus area in order to earn an endorsement (Certificate of Advanced Mastery). A
commitment to interdisciplinary team teaching, contextual learning, and personalized
support for all students supports this priority.
Career academies. Career academies foster mentoring relationships between students
and professionals in the community. As sophomores, students choose one to three
career academy endorsements to follow in their junior and senior years from the areas
192
of science; information technology; business leadership; engineering and design; social,
human, and government services; health and related services; and arts and
communication.
Demonstrated student learning through exhibition. Students show what they know
and can do through such things as senior projects and portfolios.
Critical Friends Groups Focus on Building Trust to Facilitate Collaboration
Because staff members were selected for their willingness to participate in a
collaborative school community, there wasn't much worry about staff members being
resistant to new ideas. However, bringing a group of teachers and administrators
together who had never worked together before had its own share of challenges, says
Boly.
Unlike established schools, no one in this group had worked together before, and
therefore trust was not necessarily "a given." Regardless of age or experience, most of
the teachers were new to team teaching and collaborative decision making processes.
Boly frankly admits that even with one year of planning, it was a "chaotic" opening year
and she could see that something needed to be done to enable staff members to rise
above destructive communication patterns that came from a sense of helplessness and
fear. "We had all of these wonderful smaller learning communities in place, but we didn't
have staff-to-staff relationships built upon trust. We had a very strong staff who didn't
know each other. It was pretty clear that we needed more opportunities for staff to get to
know each other and to engage in effective communication around effective teaching
practices." Research has shown that students' emotional safety is critical for them to
learn. Boly emphasizes that attention to the development of positive staff and student
relationships is crucial to creating a culture of mutual trust and respect because "we
can't create safe classrooms unless there is trust at every level."
Boly wanted the Southridge whole-school decision making model to be influenced and
supported through the protocols being used by the Critical Friends Group Model. She
believed that providing the staff with the opportunity to engage in Critical Friends
Groups on a regular basis would provide teachers with the emotional safety necessary
to holding honest discussions about student work and personal teaching practices. Boly
believes that this would in turn, influence the quality of whole-school decision making. In
2001 Southridge applied for and received a U.S. Department of Education Smaller
Learning Community Center grant that enabled the school to use the Critical Friends
Group model.
Nearly 90 percent of the full-time staff at Southridge participate as members of Critical
Friends Groups (CFGs). These professional learning communities focus on the intimacy
and vulnerability of teacher practice, helping to build relationships of trust that allow the
privacy of practice to emerge into the public light of collegial examination. In each
neighborhood, two staff members serve as CFG coaches, facilitating the activities and
modeling trust-building behaviors and such protocols as peer observation and feedback.
193
Each CFG consists of about eight staff members, including classified staff who meet
once a month. Learning CFG protocols, or codes of behavior, has provided staff
members with a common language and understanding for coaching and modeling trustbuilding behaviors, problem solving, giving supportive feedback, and engaging in
reflective dialogue. As a result, these protocols have been woven into daily activities at
Southridge. Critical Friends Groups have been a crucial strategy at Southridge because
the school's goals and visions for learning require that all teachers engage in intense
collaborative work.
Shared Decision Making
The Critical Friends Groups have enabled a shared decision making process to develop
more effectively. Following the lead of planning team members, the entire school staff
adopted a shared decision making process that included five action steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Key issues or problems are identified
The staff votes (or reaches consensus) to investigate the issue further
An action task force or committee is convened to develop a proposal for action
All stakeholders are consulted regarding a draft proposal and are given the opportunity
to ask clarifying questions and provide both warm and cool feedback
5. The proposal is submitted to the staff for a vote or consensus to adopt or reject the
proposal
In all group meetings, staff members use a consensus strategy called the "five-finger
vote" and protocols associated with the CFG model for structuring discussions. In a
fivefinger vote, individuals show the degree of their approval with a show of fingers—
five being the highest level of approval and one being the lowest. A closed fist indicates
unwillingness to accept the proposal as written and a desire to present a new
alternative. At the time a proposal is submitted, staff members and students can ask
clarifying and probing questions, and offer warm (positive) and cool (negative)
feedback, in that order.
To support shared decision making and ensure that neighborhoods are integrated into
the larger context of the whole school, staff members unanimously approved a
governance model that includes many committees representing all school community
members, including a site council consisting of parents, school staff members, and
community members. It serves as school-community liaison on matters of school
reform, improvement, and fiscal management of grants.
Results
The dropout rate for the 2001–2002 school year was 3.2 percent, one of the lowest in
the state; for the 2002–2003 year, the rate dropped to 1.3 percent from an anticipated 5.
8 percent. State assessment results have shown gains in all areas (e.g., in 2003, 77
percent of students met or exceeded standards, up from 45 percent the previous year).
Southridge has met Adequate Yearly Progress standards in 60 areas, including
Hispanic, African American, IEP, and ELL students. Southridge was named an
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Exemplary Smaller Learning Communities site by the U.S. Department of Education
and has been recognized throughout Oregon for its accomplishments in developing
smaller learning communities.
Conclusion
Boly has noticed quite a change from the first year with the Critical Friends Groups
having been implemented for three years. One is that staff members feel comfortable
laying their issues on the table where they can be discussed. "They can say openly, I
feel disrespected," says Boly. "This is how trust is built."
Critical Friends has empowered teachers to make decisions on their own. Vice Principal
Amy Gordon reflects, "Empowering people fosters a sense of ownership. Sometimes I
hear something I don't want to hear, but the process keeps everyone honest— there is
a lot of communication, which is the key."
One might be tempted to dismiss Southridge's accomplishments because the school
serves a highly educated community, was designed "from the ground up" with strong
community and district support, and staff members were hired based on their common
vision of schooling. True, these conditions greatly facilitated success at Southridge, but
they are not sufficient. Most important is a leadership approach that empowers others to
share in decision making. This is no easy task, of course, but Southridge's path to
success can be instructive for other schools seeking to implement smaller learning
communities for students and staff members.
Students consistently report in focus groups that Southridge is a positive environment
where, according to one pupil, "The power to impact school action, thus the community,
has allowed me to express my interests and make a difference." This sentiment is
shared by staff and community members, and it was earned through hard work and an
abiding vision and expectation about what people can accomplish when they are
empowered to make decisions.
Used with permission from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
195
In this activity you will analyze your department actions to identify areas of success and
opportunities for growth.
1. For each item in the following chart place an "X" in the appropriate column.
Strongly
Agree
Statement
Department meeting time is used to develop
lessons as a collaborative group.
Department meeting time is used as a source for
staff support and growth.
Department members actively participate in the
departmental meetings.
My department is comfortable with change.
There is a sense of trust among dept. members.
Department members are comfortable observing
students in other classrooms.
My department places a high value on
professional development.
My department has developed protocols for
managing the meetings and activities.
The departmental meetings are geared towards
improving student achievement.
The department meetings identify student needs
and set goals for improvement.
My department reviews student work as a tool for
improvement.
My department reviews student data to direct
future instruction.
Department members seek each other out for
opinions on lesson planning and improving
student achievement.
My department assesses collaboratively created
lessons and reviews the results.
My department uses videotaping as a tool to learn
how students are responding to instruction.
Department members participate in co-mentoring
196
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
opportunities outside of the meetings.
Strongly
Agree
Statement
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
My department seeks student input on school
policy and instructional procedures.
Department members encourage other teachers,
professionals, and/or students to observe their
classroom instruction.
My department shares protocols and outcomes
with other departments.
Exploring professional resources (readings, on
and off campus workshops or courses) is
encouraged, supported and information is shared
and discussed among department members.
Department meetings focus on a cyclical pattern
of Plan-Act-Reflect for student achievement.
2. Discuss the following items with your principal or department leader via email or face to
face communication. Be sure to elicit feedback.
a. Identify areas where your department is successful.
b. Identify opportunities where your department can improve.
3. Summarize your personal reflection and your principal/department leader correspondence
in the space provided. Be prepared to add the summary to your Learning Log.
4. Enter your summary in your Learning Log by clicking on "Resources" and then
"Learning Log." (Label your entry "Department Analysis.")
5. Close the Learning Log window.
6. Fill in the "L" and "D" column of your "Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D
Chart."
7. Return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
197
Topic 4.1.4: How Do You Communicate 21st Century Approaches to
Stakeholders?
Course Activity: Stakeholder Communication Analysis
View Multimedia Segment (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
Read the article Partnering with Stakeholders to Improve Student Achievement found on the
following pages.
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Partnering With Stakeholders to Improve Student Achievement
Epstein and Salinas offer some compelling reasons to create inclusive learning
communities in our schools. They suggest six types of involvement schools can
embrace as part of their school-improvement planning process to enhance student
achievement: parenting, communicating, learning at home, decision making and
collaboration. (Epstein and Salinas, 2004) Their examples illustrate the power of
partnerships in supporting and improving student achievement.
This text will examine the need to expand on these ideas by asking educators to
embrace systems thinking and to reevaluate who we engage in conversations about
teaching and learning. It will invite readers to think within and beyond the school gates
to define the school system and its stakeholders. Readers will consider different ways to
engage stakeholders and to communicate results. The sense of urgency for most
schools is real; we need to advance student achievement in unprecedented ways, in a
short time frame, and we need to garner all the support available to us to achieve this
goal. We must invite stakeholders to assess the current reality and to create a collective
vision of what they want our schools to be. However, vision is not enough; we must
collaborate to translate that vision into commitment and action. (Dufour, 2004)
Who are our partners?
If we are to move beyond structural change toward cultural change and sustainability
we need to communicate with our partners in new ways. This will mean rethinking with
whom we meet, how those meetings are conducted, and how we share information
across the current boundaries of our system of schooling. The first step is to identify
logical stakeholders in the business of schooling. Some obvious groups that can be
readily identified are: "educators, students, parents and community partners." (Epstein
and Salinas, 2004)
Some overlooked groups within our schools also can provide us with insight and
wisdom about ways we can create a learning environment that allows for the success of
all students. These groups are found in our own buildings, but are seldom engaged in
conversations about teaching and learning. These groups may include: students,
assistant principals, related arts teachers, career and technical teachers, instructional
and special education aides, outdoor play supervisors, school security officers, bus
drivers, cafeteria workers, and custodial staff. These people care about, interact with,
and reach students every day. They may have insights that can help us round out our
knowledge of the students in our classrooms. Their perspectives could help teachers
better serve all students, yet many of these school community members are not part of
school improvement or strategic planning initiatives in our schools.
External stakeholder groups might include: textbook publishers and vendors, politicians,
taxpayers, local scout masters, recreational sports coaches, police officers, clergy,
199
social service agency personnel, medical professionals, librarians, and neighborhood
watch associations. These stakeholders have perspectives about students outside the
school. Some see our students in activities they are passionate about, while others see
our students with their families and in their neighborhoods. We need their perspectives
to truly know the students who sit before us.
How often have you seen a group representing some, or all, of these stakeholders
assembled to talk about and plan for successful schools? Our task of achieving
proficiency for all students is venerable. How will we tackle this task and who will be
involved?
We currently tend to stay in the perceived safety of our traditional same-role silos and
try to manage the load alone. The load is growing bigger than any one group can bear.
Reaching across boundaries seems a logical way to proceed in order to create the kind
of learning environment in which all our students can and will succeed.
How do we engage our partners?
Once we identify our partners, we need to find meaningful ways to engage them in a
collaborative process. Group members will participate to the degree they feel included,
according to their perceived sphere of influence in the group, and the value they attach
to their ability to contribute to the group. Our challenge is to make sure all group
members feel equally invited to be instrumental members. (Weisbord, 2004)
The first step in creating a well-functioning learning group is to ensure that the
participants have a common language and shared concern about the mission, vision
and tasks of the group. Within our profession we often have a common language, and
we assume shared concern about a particular strategy or practice that isn't there. Few
of us take the time to check on understanding and rely on vocabulary as our sole means
of comprehension. Neglecting to create shared concerns can result in conflicting
messages sent to stakeholders about a particular initiative or innovation.
For example, many schools are implementing "walk throughs" as a professional
development design. While some district and school leaders see this as a way for
principals and supervisors to gauge the climate of the school or the implementation of
an initiative on an ongoing basis, other school and district leaders use a one-time,
checklist strategy to rate a school's progress in order to place them in corrective action.
They also call this practice a "walk-through." The term "walk throughs" can have very
different interpretations depending on the participants' assumptions, perceptions,
purposes and intended outcomes.
We cannot assume that presenting or imposing a new idea without assuring shared
understanding about what that idea will look and sound like, once implemented well, will
yield the results we are looking for: increased student achievement. Shared meaning
leads to mutual ownership, something every new initiative needs to find success and an
eventual place in institutional history.
200
How do we sustain momentum toward eventual institutionalization of an innovation?
Checking for understanding on an ongoing basis is critical for the success of any new
initiative or innovation in a school. Stakeholders engaged in an innovation cycle must
understand change as a process, not an event.
Every initiative has three phases: initiation, implementation and institutionalization.
Ideally the initiation phase is given time and attention to ready the school community for
the initiative, whether it is a textbook adoption, a schedule change, or the introduction of
a new position in the school. While the initiation phase needs attention, too much
attention on this phase can lead to frustration and apathy.
The implementation phase of an initiative is the time to "just do it." During this phase
teachers must be encouraged to try the new strategy or use the new materials multiple
times. Encouraging reflection and correction during this phase is critical. Implementers
need to feel safe while developing capacity. This is the time to celebrate progress and
distance traveled. Highlight successes at every meeting and in home and school
publications during this phase of an initiative's development. (Collins, 2001)
The final phase of the initiative comes with institutionalization of the innovation. At this
phase all members of the school community recognize the initiative or practice as part
of the culture of the school. Attention is paid to recruiting new members who are familiar
with the strategy or process or are willing to learn. Reflection is an integral part of this
phase too. Regular evaluation of school culture will confirm that the adopted process or
strategy is still serving the needs of the learning community.
Hord and Hall's Concerns Based Adoption Model (C-BAM) is a tool that is useful to
gauge whether an initiative is needed or taking hold in a learning community. The model
measures the levels of concern about an innovation as well as the levels of use by
employing innovation configuration maps (IC's). IC's are a rubric-like tool to help a
learning community reflect at each stage of an implementation process. IC's can be
developed for each stakeholder group depending on their involvement in the initiative.
More detailed information about innovation configuration maps and the C-BAM model
can be found at SEDL's website www.sedl.org.
Many initiatives enjoy initial enthusiasm and success among implementers, only to
experience an implementation dip as time moves forward. (Fullan, 2001) An
implementation dip is a predictable part of any new initiative. It occurs when participants
lose interest due to inattention and support, and revert back to their comfortable habits.
Using tools like IC's can help identify and address the concerns that cause the shift in
enthusiasm for an initiative.
For example, a local high school is implementing SSR (sustained silent reading) for the
first time. The first half of the school year is spent providing professional learning
201
opportunities for the teachers, assembling students, and conducting informational
sessions for parents and community members. Also included are school board
resolutions, assessment for student reading levels, surveys of students, parents and
teachers about literary interests, materials acquisitions for the classrooms and libraries,
and schedule adjustment to allow for 20 additional minutes to be added to periods five
and six every other day. The stage is set for SSR to begin after winter break. It is
launched with great success and students are regularly reading books of high interest at
their independent reading levels. This energy lasts through the end of the school year
with students reading an impressive number of books by the end of the year. Teachers
report success stories based on data from formative and summative assessments.
Everyone is happy as they leave for summer vacation.
Over the summer, several teachers retire or leave the district. September comes, and
the administration expects SSR to take off at the level it ended in June. They check this
matter off their to-do list. As they tour the building in September and October, they are
disappointed to see fewer classes engaged in SSR and wonder what happened.
Implementation dips often occur with change in leadership or a shift in staff. Without
constant monitoring and attending to the details of an initiative — the training and
support needed for new staff, support and supplies needed for successful
implementation, its place on staff and student agendas, and celebrations of successes
— initiatives may never get out of the dip to become institutionalized best practices.
Experiencing too many initiatives stuck in the dip may cause learning community
members to be cynical about progressive thinking.
How do we shift the culture?
To best serve today's youth, instruction must embrace a continuum of strategies to
reach all learners. Emphasis is moving away from rote memorization toward authentic
learning experiences and assessments. These experiences tap into students' schema
and help them connect their learning to real life, while guiding them to see relevancy in
that learning.
Most stakeholders come to the table with a lifetime of experience in the "teacher telland-student-listen" model of instruction (Dufour, 2004 p.178). In order to compel them to
accept and adopt 21st century instructional practices, they need to have positive
experiences in using them with students and as students. Inclusive stakeholder
meetings convened to plan innovation processes in schools must be designed to model
the practices we are asking teachers and other stakeholders to embrace. For example,
participants need to have the opportunity to work in groups of various sizes with
members they do not usually encounter. They need to have tasks that require creativity
and collaboration, and outcomes that are tangible and readily replicated. Opportunity for
reflection must also be part of every meeting.
202
Aronson and Stiles have distilled the "Big 8 principles" and the "8 also big principles" of
successful large group meetings from The Handbook of Large Group Methods by
Bunker and Alban. These principles are:
















Clarity of purpose
Active engagement, around real work and real decisions
System complete within the room
Development of a shared understanding of context
Self-management of working groups
Discovery of common ground
Focus on the future
Equal standing of participants
And…
Open (visible) data and data bases
Experience of the equal humanness of all participants
Transparent decision making
Full attendance (Each time a group changes participants, it is a new group.)
Development of group perspectives from individual data
Knowledge within the people
Conflict rationalization
Length of meeting is proportional to the breadth and complexity of purpose and the
degree of system fragmentation (Aronson and Steil, 2006)
Designers of any large group meeting of school stakeholders should hold these
principles constant in order to create successful meeting designs that result in
concerted action, that create coherence—the extent to which the school's programs for
students and stakeholders are coordinated, focused on learning goals, and sustained
over a period of time. (Fullan, 2001) Principals, teacher leaders and professional
learning coordinators will find these principles useful as they begin to create inclusive
learning communities.
What does professional learning need to be in our schools to achieve our goals?
Both students and teachers need time to share their learning with one another. They
need the opportunity to share and grow with colleagues if they are expected to develop
new habits of practice in today's classrooms. The National School Reform Faculty
(NSRF) endorses a structure called Critical Friends Groups or CFG's as a way to gather
teachers in small groups to talk about such topics as students' work, classroom
dilemmas, or teaching successes in a structured conversation designed to accomplish
the task at hand in a limited amount of time. These groups are ongoing and stress
reflection and action. For further information about CFG's and protocols please visit
www.nsrfharmony.org.
Many professional learning designs achieve the ideal professional practice in schools,
which can be described as getting teachers together to talk about teaching and learning
in a regular and meaningful way, which leads to action that will positively affect student
achievement. The challenge is to sustain the enthusiasm and commitment of time
required for these ongoing reflective sessions. Other responsibilities can begin to erode
203
the time set aside for this professional learning unless it is firmly established and valued
by the learning community. In other words, professional learning and collaboration are
part of the culture in schools where this work is sustained.
What do these strategies and principles look like in practice?
The most prevalent collection of stories from the field that illustrate sustained
improvement comes from the literature about professional learning communities. This
literature endorses many of the practices suggested here, but the focus in PLC's is on
specific stakeholder groups within the school. A culture that supports learning for all;
collegial and collaborative practices; transparency of data; and action orientation are all
concepts shared in the PLC stories and the scenarios below. The difference is that the
compiled common dilemmas that follow include examples of how multiple stakeholder
groups could collaborate to create viable solutions.
High Stakes Testing
Stakes are high for today's schools. Achievement is measured by a single snapshot of a
moment in time, which is the state standardized test. This fact should be compelling
educators to partner with any and all stakeholders to create the kind of rigorous
educational experiences our students need to succeed on this and other measures of
achievement throughout their school careers. Instead, we tend to try to solve the
problem alone and often create a learning environment where students practice using a
facsimile of a testing instrument, not learning to problem-solve by using variety of
assessment tools and strategies. Opportunities to work with other students, to solve
problems, and create original works are sacrificed in order to prepare for the "TEST".
Teachers must be afforded the opportunity to discover how rigorous learning activities
and thoughtful questioning throughout the year will support students' achievement on
state tests and connect students to their learning. When students are connected to their
learning and expectations are made transparent, they will understand the import of the
state assessment and work hard to perform their best.
One way to achieve this experience is to design professional learning that has teachers
working together to design lessons that include authentic common assessment. Once
data is collected teachers can share this data with their colleagues, their students and
their parents. Analyzing this data will be the task of the group, not just the teacher.
Students can then be given the opportunity to edit or correct their assignment and
reassess their comprehension. These kinds of experiences are what Stiggins calls
assessment for learning. Assessment for learning offers all students the possibility of
success and a means of celebrating that success. (Stiggins, 2002)
Transitions
204
Students experience many transitions in their K-12 careers. Articulation among
stakeholders at each of these junctures can make the transition smoother for students,
parents and teachers. Much time and energy is lost if students don't understand and
embrace expectations at the next level. Even more time is lost if mixed messages are
conveyed by any of the stakeholders. Taking time to check understanding at each stage
of the journey can serve to forge a more coherent experience for all stakeholders
involved.
For example, in a district that serves three levels of schooling, structures need to be in
place for K-12 curricular conversations; study groups to study data and share with study
groups at other levels; and teams that support the details of the transition at each level.
All of these collaborations need to be ongoing for transition to become less of a
potential hazard and more of a natural condition. Too often these details are not
attended to. One level doesn't know the expectation from the next level or how to
prepare their students adequately for success. Those that suffer most are the students.
One way to remedy this confusion is to hold a large-group, community-based meeting
inviting internal and external stakeholders to participate in a process to develop a district
wide transition plan. This planning team may propose turning the district's schedule
upside down, having the elementary students starting first and the high school students
starting their day later. They may create a system of cross-level ambassadors who are
advocates for their level at district council meetings convened regularly to check the
progress of the plan. Whatever the group determines, the powers who requested they
construct this plan must be ready to give to the group's recommendations serious
consideration. If their hard work is dismissed, participants will disengage and perhaps
even undermine the community.
Basic Skills vs. Rigor
Many argue that students still need to learn basic skills in order to succeed with higher
order learning. Fundamentals are indeed necessary at every level for students to
succeed. Basic skills practice, direct teacher delivery systems and memorization
activities are still viable strategies in some circumstances. However, they cannot define
a teacher's practice or a student's experience if we want to engage all students to
achieve at high levels. Teachers and students must see learning as a process that has
checkpoints along the way to measure understanding. Teachers must value alternate
assessment strategies such as; project-based learning, creative student presentations
of learning, or other processes that illustrate student understanding of content. Students
must be given multiple opportunities to demonstrate and celebrate understanding. One
way to include multiple stake holders would be to invite them to be part of the audience
when students present their culminating projects or presentations.
Opportunities to write several times a day will help students improve their written
communication skills. Frequent opportunities to read texts of high interest at an
independent reading level will help students improve reading stamina. Reteaching
material to a classmate or retelling a story will help a student refine his or her
205
comprehension skills. Asking students to stop and jot or think, pair, and share will help
students take time needed to clarify their own thinking before sharing with the group.
Think alouds will make the teacher's thinking visible to students and offer them expert
strategies to try in their own learning. These opportunities to write, read, talk and think
help students develop habits of mind that will increase their engagement in learning and
improve their achievement in school and on standardized tests. All of these strategies
provide rigor and differentiation while giving students time to practice basic skills.
Stakeholders should be aware of the rationale for using a variety of instructional
strategies and the effect that using these strategies will have on student achievement.
Opening the school on a regular basis so community members, parents, administrators
and others can observe rigorous learning in action is another way to communicate
instructional priorities to all stakeholders.
Now what?
Including multiple stakeholders in school governance and planning processes can offer
a school community perspectives that might never have been accessed in previous
planning, but that provide insights, which could positively impact student learning and
achievement. Inclusivity and transparency are new concepts in most schools and school
systems. Becoming proficient at designing meetings and structures that support
inclusive practices and openly share and consider data will take time, study and
practice. Shifting educational cultures to embrace these strategies in the classroom, in
the faculty room, and in the Board room will mirror the learning cycle we ask our
students and teachers to espouse and endorse every day. We need to create the space
for our learning communities to learn, try, reflect, make course corrections, try, and
reflect again. Creating this safe and rigorous learning community is what we need to do
so that all our students are successful in 21st century classrooms, and so that all
stakeholders develop shared meaning and understanding of the expectations for
performance and achievement in these classrooms.
206
Resources
Aronson, N. and Steil, G. (2006) Large group meeting design and facilitation. Participant Binder. Bryn
Mawr, Pa.
Bunker, B.B., and Alban, B. T. (2006) The handbook of large group methods: creating systemic change in
organizations and communities. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
DuFour, R, DuFour, R, Eaker, R and Karhanek, G. (2004) Whatever it takes: how professional learning
communities respond when kids don't learn. Bloomington, Indiana: National Educational Service.
Epstein, J. and Salinas, K.C. (May, 2004) Partnering with families and communities. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD. Educational Leadership: Volume 61, Number 8. 12-18.
Epstein, J.L. et al. (2002) School, family and community partnerships: your handbook for action (2nd
edition). Thousand Oaks: CA: Corwin Press.
Collins, J. (2001) Good to great: why some companies take the leap and others don't! New York: Harper
Business.
Fullan, M. (2001) Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Henderson, A.T. and Mapp, K.L. (2002) A new wave of evidence: the impact of school, family, and
community connections on student achievement. Austin, Texas: Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory.
Hord, S.M., Rutherford, W.L., Huling-Austin and Hall, G. (1987) Taking charge of change. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
NSDC and SEDL. (2003) Moving NSDC's staff development standards into practice: innovation
configurations. Oxford, OH: NSDC.
Shockley, B., Michalove, B., and Allen, J. (1995) Engaging families: connecting home and school literacy
communities. Portsmouth: NH: Heinemann.
Stiggins, R. (June, 2002) Assessment crisis: the absence of assessment for learning. Phi Delta Kappa
International. Retrieved January 2, 2007 from http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0206sti.htm
Weisbord, M. (2004) Productive workplaces revisited: dignity, meaning, and community in the 21st
century. San Francisco: CA: Jossey-Bass.
207
In this activity you will analyze your communication with stakeholders.
1. For each item in the following chart place an "X" in the appropriate column.
Strongly
Agree
Statement
I can clearly identify all of the internal
stakeholders critical to student achievement
improvement.
I can clearly identify all of the external
stakeholders critical to student achievement
improvement.
There is a common language shared among all
stakeholders.
I have success engaging stakeholders in multiple
ways.
I am able to locate a common ground when
communicating with various stakeholders.
I have sufficient tools for communicating with
community members.
My communication with administrators is both
open and meaningful.
My communication with parents is both open and
meaningful.
Students and staff participate in community
projects; and local, state, and professional
organizations.
I have sufficient tools for communicating with
parents.
I am able to communicate with students about the
paradigm shift occurring in my classroom.
Stakeholders are involved in decisions affecting
students and encouraged that their input is
valued.
There are high expectations for parents to be
involved in the school and their child’s education.
I am open to forming new partnerships with
community entities such as businesses.
208
Agree
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
2. Summarize your responses to the chart in the space provided. Please include which 21st
Century stakeholder communication practices are in place and those practices which still
must be developed. Be prepared to add the summary to your Learning Log.
3. Enter your summary in your Learning Log by clicking on "Resources" and then
"Learning Log." (Label your entry "Stakeholder Communication Analysis.")
4. Close the Learning Log window.
5. Fill in the "L" and "D" column of your "Accomplishing the Transformation K-L-D
Chart."
6. Return to the course.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
209
Sync Point Discussion Activity
Now that you have reached the end of the final content unit, you will take part in a discussion
meeting with other members of your study group. This will be a 1-hour session that will enable
you and your fellow study group members to debrief on the experiences in the course in order to
improve instruction and student achievement.
As the meeting date approaches, you should think about the following questions:
1. Throughout the course you have completed numerous self assessment tools. What are
your growth areas and what specifically can you do to improve your transformation?
What can you do to improve teacher interaction? What can you do to improve
stakeholder communication? How can you contribute to the shared vision and
departmental activities?
2. What have you learned and what insights gained from this course?
3. What unanswered questions have been raised in your mind?
Your facilitator will let you know where and when this meeting will be. Be sure to participate
conscientiously, as part of your course grade will be based on your contribution to this
discussion.
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 4 Multiple Choice Questions.
On the Embedded Learning Academy web site (www.embeddedlearningacademy.com/pde)
complete the Unit 4 Essay Question. The Rubric for Unit #4 Essay Question can be found on the
following page.
210
Rubric for Unit #4 Essay Question
Score point
Characteristics of
a support system
that encourages
21st century
transformation
Identification and
description of
areas where your
school is
successful and
areas where your
school can
improve the
supporting system
(Advanced)
(Emerging)
(Novice)
Provides numerous
characteristics of a
support system and
why they are
important to 21st
century
transformation.
Provides adequate
characteristics of a
support system and
why they are
important to 21st
century
transformation.
Provides a few
characteristics of a
support system and
why they are
important to 21st
century
transformation.
Provides limited
characteristics of
a support system
and why they are
important to 21st
century
transformation.
Identifies and
describes numerous
areas of success and
improvement in the
supporting system.
Identifies and
describes adequate
areas of success and
improvement in the
supporting system.
Identifies and
describes few areas
of success and
improvement in the
supporting system.
Identifies and
describes limited
areas of success
and improvement
in the supporting
system.
Identifies and
describes adequate
areas to assist the
supporting system.
Identifies and
describes few areas
to assist the
supporting system.
Identifies and
describes limited
areas to assist the
supporting
system.
Adequate evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 5 errors
Some evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No
more than 10 errors
Limited evidence
of correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation —
More than 10
errors
Identifies and
Identification and
describes numerous
description of
areas to assist the
areas to assist the
supporting system.
supporting system
Conventions
(Proficient)
Excellent evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No
more than 2 errors
211
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International
All Rights Reserved.
212
Unit 5: Culminating Activity
Unit Overview:
In this unit, you will tie together all aspects of the course. You will synthesize the information
learned in the course and will consider how to use this information and data to improve your
teaching skills.
213
Teaching in the 21st Century — The Need for Change
Unit 5 Activity Time Breakdown
Course Objectives
As a result of this course, you will be able to:
1. identify the needs and preferences of the 21st Century learners
2. recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st Century workplace
3. understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st Century
classroom
4. establish more effective communication among stakeholders
*For each activity/experience the relevant objectives are identified in the third column of
the chart.
Unit 5: Culminating Activity
Title
Estimated Time
Objectives
Identified
CPE Version
4 hours
1,2,3,4
Blended Study Group Version
4 hours
1,2,3,4
© Copyright 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
214
Section 5.1: Plan Step 1
As a result of this course, you are now able to:




Identify the needs and preferences of the 21st Century learners.
Recognize the gap that exists between current instructional practices and the skill set
needed by students for success in the 21st Century workplace.
Understand the role collegial collaboration plays in establishing a 21st Century
classroom.
Establish more effective communication among stakeholders.
It is time to synthesize the information you have learned and the data you have analyzed. How
will you use this information and data to improve student learning and achievement? The Rubric
for Action Plan is found on the following two pages.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
215
Rubric for Action Plan
Advanced
Proficient
Emerging
Novice
Clearly states the
priority chosen and
gives in-depth reasons
for the selection.
Clearly states the
priority and gives
some reasons for the
selection.
The priority is stated
and provides limited
reasons for the
selection.
The priority is
stated but does
not provide
reason(s) for the
selection.
Steps to
solution of
the
analyzed
root cause
problem
The steps are very
clear and logical.
There is strong
evidence that the plan
includes all
components of 21st
century teaching and
introduces
new/improved
aspects of producing
stronger results for
students to the
building/district
The steps are clear
and logical. There is
ample evidence that
the plan includes
components of 21st
century teaching and
introduces
new/improved aspects
of producing stronger
results for students to
the building/district.
The steps are vague
and contain only
those things that
should already be in
place in the
classroom/ building/
district. There is
nothing
new/improved for
stronger results for
students to the
building/district.
The steps are
unclear and/or
illogic. Evidence
suggests that the
teacher does not
really understand
the components
and no change
was indicated for
stronger results
for students.
Resources
for each
step
Includes a
comprehensive list of
resources needed to
complete the action
plan and includes
innovative uses of
resources already
available.
Additional resources
are listed and appear
to be reasonable in
terms of educational
goals and dollars
spent. Some use of
materials already
available is included.
The additional
resources show no
link to the stated goal.
There is no innovative
use of current
resources included in
the plan.
The additional
resources appear
to be unnecessary
and/or are
unreasonable in
terms of cost.
Identify an
area of
priority
216
Rubric for Action Plan
Plan to
evaluate the
action plan
Conventions
Advanced
Proficient
Emerging
Novice
The evaluation plan
includes evidence of
feedback from staff,
peers, and supervisors
(if applicable).
Included are specific
criteria on how each
step of the plan will
be evaluated. Also
included will be the
steps to analyze data
on student
achievement with the
priority chosen.
The evaluation plan
includes evidence of
feedback from staff,
peers, and
supervisors (if
applicable). Included
are steps on how
most of the steps of
the plan will be
evaluated and what
assessment will be
used to track student
achievement on the
priority chosen.
The evaluation plan
includes no
evidence of
feedback from staff,
peers, and
supervisors (if
applicable). Included
are general
statements about
how the plan will be
evaluated and an
assessment is
mentioned but does
necessarily relate to
the priority chosen
The evaluation
plan includes no
evidence of
feedback from
staff, peers, and
supervisors (if
applicable). There
are general
statements about
how the plan will
be evaluated but
no assessments are
listed.
Excellent evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No more
than 2 errors
Adequate evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar, mechanics,
usage, and sentence
formation — No more
than 5 errors
Some evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — No
more than 10 errors
Limited evidence of
correct spelling,
grammar,
mechanics, usage,
and sentence
formation — More
than 10 errors
© 2007 Learning Sciences International.
All Rights Reserved.
217
Section 5.2: Plan Step 2
In the culminating activity you will:
1. Select one or two of the critical actions from the DO section of the K-L-D charts that you
want to accomplish.
2. Write an action plan to implement or enhance 21st Century teaching in your classroom.
Use the suggested changes you circled in the "D" column of your K-L-D charts as the
basic framework for your action plan. Use the following resources when developing your
plan:
 Your current school district curriculum
 What is already in place? Where are the gaps?
 Information from your principal, colleagues, and stakeholders
 How can these individuals assist you in implementing or improving your teaching
methods?
 Data you collected on students in your classroom
 Quantitative data (ex. assessment scores)
 Qualitative data (ex. observation in the classroom, interest surveys)
 Based on the data, what are your students' strengths and areas of need?
 The K-L-D charts (prior knowledge, new learning, and ideas for implementation)
 Ideas you gained from the narration, course documents, course activities, and
online discussions
 Notes, reflections, and responses to questions recorded in the Learning Guide
3. On which area of improvement will you focus?
4. What are the steps you will follow for your action plan? Be sure to include student
experiences and activities as part of your plan. (please number your steps)
5. For each step in your plan, what resources will you need?
218
6. For each step in your plan, how will you know it worked?
7. Return to the course and prepare to submit your plan online.
Personal Notes for Implementation:
219
Section 5.3: Reflect
Personal Notes for Implementation:
220
Section 5.4: Share
Personal Notes for Implementation:
221
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All Rights Reserved.
222