Education for Life and Work Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century (2012) / Chapter Skim
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5 Deeper Learning of English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science
5 Deeper Learning of English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science
Pages 101-142
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From page 101... ...
. The existing Common Core State Standards, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards that are under development in 2012 based on the NRC science framework (National Research Council, 2012)
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In this broad look, we compare the expectations included in the Common Core State Standards and the NRC science framework with deeper learning (as characterized within each discipline) and 21st century skills.
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Teachers differentiate activities and assignments for individual students based on feedback about how they are progressing, and instruction is more likely to be delivered in small groups or individualized settings. A second area of disagreement focuses on whether the English language arts curriculum should be integrated with or separate from instruction in other disciplines.
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From page 104... ...
Only when students have learned these correspondences to a high degree of accuracy and automaticity should they be asked to synthesize the letters and corresponding sounds into words by reading aloud. Similarly, in writing, advocates of the simple view argue that teachers should first help students learn the parts -- the correspondences between the sounds within spoken words and letters that represent these sounds.
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From page 105... ...
For the all-important early stages of reading, while there is strong support for early emphasis on the basics, there is no evidence that such an emphasis should preclude an equally strong emphasis on learning to use the range of skills and knowledge acquired early on to engage in transfer to new situations and in monitoring one's reading and writing to see if it makes sense. Summary Although all the parties in the debate share the goal of deeper learning in English language arts, they propose different routes.
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From page 106... ...
In the process, the reader builds a coherent text base where each idea is tested for coherence with all of the previous ideas gleaned from a close reading of the text. • The reader as meaning maker, who asks: What does the text mean?
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From page 107... ...
Drawing on the four resources model, we can now define deeper learning in English language arts from two perspectives: (1) as privileging activities that are successively higher on the list -- in which the reader acts as meaning maker, text analyst, or text critic; or (2)
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From page 108... ...
Common Core State Standards The widely adopted Common Core State Standards in English language arts (CCSS-ELA; Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010a) are likely to shape any attempt to infuse deeper learning initiatives into school curricula.
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From page 109... ...
This integrated view of ELA contrasts sharply with the heavy emphasis that in recent years has been placed on reading as a separate subject, almost to the exclusion of other language arts topics and other school subjects. The integration of reading with other topics and subjects represents a dramatic shift away from the "big five" approach -- phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension -- which has dominated reading instruction for over a decade (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000)
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SOURCE: Common Core State Standards Initiative (2010a)
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From page 111... ...
in English language arts. On the other hand, it remains to be seen whether the assessments that emerge from the two state assessment consortia, which have been funded by the Department of Education to develop next-generation assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards, will be equally supportive of the goal of deeper learning, a question we will return to in Chapter 7.
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From page 112... ...
support deeper learning. However, recent research in English language arts illustrates the potential for developing these intrapersonal factors, as well as interpersonal factors.
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From page 113... ...
These goals reflect a focus on deeper learning in school mathematics. Evolution of National Standards in Mathematics School mathematics reform has a long history that cannot be adequately described in the limited space here, so we focus on the most recent
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From page 114... ...
While not as ubiquitous as cognitive skills, interpersonal skills are strongly impli cated in the speaking and listening standards, with an emphasis on collaboration and listening with care to understand and evaluate others' utterances as a part of rigorous discourse. At the elementary level, project-based learning has a long history dating back to days of John Dewey and the progressive education movement in schools, a tradition in which the goal was to minimize the distance between school learning and the learning that occurs in the enactment of everyday life outside of school.
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From page 115... ...
Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of similar cur ricula integrating English language arts in the disciplines of literature (Guthrie et al., 2004) and social studies (De La Paz, 2005)
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From page 116... ...
Because extant standardized tests of school mathematics were not well aligned with PSSM, and because NCLB regulations required that these tests be a regular feature of every school year in grades 3-8 in order to determine whether adequate yearly progress was being made, PSSM had far less impact on states, schools, teachers, and students than had been envisioned by the NCTM. One decade later, the move toward national guidance regarding expectations for school mathematics learning took a giant leap forward with the
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From page 117... ...
CCSSM diverges from CESSM and PSSM in certain ways, including how it names the strands of content to be taught and learned and how it distributes certain content across the grades, but it retains the same focus on the importance of teaching in ways that enable students to learn mathematics with understanding. The CCSSM states, "These Standards define what students should understand and be able to do in their study of mathematics" (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010b, p.
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For example, the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1991) claimed that student learning of mathematics with understanding depended to a great extent on the teacher using "mathematical tasks that engage students' interests and intellect" (p.
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Deeper Learning Expectations in Mathematics As noted earlier, the three major reform documents in school mathematics -- CESSM, PSSM, and CCSSM -- all emphasize deeper learning of mathematics, learning with understanding, and the development of usable, applicable, transferable knowledge and skills. These themes are in line with the broader statements we discussed earlier regarding the importance of 21st century learning skills.
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Example 2: Restructuring the Elementary School Mathematics Classroom Deeper learning as called for in the Common Core State Standards and other documents reviewed above remains rare in U.S. classrooms.
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The program is based on six guiding principles (National Research Council, 2005, p.
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The two most prominent areas of overlap between 21st century skills and learning goals for school mathematics are found for the themes of argumentation/reasoning and problem solving. Problem solving and reasoning are central to mathematics and have long been viewed as key leverage
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funcƟoning FIGURE 5-2 Overlap between CCSS mathematics standards and 21st century skills. SOURCE: Created by the committee.
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(Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2010b, p.
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The two prominent areas of overlap between 21st century skills and learning goals for school mathematics in these domains are self-regulation and motivation/persistence. The theme of self-regulation is evident in the CCSSM standard of mathematical practice, "Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them." The expectation is clear that students must learn to monitor and evaluate their progress when solving problems, and to change course if necessary.
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From page 126... ...
, and Achieve, Inc., has been commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation to develop a full set of standards based on this framework. These standards are intended to be the science education counterpart of the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics, and it is expected that they too will be adopted in many states.
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From page 127... ...
Instead, the calls for more inquiry sometimes resulted in a particular neglect of critical reasoning, analysis of evidence, development of models, and written and oral discourse associated with constructing and evaluating arguments and explanations -- all aspects of inquiry that may be downplayed when "hands-on" activities are not carefully designed and scaffolded. A second trend was the tendency to treat scientific methodology as divorced from content (National Research Council, 2007)
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From page 128... ...
In this respect there is significant congruence among how scientific knowledge is construed within the discipline, how it is construed within the NRC science framework, and in the committee's definition of deeper learning as learning that can be successfully transferred and applied in new situations (see Chapter 4)
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. Making matters worse, in the past decade time and resources for science education have often been cut back since science test scores have not counted in the formulations for whether schools are making adequate yearly progress under the NCLB legislation.
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In comparing the abilities described in the NRC science framework with 21st century skills, a key point to note is that the area of greatest overlap is found in the science and engineering practices. By considering how the framework connects disciplinary content to practices in this area of overlap, we can gain insight
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From page 131... ...
Organization of the NRC Science Framework The NRC science framework includes engineering as well as science and notes that while the two disciplines have distinctly different goals, they share important features, such as reasoning and problem-solving processes, the testing and evaluation of outcomes and products, and the use of cognitive tools, such as analogical reasoning, systems thinking, and mental and physical models. In what follows the comments about science teaching and learning are generally intended to apply to engineering education as well.
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From page 132... ...
Crosscutting Concepts The NRC science framework identifies seven crosscutting concepts, which are important scientific concepts that bridge across multiple disciplines. They include patterns; cause and effect; scale, proportion, and quantity; systems and system models; energy and matter; structure and function; and stability and change.
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From page 133... ...
Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information While the three dimensions of the NRC science framework (i.e., core disciplinary ideas, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices) and the way in which they are conceptually organized do not map in a tidy way to 21st century skills, there is significant overlap.
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From page 134... ...
It notes that scientists and engineers typically spend half of their working time reading, interpreting, BOX 5-4 An Example of Deeper Learning in Science Many of the elements of the vision for science education outlined in A Frame work for K-12 Science Education are currently uncommon in science instruction in U.S. classrooms.
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From page 135... ...
Public documents in the classroom, such as a theory chart used to help students track the development of their thinking over time, and a questions chart, which they used to catalog good questions for the audience to ask reporters, were used to scaffold students' awareness of how scientific thinking and knowledge develop and change over time and of the kinds of strategies that lead to progress. The researchers described their approach as "sociocognitive," and we note that it requires students to develop and practice strategies from the cognitive, inter personal, and intrapersonal domains.
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personal aspects) • Systems thinking • Epistemology • Cultural sensiƟvity, • CriƟcal thinking and history of valuing diversity • MoƟvaƟon, persistence science • IdenƟty • Aƫtudes • Self-development • CollaboraƟon/teamwork • Adaptability FIGURE 5-3 Overlap between science standards framework and 21st century skills.
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From page 137... ...
The NRC science framework is not mute on such topics as valuing diversity, being a conscientious and self-motivated learner, or appreciating the intellectual values of science and engineering. Rather, it seems to situate the issues as something other than disciplinary learning goals for individual students.
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From page 138... ...
Findings Several important observations emerge from our mapping of science and engineering standards with 21st century skills. First, some of these skills correspond with the disciplinary standards, and standards documents value these skills highly as important for learning and practicing science and engineering.
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From page 139... ...
We note, however, that one theme of a recent National Research Council workshop (National Research Council, 2010) was that those science education initiatives that aligned particularly well with 21st century skills tended to emphasize project-based and problem-solving approaches to curriculum and learning.
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From page 140... ...
For example, the NRC science framework envisions that, by the end of twelfth grade, students will be prepared "to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, to be critical consumers of scientific information related to their everyday lives, and to continue to learn about science throughout their lives" (National Research Council, 2012, pp.
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From page 141... ...
• Conclusion: Teaching for transfer within each discipline aims to increase transfer within that discipline. Research to date provides little guidance about how to help learners aggregate transferable knowledge and skills across disciplines.
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