Graham Brown-Martin from Learning {Re}imagined shares this 7 minute excerpt in which he asks Chomsky about his thoughts on the value of the way we currently use high stakes examinations to test our high school students.
Chomsky points to the fact that we have all studied for that exam which we have aced and then have forgotten about the content a few weeks later. He explains that exams do have some value but in terms of measuring content covered but there really do little to help learning. The following section near the end of the video really clarifies how important inquiry is to the learning process and how we should be inspiring students to discover on their own:
“Passing tests doesn’t begin to compare with searching and inquiring and into pursuing topics that engages and excite us. That’s far more significant than passing tests. In fact, if that’s the kind of educational career that you’re given the opportunity to pursue, you will remember what you’ve discovered. There’s a famous physicist, a world famous physicist right here at MIT who, like a lot of the senior faculty, was teaching freshmen courses, he once said that in his freshmen course, students will ask, “What are we going to cover this semester?” His standard answer was, “It doesn’t matter what we cover, it matters what you discover.”
That’s what teaching ought to be; inspiring students to discover on their own, to challenge if they don’t agree, to look for alternatives if they think there are better ones, to work through the great achievements of the past and try to master them on their own because they’re interested in them. If that’s the way a teaching is done, students will really gain from it and will, not really remember what they studied, but will be able to use it as a basis for growing, on their own. Again, education is really aimed to just helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own because that’s what you’re going to do for your life, not just to absorb materials given to you from the outside and repeat it.“
Source: Learning {Re}imagined
One of the most interesting aspects of Beloit College’s Mindset list is that the College has used these lists on an annual basis to get a better understanding of who their students are and where they are at. Student-centered learning is dependent upon knowing your student so this type of information is a very important and can help faculty, staff and administrators understand and address student expectations.
The class of 2018 live in a world that takes for granted that the
“digital technology that affords them privacy from their parents, robs them of their privacy amid the “big data” of the NSA and Google.”
The Mindset List for the Class of 2018
For this generation of entering college students, born in 1995…
1. During their initial weeks of kindergarten, they were upset by endlessly repeated images of planes blasting into the World Trade Center.
2. Since they binge-watch their favorite TV shows, they might like to binge-watch the video portions of their courses too.
3. Meds have always been an option.
4. When they see wire-rimmed glasses, they think Harry Potter, not John Lennon.
5. “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.”
6. Celebrity “selfies” are far cooler than autographs.
7. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has always been the only news program that really “gets it right.”
8. Hard liquor has always been advertised on television.
9. Ralph Nader has always been running for President of the U.S.
10. They never sat glued to Saturday morning cartoon shows but have been hooked on FOX’s Sunday night “Animation Domination.”
11. The water cooler is no longer the workplace social center; it’s the place to fill your water bottle.
12. In their lifetime, a dozen different actors have portrayed Nelson Mandela on the big and small screen.
13. Women have always attended the Virginia Military Institute and the Citadel.
14. FOX News and MSNBC have always been duking it out for the hearts and minds of American viewers.
15. Pepsi has always refreshed travelers in outer space.
16. Hong Kong has always been part of China.
17. Courts have always been overturning bans on same-sex marriages.
18. Joe Camel has never introduced one of them to smoking.
19. Bosnia and Herzegovina have always been one nation.
20. Citizens have always had a constitutional right to a “dignified and humane death.”
21. Nicotine has always been recognized as an addictive drug requiring FDA oversight.
22. Students have always been able to dance at Baylor.
23. Hello Dolly…cloning has always been a fact, not science fiction.
24. Women have always been dribbling, and occasionally dunking, in the WNBA.
25. Ads for prescription drugs, noting their disturbing side effects, have always flooded the airwaves.
26. Hell has always been associated less with torment and more with nothingness.
27. Whether to embrace fat or spurn it has been a front page debate all their lives.
28. Parents have always been able to rely on a ratings system to judge violence on TV.
29. They never tasted the “texturally enhanced alternative beverage” known as Orbitz.
30. There has always been “TV” designed to be watched exclusively on the web.
31. The Unabomber has always been behind bars.
32. Female referees have always officiated NBA games.
33. There has always been a national database of sex offenders.
34. Chicago, a musical about a celebrity getting away with murder, has always been popular on Broadway.
35. Yet another blessing of digital technology: They have never had to hide their dirty magazines under the bed.
36. U.S. major league baseball teams have always played in Mexico.
37. Bill Gates has always been the richest man in the U.S.
38. Attending schools outside their neighborhoods, they gather with friends on Skype, not in their local park.
39. While the number of Americans living with HIV has always been going up, American deaths from AIDS have always been going down.
40. They have no memory of George Stephanopoulos as a senior White House advisor.
41. The PGA has always offered golfers with disabilities a ride—reluctantly.
42. “African-American Vernacular English” has always been recognized as a distinct language in Oakland.
43. Two-term presidents are routine, but none of them ever won in a landslide.
44. The family has always been able to buy insurance at local banks.
45. One route to pregnancy has always been through frozen eggs.
46. They have probably never used Netscape as their web browser.
47. Everybody has always Loved Raymond.
48. “Salon” has always been an online magazine.
49. The rate of diagnosed diabetes has always been shooting up during their lifetime.
50. Affirmative Action has always been outlawed in California.
51. Boeing has never had any American competition for commercial aircraft.
52. U.S. soldiers have always been vaccinated against anthrax.
53. “Good feedback” means getting 30 likes on your last Facebook post in a single afternoon.
54. Their collection of U.S. quarters has always celebrated the individual states.
55. Since Toys R Us created a toy registry for kids, visits to Santa are just a formality…
Source: Copyright© 2014 Beloit College
Simon Sinek’s quote:
“The primary ingredient for progress is optimism. The unwavering belief that something can be better drives the human race forward.”
has made me change the way I view being optimistic. My wonderful wife reminds that not everyone appreciates my constant pursuit of the “better way” and that I often come across as a bit of a delusional optimist. As a result I don’t mind joking around and calling myself a delusional optimist because to many people my optimism may appear unrealistic.
But when I accept Sinek’s assertion that optimism is fundamental to progress then perhaps I am not delusional I am simply progressive. Progress does require that we push the boundaries of reality so being unrealistic is actually a necessity.
Fortunately, I am not alone in this type of thinking. George Bernard Shaw wrote:
“a reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts conditions to himself…therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
