In Advanced Placement Redesign Bruner tops Skinner

Rethinking Advanced Placement
Christopher Drew

New York Times
January 7, 2011

Topic: Advanced Placement test get a redesign, out goes memorization, in comes discovery and critical thinking.

Key Points: Beginning in 2012, the College Board will present redesigned AP tests which will focus on critical thinking skills. Previously, students were responsible for learning the entire AP textbook which amounted to memorization of large amounts of facts with no time for context or lab work (history & biology being the worst offenders).

"We really believe that the New A.P. needs to be anchored in a curriculum that focuses on what students need to be able to do with their knowledge,” Trevor Packer, VP of the AP, says. The new approach is important because critical thinking skills are considered essential for advanced college courses and jobs in today’s information-based economy. College administrators and veteran A.P. teachers familiar with the new biology curriculum believe the changes could have significant reverberations for how science is taught in introductory college classes and even elementary school classrooms, and might bring some of the excitement back to science learning.

A committee of the National Research Council, called attention to the A.P. problems in 2002. It criticized A.P. science courses for cramming in too much material and failing to let students design their own lab experiments. It also said the courses had failed to keep pace with research on how people learn: instead of listening to lectures, “more real learning takes place if students spend more time going into greater depth on fewer topics, allowing them to experience problem solving, controversies and the subtleties of scholarly investigation.”


Relevance: The article shows how the A.P. courses are adapting to what colleges say they want to reflect in their A.P. students. That is, they want them to think critically like college students before granting the "Placement" part of the A.P. It also reinforces what we are discussing in Ed Psych, where colleges expect a completely different type of learning style than high schools.

George Lucas Wants to Transform Learning

"Join The Movement to Transform Learning" by George Lucas
Huffington Post
Published Online on February 28, 2011
Complete URL:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lucas/join-the-movement-to-tran_b_828962.html

This article is the first of three I have on technology in learning or "Trifecta of Technology" or T.O.T. for short as we are focusing on children.  :)  Mr. Lucas begins his writing by stating much has changed in technology since he started the George Lucas Educational Foundation, but schools have been incredibly slow to adapt to the new advancements.  The reason for this, he argues, is schools are stuck in the Industrial Revolution mindset where all schools want to do is stuff as much information into kids as possible, have them regurgitate it and then get a diploma.  However what society needs is for kids to use technology to do three things: "find information, rigorously analyze the quality and accuracy of information and creatively and effectively use information to accomplish a goal."

Lucas also argues it would be more cost advantageous to have computers for learning as opposed to buying textbooks that are expensive and outdated within a couple of years.  He sounds much like Jerome Bruner in he wants to combine technology with classical education and have an inquiry based and project-based learning process.  Lucas feels this would make education fun and exciting for kids again.  It is ironic to me that Lucas considers his thoughts as innovative when Bruner argued them 50 years ago!  

However adding one-on-one computer learning would certainly make the learning process much different than what Bruner would have ever anticipated.  As new teachers, we may very well see our worlds changed by the possibility of all kids learning from portable computers or iPads and giving them problems they can instantly research and solve on the web while working together.  When the "textbooks" need to be updated, it can be downloaded in a short time to be able to allow children to use current information so there is no lag time on current issues or discoveries.  How cool would that be?!

What is refreshing is Lucas does not blast the schools or teachers in his article.  His basic point is to leave the old way of schooling behind and embrace the new age of thinking and technology.  Since I think that is something we would all favor, it does not sound like a bad idea to me.