Week 4: Transformative model of education, the new learning

Comment: Mention a stand-out idea, or new thought prompted by this material.

Essential Update # 7: The test is dead; but how to evaluate now?

(1)

Transformative model of education, the New Learning has a pending homework in regard to how to evaluate. It is very clear how the Didactic and the Progressive models understand and deal with evaluation. As was evidenced in this course, society places an excessively importance on testing. In Japan, for example, tests are a central part of the educational system. Those with “the best results get into the most prestigious elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and universities, and this, in turn, determines whether you get a job in the most prestigious organizations.” And thus, the need for centers such as Juku to help students just simply get through the demanding test. (2) With the mimetic approach, these techniques offer the opportunity that otherwise would leave the “child behind” the rest of the succeeding world.

Likewise, in the United States, the power of standardized tests is the only way to succeed in the real world. Hence, the ACT, SAT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, etc. will determine the road of your future. A number will tell you where you will go and who you will be; it is that simple. You are a number and that numeric variable will shout out if you are smart or not.

This insistence on test results puts the student in a different path excessively based on the numeric results of the standardized test. If you do well, you will go the path of the elite schools because “you are smart” but if you do not do well, then that opportunities are not for you because “you are not that smart.” This pattern repeats itself in elementary school, high school, college, graduate school, and the professional life. Hence, we have the regrettable reality that you are hired by some companies only if you graduated from a certain college or university; Because “you are smart.” What a minimalistic view and reality. The question remains whether the education system is responsible for this reality or whether society, in general, is responsible and the educational system simply complies with this standard. This is to say that “if schooling prepares people for jobs, and the kind of job a person has determines her or his economic status and, therefore, power, then schooling is intimately related to that power.” (3)

However, under the New Learning or Reflexive Pedagogy, there is an opportunity to transform these practices if we are able to apply the “mastery learning” (4) as introduced by Benjamin Bloom (5) and the fundamental principle that “every child can learn.” Nevertheless, this learning does not have the same dynamic in all the students. That is to say that learning does not happen the same way for every learner which is the forced theory of the Didactic as well as the Progressive Pedagogy in the insistence that the results of the learning process ought to be in the same speed and patterns for every student. Thus, the insistence on the results of standardized testing.

Could we see a future under a different dynamic in the educational system as well as in society in general? There are very few schools that have and are trying this new dynamic of No homework, no notes system as the MET example shared in this section of the course. (6) Or the Discovery 1, Christchurch example. (7) Or Classrooms of the Heart by John Gatto (8). How will it work in society in general where everything is focused and measure on a quantifiable variable? A number represents our intelligence and our knowledge. Everything in measure with a numerical scale, pass or failure grade type of dichotomy.

(9)

Although the initial approach and answer to this question is that the New Learning or Reflexive Pedagogy is centered upon “feedback,” “Recursive feedback,” and “Formative assessment,” there is still pending a much more complete explanation how this would articulate with the demands of society regarding standardized testing and its results. On the other hand, the answer could not be simpler to utilize technology to do the testing. (10) This is to say that if a student from the example models presented in this 4th week of Transformative Pedagogy would graduate with these institutions, how would that student measure with the social obligation of taking the test mentioned beforehand. This is truly a challenge that we as educators must struggle and where we would need the assistance of innovative minds. And this would bring to reality the second of the five theses on the future of learning composed by the authors: “There will be no distinction between instruction and assessment” (11) but only in measurement that we are able to institute the “balance of agency” as the authors conceptualize it.

References:

(1). "Test Is Dead" Explained—Alberto (hopefully) clears the air. https://youtu.be/oLpmtSS9JQM

(2). A Japanese Cram School. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-8/a-japanese-cram-school

(3). Delpit, Lisa D. 1988. The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children. Harvard Educational Review 58:280–298. pp. 286, 296.

(4 & 5). Cope, W. Five Theses on the Future of Learning. https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/new-learning/community_updates/44890. https://youtu.be/OOy3m02uEaE

(6). The MET: No classes, No grades and 94% Graduation Rate. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-2/supporting-material-2/the-met-no-classes-no-grades-and-94-graduation-rate

(7). Discovery 1, Christchurch. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-2/supporting-material-2/discovery-1-christchurch

(8). Classrooms of the Heart by John Gatto. https://youtu.be/26DvPQ7EIQ4

(9). Cope, W. & Kalantzis, M. What's the Use of Technology in Learning? & Introducing Seven e-Affordances Assessment and Pedagogy in the Era of Machine-Mediated Learning. http://neamathisi.com/_uploads/Cope__Kalantzis_Learning_and_Asessment_2015.pdf and Software Testing News Journalist, Leah Alger, found that manual testing is “not dead – it’s alive with new approaches” by talking to a number of software testing assets.  https://www.softwaretestingnews.co.uk/manual-testing-is-alive-with-new-approaches/. Kalantzis and Cope, A learning Journey. https://newlearningonline.com/new-learning/chapter-2/supporting-material-2/kalantzis-and-cope-a-learning-journey

(10). Technology-Mediated Learning and Change. https://newlearningonline.com/e-learning Cope, W. & Kalantzis, M. http://neamathisi.com/_uploads/Conceptualizing-e-Learning.pdf. https://www.softwaretestingnews.co.uk/manual-testing-is-alive-with-new-approaches/

(11). Cope, W. Five Theses on the Future of Learning. https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/new-learning/community_updates/44890