Achieving High Educational Standards for All Conference Summary (2002) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 How People Learn
3 How People Learn
Pages 29-51
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 29... ...
Phyllis Hunter described her collaboration with researcher Barbara Foorman in implementing a research-based reading program in Houston and later throughout the State of Texas. Like several other speakers, she emphasized that the success of research-based reforms depends on developing a partnership among researchers, administrators, and teachers that is based on mutual respect.
|
From page 30... ...
The chapter concludes with a discussion of a theoretical model of school learning and instructional capacity developed by David Cohen et al.
|
From page 31... ...
The new discipline of cognitive science facilitated for the first time the formulation and testing of scientific theories of mental functioning, including the processes of learning (National Research Council, 1998a:8~. New ideas about ways to facilitate learning- and about who is most capable of learning- can powerfully affect the quality of people's lives.
|
From page 32... ...
A premise of learning science is that humans are goal-directed agents who actively seek information from the environment (National Research Council, 1998a:10~. How students seek out and interpret information at school and whether they make the mastery of academic lessons an important personal goal is profoundly affected by how preexisting knowledge and interests from the home and community environments mesh with school-based meanings and identities.
|
From page 33... ...
Learner-Centered Teaching Effective teachers have both the interest and the skills needed to link the lessons and culture of the school with those of the home to tie school lessons with the preexisting knowledge base of the student. That is, they have the ability to make their classrooms and their teaching learner centered (National Research Council, 1998a:122~.
|
From page 34... ...
To use a metaphor from How People Learn, "if good teaching is conceived as constructing a bridge between the subject matter and the student, teachers must keep a watchful eye on both ends of the bridge" (National Research Council, 1998a:124~. That is, instructional environments should be knowledge centered as well as learner centered.
|
From page 35... ...
provide the teacher with valuable real-time information to use in modifying instructional plans to better accomplish learning objectives. Frequent formative assessments also provide students with valuable feedback that can help them to reflect on their learning strategies and to modify them if necessary.
|
From page 36... ...
Having well-aligned goals and frequent formative assessments are the most important things [that could be done to improve student learning]
|
From page 37... ...
Since the 1990 launch of the first Bush administration's America 2000 initiative, having all children start school ready to learn has been at the top of the list of federal education priorities. This continued under the Clinton administration's Goals 2000 program.
|
From page 38... ...
Gaps in early academic skills statistically explain much of the achievement differential apparent years later in secondary school and beyond (Phillips et al.
|
From page 39... ...
The most effective teachers of preschool children are adults who know and care about them, who recognize the developmental milestones that each child has passed, and who use that knowledge to guide children through new learning and to the next developmental milestones for which they are ready. That is, effective preschool teachers know how to assist each child to master those tasks that are within his or her zone of proximal development (National Research Council, 2001b: 42-43; Vygotsky, 1978; Rogoff, 1990~.
|
From page 40... ...
Their poor academic performance begins early, and the achievement gaps widen as they progress through the school years. While skin color has nothing to do with how people learn, Bowman noted, people continue to talk about race because historically it has been the basis for discrimination and poverty, and the color issue continues to be one of the hardest ones for Americans to come to grips with.
|
From page 41... ...
Although studies show that measurable cognitive and social program effects often fade and sometimes disappear as children progress through elementary and secondary school, some programs appear to produce long-lasting effects, including lower dropout rates and delinquency rates. The size and duration of program effects appear to be related to preschool program quality, age at entry, length of time in the program, and the quality of subsequent educational services (Ramey and Ramey, 1998b; Campbell and Ramey, 1994~.
|
From page 42... ...
Compounding the problem are low salaries that make recruiting college graduates to work as preschool teachers extremely difficult. PREVENTING READING DIFFICULTIES IN YOUNG CHILDREN Early Reading: A Foundational Skill Building strong reading skills beginning in early childhood is the foundation on which nearly all subsequent school-based learning is built.
|
From page 43... ...
Problems in Early Identification and Treatment Drawing on the report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Snow argued that early identification, coupled with effective intervention, is essential to any effective strategy to address this problem. It is estimated that more than 2 million children approximately 3.5 percent of all U.S.
|
From page 44... ...
Rather than categorize or label most children who are poor readers as dyslexic or reading disabled, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children recommends that they be provided with highquality reading support beginning in preschool (pp.
|
From page 45... ...
They can be helpful if used to judge the adequacy of reading instruction programs." Potential Benefits of Early Intervention Although many Head Start programs have not yet focused or are just beginning to focus on preliteracy skills, Head Start and similar publicly funded programs serving children from low-income families typically produce significant gains (e.g., one-half of a standard deviation) in reading-related skills (National Research Council, 1998b:150~.
|
From page 46... ...
As Snow noted, "Many kids encounter real problems [in learning to read and write] but, with sufficient enthusiasm for the task, it is possible for them to persist through the difficult moments because they understand the uses and functions of written language." Research indicates that group differences in reading skills associated with race/ethnicity and class are not related to a lack of interest in developing literacy skills among minority and disadvantaged students or among their families (National Research Council, 1998b: 29-30; Nettles, 1997~.
|
From page 47... ...
Knowing What to Do and How to Do It According to Snow, effective reading programs for young children provide teachers with some "scripting" (i.e., a tightly structured instructional plan) , along with effective professional development.
|
From page 48... ...
As Snow put it, "it is not by chance that vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension are two domains where we don't know how to implement effective programs. It is because they involve many more unconstrained knowledge domains than does early reading instruction." Snow also cited as a daunting challenge the task of implementing effective early reading programs while simultaneously attempting to do the same with mathematics and science.
|
From page 49... ...
Cohen identifies four factors that are essential to improving instructional capacity: · coordination of instruction · use of resources, · mobilizing incentives for performance, and · managing the environment. To improve instructional capacity, one has to think beyond how to get teachers more professional development, how to improve the curriculum, and how to make sure that students have adequate nutrition, eyeglasses, etc.
|
From page 50... ...
The incentives affecting the behavior of all actors involved in the instructional process need to be aligned, necessary resources must be available and used, and all of this must come together in a coordinated way to enhance instructional capacity. When the four factors that Cohen sees as central to improving instructional capacity are addressed in a comprehensive way, then one can plausibly expect education reforms to take root.
|
From page 51... ...
Yet, as argued by Edmund Gordon, the adverse effects of economic insecurity and the legacy of racial discrimination have had an enormous impact on the schooling of minority and low-income students. How do race/ethnicity and social class affect student learning?
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.