Changing the way we assess can spark creative learning!
Mr. Jones is on the left In my teaching practice, I always look for ways that will engage students in meaningful work. Creating things that matter in the world is an important part of what I do. Yong Zhao discusses this meaningful work in his talk, "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students" at the Debate on Education, and event organized by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Open University of Catalonia) in 2013. Zhao says that schools have been "sausage makers" in the past. Getting kids to do well on standardized tests, and trying to make them all into one thing, isn't working. And in that statement we can all find great truth. We know that our system is not working optimally. Zhao says that we need to hyperspecialize. Testing a fish on how well it can climb a tree is wrong. And we can all agree with that statement too. But, there is a flaw in the logic. We aren't fish, and monkeys, and birds. We are humans. All of us. And we ha...