Source: Huffpost. For too long, the primary focus of education has been the acquisition of knowledge, explains Tony Wagner, expert-in-residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab. “The whole idea is: [if] you know more stuff, you’re going to be better off, for whatever sets of reasons. And the only way to get it is through the teacher,” he says in the film. “You don’t have to do that anymore. Today, content is ubiquitous, it’s free, it’s on every Internet-connected device, and it’s growing exponentially and changing constantly.”
High Tech High’s methods eschew the traditional instruction of what educators call “content knowledge” — equations, dates, facts. Instead, the schools strive to foster creative problem-solving with a multidisciplinary curriculum. In lieu of tests, students present collaborative projects that require artistic vision, mathematical prowess and historical understanding. As in life, failure is not a letter grade.
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Reblogged this on lektorwien and commented:
This sounds very interesting, and while I am all for teaching critical thinking and problem-solving before pure memorising, I wonder if this approach is suitable for all subjects. For instance, showcasing a finished product you’ve developed, tried and tested is excellent. It is visible and tangible, and like Math and science, it has an easy answer: it either works or it don’t. However, how to motivate students similarly in subjects like history, languages, and social sciences where there is not necessarily a finished product that either works or don’t? That is something worth discussing, I think.