Instructivist

A critical look at the progressive education cult.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Vote them out

›
A parent reads from a letter that contains a powerful indictment of TERC math at a school board meeting. The board is unresponsive and event...
Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Junior's sophomoric regurgitation

›
If you want a good chuckle, read this piece by the NYT's A. Revkin. http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/a-students-call-for-a-l...
Friday, March 25, 2011

New intelligences discovered

›
There is a lot of hand-wringing about what to do about dismal academic performance. This little gem points to a way out. Multiple Alternativ...
2 comments:
Saturday, March 06, 2010

Is this Science?

›
The global warming fraternity portrays itself as embattled but plays rough. Willis_Eschenbach Stephen Schneider says "Most of our colle...
4 comments:
Sunday, June 08, 2008

Dunce adviser

›
What's going on with education in England? An education professor is advising the government to drop academic subjects because supposed...
6 comments:
Monday, April 28, 2008

Picture this

›
Whole language mother teaches phonics kid how to read. [Click to enlarge] As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In this c...
2 comments:
Sunday, March 02, 2008

Connecting the dots without the dots

›
A reader of Bridging Differences asks: "Instructivist v constructivist? Can there be some common ground between the two?" There i...
2 comments:

Fire rainbow

›
A rare event of nature.
1 comment:
Thursday, February 21, 2008

No connectedness without discrete skills

›
A mathematician once said that math was "a seamless whole" inside her head. I don't know if this ties in with the idea of a se...
1 comment:

Explicit and interactive math teaching

›
I came across comments made by Lee Stiff, past president of NCTM on how math used to be taught. STIFF: Parents are upset because, when they ...
3 comments:

Lift all boats

›
Education Week reports on a new study that shows that smaller classes don't help close the achievement gap. Class-Size Reduction of Limi...
Sunday, February 10, 2008

Student body reform

›
A grand experiment spearheaded and financed by Bill Gates aimed at reforming high schools in Chicago has suffered a setback. In addition to ...
Friday, February 08, 2008

Biofuels not "green"

›
The New York Times reports on scientific studies that show that biofuels are not the vaunted "green" fuel many believed it to be....
4 comments:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Navigating ed school

›
A reader asked me how I was able to navigate ed school considering the dominance of the constructivist creed and my instructivist views. I t...
2 comments:
Sunday, January 27, 2008

Closing the gap

›
Two giants of education with differing views, Deborah Meier and Diane Ravitch, are having an amicable conversation in search of common groun...
Thursday, January 24, 2008

TERC -- Parents rebel

›
Another parent group is formed to fight the fuzzy math plague. The fuzzy math program the parents are fighting is TERC (also known as Inves...
Monday, January 21, 2008

The pits

›
Depressing pictures of the book depository for Detroit schools. (via Joanne Jacobs)

Gates wrecking ball

›
Propelled by Gates millions, Chicago's high schools are being transformed to conform to progressive/constructivist visions to save the d...
3 comments:
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Deconstructing constructivism

›
Most prospective teachers seeking certification must go through education schools where they get bombarded with the rhetoric of progressive/...
15 comments:
Thursday, January 17, 2008

Constructing misconceptions

›
A core tenet of the progressive/constructivist education creed is that students must construct their own knowledge . For this reason, accord...
3 comments:
Friday, January 11, 2008

Edubabble fluency

›
When even ed schools like Appalachian State’s ed school are fluent in edubabble, then you know "progressive" education has arrived...
6 comments:
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Old new-fangled skills

›
An organization dedicated to "infusing 21st century skills into education" commissioned a poll that had the vast majority of vote...
1 comment:

An ode to progressive education.

›
Who can compete with all that fun as educators prepare the young for their world? See the kiddies happily dancing into the world of tomorrow...
2 comments:

Teachers speak out on NCLB

›
In this report by John Merrow of PBS, celebrated teachers speak out against NCLB. The criticisms range from unrealistic expectations to the...
Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Decentering Earth

›
Poor Earth! First it was knocked out of its central location by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo et al. Now (relatively speaking) comes a popular...
1 comment:
Monday, December 24, 2007

Gifted drop dead

›
It is shameful that educationists care so little for the needs of gifted students. The egalitarian dogma and the quest for mediocrity are m...
3 comments:
Sunday, December 23, 2007

Starved for money

›
If you listen to Kozol of the land of Kozolnistan, schools are starved for money. On the other hand, money can flow quite freely as this ext...
7 comments:
Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Three cheers for Google

›
Google is pouring its massive resources into developing alternative energy sources: SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is expanding into alternativ...
1 comment:
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Right to an audience

›
This is rich! Alfie thinks he has a right to be heard at taxpayer's expense. Alfie Kohn Settles Suit By The Associated Press BOSTON The ...
6 comments:
Friday, November 16, 2007

Radical transformation of high schools flying under the radar

›
Going largely unnoticed by major media, Gates billions are rapidly and radically transforming high schools and turning them into a homogeniz...
7 comments:

Learning foreign languages early

›
With all this globalization, it is remarkable that so few elementary schools teach foreign languages. Everyone knows that a language is best...
2 comments:
Thursday, November 15, 2007

English through Latin?

›
In a superb post, rightwingprof takes issue with the suggestion by some that Latin should be taught to learn English grammar. RWP offers ma...
3 comments:
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Sixth grade Singapore math

›
Gotta chew on this one. Sample questions from Singapore's PSLE examination. This examination is given to sixth graders who leave for sec...
Sunday, October 28, 2007

No science

›
When I read stories like this, Science courses nearly extinct in elementary grades, study finds I begin to wonder whether educationists wil...
3 comments:
Saturday, October 13, 2007

Herding cats

›
Teaching is probably the only profession that is more rewarding and satisfying than herding cats.
Thursday, September 13, 2007

Teaching in the inner city

›
The Chicago Tribune went into a classroom for a year in an inner-city school to observe first hand the challenges faced by teachers. The re...
5 comments:
Monday, September 10, 2007

Broadening learning styles

›
Learning styles are needlessly reduced to too few categories. Here, Dr. Kerry Hempenstall explores Freud's seminal contributions to lear...

Revelation

›
Scores go up when questions get easier, a Daily News analysis shows. Daily News exam finds math scores up when difficulty rating went down W...
Saturday, August 11, 2007

SAT challenge

›
Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer. Note: Figure not drawn to scale. The circle shown above...
16 comments:

More cold water on "learning styles"

›
The learning-styles craze has received another well-deserved drubbing from a leading scientist in England. Let's hope "senses work...
2 comments:
Sunday, July 29, 2007

CA math

›
There is no need to keep reinventing the wheel. California math standards look good. Here are California's grade level expectations in ...
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Relatively speaking...

›
Kids and grownups should have fun marveling at these different sizes.
5 comments:
Monday, July 23, 2007

Multiple approaches

›
There usually are multiple approaches to doing things. For example, if you want to increase the pass rate on tests, you could try to make st...
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Internet to the rescue

›
Parents dissatisfied with the fuzzy math plague can go to this site: http://www.aaastudy.com/grade8.htm No expensive tutor needed. The progr...
Friday, July 13, 2007

Dumb and dumber

›
Some educationists believe that so-called "21th century skills" means dumbing down the curriculum beyond recognition. Such educat...
7 comments:
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Hazards

›
Doing chemical experiments like throwing sodium or potassium into water is not without risks. As a matter of fact, it's very dangerous. ...
1 comment:
Sunday, June 24, 2007

Spreading the blame

›
Jumping on teachers for educational shortcomings is a sport in some quarters. In a welcome corrective, Diane Ravitch looks at the role stude...
17 comments:
Sunday, June 10, 2007

Math textbook reviews

›
It is quite difficult to navigate around the Mathematically Correct site when looking for specific math textbook reviews. There is no searc...
3 comments:
›
Home
View web version

About Me

My photo
Instructivist
Chicago, United States
"If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." (Newton) "If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders." (Hal Abelson)
View my complete profile
Powered by Blogger.