The latest research and theories from evolutionary psychology, neurobiology and cognitive science demonstrate the various ways that humans have evolved over time to be extremely effective learners. John Abbott discusses what current research from various fields can tell us about how the adolescent brain works and how educators can work with adolescent learners to maximize their potential.
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Earl of March Secondary School has been recognized many times for its innovated technological excellence. Recently, however the focus has been on its hands-on approach from everything from marketing, to design technology to product completion. Students and trades people alike are taking a second look at what is happening at the Kanata based high school.
Read more This Policy Proposal, from the 21st Century Learning Initiative in the UK, is written to assist those in positions of influence to initiate powerful changes to current educational arrangements. The circumstantial evidence for such a transformation of learning is drawn from the best in research and practice from around the world. The paper shows that better informed, and more effective, models of learning could be organised through a redistribution of expenditures and responsibilities, at a total cost no greater than current levels of expenditure.
No curricular overhaul, no instructional innovation, no change in school organization, no toughening of standards, no rethinking of teacher training or compensation will succeed if students do not come to school interested in, and committed to, learning… We need to look, not at what goes on inside the classroom, but at students’ lives outside the school’s walls.
Laurence Steinberg, Beyond the Classroom, 1997 Read more Schools can’t do it alone.
If we truly want to provide the best learning opportunities for our kids, education needs to be more like a three-legged stool – with the structural support of home, school and community all working together. But here’s the thing. If all three legs are strong and equal, the stool is perfectly stable and functional. If one of the legs is damaged or removed, the stool can’t hold any weight. It can’t do its job, no matter how much we try to patch and reinforce the remaining legs. Read more This Policy Proposal, from the 21st Century Learning Initiative in the UK, is written to assist those in positions of influence to initiate powerful changes to current educational arrangements. The circumstantial evidence for such a transformation of learning is drawn from the best in research and practice from around the world. The paper shows that better informed, and more effective, models of learning could be organised through a redistribution of expenditures and responsibilities, at a total cost no greater than current levels of expenditure.
We have all seen youth who can spend hours perfecting complicated skateboarding feats, learning new computer games or mastering animation techniques – it is impossible to stop them from learning. Yet these same teens may struggle with learning in a classroom setting. Part of the problem is that classroom learning is often abstract, disconnected from any real-life application or the natural context for using new information.
Read more Those neurological changes in the young brain as it transforms itself mean that adolescents have evolved to be apprentice-like learners, not pupils sitting at desks and waiting instruction. Youngsters who are empowered as adolescents to take charge of their own futures will make better citizens for the future. John Abbott
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