One of the largest studies ever done of United States classrooms (over 2,500 elementary classrooms) has found that
- elementary students spend over 90% of their time working alone or listening to the teacher (rather than, for example, working collaboratively with peers);
- most kids had a healthy classroom ’emotional climate’ but that only about 1 in 7 kids had a consistently high-quality ‘instructional climate’ all three years studied; and
- the typical teacher scored only 3.6 out of seven points for ‘richness
of instructional methods,’ and 3.4 for providing ‘evaluative feedback’
to students on their work.
The study’s findings are reported in this week’s Science magazine.
Having just started my run as a technology specialist in the elementary school realm, I don’t think I could dispute the statistics you quoted there Scott. I did, however, read the article. One quote that jumped off the screen at me is this: “The findings, published today in the weekly magazine Science, take teachers to task for spending too much time on basic reading and math skills and not enough on problem-solving, reasoning, science and social studies.” I’ve blogged about high stakes testing vs. authentic assessment models on my Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages blog. Being a tech educator, I found it quite simple to teach basic reading skills, plus using the tools in my arsenal to engage the students to create based on what they’ve learned.
I find it amusing though, that the article lambasts the teachers for spending all this time on those 2 particular things, when it’s been the districts that have imposed their will on emphasizing basic reading and math. It’s my goal as a technology specialist to teach my teachers how to integrate the district’s will and parental/societal expectations into one.
Tom.
http://tnturner.edublogs.org
“Prior research has shown that highly skilled, engaging teachers can eliminate achievement gaps between rich and poor kids. Pianta says his new findings support that conclusion and suggest policymakers should focus more on how individual teachers can improve on these measures.”
I’m curious, where are these studies? Inquiring minds want to know.