Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Reflective Blogging Assignment #2

  Common Core State Standards (CCSS) will soon be fully implemented in school districts throughout the nation. The CCSS website (http://www.corestandards.org/) states “the standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.” Within the new standards is the emphasis on college and career readiness. The standards emphasize the importance of the application of knowledge through high-order skills.
Though the new standards seem like a great development for the direction of the educational system in America there are also some complications. Along with a switch in philosophy comes a major change in the types of materials that are needed in the classroom. With the new standards in place, the old materials and textbooks are no longer able to meet the needs of the classroom. Yes, the old materials can have a place in within the new standards, but a vast majority of the materials no longer fit within the system.
In order to meet the needs of the new standards a new approach to learning needs to be adopted. This requires a teacher to look at things in a whole new way. There is now a need for teachers to focus on not only developing an ability to recall information, but also be able to apply the information in a way that shows a true understanding of the material.
One type of learning system that can be used to assist in the change over is an inquiry-based learning system. Students are required to build their own understanding through a series of questioning, exploring, hypothesizing, experimenting, and developing conclusions based on the information they gather. This type of system puts an emphasis on student centered learning and takes away form the time spent on teacher-centered instruction. In order for this type of system to be successful there needs to be time spent in preparation. Students need to learn how to develop questions and move through the process to come to a conclusion and teachers need to learn how to facilitate the questioning in order to help lead students to their own discoveries. This is a large task though. Many students seem to have a difficult time problem solving. They are used to much of their learning being done in a box and do not know how to take it outside of the classroom.  It is a brand knew way of learning that can take time to implement, but can lead to an understanding that otherwise could not be achieved.
Along with implementing a new system of learning a teacher can also use technology to their advantage. Even though many of the materials that are currently in the classroom will become outdated, the use of technology can help to provide new resources to take their place. Resources are continually being developed and updated and a district cannot afford to put their money into a new set of classroom materials, so a better option is an online resource that is updated through the transition to the CCSS. Also there are many tools that are online that can assist in transitioning into an inquiry based learning system to help ease both teachers and students into the new learning system. There are free lesson plans and tools that are aligned to the new curriculum and help to lead teachers through the transition.

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