Most educators are familiar with at least three different categories of assessments: Formative assessments – which are essentially ”on the fly” assessments that provide a snapshot of where students happen to be with respect to their on-going competence on a subject being assessed; these assessments have been increasingly used over the past two decades; Summative...Read More

If you close your eyes and visualize a typical high school classroom, chances are you’ll be imagining a class where students are sitting at desks listening to a teacher lecture or working on written assignments.  Now we’re learning that this scenario may increase the risk of depression in adolescents.  A new study in the journal...Read More

In this blog post, I’d like to talk about what they call ‘’value added’’ measures in school reform.  Basically, this means judging teachers according to the standardized test results that their students get over the course of the year.  First, let me say something about the term ‘’value added’’ because at first glance an unassuming...Read More

Our culture is a speed-driven culture. We celebrate individuals who race fast cars (even when they die in them).  We eat fast food.  We are clock-driven at work.  We like the idea of accelerated learning.  I just googled the term ‘’accelerated learning’’ and found scores of sites, books, programs, and other paraphernalia that put a...Read More

What is tacit knowing?  As I pointed out in my last blog post, it’s ”knowing more than we can tell.” One of the best examples comes from oral language.  We all learned to speak based on tacit learning experiences. How is it that we can effortlessly put one word right after the other without breaking...Read More