When we focus on teaching content rather than teaching the child, we lose the child. When seeking improvement, we seek to improve how we’re doing what we’ve always done, but more of it–faster and more efficiently. We break the learner and their sense of self to fit in stuff. We seek to improve our collective processes to cause more learning, which makes as much sense as teaching students how to read instead of why.
— Terry Heick
When a society changes, so then must its tools. Definitions of purpose and quality must also be revised continuously. What should a school ‘do’? Why can’t education, as a system, refashion itself as aggressively as the digital technology that is causing it so much angst? The fluidity of a given curriculum should at least match the fluidity of relevant modern knowledge demands. A curriculum-first school design is based on the underlying assumption that if they know this and can do this, that this will be the result. Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. Worse, we tend to celebrate school success instead of human success.
— Terry Heick
More Thinking By Terry Heick
- The TeachThought Learning Taxonomy
- Teaching Disruptively
- The Principles Of Genius Hour
- Audience And Purpose: Who Are You Teaching And Why?
- Teaching Downstream: An Argument For Communal Constructivism
- Me Learning: A Student-Centered Learning Model
- How To Make Learning Visible: A Spectrum
- 12 Rules Of Great Teaching
- Dictionary For 21st Century Teachers: Learning Models & Technology
- 25 Alternatives To What’d You Learn In School Today?
- Why Students Should Read
- The Strategies That Make Students Curious
- How To Help Students Learn Through Their Mistakes
- 12 Principles Of Mobile Learning
- The Characteristics Of A Good School
- The Difference Between Student-Centered Learning And The Opposite
- The TeachThought Self-Directed Learning Model For 21st Century Learners
- How To Add Rigor To Anything
- What To Tell Students You’ll Never See Again
- Education Is A System; Teaching Is An Action; Learning Is A Process
- Why Some Teachers Are Against Technology In Education
- 8 Strategies To Help Students Ask Great Questions
- Are You Teaching Content Or Teaching Thought?
- Education Is A System, Teaching Is An Action, Learning Is A Process
- 32 Habits That Make Thinkers
- The Characteristics Of A Highly Effective Learning Environment
- Why All Ed Reform Fails
- How To Create Learning Through Play
- 30 Incredible Ways Technology Will Change Education By 2028
- The Learning Innovation Cycle: How Disruption Creates Lasting Change
- 7 Shifts To Create The Classroom Of The Future
- The Inside-Out School
- 20 Questions Every Parent Should Ask Their Child’s Teacher
- Two Minds Of An Educator
- Updating The Gears Of Education
When we focus on teaching content rather than teaching the child, we lose the child. When seeking improvement, we seek to improve how we’re doing what we’ve always done, but more of it–faster and more efficiently. We break the learner and their sense of self to fit in stuff. We seek to improve our collective processes to cause more learning, which makes as much sense as teaching students how to read instead of why.