How To Connect Schools And Communities Using Technology

by Terry Heick

It’s possible that there is no time in the history of education that our systems of educating have been so out of touch with the communities. Growing populations, shifting communities, and increasingly inwardly-focused schools all play a role.

In light of the access of modern technology, social media, and new learning models that reconfigure the time and place learning happens, it doesn’t have to be that way. Schools can evolve while simultaneously growing closer to the people they serve.

Technology vs Social Media

First, for the purpose of this post let’s think of technology and social media as distinct.

Technology has many forms, but in education, it is most visible in terms of computing hardware and software. The hardware is pretty obvious—phones, wearable technology from Apple and Android, iPads, personal computers, Macs, Chromebooks, graphing calculators, and the like.

The software is a bit more inconspicuous because it’s embedded in the hardware. Here we have fundamental PC software like Microsoft Windows or Mac OS; we have productivity suites like Microsoft Office; we have web browsers like Google Chrome or Safari or Firefox; and we have niche programs like reading assessment tools or educational games, which function like what we’d now consider computer-based apps.

There are also less visible forms of technology that make teaching and learning with technology possible, including electricity (you take it for granted until it doesn’t work) WiFi (imagine your classroom looking like it does behind your television—wires everywhere), the cloud (which enables mobile learning, hardware sharing, flipped classrooms, and other advances), and more. Each of these technology tools is critical in their own way, working together to make whatever we’d define as a ‘modern classroom‘ and ‘modern learning‘ work.

But hidden with this list is one bit of seemingly dated software that can be concept-mapped on its own in a million other directions of possibility. No one gets excited by it, but it still makes the internet go: the web browser.

How To Connect Schools And Communities Using Social Media

Although itself just a program that translates html code to visual information, the modern web browser has become a vessel that everything else attaches itself to. For schools looking to connect with communities, it also actuates social media channels like Instagram, twitter, facebook, and pinterest, and allows for the blogging or site updates that keep parents informed.

None of this is new, really. The technology has been there for years. Parents have always been ‘informed’—but of what? That’s where there is potential. What we’re communicating as educators, when, and why.

So what can social media ‘do’?

Solicit mentoring relationships

Whether organized by a district, school, teacher, family, or the student themselves, connecting with potential mentors through social media is compelling because it’s A) Public—transparent and safer than ‘social media’ sounds and B) Because it’s public, it can encourage companies to respond when they may not in private.

Connecting students to the artists, architects, engineers, makers, writers, farmers, cooks, and other ‘roles’ for the purpose of mentoring and apprenticeship is one way to begin to repair the disconnect between schools and communities.

Connect with community leaders

This one is closely related to the idea of ‘mentoring’ in the sense that it connects students with people outside of the classroom from their community. But rather than for the purpose of mentoring, it could be less involved—topical but authentic communication between those leading the community, and those living in it, and social media is the perfect way to make it happen.

Share ‘school work’

Ideally authentic products and artifacts produced through new skills and knowledge useful to people and communities.

Want work to leave the classroom? Use social media to publish it with the world. Worried about privacy? Assign students anonymous codes or avatars to publish under. Used closed communities (Facebook Groups, for example) that, while not fully open, are still school-wide. There are ways.

Curate cultural artifacts and ‘local memory’

Today, museums do the work of ‘curating,’ but that’s a crude way to preserve the cultural artifacts that matter. Why can’t schools do this? And why can’t technology be used to streamline and crowdsource it?

How To Connect Schools And Communities Using Technology

In addition to connecting with the world students live and breathe in, new learning models afforded by technology are also useful in reconnecting with families, neighborhoods, and native places students have affection for.

Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is one way to exchange where learning happens—or at least what kind of learning happens where. Here, the roles are reversed: Students are exposed to content at home and practice it at school.

Mobile learning

Mobile learning is a brilliant way to immerse students in native places and landscapes. The challenge here is that education isn’t quite ready for it, but if you can figure it out, the possibilities are extraordinary: Deep integration of learning, place, and people.

Place-based education

See above—learning that is based on place and not an indexed set of nationalized curriculum. Authentic, familiar, and personal.

Project-based learning

Project-based learning can incorporate all of the above—flipped classrooms, place-based learning, mobile learning, and so on. The idea is that teaching and learning are anchored through the process of authentic projects constructed over time. These ‘reason’ or ‘need to know’ for these projects will ideally both start and finish in communities.

Experiential learning/Scenario-based learning

Treat the school like a think tank. Explore and address local community issues. Use social media to connect with families and neighborhoods and businesses and organizations, then use problem-based or scenario-based learning to address them.

Conclusion

Technology, so far, hasn’t healed the disconnect between schools and communities, but that could be because we’re selling it short for what it can do—which might start with not seeing its potential fully. Today, popular uses are sharing grades, missing work, test dates, snow days, and basic school announcements. This isn’t nearly good enough.

Whether you’re talking about hardware, software, social media, or something in between, more than anything else, technology connects. As educators, we just need to be intentional about what we’re connecting, and why.

image attribution flickr user usdepartmentofeducation; how to connect schools and communities

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When AI is added to eLearning platforms, they become smart tools that customize learning experiences to meet students’ needs and run fun and useful training classes. 

Let’s take a quick look at how AI is changing eLearning, what it can do, where it is being used now, and how it might be used in the future.

A unique experience for each person

Thus, one of the best things about AI-powered eLearning is its ability to provide personalized lessons. AI programs that analyze huge amounts of data about each student show them their habits, hobbies, and success. Because of this research, a sample program will be made that fits each student’s needs. 

For example, well used, AI can address these concerns. It can figure out the topics the learner has the most problems with and provide them with extra links to articles, problems, or explanations in simpler terms.

Additionally, using an algorithm, these platforms can identify various courses and learning material that might interest the learner relative to the activities they have engaged in previously, similar to how the use of an algorithm suggests films or television shows to the learners. 

This personalization helps boost learners’ interest and contributes to better learning. The learners face material that is neither too difficult nor too easy, so it does not challenge them.

Adaptive technologies

This phenomenon is also known as self-paced learning and is another sphere where AI is now used actively. Integrated teaching technologies may take lots of time to develop and incorporate into classes because traditional eLearning platforms provide standardized course delivery for all students, which can hardly meet individual needs and learning rates.

Smart learning technologies use AI, where the teaching material and learning level offered to the learner are continually modified depending on their performance.

Another benefit of the suggested learning process is that if the student performs well in some subject, the system can take the learner to the next level. On the other hand, if the learner is struggling, the system can recommend easier content or other practice exercises for improved completion. 

This ability allows learners not to switch off or drop off while assisting them to complete their courses as desired, thereby enhancing their learning experiences.

Intelligent tutoring systems

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) that use AI algorithms to assist learners are changing the learning support paradigm. These systems are designed to incorporate natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to deliver personalized tutorials online. Additionally, ITS can provide human-like counseling in the tutor template, explaining concepts, answering questions, and giving comments.

For instance, an AI tutor assists a learner with a problem that requires mathematical computations. It guides the learner through the process while providing suggestions and feedback. This immediate feedback loop enables the learners to be conscious of their errors and the effects of making such mistakes, enhancing their mastery of the conent. 

Moreover, ITS can run per shift around the clock, which means that learners can get support at any time that is suitable to them. This is advantageous, mainly as paced learning is incongruous with a normal classroom setting.

If you still prefer live tutors for learning foreign languages ​​online, for example, online French tutors or others, they can also be easily found.

Improved engagement and interaction

AI also increases learner engagement and interaction through chatbots and Virtual Assistants. AI-integrated solutions can be utilized in eLearning to help bridge a gap between students and the course, responding to questions, supplying details, and instructing users on how to get around the system. 

The conversation could be beneficial for handling simpler questions and concerns, such as registration for specific classes or IT-related questions, so the instructor would be free to address more constructive and valuable activities.

Increased NLP proficiency in virtual assistants indicates that AI-powered paradigms applied to learning can reach learners in a more personalized way. They can, for example, can provide questions and answers, set debates, or even create real-life cases for a training session. These features of the learning content can help make the practice less passive and, therefore, more easily retained by the consumer.

Data-driven insights and analytics

AI can now analyze tremendous eLearning data, such as platforms analyzing content and learners. Analyzing learners’ interactions, course completion rates, and performance enables the AI system to produce data that instructors and leaders can use to review the efficiency of the learning programs offered and the issues that necessitate attention. To reiterate, these evidence-based practices lead to new knowledge that can help make the necessary improvements in learning.

For example, it can provide information on learners’ behavior at certain points and problematic areas that are often poorly understood. This information can be helpful to educators in modifying teaching strategies, changing the curriculum, and administering more appropriate interventions for learners who may have difficulty grasping what is being taught. In addition, predictive type analysis can also determine future learning requirements and effects so that plans and resources can be made beforehand.

Scalability and efficiency

The flexibility of many AI-powered eLearning platforms is yet another strong selling point in their favor. Historically, to deliver education, there were structured or conventional modes of teaching that somewhat failed to meet the pace of development, especially in answering the learner’s needs across geographic regions. AI in eLearning helps the necessary electronic platforms provide learners with individualized and high-quality education with diverse learners at once.

Additional program functions, including grading, messaging (and other management activities), and tracking the learners’ progress, also improve operational effectiveness. AI systems can quickly and effectively complete these tasks by using algorithms, thus taking the load off educators and allowing them to work on higher-level creative processes. This efficiency not only brings down the companies’ operation costs but also enhances the level of education.

Challenges and future potential

As beneficial as it is, implementing AI in eLearning applications has drawbacks. Challenges visible in the current form of data-driven decision-making include data privacy, bias in algorithms, and the fact that it initially requires a lot of investment in information technology and infrastructure. Human concerns include the need to make AI systems as transparent, ethical, and secure as possible to gain the trust of learners and instructors.

When analyzing AI’s abundant potential in eLearning, it is important to look both to today’s classroom and the future. The evolutions in AI technologies, including deep learning and neonates, portray the future and more efficient learning tools in educational systems.

Eventually, it will be easier for AI to be combined with other umbrella technologies, including AR and VR; this will make lessons more real-life-like and involving than ever.

The post The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Online Language Learning appeared first on TeachThought.

Paulo Freire’s “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” is a foundational text in educational theory. Its enduring significance stems from its profound critique of traditional teaching and learning methods.

Written in the 1960s, this influential work remains as relevant today as it was at the time of its publication, offering insights into the nature of oppression and the transformative potential of education.

By challenging the concept of ‘banking education,’ Freire presents a compelling case for an alternative approach, one that positions education as a tool for liberation and emancipation, particularly for those marginalized and oppressed within society.

Freire’s work critiques traditional pedagogical practices and offers a compelling vision for a more just and participatory education system. In today’s changing world, with its diverse challenges and inequalities, Freire’s emphasis on dialogical, problem-posing education—where students are active co-creators of knowledge—holds particular resonance.

See also What Is Cognitive Constructionism?

Through this lens, educators are inspired to forge collaborative and critical learning spaces, recognizing the agency and lived experiences of learners. As we grapple with issues of social justice and equity in education, “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed” remains a powerful critique of oppressive systems and–with the right mindset–a roadmap for transformation.

The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed Freire

A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level, inside or outside the school, reveals its fundamentally narrative character. This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified. Education is suffering from narration sickness.

The teacher talks about reality as if it were motionless, static, compartmentalized, and predictable. Or else he expounds on a topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to “fill” the students with the contents of his narration — contents which are detached from reality, disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance. Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity.

The outstanding characteristic of this narrative education, then, is the sonority of words, not their transforming power. “Four times four is sixteen; the capital of Para is Belem.” The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance of “capital” in the affirmation “the capital of Para is Belem,” that is, what Belem means for Para and what Para means for Brazil.

The student records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases without perceiving what four times four really means, or realizing the true significance of “capital”

Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account. Worse yet, it turns them into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teachers. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teachers she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.

Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat. This is the “banking’ concept of education, in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity to become collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis, it is the people themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity, transformation, and knowledge in this (at best) misguided system. For apart from inquiry, apart from the praxis, individuals cannot be truly human. Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teachers existence — but unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher.

The raison d’etre of libertarian education, on the other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation. Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.

Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction….

This solution is not (nor can it be) found in the banking concept. On the contrary, banking education maintains and even stimulates the contradiction through the following attitudes and practices, which mirror oppressive society as a whole:

• the teacher teaches and the students are taught;
• the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing;
• the teacher thinks and the students are thought about;
• the teacher talks and the students listen — meekly;
• the teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined;
• the teacher chooses and enforces his choice, and the students comply;
• the teacher acts and the students have the illusion of acting through the action of the teacher;
• the teacher chooses the program content, and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it;
• the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his or her own professional authority, which she and he sets in opposition to the freedom of the students;
• the teacher is the Subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

It is not surprising that the banking concept of education regards men as adaptable, manageable beings. The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world. The more completely they accept the passive role imposed on them, the more they tend simply to adapt to the world as it is and to the fragmented view of reality deposited in them.

The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the student’s creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed. The oppressors use their “humanitarianism” to preserve a profitable situation. Thus they react almost instinctively against any experiment in education which stimulates the critical faculties and is not content with a partial view of reality always seeks out the ties which link one point to another and one problem to another.

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in “changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them,” (1) for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated. To achieve this the oppressors use the banking concept of education in conjunction with a paternalistic social action apparatus, within which the oppressed receive the euphemistic title of “welfare recipients.” They are treated as individual cases, as marginal persons who deviate from the general configuration of a “good, organized and just” society. The oppressed are regarded as the pathology of the healthy society which must therefore adjust these “incompetent and lazy” folk to its own patterns by changing their mentality. These marginals need to be “integrated,” “incorporated” into the healthy society that they have “forsaken.”

[Footnote #1: Simone de Beauvoir. La Pensee de Droite, Aujord’hui (Paris); ST, El Pensamiento politico de la Derecha (Buenos Aires, 1963), p. 34.

The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not “marginals,” are not living “outside” society. They have always been “inside” the structure which made them “beings for others.” The solution is not to ‘integrate” them into the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become “beings for themselves.” Such transformation, of course, would undermine the oppressors’ purposes; hence their utilization of the banking concept of education to avoid the threat of student conscientizacao.

The banking approach to adult education, for example, will never propose to students that they critically consider reality. It will deal instead with such vital questions as whether Roger gave green grass to the goat, and insist upon the importance of learning that, on the contrary, Roger gave green grass to the rabbit. The “humanism” of the banking approach masks the effort to turn women and men into automatons — the very negation of their ontological vocation to be more fully human.

To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them.

Those who use the banking approach, knowingly or unknowingly (for there are innumerable well-intentioned bank-clerk teachers who do not realize that they are serving only to dehumanize), fail to perceive that the deposits themselves contain contradictions about reality. But sooner or later, these contradictions may lead formerly passive students to turn against their domestication and the attempt to domesticate reality. They may discover through existential experience that their present way of life is irreconcilable with their vocation to become fully human. They may perceive through their relations with reality that reality is really a process, undergoing constant transformation. If men and women are searchers and their ontological vocation is humanization, sooner or later they may perceive the contradiction in which banking education seeks to maintain them, and then engage themselves in the struggle for their liberation.

But the humanist revolutionary educator cannot wait for this possibility to materialize. From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. His efforts must be imbued with a profound trust in people and their creative power. To achieve this, they must be partners of the students in their relations with them.

The banking concept does not admit to such partnership — and necessarily so. To resolve the teacher-student contradiction, to exchange the role of depositor, prescriber, domesticator, for the role of student among students would be to undermine the power of oppression and serve the cause of liberation.

Implicit in the banking concept is the assumption of a dichotomy between human beings and the world: a person is merely in the world, not with the world or with others; the individual is spectator, not re-creator. In this view, the person is not a conscious being (corpo consciente); he or she is rather the possessor of a consciousness: an empty “mind” passively open to the reception of deposits of reality from the world outside. For example, my desk, my books, my coffee cup, all the objects before me, — as bits of the world which surround me — would be “inside” me, exactly as I am inside my study right now. This view makes no distinction between being accessible to consciousness and entering consciousness. The distinction, however, is essential: the objects which surround me are simply accessible to my consciousness, not located within it. I am aware of them, but they are not inside me.

The distinction, however, is essential: the objects which surround me are simply accessible to my consciousness, not located within it. I am aware of them, but they are not inside me.

It follows logically from the banking notion of consciousness that the educator’s role is to regulate the way the world “enters into” the students. The teacher’s task is to organize a process which already occurs spontaneously, to “fill” the students by making deposits of information which he of she considers to constitute true knowledge. (2) And since people “receive” the world as passive entities, education should make them more passive still, and adapt them to the world. The educated individual is the adapted person, because she or he is better ‘fit” for the world. Translated into practice, this concept is well suited for the purposes of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how well people fit the world the oppressors have created and how little they question it.

[Footnote #2: This concept corresponds to what Sartre calls the ‘digestive’ or ‘nutritive’ in which knowledge is ‘fed’ by the teacher to the students to “fill them out.” See Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Une idee fundamentals de la phenomenologie de Husserl: L’intentionalite,” Situations I (Paris, 1947).]

The more completely the majority adapt to the purposes which the dominant majority prescribe for them (thereby depriving them of the right to their own purposes), the more easily the minority can continue to prescribe. The theory and practice of banking education serve this end quite efficiently. Verbalistic lessons, reading requirements, (3) the methods for evaluating “knowledge,” the distance between the teacher and the taught, the criteria for promotion: everything in this ready-to-wear approach serves to obviate thinking.

{Footnote #3: For example, some professors specify in their reading lists that a book should be read from pages 10 to 15 — and do this to ‘help’ their students!]

The bank-clerk educator does not realize that there is no true security in his hypertrophied role, that one must seek to live with others in solidarity. One cannot impose oneself, nor even merely co-exist with one’s students. Solidarity requires true communication, and the concept by which such an educator is guided fears and proscribes communication.

Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning. The teacher’s thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students’ thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them. Authentic thinking, thinking that is concerned about reality, does not take place in ivory tower isolation, but only in communication. If it is true that thought has meaning only when generated by action upon the world, the subordination of students to teachers becomes impossible.

Because banking education begins with a false understanding of men and women as objects, it cannot promote the development of what Fromm calls “biophily,” but instead produces its opposite: “necrophily.”

While life is characterized by growth in a structured functional manner, the necrophilous person loves all that does not grow, all that is mechanical. The necrophilous person is driven by the desire to transform the organic into the inorganic, to approach life mechanically, as if all living persons were things. . . . Memory, rather than experience; having, rather than being, is what counts’ The necrophilous person can relate to an object — a flower or a person — only if he possesses it; hence a threat to his possession is a threat to himself, if he loses possession he loses contact with the world. . . . He loves control, and in the act of controlling he kills life. (4)

[Footnote #4: Fromm, op. cit. p. 41.]

Oppression –overwhelming control — is necrophilic; it is nourished by love of death, not life. The banking concept of education, which serves the interests of oppression, is also necrophilic. Based on a mechanistic, static, naturalistic, spatialized view of consciousness, it transforms students into receiving objects. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads women and men to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power.

When their efforts to act responsibly are frustrated, when they find themselves unable to use their faculties, people suffer. “This suffering due to impotence is rooted in the very fact that the human has been disturbed.” (5) But the inability to act which people’s anguish also causes them to reject their impotence, by attempting

. . . .to restore [their] capacity to act. But can [they], and how? One way is to submit to and identify with a person or group having power. By this symbolic participation in another person’s life, (men have] the illusion of acting, when in reality [they] only submit to and become a part of those who act. (6)

[Footnote #5: Ibid., p 31.]

[Footnote #6: Ibid. 7.]

Populist manifestations perhaps best exemplify this type of behavior by the oppressed, who, by identifying with charismatic leaders, come to feel that they themselves are active and effective. The rebellion they express as they emerge in the historical process is motivated by that desire to act effectively. The dominant elites consider the remedy to be more domination and repression, carried out in the name of freedom, order, and social peace (that is, the peace of the elites). Thus they can condemn — logically, from their point of view — “the violence of a strike by workers and [can] call upon the state in the same breath to use violence in putting down the strike.” (7)

[Footnote #7: Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society (New York, 1960), p. 130. ]

Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression. This accusation is not made in the naive hope that the dominant elites will thereby simply abandon the practice. Its objective is to call the attention of true humanists to the fact that they cannot use banking educational methods in the pursuit of liberation, for they would only negate that very pursuit. Nor may a revolutionary society inherit these methods from an oppressor society. The revolutionary society which practices banking education is either misguided or mistrusting of people. In either event, it is threatened by the specter of reaction.

Unfortunately, those who espouse the cause of liberation are themselves surrounded and influenced by the climate which generates the banking concept, and often do not perceive its true significance or its dehumanizing power. Paradoxically, then, they utilize this same instrument of alienation in what they consider an effort to liberate. Indeed, some “revolutionaries” brand as “innocents,” “dreamers,” or even “reactionaries” those who would challenge this educational practice. But one does not liberate people by alienating them. Authentic liberation-the process of humanization-is not another deposit to be made in men. Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it.

Those truly committed to liberation must reject the banking concept in its entirety, adopting instead a concept of women and men as conscious beings, and consciousness as consciousness intent upon the world. They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world. “Problem-posing” education, responding to the essence of consciousness –intentionality — rejects communiques and embodies communication. It epitomizes the special characteristic of consciousness: being conscious of, not only as intent on objects but as turned in upon itself in a Jasperian split” –consciousness as consciousness of consciousness.

They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing of the problems of human beings in their relations with the world.

Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information. It is a learning situation in which the cognizable object (far from being the end of the cognitive act) intermediates the cognitive actors — teacher on the one hand and students on the other. Accordingly, the practice of problem-posing education entails at the outset that the teacher-student contradiction to be resolved. Dialogical relations — indispensable to the capacity of cognitive actors to cooperate in perceiving the same cognizable object –are otherwise impossible.

Indeed problem-posing education, which breaks with the vertical characteristic of banking education, can fulfill its function of freedom only if it can overcome the above contradiction. Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. In this process, arguments based on “authority” are no longer valid; in order to function authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it. Here, no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught. People teach each other, mediated by the world, by the cognizable objects which in banking education are “owned” by the teacher.

The banking concept (with its tendency to dichotomize everything) distinguishes two stages in the action of the educator. During the first he cognizes a cognizable object while he prepares his lessons in his study or his laboratory; during the second, he expounds to his students about that object. The students are not called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. Hence in the name of the “preservation of and knowledge” we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture.

The problem-posing method does not dichotomize the activity of teacher-student: she is not “cognitive” at one point and “narrative” at another. She is always “cognitive,” whether preparing a project or engaging in dialogue with the students. He does not regard objects as his private property, but as the object of reflection by himself and his students. In this way, the problem-posing educator constantly re-forms his reflections in the reflection of the students.

The students — no longer docile listeners — are now–critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher.

The students — no longer docile listeners — are now–critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration, and re-considers her earlier considerations as the students express their own. The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students, the conditions under which knowledge at the level of the doxa is superseded by true knowledge at the level of the logos. Whereas banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality.

Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total context not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.

Education as the practice of freedom — as opposed to education as the practice of domination — denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without people, but people in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it.

[Footnote #8: Sartre, op. cit., p. 32.]

In one of our culture circles in Chile, the group was discussing (based on a codification) the anthropological concept of culture. In the midst of the discussion, a peasant who by banking standards was completely ignorant said: “Now I see that without man there is no world.” When the educator responded: “Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that all the men on earth were to die, but that the earth remained, together with trees, birds, animals, rivers, seas, the stars. . . wouldn’t all this be a world?” “Oh no,” the peasant replied . “There would be no one to say: ‘This is a world’.”

The peasant wished to express the idea that there would be lacking the consciousness of the world which necessarily implies the world of consciousness. I cannot exist without a non-I. In turn, the not-I depends on that existence. The world which brings consciousness into existence becomes the world of that consciousness. Hence, the previously cited affirmation of Sartre: “La conscience et le monde sont dormes d’un meme coup.”

As women and men, simultaneously reflecting on themselves and world, increase the scope of their perception, they begin to direct their observations towards previously inconspicuous phenomena:

In perception properly so-called, as an explicit awareness [Gewahren], I am turned towards the object, to the paper, for instance. I apprehend it as being this here and now. The apprehension is a singling out, every object having a background in experience. Around and about the paper lie books, pencils, inkwell and so forth, and these in a certain sense are also “perceived,” perceptually there, in the “field of intuition”; but whilst I was turned towards the paper there was no turning in their direction, nor any apprehending of them, not even in a secondary sense. They appeared and yet were not singled out, were posited on their own account. Every perception of a thing has such a zone of background intuitions or background awareness, if “intuiting” already includes the state of being turned towards, and this also is a “conscious experience”, or more briefly a “consciousness of” all indeed that in point of fact lies in the co-perceived objective background. (10)

[Footnote #10: Edmund Husserl, Ideas-General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology (London, 1969), pp. 105-106.]

That which had existed objectively but had not been perceived in its deeper implications (if indeed it was perceived at all) begins to “stand out,” assuming the character of a problem and therefore of challenge. Thus, men and women begin to single out elements from their “background awareness” and to reflect upon them. These elements are now objects of their consideration, and, as such, objects of their action and cognition.

In problem-posing education, people develop their power to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation. Although the dialectical relations of women and men with the world exist independently of how these relations are perceived (or whether or not they are perceived at all), it is also true that the form of action they adopt is to a large extent a function of how they perceive themselves in the world. Hence, the teacher-student and the students-teachers reflect simultaneously on themselves and the world without dichotomizing this reflection from action, and thus establish an authentic form of thought and action.

Once again, the two educational concepts and practices under analysis come into conflict. Banking education (for obvious reasons) attempts, by mythicizing reality, to conceal certain facts which explain the way human beings exist in the world; problem-posing education sets itself the task of demythologizing. Banking education resists dialogue; problem-posing education regards dialogue as indispensable to the act of cognition which unveils reality. Banking education treats students as objects of assistance; problem-posing education makes them critical thinkers.

Banking education inhibits creativity and domesticates (although it cannot completely destroy) the intentionality of consciousness by isolating consciousness from the world, thereby denying people their ontological and historical vocation of becoming more fully human. Problem-posing education bases itself on creativity and stimulates true reflection and action upon reality, thereby responding to the vocation of persons as beings only when engaged in inquiry and creative transformation. In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people’s historicity as their starting point.

In sum: banking theory and practice, as immobilizing and fixating forces, fail to acknowledge men and women as historical beings; problem-posing theory and practice take the people’s historicity as their starting point.

Problem-posing education affirms men and women as beings the process of becoming — as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality. Indeed, in contrast to other animals who are unfinished, but not historical, people know themselves to be unfinished; they are aware of their incompletion. In this incompletion and this awareness lie the very roots of education as an human manifestation. The unfinished character of human beings and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity.

Education is thus constantly remade in the praxis. In order to be, it must become. Its “duration” (in the Bergsonian meaning of the word) is found in the interplay of the opposites permanence and change. The banking method emphasizes permanence and becomes problem-posing education — which accepts neither a “well-behaved” present nor a predetermined future — roots itself in the dynamic present and becomes revolutionary.

Problem-posing education is revolutionary futurity. Hence it is prophetic (and as such, hopeful). Hence, it corresponds to the historical nature of humankind. Hence, it affirms women and men as who transcend themselves, who move forward and look ahead, for whom immobility represents a fatal threat for whom looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future. Hence, it identifies with the movement which engages people as beings aware of their incompletion — an historical movement which has its point of departure, its Subjects and its objective.

Problem-posing education is revolutionary futurity.

The point of departure of the movement lies in the people themselves. But since people do not exist apart from the world, apart from reality, the movement must begin with the human-world relationship. Accordingly, the point of departure must always be with men and women in the “here and now,” which constitutes the situation within which they are submerged, from which they emerge, and in which they intervene. Only by starting from this situation — which determines their perception of it — can they begin to move. To do this authentically they must perceive their state not as fated and unalterable, but merely as limiting – and therefore challenging.

Whereas the banking method directly or indirectly reinforces men’s fatalistic perception of their situation, the problem-posing method presents this very situation to them as a problem. As the situation becomes the object of their cognition, the naive or magical perception which produced their fatalism gives way to perception which is able to perceive itself even as it perceives reality, and can thus be critically objective about that reality.

A deepened consciousness of their situation leads people to apprehend that situation as an historical reality susceptible of transformation. Resignation gives way to the drive for transformation and inquiry, over which men feel themselves to be in control. If people, as historical beings necessarily engaged with other people in a movement of inquiry, did not control that movement, it would be (and is) a violation of their humanity. Any situation in which some individuals prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence. The means used are not important; to alienate human beings from their own decision-making is to change them into objects.

This movement of inquiry must be directed towards humanization — the people’s historical vocation. The pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but only in fellowship and solidarity; therefore it cannot unfold in the antagonistic relations between oppressors and oppressed. No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from being so. Attempting to be more human, individualistically, leads to having more, egotistically, a form of dehumanization. Not that it is not fundamental to have in order to be human. Precisely because it is necessary, some men’s having must not be allowed to constitute an obstacle to others’ having, must not consolidate the power of the former to crush the latter.

Attempting to be more human, individualistically, leads to having more, egotistically, a form of dehumanization.

Problem-posing education, as a humanist and liberating praxis, posits as fundamental that the people subjected to domination must fight for their emancipation. To that end, it enables teachers and students to become Subjects of the educational process by overcoming authoritarianism and an alienating intellectualism; it also enables people to overcome their false perception of reality. The world — no longer something to be described with deceptive words — becomes the object of that transforming action by men and women which results in their humanization.

Problem-posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor. No oppressive order could permit the oppressed to begin to question: Why? While only a revolutionary society can carry out this education in systematic terms, the revolutionary leaders need not take full power before they can employ the method. In the revolutionary process, the leaders cannot utilize the banking method as an interim measure, justified on grounds of expediency, with intention of later behaving in a genuinely revolutionary fashion. They must be revolutionary — that is to say, dialogical — from the outset.

The Pedagogy Of The Oppressed Freire full text

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Will robots replace teachers?

I was asked this in an interview a years ago for Futurism and tried to offer up some abstract nonsense whose lack of clarity represented my own thinking:

“Will artificial intelligence replace teachers? Will the students themselves replace teachers through self-directed learning, social/digital communities, and adaptive technology?”

These might be the wrong questions, a product of our sentimentality as a culture and human insecurity in general. For example, if we say that robots can replace teachers, it is seen as a slight at teachers because we suggest that even simple, mindless machines can do what teachers do.

Of course, that’s not at all the point or truth.

That’s what’s confusing about new tools: they don’t improve things as much as they change them.

These questions are difficult to answer for other reasons, too, mainly because we are thinking about teaching and learning in terms of technology, automation, and the increasing the efficiency of teaching as it is instead of rethinking teaching as it might be.

That’s what’s confusing about new tools: they don’t improve things as much as they change them.

But if we can ignore that time/space paradox and assume that the pace of social and technological change will continue to outpace change in education far, then technology can very well replace teachers as we think of them.

Will it be AI that does it? Again, today we think of AI independently and often emotionally and as an idea in the same way we used to think of electricity.

Or we think about ‘mobile devices’ today primarily in contrast to the previous tradition of ‘non-mobile technology.’ We can think of a smartphone as an improved wall phone rather than something else entirely.

Telephones solved the problem of needing to communicate across distances.

AI–is it solving a problem or creating something entirely new?

Technology, as a vague term, is often (though not always) created to solve a problem.

What problem were schools designed to address or solve?

What About Schools?

What problem were schools designed to address or solve?

‘What do schools ‘do,’ and how might something else–a non-school–do it better?’

What else could current schools–as they are–do or be?

That would be a nice start, but that isn’t far enough. Move farther and ask, ‘What human need did we originally design schools to solve?’

That’s seeing school today as a solution.

What does a person need to know to live well in sustainable interdependence with the people and places around them and what’s the best way to help support and nurture that?

That’s seeing schools as they ideally might be tomorrow.

Should we measure the value of technology by how it improves the former or enables the latter?

What exactly should new tools improve or what exactly should they create?

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How To Teach Students To See Quality

by Terry Heick

Quality—you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is. But that’s self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There’s nothing to talk about. But if you can’t say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn’t exist at all. But for all practical purposes, it really does exist.

In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, author Robert Pirsig talks about the evasive idea of quality. This concept—and the tangent “Church of Reason”–heckles him throughout the book, notably as a teacher when he’s trying to explain to his students what quality writing looks like.

After some struggling– internally and with students–he throws out letter grades altogether in hopes that students will stop looking for the reward, and start looking for ‘quality.’ This, of course, doesn’t turn out the way he hoped it’d might; the students revolt, which only takes him further from his goal.

So what does quality have to do with learning? Quite a bit, it turns out.

A Shared Sense Of What’s Possible

Quality is an abstraction–it has something to do with the tension between a thing and an ideal thing. A carrot and an ideal carrot. A speech and an ideal speech. The way you want the lesson to go, and the way it actually goes. We have a lot of synonyms for this idea, ‘good’ being one of the more common.

For quality to exist–for something to be ‘good’–there has to be some shared sense of what’s possible, and some tendency for variation–inconsistency. For example, if we think there’s no hope for something to be better, it’s useless to call it bad or good. It is what it is. We rarely call walking good or bad. We just walk. Singing, on the other hand, can definitely be good or bad–that is have or lack quality. We know this because we’ve heard good singing before, and we know what’s possible.

Further, it’s difficult for there to be a quality sunrise or a quality drop of water because most sunrises and most drops of water are very similar. On the other hand, a ‘quality’ cheeseburger or performance of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony makes more sense because we A) have had a good cheeseburger before and know what’s possible, and B) can experience a vast difference between one cheeseburger and another.

Back to learning–if students could see quality—identify it, analyze it, understand its characteristics, and so on—imagine what that requires. They have to see all the way around a thing, compare it to what’s possible, and make an evaluation. Much of the friction between teachers and learners comes from a kind of scraping between students and the teachers trying to guide them towards quality.

The teachers, of course, are only trying to help students understand what quality is. We describe it, create rubrics for it, point it out, model it, and sing its praises, but more often than not, they don’t see it and we push it closer and closer to their noses and wait for the light to come on.

And when it doesn’t, we assume they either don’t care, or aren’t trying hard enough.

The Best

And so it goes with relative superlatives—good, better, and best. Students use these words without knowing their starting point–quality. It’s hard to know what quality is until they can think their way around a thing to begin with. And then further, to really internalize things, they have to see their quality. Quality for them based on what they see as possible.

To qualify something as good—or ‘best’—requires first that we can agree what that ‘thing’ is supposed to do, and then can discuss that thing in its native context. Consider something simple, like a lawnmower. It’s easy to determine the quality of a lawnmower because it’s clear what it’s supposed to do. It’s a tool that has some degrees of performance, but it’s mostly like an on/off switch. It either works or it doesn’t.

Other things, like government, art, technology, etc., are more complex. It’s not clear what quality looks like in legislation, abstract painting, or economic leadership. There is both nuance and subjectivity in these things that make evaluating quality far more complex. In these cases, students have to think ‘macro enough’ to see the ideal functions of a thing, and then decide if they’re working, which of course is impossible because no one can agree with which functions are ‘ideal’ and we’re right back at zero again. Like a circle.

Quality In Student Thinking

And so it goes with teaching and learning. There isn’t a clear and socially agreed-upon cause-effect relationship between teaching and the world. Quality teaching will yield quality learning that does this. It’s the same with the students themselves–in writing, in reading, and in thought, what does quality look like?

What causes it?

What are its characteristics?

And most importantly, what can we do to not only help students see it but develop eyes for it that refuse to close.

To be able to see the circles in everything, from their own sense of ethics to the way they structure paragraphs, design a project, study for exams, or solve problems in their own lives–and do so without using adultisms and external labels like ‘good job,’ and ‘excellent,’ and ‘A+’ and ‘you’re so smart!’

What can we do to nurture students that are willing to sit and dwell with the tension between possibility and reality, bending it all to their will moment by moment with affection and understanding?

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“Let’s get out our [independent/book club/whole class] books and open to page __!”

At least one student in the room experiences a shudder of disdain and a wave of despondency each time such words are uttered (many more students are likely experiencing this emotional response to the dread of reading on the inside).

Why Do Students Hate Reading?

Some students are revolted by the prospect of reading. Several common findings show up from teachers’ reports:

• They haven’t found a book, author, or genre yet that they like, and they don’t know where to begin
• They would prefer to occupy their time with different forms of media or more kinesthetic activities
• They find reading boring — not long after they start reading, they lose track of their place, get annoyed by having to reread difficult passages, or tune out when the author goes on and on about seemingly insignifcant details
• They have been ‘forced’ to read books in middle school that they didn’t enjoy, either because the books were neither interesting, relevant, nor accessible
• Their grades in ELA are somewhat dependent on scores from AR (accelerated reader) tests/quizzes, the questions of which mainly prompt students to recall basic information about the plot

See also What Are The Best Novels In Verse For Middle & High School Readers?

Here’s the thing — all of these reasons are totally valid. It can be physically and mentally challenging to decode a text that may be full of difficult vocabulary, unfamiliar cultural references, background/historical knowledge, and more. It can be emotionally straining to tackle controversial or sensitive topics. Additionally, teachers who engage students in reading through whole-class novels alone (as opposed to including independent reading or smaller book club groups) risk isolating and turning off readers for the sake of what feels like efficiency. At some point between elementary school and high school, many students fall out of love with reading, an act that used to involve play and imagination and risk and creativity and fun. Add in multiple-choice exams and reading timelines and annotations, and the magic is understandably less apparent.

In What I Tell Students When They Say They Don’t Like to Read, Terry Heick shares with a hypothetical student: “If you say you ‘hate reading,’ that means you hate ideas and emotions. Feeling things. Exploring things. Achieving things. Next time you say you hate reading, say instead, ‘I hate feeling things,’ or ‘I hate stories and ideas written with words on pieces of paper that can help me achieve anything I’ve dreamed and can help me dream if I haven’t.'”

Such a statement might warrant a good chuckle to a student who is struggling with reading. As educators, sharing one’s own challenges with reading — as a child, teen, and adult — can help reluctant readers feel like they’re less alone and reduce the pressure to appear like they’re engaged in a book they can’t stand. What comes next? An awesome book to reignite enjoyment in reading. Here’s where we can help.

We’ve compiled a list of 33 of the best books for students who don’t like to read. How did these books make it onto our list?

• The books are often told by multiple narrators
• The books are written by diverse authors
• The books are written in different forms
• The books are accessible for readers of all levels
• The books touch on topics that are relevant to students’ lives today
• The books touch on topics that adults often try to shield teens from reading (even though teens are experiencing them vicariously or in real life)

See Also 12 Reasons Students Don’t Read And What You Can Do About It

Upon finishing these books, students are likely to ask an ELA teacher’s five favorite words, “What should I read next?” The great thing about these books is that many of them are part of a series, many are written by authors who have since published additional books, and many can act as a bridge to a new genre (like historical fiction, mystery, poetry, or memoir). The more a student can find and read books that are enjoyable and meaningful, the more confident they will become in identifying books they think they will like.

We hope these books are catalysts for your students and for teachers, who might benefit from venturing outside of the traditional canon and experimenting with new ways of fostering a love of reading in their classes.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more about our policy here.

The Best Books for Students Who Don’t Like to Read

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Xiomara ‘X’ Batista shares her challenges with relationships, dealing with her overbearing mother, and using her voice in a world that wants her to be silent. Students will relate to X’s passion and attitude, as well as her bravery in saying difficult things out loud. As a novel written in free verse, The Poet X is accessible to students who may be intimidated by longer texts written in prose.

The Crossover Series by Kwame Alexander

Start with The Crossover — Book 1 in this series — and students will be clamoring for the sequels once they’ve finished! Twin brothers Josh and Jordan Bell are twin ballers in middle school who compete on and off the court. Their father’s illness becomes a game-changer for the family, which both boys deal with in different ways. Also written in free verse, this series promises to boost the confidence of readers who generally avoid longer novels.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Junior is one of the most entertaining and relatable protagonists from the books on this list. As a teenage boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, Junior is shunned when he leaves his school to attend an all-white school on the other side of town to play basketball. Junior self-deprecatingly shares his daily struggles in navigating two cultures and forging his own path.

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

After his friend Hannah Baker takes her own life, Clay Jensen is surprised to discover a package with thirteen cassette tapes on his porch. In the first tape, Hannah shares that there are 13 reasons why she decided to end her life and that Clay is one of them. As he listens to each tape, he learns more about the pain Hannah endured on a regular basis, as well as the people in her life who harmed her. Students enjoy the multiple perspectives and suspense within this novel, which keeps readers on the edge of their seats.

Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie

Fast-paced, action-packed, and full of themes that teens are grappling with in the present — dystopian novels tend to be a popular genre with reluctant readers. This trilogy is no exception. In this dystopian setting ‘the Society’ makes choices for its citizens: what to read, what to watch, what to believe, and the person with whom they’re most compatible. When Cassia witnesses a glitch in her matching ceremony, she becomes determined to find out which of two options might be best suited for her.

Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

Readers get hooked with Maze Runner — a dystopian novel where a teenage boy named Thomas wakes up in a strange place with unfamiliar boys, and a towering maze full of deadly predators. The only want to get out is through the maze, but no one has ever made it out alive. Readers will quickly become hooked to the engaging plot — thank goodness there’s a series!

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

Gym Candy is particularly attractive to students who are also athletes. It tells the story of a high school football player who is extremely competitive (with others and himself), and who encounters an option to give him even more of an edge — steroids. Readers will be drawn in by Mick’s inner dialogue and drive to be the best.

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Matteo is a monster — at least, that’s how society views him. Harvested in the womb of a cow by his father, El Patrón (lord of a country called Opium), Matteo is a teen when this novel commences. He knows that he must escape the dangerous confines of his father’s estate to avoid power-hungry family members, but how will he survive on the outside?

Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz

Alan Gratz might be the best kryptonite for students who don’t like to read, and Prisoner B-3087 is a great entry point to Gratz’s style. Yanek is a Jewish boy living in Poland during the Nazi takeover. Once he is taken prisoner, the words PRISONER B-3087 are tattooed on his arm. From that point, he travels to ten different concentration camps, where he experiences terrible forms of torture, starvation, and forced labor.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This one’s not your average love story! Hazel feels defined by her cancer diagnosis. When she meets Augustus Waters in a Cancer Kid Support Group, her outlook on life and her own future change rapidly. Readers will fall for the authentic characters and the devastating conclusion that leaves them with a choice — to keep letting the negative things in life define us, or to persist.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Trilogy by Jenny Han

Why is it so fun to read about embarrassing things that happen to people? At the beginning of this series, Lara Jean’s five crushes all receive the love letters that she has written to them in private over the last several years. What a nightmare! Readers will enjoy watching how Lara Jean navigates the relationships simultaneously and want to move quickly on to the next books in the series.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank is one of over ten books written by Ellen Hopkins, whose books are all written in verse, and whose difficult topics include drug abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and depression — all things that 21st-century teenagers are exposed to, in various ways. In Crank, Kristina Snow starts out as a reserved, people-pleasing high school junior, but after she spends the summer at her father’s house and gets addicted to crystal meth, everything changes. As dark as Hopkins’ books can be, they provide an opportunity for readers to vicariously experience the destructive nature of drugs.

White Smoke by Tiffany Jackson

Students who have moved from place to place (or family to family) might relate well to Marigold, who finds herself living in a haunted house (despite its picture-perfect appearance). Weird things keep happening — harmless at first — but then Mari starts to hear voices and smell foul odors. Readers will soon discover that the secrets of the house on Maple Street are an extension of the town of Cedarville’s secrets.

All-American Boys by Brendan Kiely & Jason Reynolds

16-year-old Rashad is arrested for shoplifting. But here’s the thing — he didn’t do anything wrong. Quinn (Rashad’s white classmate) watches the cop assault and arrest Rashad at the bodega. Here’s the other thing — the cop has raised Quinn since Quinn’s father died in Afghanistan. As the entire community takes sides on the encounter, Quinn is the only witness who struggles with doing the right thing and what that might mean for his relationships. Readers will enjoy hearing this story, which is told from the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Books 1-4) by Jeff Kinney

If you teach a group of high school students who don’t like to read and ask them if there were any books they enjoyed in middle school, it’s likely that Diary of a Wimpy Kid was that sole book. Greg is an extremely relatable protagonist attending middle school and dealing with bullies, hormones, puberty, and social dynamics. When his friend Rowley starts to become more popular, and Greg tries to ride Rowley’s coattails to middle school elite status, hilarity ensues. The novel features funny drawings on each page, making it an accessible selection for students who are intimidated by longer prose novels.

Restart by Gordon Korman

Ever since Chase fell off the roof, odd things are happening. His memory is wiped out. He can’t even remember his own name, at first. People at his school start to treat him differently upon his return, and Chase sets out to discover who he was before the fall, and who he wants to be now that he has a second chance.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Who doesn’t love a story of a dysfunctional family? The family in We Were Liars is full of secrets. Four sisters (plus their spouses and children) all vacation together on a private island for the summer. Four of the sisters’ children forge what feels like an unbreakable bond until lies and secrets are revealed. Students will be desperate to learn which family member is responsible for a devastating event that happens on the island, and who will survive the aftermath…

One Of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

We’re not going to lie…the plot of this book starts off very similar to The Breakfast Club. On a random afternoon, five high school students have detention. One is a nerd, another a beauty, another a rebel, another an athlete, and another an outcast. Before the end of the detention session, one of them dies. How? Is it an accident? Or did someone have a motive? What about the fact that the outcast was going to spill the tea on all four of peers in detention? Readers will love trying to figure out who is guilty in this page-turner.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

There is a monster living in Conor’s backyard. The same monster from his nightmares that have plagued him since his mother became ill. The monster tells Conor that it will tell him three true stories and that Conor must then tell his own true story. If Conor lies, however, the monster will consume him. Among those stories, readers learn about Conor’s loneliness, his deadbeat father, his aloof grandmother, and the bullies that torment him at school.

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

In this thrilling tale, a court nobleman recruits four orphans (including a rebellious boy named Sage) to impersonate the king’s long-lost son and become a ‘puppet prince.’ Readers will enjoy watching Sage and his three friends compete against one another, only to discover that they are all being taken advantage of. Even better, there are three more books that follow in the saga!

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Many of our reluctant readers seem to enjoy books with multiple narrators — especially unreliable ones! This is Where It Ends is set in the middle of a school shooting and is told from multiple perspectives over the span of 54 minutes. Tyler is the gunman. His sister Autumn (and her secret girlfriend Sylv) try to stay calm. Tomás (Sylv’s brother) tries to help a group of students and teachers who are trapped in a room with Tyler. Claire (Tyler’s ex-girlfriend) feels helpless outside of the school walls. While there’s no happy ending, students will be captivated by this gripping, emotionally charged selection.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older

Something strange is going on in Brooklyn. After a dead body breaks up Sierra’s first party of the summer, and the murals in her neighborhood start to cry literal tears, Sierra soon discovers the magic of shadowshaping — an art that instills the spirits of ancestors into artwork. As someone starts killing shadowshapers, Sierra must protect herself and the generations of future shadowshapers.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

The protagonist of this novel — 13-year-old Brian — is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. Left with only the clothes on his back and a hatchet from his mother, Brian must learn how to survive. As he learns how to build a shelter, hunt, forage, and make fire, he must also come to terms with his mother’s infidelity and the relationship he wants to have with his father. Will he ever be rescued? And if he is, how will he face his parents?

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

We haven’t heard of a student who started reading this book and failed to fall in love with it. Even the most resistant readers will relate to the protagonist — Will — who deliberates taking revenge on the person he believes murdered his older brother. Written in verse, and taking place within the span of an elevator ride down several floors, Long Way Down compels readers to think about the pros and cons of revenge.

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

At 12 years old, Jerome is killed by a cop who assumes that his toy gun is an actual weapon. Jerome returns as a ghost to witness the aftermath of his death — on his family and his community. During this time, Jerome meets the ghost of Emmett Till, who died under similar circumstances, and Sarah, the daughter of the cop.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians Boxed Set by Rick Riordan

Students love Percy Jackson books! Percy is the son of Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. From The Lightning Thief to The Last Olympian, readers will enjoy accompanying Percy on his hilarious and adventurous journeys alongside monsters, beasts, demigods, and other tricksters from Greek mythology.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor and Park are two 16-year-old misfits who meet on a school bus on Eleanor’s first day of 10th grade at a new high school in the year 1986. Brought together by a bullying incident, they begin to connect through their mutual interests. As they grow closer, Eleanor fears that Park will realize what she deals with at home — a drunk, abusive stepfather. Readers will enjoy getting to know these well-developed characters and following what happens to Eleanor after Park attempts to rescue her from her abusive home situation.

Denton Little’s Death Date by Lance Rubin

If you knew the exact date when you would die, how would that change how you lived out the rest of your life? In Denton’s world, everyone knows their death date. Unfortunately for Denton, a high school senior, his death date is scheduled for the day of his senior prom. Readers will laugh out loud at the embarrassing, awkward, and befuddling situations that Denton gets involved in prior to prom night.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

15-year-old Lina is living in Lithuania with her family, until Soviet officers barge into her home, separate her father, mother, and younger brother onto crowded trains leading to Siberian work camps, and force them to survive the elements. Linda and her mother and brother are desperate to find their father but losing hope. As Linda documents the upheaval of her life, she hopes that the art she leaves behind will find its way into her father’s hands. Students who enjoy learning and reading about the Holocaust will enjoy learning about this lesser-told tale of the genocide of the Baltic people of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Set in a dystopian society where abortion is outlawed, parents have the legal option to send their teenager to be ‘unwound’ upon reaching a certain age. You can be unwound for various reasons, but most are condemned to the unwinding facility for being rebellious, delinquent, or in rare cases, a religious sacrifice. What does it mean to be unwound? In a surgical procedure, doctors remove each part of the body — while the person is still conscious — until nothing remains. These parts get distributed to people who need them in the outside world. One of the most intriguing scenes of the book details the process of unwinding from a person experiencing it in real-time. Readers will root for the three main characters who share their perspectives and unite to topple the authority behind the unwinding system.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Here we have the only book on our list that is narrated by a dog — Enzo, to be exact. Enzo operates under the belief that a dog who is ‘prepared’ will be reincarnated as a human in its next life. Enzo absorbs as much knowledge as he can from the TV, specifically about his owner’s passion for race car driving. He witnesses his owner get married, have a child, deal with a terminal illness, and engage in a custody battle. Students who love dogs or have dogs as companions will fall in love with this tearjerker.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

On the night of a big party, Justyce spots his ex-girlfriend attempting to start her car and drive home while intoxicated. A copy passing by assumes that Justyce is attempting to assault her, and arrests him in front of his classmates. To deal with the taunts and judgments from his peers, Justyce begins writing letters to the deceased Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Not too long after, Justyce and his best friend Manny are involved in another intense altercation with a cop, and shots are fired. Justyce is a compelling character, whose struggles are revealed through introspective letters to MLK.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give is one of those books that everyone should read before graduating high school. Its protagonist — Starr Carter — does her best to navigate two worlds: her poor neighborhood and fancy prep school. When Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her (unarmed)childhood best friend at the hands of a cop, she is afraid that people will find out she was the only witness. It is unbearable to hear the media and schoolmates label her deceased friend as a thug who ‘deserved it,’ and as the pressure mounts, Starr decides to speak up.

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Natasha and Daniel are two teenagers living in New York City who meet on the day Natasha finds out her family is being deported back to Jamaica. Daniel is additionally struggling to meet the rigid and high expectations of his parents, who own a convenience store. Natasha is determined, wary, and practical. Daniel is outgoing, idealistic, and easy-going. In this case, opposites definitely attract, but how can they stop Natasha’s family from being deported to Jamaica, where Natash has never stepped foot?

Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi

Based on Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, Pride tells the story of Zuri Benitez, daughter of a proud, Afro-Latino family in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn. When the wealthy Darcy family moves next door, Zuri comes to loathe them and their two teenage sons — Ainsley and Darius. As Zuri battles the expected trials of high school, she also has to balance pressures from her four sisters, attention from curious suitors, and dreaded college applications…not to mention, a growing shift in feelings toward Darius, the youngest Darcy brother. Readers will enjoy this classic tale retold in a modern, relatable voice.

The post The 33 Best Books For Students Who Don’t Like To Read appeared first on TeachThought.

Some Thoughts On The Humble Building Blocks Of Knowledge

by Terry Heick

Phonemic awareness is knowing that certain letters make certain sounds.

Phonemic awareness is knowing that sounds can blend together in predictable and unpredictable ways.

Phonemic awareness is about loving the sounds that letters can make, then noticing common patterns across symbols, media, and languages.

Phonemic awareness makes decoding possible.

Decoding is being able to blend sounds together to ‘make’ words you recognize.

Decoding is collecting as many words as possible into your ‘sight word bank’ to increase your reading speed and comprehension.

Decoding is recognizing common word parts used in many words and using knowledge of those parts to predict the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Decoding enables comfortable reading speeds and oral fluency.

Decoding makes literacy possible.

Literacy is about comfortable reading speeds, sufficient background knowledge to make sense of embedded ideas, and syntax.

Literacy means understanding that the order of words in a sentence affects meaning (and includes a basic grasp of grammar categories).

Literacy is about knowing how punctuation can enhance meaning.

Literacy is choosing to read a variety of authentic texts and digital media for a variety of authentic purposes.

Literacy is thinking about what you read after you’re done, then sharing what you read with others.

Literacy is, in part, reading important texts because you want to, then using those ideas to inform your behavior.

When practiced well, literacy breaks down who we were to create who we might become.

See also The Definition Of Critical Reading

Literacy makes critical literacy possible.

Critical literacy begins with being able to decode a text, and then analyze it for meaning, implicit and explicit themes, the relationship of a text to a given perspective, existing texts, biases, and so on.

Critical literacy is about a text and the motives of the people behind the text. (Critical literacy might insist that authors cannot be separated from what they write in the same way as one’s ‘self’ should be seen as indistinguishable from one’s work.)

Critical literacy is also about understanding how what we read and consume affects us. Critical literacy, then, suggests we become critical consumers of any given media. Think: What am I ‘consuming’, and what might I do as a result?

See also: Stop Worrying About Screen Time

Critical literacy, further, means understanding the potential human value of a text or digital media–value to people rather than ‘literary canons’ and purely academic pursuits.

Critical literacy means understanding the relationship between seemingly disparate media forms (e.g., books, social media, music, etc) as examples of human expression.

Critical literacy is also about creating--writing, socially sharing, remixing, etc. (Reading and writing should be seen as two hemispheres of the same sphere.)

Critical literacy, now more than ever, recognizes that human expression depends on prevailing local technology. As that technology changes, so do communication patterns. One things impacts another.

Critical literacy makes cultural literacy possible.

Cultural literacy is, in part, about acquiring knowledge and perspective that helps us create that which is worth creating, and realizing that answer is different for everyone.

Cultural literacy can support cultivating genius, disrupting inequalities, creating sustainable systems, emphasizing our cultural memberships, and seeing our own role in the various natural, digital, and human ecologies we are a part of. (Digital citizenship, for example.)

Cultural literacy depends on our knowing who’s said what and why–which messages and themes and ideas persist within them. This means we have to read, understand what we read, critically examine what we read, and use those lessons to inform our behavior.

To do this we have to choose to read.

To choose to read, we have to be able and choose to closely scrutinize texts and digital media.

To do this, we have to know what words mean–what they really, really mean.

To do this, we have to know that in digital media, modalities (e.g., light, color, sound) are symbols just like letters are symbols in texts, and these symbols–if we’re attendant to those sounds and the possibilities–can change the world.

Sounds lead to words, words lead to ideas, ideas lead to perspectives, perspectives lead to behavioral change, behavioral change–if done critically–leads to a better world.

The post The Relationship Between Reading And Critical Literacy appeared first on TeachThought.

How To Use The Sync Teaching Method In Your Classroom

by TeachThought Staff

In just the last decade, the image of technology in the classroom has shifted from rows of desktops in a dedicated computer lab (all facing the same direction) to one where a variety of different devices coexist, often uneasily, in and out of the lab.

The role of the teacher, on the other hand, remains dynamic as ever: morphing hour to hour, if not minute to minute, between lecturer, coach, guide, mentor, referee, and on-call problem solver. Has the unleashing of technology out of the lab, away from bulky desktops, provided the classroom with better tools to support the teacher in all her roles, and the students in all their activities?

Terry Heick’s article on ‘second screen learning’ (What Is The Sync Teaching Method?) addresses this question head-on. He provides a framework for understanding how a 1:1 (or 1:few) environment can best be leveraged. How can today’s potentially ubiquitous technology support the variety of interactions between students and content in a classroom? What should we think about when we think about the sorts of interaction between the teacher’s device and the students’ that may best support and extend a classroom’s effectiveness?

The difference between 1:1 and second screen learning ‘is a matter of syncing.’ Synced learning requires two potentially opposing technologies: one, the ability to engage the same core material, and two, the ability to engage the material independently. “In second screen learning classrooms, the teachers and students are ‘sync’d’ content-wise with one another, while still having the tools, strategies, freedom, and space to clarify, extend, create, or connect the learning.”

This notion of a class that moves fluidly from a focus on a single theme to individual or small group activities, and back again, is not new. The teacher guides the class as a ‘conductor’ while unleashing each student to delve into topics on their own as well, harnessing each individual’s curiosity and aptitude. And this occurs routinely with or without digital media.

This post is a brief introduction to the technologies that can support a synced classroom using second screens—focusing on the use of web-based resources. As web-based resources play an ever-larger role in K-12 education, the ability to better wrangle and adapt them to the natural rhythms of classroom instruction rises in importance.

The hope is for this discussion to be useful to educators thinking about what technologies to adopt in amplifying the ‘syncing’ that they already practice.

5 Steps To The Sync’d Classroom

Step 1: Sync’d Resources: Common Access To A Predetermined Set Of Educational Resources

An anchor for sync’d learning is the ability to have students engage with a common set of educational resources curated by the teacher. From email and browser bookmarks to more elaborate social bookmarking and curating services, the options are many.

To enable deeper engagement, bookmarking can be supplemented by two additional features: the ability to add commentary, and the ability to freely add to one’s own collection of resources.

The ability to comment on resources enables teachers to put resources in their proper context and sequence. Students in turn can engage with the resources with questions, reactions, answers, and thoughts.

The initial set of resources provided by the ‘conductor’ becomes a core around which the students can start to create their personal collections, be it videos, scientific articles, or URLs of apps that provide a ‘gamified’ introduction to programming.

Even with just these elements, a classroom may be ‘sync’d.’ Whether loosely around a collection of resources and comments or more tightly on a page that the teacher is discussing live, the teacher can vary the interaction to create a synced experience. The following steps, however, would significantly ease the burden on both the teacher and the student–and support interactions not possible before.

Step 2: Sync’d Navigation–The Same Thing At The Same Time

Though ‘synchronous navigation’ may bring to mind a lecture, armed with second screens, it can be more. Because most digital resources are at least partially interactive, landing on the same page or using the same app does not require everyone to engage with the content in exactly the same way.

However, screen sharing apps usually work only in one direction—very much like a ‘first screen’ (the teacher’s) on a projector. Instead, teachers should be able to take all students to a page and, perhaps after a context-setting introduction, set them free to explore on their own. Synchronous navigation differs from screen sharing because it provides a common path around which exploration is encouraged.

To use both definitions of the word, the teacher is a ‘conductor,’ guiding where necessary, corralling everyone in the same direction when called for, and asking everyone to disembark and go off on their own when appropriate. Coupled with the ability to view the teacher’s comments and the ability to contribute one’s own thoughts, synchronous navigation supports a blend of guidance and freedom, of focus and creativity.

Students should be allowed to lead these sessions as well—to present their finished work, engage their peers and their teacher in the research phase of a project, and lead each other in smaller groups as a part of everyday learning.

Step 3: Different things at Different Times—Switching Between Sync’d & Unsync’d

A blend of synchronous and independent activity may be determined on the fly. This blend is often the magic of live teaching, where instruction is leavened by questions, pauses, changes in direction, as well as time for independent work. So the ability to shift fluidly between the two is critical. Even if planned, the easier the mechanics of the transition, the more transitions there can be.

Necessary elements include the ability of the teacher or a student to pause navigation to allow for discussions. They also include allowing students to ‘catch up’ and re-engage after having gone off on tangents of their own.

It should also support the full use of the shared resources in Step 1—to guide a session, to add new resources during a session, and the ability to comment on everything. Figure 1 shows a simple example of the type of progression possible with ‘on the fly’ switching.

Step 4: Sharing Ideas—Communication & Collaboration

Although teachers can incorporate existing messaging and note-taking apps to support Steps 1-3, the ideal would be to have commenting, messaging, and chatting be integrated into a common platform.

For example, synchronous navigation would include a messaging function. Even when all participants are in the same physical space, writing comments, questions, and answers through an integrated messaging function will provide a more focused channel for engagement, to augment verbal exchange as well as substitute for it.

To encourage dialog and collaboration, discoveries and comments should trigger a ‘new message’-like notification. And once notified, participants should be able to have both synchronous and asynchronous discussions. Much like how synchronized navigation should be switchable on the fly, commenting and messaging should also support the seamless transition between synced, real-time discussions (similar to chatting or instant messaging) and conversations adapted to each student’s own pace (more like email).

Step 5: The Glue—From The Individual To The Group

This brings us to the synced classroom’s structure. Whether the entire class is synced on the same page at the same time or smaller groups are synced loosely, the teacher must determine both the degree of syncing and the scale of it for different occasions. And the two decisions may be tightly related. Technology can help by making it easy to create different groupings for different purposes—from the single student all the way to a combination of multiple classes.

Different grouping should also exist simultaneously, for collaboration, messaging, and synchronous navigation. These need to act as the glue that creates the context for synced learning at different scales. One can imagine the cross-cutting groupings in Figure 2 all going through their own seesawing between synchronous and independent activities on their screens over the course of a day, with the teacher orchestrating as much as needed or desired.

A Successfully Synced Classroom

As Terry Heick reminds us, “Interaction is possible with teachers and textbooks as well as it is with apps and tablets, but not on the same scale, with the same degree of personalization, or the same engaging form factors.” Sync teaching using technology is valuable because the analogous method of sync teaching without technology is effective. The appropriate enabling technology, especially when combined with the “abundance of engaging and flexible learning resources on the internet,” becomes a way to amplify a tried and true method.

To be even remotely useful, the technology outlined above needs to be convenient. For it to be relied upon by teachers looking to support an adaptive and responsive learning environment, it too has to provide an adaptive and responsive service. So the challenge is to combine the above functions in a way that is intuitive and easy to use, if not also a little fun.

The post An Innovative Learning Model: How To Sync Your Classroom appeared first on TeachThought.

Setting specific goals isn’t just about ticking off checkboxes; it’s about charting a path toward academic excellence and personal growth. As a college student, you juggle lectures, exams, and study sessions. That’s where learning goals come into play—they help you focus, measure your progress, and keep your eyes on the prize, whether acing your finals or mastering a complex concept.

If you’re overwhelmed with the mountain of essays and assignments, remember there’s help around the corner. You can partner with an online essay writer for easier learning and better results. But first, let us help you determine your learning goals. 

What is a Learning Goal?

A learning goal is a clear and concise statement that outlines what you aim to learn or accomplish in a specific area of your studies. Unlike general hopes or wishes, a learning goal is targeted, giving you a specific endpoint to aim for. For example, instead of vaguely wanting to “get better at math,” a learning goal would be “understanding and applying the quadratic formula successfully in algebra.”

Setting these goals is crucial because they provide direction and motivation. They help you organize your study time effectively, ensuring every hour you invest is a step toward something meaningful. Having these goals allows you to monitor your progress, which can be incredibly satisfying and motivating.

How to Set Effective Goals

Now that you know the definition of learning goals, let’s see how to set an objective that will be effective. 

• Be Specific: Unclear plans are difficult to attain. Specify what you want to accomplish.
• Make it Measurable: Put numbers to it if you can. How many chapters will you read? How many practice essays will you write?
• Achievable: Aim high but stay realistic. Overly ambitious goals can be discouraging.
• Relevant: Your objectives should match your overall educational or employment goals.
• Time-bound: Set a deadline. When do you hope to accomplish this goal?

Learning Goals Examples for Core Academic Subjects

Navigating different academic subjects requires a set of clear and specific goals to ensure success and deeper understanding. A student who starts a plan to get a better grade in a course has a goal that reflects proactive academic management and personal accountability. Here are the examples of learning goals for major subjects:

Math

Mathematics is all about understanding concepts and applying them effectively. Aim to:

• Master the fundamentals of algebra to solve equations and inequalities.
• Understand and apply the principles of geometry to real-world problems.
• Develop skills to analyze and interpret statistical data.
• Learn calculus concepts to differentiate and integrate functions.
• Improve problem-solving speed and accuracy in quantitative sections.
• Explore advanced topics like discrete mathematics for computer science applications.
• Learn to use mathematical software tools like MATLAB or R for computations.

Science

Science goals encompass a broad scope of fields:

• Master the basic concepts of Newtonian physics.
• Explore biological systems and their functions in human biology.
• Learn to document and present scientific findings accurately.
• Understand chemical properties and reactions in organic chemistry.
• Analyze the impact of environmental changes on ecosystems.
• Develop proficiency in using scientific equipment and conducting experiments safely.
• Study the principles of genetics and their applications in real-world scenarios.

Literature

Literature encourages exploration and analysis of written works:

• Analyze classic literary works and understand their historical context.
• Compare and contrast different literary genres.
• Improve ability to write structured literary essays.
• Explore various literary theories and apply them to texts.
• Develop interpretive skills to understand symbolism.
• Create a portfolio of personal responses to different texts.

History

Examples of student learning goals for history learners include: 

• Analyze the causes and effects of significant historical events.
• Compare different historical interpretations and perspectives.
• Develop skills to assess historical sources critically.
• Study the development of political systems and ideologies.
• Understand the cultural, social, and economic factors in history.
• Learn to write comprehensive history essays.

English

English learning goals focus on language mastery and effective communication:

• Develop an advanced vocabulary for academic and professional use.
• Master the fundamentals of grammar.
• Improve writing skills across various styles, including expository and persuasive.
• Enhance reading comprehension of complex texts.
• Learn to construct well-argued essays and reports.
• Improve editing and proofreading skills for clarity and accuracy.

Foreign Languages

Learning a foreign language can have the following objectives:

• Achieve conversational fluency in the target language.
• Understand and apply basic grammar of the foreign language.
• Develop a vocabulary for everyday use and professional contexts.
• Practice listening skills through audio resources and real-life conversations.
• Use language skills in real-world situations, such as travel or business.

Art

Art goals can foster creativity and technical skills, for example:

• Master basic drawing and painting techniques.
• Explore various mediums and materials, like sculpture or digital art.
• Study art history to understand different movements and influences.
• Develop a personal artistic style and portfolio.
• Learn to critique art constructively and analytically.
• Utilize technology in art creation, such as graphic design software.

Conclusion

Learning goals are more than just academic targets; they are stepping stones to greater understanding and success in your college career. By setting and pursuing well-thought-out goals, you’re building a foundation of knowledge and skills to support your academic and career aspirations for years.

Featured image attribution Unsplash

The post Learning Goals Examples for College Students appeared first on TeachThought.

Technology has transformed how you interact with your educational materials.

From AI tutors that provide personalized learning experiences to digital platforms that organize notes efficiently, these innovative tools are transforming traditional learning methods. As a student, adapting to these technological advancements can significantly enhance your academic performance and make your study sessions more productive.

If the pressure of deadlines and essay assignments becomes overwhelming, remember that a paper writing service that can write my essay is just a click away. Now, let’s delve into some revolutionary online learning tools for students reshaping education today.

Online Learning Tools As AI-Powered Learning Companions

1. Thinkster Math

Thinkster Math is recognized as one of the best study tools for college students, offering personalized math tutoring. This AI-driven platform provides real-time feedback from certified tutors, utilizing a technology-driven curriculum tailored to each student’s needs. Students engage with complex mathematical concepts through interactive worksheets and video tutorials, enhancing their understanding and skills in a user-friendly environment. Additionally, Thinkster Math tracks progress and adapts to each student’s learning pace, ensuring personalized attention that aligns with their academic growth.

2. Grammarly

Grammarly serves as an indispensable AI-enhanced writing assistant for college students. Far surpassing simple spell checks, it offers comprehensive help with grammar, punctuation, style, and coherence, thus improving the quality of essays, reports, and emails. It’s an essential resource if you’re looking to improve your writing skills. Grammarly also features plagiarism detection and vocabulary enhancement tools, making it an essential aid for academic writing and everyday communications.

3. Rocketbook

Rocketbook offers a futuristic approach to note-taking, making it a standout among online study tools for college students. This smart notebook integrates digital convenience with traditional pen and paper. Notes written with a special pen can be digitized and uploaded to any cloud service, and then the pages can be wiped clean with a damp cloth for reuse, providing a sustainable option for students. The Rocketbook app also uses OCR technology to make handwritten notes searchable, adding another utility layer.

4. Evernote

Evernote ranks among the top study aids for students, facilitating efficient management of study materials. It supports the organization of notes, images, and documents in one accessible location and enhances collaboration on group projects by allowing students to share their notebooks easily. Evernote’s tagging system helps students organize their study materials more effectively, and its cross-platform compatibility means you can access your information from any device, anywhere.

5. MyStudyLife

MyStudyLife is more than just a digital planner. It’s one of the essential studying tools for college for a fully integrated schedule. It integrates syllabi, assignments, and exam schedules in one accessible, user-friendly interface across all devices, ensuring that students never miss deadlines. The app also provides reminders for upcoming tests and assignment due dates, making it a great tool to keep students on track throughout the semester.

6. Cram

Cram enhances traditional study methods by allowing you to create custom flashcards and practice tests, which are ideal for memorization and review. It provides access to a vast library of user-generated flashcards covering various subjects and topics. Cram’s spaced repetition algorithm optimizes study sessions by determining which flashcards you need to work on most, helping to improve retention and recall of information.

7. Khan Academy

Khan Academy offers a broad range of free online courses and resources, making it one of the best tools for studying. It offers video tutorials and practice exercises across various academic disciplines. It is complemented by a personalized learning dashboard that lets you learn at your preferred pace in class and at home. Khan Academy also provides tools for teachers to monitor your progress and customize lessons to meet classroom needs.

8. Coursera

Coursera is a fantastic option for those wanting to explore beyond traditional curriculums. It collaborates with global universities and organizations to offer online courses, specializations, and degrees across diverse fields. This platform is ideal for students seeking to supplement their studies with specialized knowledge, making it one of the best tools for college students. Coursera courses often include peer-reviewed assignments, video lectures, and community discussion forums, providing a rich learning experience.

Conclusion

With the incorporation of technology in education, you can access a wide array of online study tools for students. So, what are some learning tools you should use while studying? Consider everything from AI tutors to smart notebooks and comprehensive study platforms designed to enhance the learning experience. By leveraging these online study tools, students can improve their academic skills and prepare for a successful career. Take advantage of these good study tools, and transform how you learn and succeed in your academic journey.

The post Explore Top Online Learning Tools For Students To Enhance Your Studies appeared first on TeachThought.

In the vast ocean of academic tasks, writing is a challenging and crucial skill for success at school and beyond. Whether drafting an essay, composing a research paper, or jotting down notes for class, having the right tools can make all the difference. With a wide array of digital writing aids, finding the most effective ones can be daunting.

If you’re struggling to keep up with your writing assignments or want to enhance your written work, remember that an essay writing service that can write my essay is always available to help. Now, let’s explore some lesser-known yet highly effective digital writing tools for students that can transform how you approach writing tasks.

What Are Writing Tools?

Understanding Digital Writing Tools

When we talk about writing tools, we refer to applications and software designed to assist with writing. These tools can help you organize your thoughts, check grammar and spelling, enhance your style, and even ensure the originality of your work. For students at every level, digital writing tools are invaluable for achieving academic excellence. They are particularly useful in developing coherent arguments, managing research notes, and maintaining a clear narrative flow in academic papers, thus becoming essential tools to help with writing.

Why Use Writing Tools?

Utilizing these tools can significantly streamline your writing process, reducing stress and freeing time for other academic activities. They support structuring your work, ensuring consistency, and polishing your final draft, making them essential components of a student’s digital toolkit. Online writing tools for college success also foster effective communication by providing readability scores and suggestions for simplifying complex language, vital skills in academic and professional settings.

Best Writing Tools for Students

1. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid goes beyond simple grammar checks, providing detailed reports to enhance clarity, style, and tone. Ideal for college students looking to refine their essays, this tool also integrates with word processors to provide real-time improvements. It’s recognized as one of the best writing tools for students who require in-depth writing analysis to enhance academic and creative works.

2. Hemingway Editor

Hemingway Editor is a minimalist tool that enhances readability. It highlights dense and complex sentences, urging you to simplify your writing. This tool is perfect for students who want to make their essays more accessible and engaging. It serves as a critical reviewer by pointing out passive voice, adverbs, and complicated phrases.

3. Scrivener

Scrivener is more than a word processor. It’s an all-in-one writing suite. It offers a unique interface that helps you organize and structure long documents like dissertations and novels. This tool is excellent for students involved in extensive writing projects, providing comprehensive studying tools that cater to fiction and non-fiction writers.

4. FocusWriter

FocusWriter is designed to eliminate distractions by providing a clean, full-screen writing environment. Its customizable themes and built-in timer are perfect for students who need to maintain focus during writing sessions. This program is especially useful when engaging in lengthy writing sessions, promoting deep focus with its serene environment.

5. Cite This For Me

Cite This For Me is an essential tool for handling citations and bibliographies. With support for various referencing styles, it ensures that all your citations are accurate, which is crucial for avoiding plagiarism. It’s one of the most valuable free online writing tools for students who frequently need to manage multiple source types and citation formats in their academic papers.

6. Grammarly

Grammarly is widely recognized for its comprehensive writing support. Offering everything from grammar and punctuation checks to style advice, this tool ensures your writing is error-free and refined. Grammarly benefits students and non-native English speakers looking to improve their writing abilities.

Specialized Tools for Every Need

Tools for Students with Disabilities

Specialized tools like Ghotit and Kurzweil 3000 offer tailored support for students with disabilities. These platforms provide advanced spell-checking, grammar assistance, and text-to-speech features, making writing more accessible. They are pivotal in creating an inclusive learning environment and supporting diverse educational needs.

Free Online Writing Tools for Students

Students on a budget will find value in free platforms like Google Docs and Apache OpenOffice, which provide basic writing features and cloud storage accessible from any device. These platforms also serve as excellent writing tools for students with disabilities by being compatible with various accessibility features, ensuring that all students have equal opportunities to succeed in their academic pursuits.

Conclusion

In the academic journey, writing tools for students are more than just aids. They are partners in your path to success. Whether you are looking for tools to help with writing, digital writing tools for students, or free online writing aids, the right tools can elevate your writing skills and academic performance. Leverage these online writing tools to enhance your capabilities and achieve your academic ambitions. Check out these leading writing tools for students today and learn how they can elevate your writing experience.

The post Explore The Best Writing Tools For Students To Enhance Your Skills appeared first on TeachThought.

by Terry Heick

While working on the learning theory visual overview, I realized I couldn’t clearly explain the difference between constructivism and constructionism.

So I did a little research and initially didn’t find much to ease my confusion.

The Difference Between Constructivism And Constructionism

Constructivism is–more or less–the same thing. So what’s the difference between constructivism and constructivism?

Definition of Constructivism

Constructivism is an educational theory in which learners actively construct their own understanding and knowledge through experiences and reflection on those experiences. It emphasizes the importance of learners’ prior knowledge, social interactions, and contextual learning to build new understanding.

Definition of Constructionism

Constructionism extends constructivist ideas by emphasizing learning through creating tangible artifacts, such as models or projects. It promotes the idea that learners construct knowledge most effectively when they are actively involved in making something that is personally meaningful.

Edith Ackerman, a “Swiss-born American psychologist who explored the interactions between developmental psychology, play, learning and design. A graduate of the University of Geneva, she held permanent or visiting positions at several institutions in the United States and Europe, including the MIT Media Lab,” explained…

“What is the difference between Piaget’s constructivism and Papert’s “constructionism”? Beyond the mere play on the words, I think the distinction holds, and that integrating both views can enrich our understanding of how people learn and grow. Piaget’s constructivism offers a window into what children are interested in, and able to achieve, at different stages of their development. The theory describes how children’s ways of doing and thinking evolve, and under which circumstance children are more likely to let go of—or hold onto— their currently held views.

Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with [their own or other people’s] artifacts…and how these conversations facilitate the construction of new knowledge.

Edith Ackerman, Psychologist

“Piaget suggests that children have very good reasons not to abandon their worldviews just because someone else, be it an expert, tells them they’re wrong. Papert’s constructionism, in contrast, focuses more on the art of learning, or ‘learning to learn’, and on the significance of making things in learning. Papert is interested in how learners engage in a conversation with [their own or other people’s] artifacts, and how these conversations boost self-directed learning, ultimately facilitating the construction of new knowledge. He stresses the importance of tools, media, and context in human development. Integrating both perspectives illuminates the processes by which individuals come to make sense of their experience, gradually optimizing their interactions with the world.”

You can read the full pdf here.

So What Is The Difference Between Constructivism And Constructionism?

Constructivism

Theory Key Idea: How people learn by constructing their understanding and knowledge of the world through experience and reflection.

Influential Theorists: Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky

Key Elements Of Constructivism

1. Active Learning: Learners actively participate in their learning process.

2. Knowledge Construction: Learning is about constructing knowledge rather than just absorbing information.

3. Prior Knowledge: Learners build new knowledge based on existing knowledge.

4. Social Interaction: Learning often involves social interactions and collaboration.

5. Contextual Learning: Learning is contextual and situational.

Constructionism

Theory Ley Idea: This approach extends constructivist ideas into learning by making, emphasizing the creation of tangible products or artifacts.

Influential Theorist: Seymour Papert

Key Elements of Constructionism

1. Learning by Making: Knowledge construction is most effective when learners are actively involved in making something tangible.

2. Project-Based Learning: Emphasis on projects that result in a tangible artifact or product.

3. Reflection and Iteration: Learners reflect on their creations and iterate on their designs.

4. Computational Thinking: Often involves integrating technology and computational tools.

5. Personal Relevance: Projects are driven by learners’ interests and personal relevance.

Summary

Constructivism: Focuses on the individual’s process of constructing knowledge through experiences and reflection.

Constructionism: Emphasizes learning by creating tangible artifacts, incorporating technology and personal interests.

Similarities Between Constructivism and Constructionism

Same: Active learning and the importance of prior knowledge

Examples Of Constructivism

Example 1: Learning in a Classroom

Scenario: A science class is learning about ecosystems.

Activity: The teacher sets up stations with various ecosystems (pond, forest, desert) and provides materials such as pictures, plant samples, and soil types.

Constructivist Approach: Students rotate through the stations, observe the materials, and discuss what they notice about each ecosystem in small groups. They then create a concept map showing how different ecosystem elements interact.

Outcome: Through active engagement and discussion, students construct an understanding of ecosystems by connecting new information with their prior knowledge.

Example 2: Child Learning

Scenario: A child is learning about fractions.

Activity: The child is given a set of fraction tiles and a recipe to be halved.

Constructivist Approach: The child uses the fraction tiles to visually and physically manipulate the parts of the recipe, experimenting with different combinations to understand how fractions work.

Outcome: Through hands-on experience, the child understands fractional relationships by actively engaging with the materials and applying fractions to a real-world scenario.

Examples of Constructionism

Example 1: Learning in a Classroom

Scenario: A middle school technology class is learning about coding.

Activity: The teacher assigns a project where students create their own video game using a programming platform like Scratch.

Constructionist Approach: Students brainstorm game ideas, write the code, design characters, and build the game. They test their games, get feedback from peers, and make revisions.

Outcome: Through creating a tangible product (a video game), students deepen their understanding of coding concepts, logic, and problem-solving.

Example 2: Child Learning about a science topic

Scenario: A child is interested in learning about electricity

Activity: The child is given a simple electronics kit with wires, a battery, and a light bulb.

Constructionist Approach: The child is asked to build a basic circuit, experimenting with different connections to see what makes the light bulb turn on. They might also try adding a switch or multiple bulbs.

Outcome: By constructing a working circuit, the child learns about the principles of electricity, circuits, and conductivity through hands-on creation and experimentation.

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