Coherent Instructional Program for High Student Achievement

1. Fred Newman et al: INSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAM COHERENCE • A set of inter-related programs guided by a common framework for curriculum, instruction, assessment and learning that are pursued over a sustained period. • Leads to improved student achievement vs. uncoordinated efforts each limited in scope and duration • Newman, F.M., Smith, B., Allensworth, E. Bryk, A.S. (2001) Instructional Program Coherence: What it is and why it should guide school improvement policy. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(4), 297-321.

2. 3-DPDConnecting Standards Alignment and Curriculum Coordination with High Student Achievement ThroughCognitive Science

3. SOCIETY NOW DEMANDS: HIGH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR ALL STUDENTS: 21ST Century Skills • No longer: • Narrow career or vocational preparation • Weeding out students and focusing on elite

4. SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: • All students will: • a. Know the important • information and skills • b. Readily access and • comprehend new information • and skills

5. SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: • All students will: • a. Understand the basic • concepts of science • As evidenced by … • b. Problem solving, critical • thinking, & considered • decision making that is • flexible and transferable

6. SCIENTIFIC LITERACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: • All students will: • Direct their own choices and • uses of information, skills, and • concepts when addressing a • question

7. To design a model for teaching and learning higher-order thinking, use what Cognitive Science has learned over the past 15+ years about the intellect and academic thinking

8. 3-D PD: Focused on Higher-Order Thinking (H.O.T.) - Focused on Classroom Practice

9. THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION BEING ASKED OF EDUCATORS: “ Why are our kids not learning at the rate that they should be despite decades of reforms and budget increases? “ TIME magazine, April 19, 2010 p. 42, “Is Cash the Answer?”

10. CURRICULUM What all students should know, understand and be able to do. ASSESSMENT INSTRUCTION To what degree did students learn what we wanted them to know, understand and be able to do? How students are going to learn the curriculum THE THREE PARTS OF CLASSROOM PRACTICE

11. 50+ YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION IN EDUCATION Cooperative learning Open-ended assessment Project-based learning Computer-aided instruction Authentic assessment State curriculum standards Learning objectives Inquiry-based learning Peer assessment Rubric design Problem-based learning … etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., So where are the effects on student learning ???

12. A PATTERN: Cooperative learning Project-based learning Computer-aided instruction Inquiry-based learning Hands-On experimentation Differentiated Instruction Problem-based learning … etc., etc., etc., Authentic assessment Open-ended assessment Peer assessment Rubric design Formative assessment Summative assessment … etc., etc., etc. Performance objectives State curriculum standards Instruction: LOTS ! Assessment: LOTS ! Curriculum ?? Little but behaviorism for 100 years

13. THESIS THE IMPROVEMENTS IN ASSESSMENT AND INSTRUCTION ARE STYMIED BY A LACK OF PROGRESS ON CURRICULUM

14. THE ZERO-SUM PENDULUM SWING IN CURRICULUM CONTENT: KNOW Essential Basics Cultural Literacy Declarative Knowledge Text PROCESS: DO Procedural Knowledge Discovery Exploration Hands-On

15. HIGH ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT means students… • KNOW the essential information • UNDERSTAND the basic concepts • CAN DO the essential skills demonstrated by • PROBLEM SOLVING AND CRITICAL THINKING

16. The Holy Grail of High Student Achievement: PROBLEM SOLVING AND CRITICAL THINKING The Higher Thinking Processes: Application, analysis, synthesis, judgment = KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER An operational definition

17. Gorgosaurus What do students learn when they study dinosaurs?

18. Could use “ANCIENT EGYPT” as an example for the Social Studies. At K-12 workshop with 200 teachers many teachers responded with having had taught such a unit at some time in their career.

19. WHAT STAYS BEHIND ? Gorgosaurus Ferns and swamps Big, bad, ugly, extinct = specific contexts, exemplars, information = topic, context, facts

20. WHAT MOVES ? Form-and-function Interdependence Evolution These are transferable concepts • definable (generalizations, maps, text) • Universal • timeless

21. HOW DOES IT TRAVEL? LOWER ORDER PROCESSES Identification Comprehension up to… Compare and contrast = static knowledge HIGHER ORDER PROCESSES Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation Creativity Each is a different Method of combining transferable concepts to specific topics

22. Can you create an insightful question relating the following topics to each concept? Topic • Light bulb • Tree • Aspirin • Skateboard • Concept • Energy Transformation • Interdependence • Motion and Forces • Form and Function On a scale of 1-5 how insightful would your questions be for each concept? How deep can you go with it?

23. KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER When confronted with a novel problem or question: What transfers from prior knowledge? What “stays behind” ? What is the new context? How does it move? TRANSFERABLE CONCEPTS (“understand”) TOPIC/CONTEXT INFORMATION (“know”) SKILLS AND PROCESSES (“do”)

24. THE 3-D PARADIGM OF CURRICULUM CONCEPT TOPIC INFORMATION PROCESSES AND SKILLS • INCLUSIVE OF CONVENTIONAL PARADIGM • SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED TO GENERATE KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER • THE PATTERN OF LIFE-LONG LEARNING AND FLEXIBILITY

25. THE CONVENTIONAL PARADIGM OF CURRICULUM CONTENT PROCESS • OCCASIONALLY GENERATES KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER • COMPREHENSION IS THE EFFECTIVE CEILING

26. 3-D PD : • I. • THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF • LEARNING OUTCOMES: • topic/context information “KNOW” • b) transferable concepts “UNDERSTAND” • c) skills and processes “DO” • II. • THE HIGHER THINKING PROCESSES CAN ALL BE OBJECTIVELY DEFINED (AND THEREFORE ASSESSED) AS DIFFERENT METHODS OF COMBINING TRANSFERABLE CONCEPTS WITH SPECIFIC TOPIC AND CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION.

27. THESIS RESOLUTION: BREAKING THE LOG-JAM The improvements in student learning generated by a 3-D model of curriculum will be compounded by the anticipated improvements in learning flowing from the innovations in assessment and instruction that were previously thwarted.

28. WWII – BF Skinner Behaviorism and army training –Psychoanalysts (Freud) are run out Nat’l Resource Council Report : How People Learn supports the cognitive approach NSF conference in Colorado Springs -Schism between cognitive theorists and behaviorists – Results in backing of behaviorism = Inquiry Novak publishes 12 year longitudinal study (Ithaca, NY) with results that strongly support cognitive-based learning 1962 The National Defense Education Act- NSF charged with science and math education 1958 1991 1992 1939 • Behaviorism versus Cognition in American Education • Behaviorism denies existence of mind – only the brain exists • Cognition minimizes the importance of behavior – the mind controls behavior Sputnik launched. Soviet technology seen as a threat Bloom’s taxonomy published 1955 1957

29. Implementation Concerns • Accountability for curriculum standards • Origin of transferable concepts • Meshing with current practice and initiatives • Compelling, Practical, User-friendly for teacher

30. Educational concern: ACCOUNTABILITY FOR STANDARDS Any and all curriculum standards can be analyzed and then categorized for their focus on concept, information, or process/skill. Curriculum is aligned with mandated standards as well as with cognitive science and learning theory. Assessment of students’ concept transfer, information command, and skill/process abilities is objective.

31. TWO OPTIONS FOR CURRICULUM MAPPING STANDARDS SPLINTER AND SPIRAL CHUNK AND CONNECT Objective STANDARD Objective Objective STANDARD STANDARD, STANDARD CONCEPT,TOPIC, SKILL

32. 3-D Curriculum Mapping Step 1: Analyze each standard:Which concept or skill would be most useful for understanding this standard? What topic info. is required?

33. 3-D Curriculum Mapping Step 2: Chunk the standards according to concept and skill: • What is the concept load? • What is the skill load? • What topics, contexts, facts are required?

34. 3-D Curriculum Mapping Step 3: Organize the required concepts according to the cognitive developmentof students CONCEPTS DIFFER COGNITIVELY IN THREE WAYS CHILD’S INTELLECT DEVELOPS IN THREE WAYS GENERAL / SPECIFIC / OBVIOUS SUBTLE SIMPLE COMPLEX CONCRETE ABSTRACT

35. ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISION ?? • Each course has few concepts, skills, topics • The concepts change rarely • A one-page course curriculum summary is • easily supervised. • Assessments of concept transfer are objective

36. WHERE DO THE CONCEPTS AND THEIR GENERALIZATIONS COME FROM? Concepts are presently woven throughout, unrecognized Bona fide transferable concepts are identified as ideas that are effective for higher order thinking Concepts are organized into taxonomies according to: GENERAL / OBVIOUS SPECIFIC / SUBTLE SIMPLE COMPLEX CONCRETE ABSTRACT Teachers are provided with conceptual structures to work from. Skill structures are readily available.

38. CONCEPT MAP – LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE

39. GENERALIZATIONS- Language of Science 1. The natural world is imagined as delineated into things and composed of substances which we think of as discrete entities and that we identify with names. What is it? 2. The entities that make up the natural world are described and differentiated in terms of their properties. The changes that occur throughout the natural world are described in terms of property changes: What happened?

40. Educational concern: MESHING WITH CURRENT PRACTICES AND INITIATIVES e.g. Differentiated Instruction Essential questions UbD is streamlined Any type of documentation can be modified

42. CREATING POTENT ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS • Transferable concept or skill e.g. • Governance • Motif • Composition • Rate • Symmetry • Metaphor • Topic or context e.g. • The Crusades • Stars • Speeding  • Tool(s) • Mount Rushmore +

43. WHAT IS A PRACTICAL WAY TO TEACH TO DIFFERENCES? LEARNING NEEDS LEARNING ACTIVITIES student skill levels student interests student backgrounds teacher strengths school resources parent/community focus concept topic (information) context (geographical, seasonal, etc.) activity format (discussion, hands-on, debate, etc.) grouping size time duration ?

44. MATCHING DIFFERENCES DIFFERENCES This is an INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY problem for the teacher Solution: Networked database of learning activities, units, courses and resources indexed and accessed according to the educational criteria

45. Educational Concern: Practical and User-Friendly for Teachers • Teachers recognize the power of conceptual transfer • Standards are simplified, clarified and coordinated year-to- • year through concept, topic, and skill master structures. • Learning efficiency and effectiveness are greatly enhanced. • Teacher creativity and individual strengths are reflected in • the choice and orchestration of concept, topic, and skill. • The Database provides rapid, easy, real-time, highly • targeted access to learning activities and resources.

46. CONCEPTUAL “BACKBONE” PROVIDES TEACHER FLEXIBILITY Curriculum is easily modified or elaborated. Teacher discourse is focused on the concept – for both content knowledge and classroom practice Professional decisions now include curriculum as well as instruction

47. “Teaching with concepts also makes teaching more organized; knowledge more retrievable; and subject matter more relevant to learners, more connected, and more focused on meaning and utility. Rather than accumulating disjointed trivia, kids see cubbyholes to put things in.” - Carol Ann Tomlinson Differentiated Instruction

48. The curriculum cooperative: www.lessoncoop.org