The Education Czar Debate

1. L. Vygotsy R. Gagne B F Skinner Lois Lane HS Editor Bob Bartley Wall Street Journal Janet Williams Ed. Testing Serv Herbie Shrek Pixar Entertainment Education Czar Candidates The Education Czar Debate The Panelists

2. L. Vygotsy R. Gagne B F Skinner Lois Lane HS Editor Bob Bartley Wall Street Journal What standards would You advocate for a quality education? Janet Williams Ed. Testing Serv Herbie Shrek Pixar Entertainment Standards must be observable. For example, if a student must synthesize aspirin, he should be observed successfully doing the task in a laboratory. • Assessment would be ongoing, so the student is challenged rather than frustrated. • I would make standards similar to the way we set prepare apprentices and journeymen in the trades. • Progress through more and more intricate projects • For example, a machinist must create a perfect cube out of metal using only manual tools. When this is done, the student has become a master. • The difference in my approach is that like the trades, students must work under a mentor as well as learn classroom or theoretical knowledge. • Students must be assessed before they learn as well as after, so the learning pace can be individualized and take advantage of their zone of proximal development. That is a difficult question Janet… Getting a quality education is mostly the work of the teacher identifying each student’s individual needs. I have nine instructional events that highlight the way students break down information in order to learn. By following these events while teaching, the teacher is more likely to have given a quality education. By (1) Gaining the attention of the student (reception) , (2) informing them of the objective (expectancy) and (3) stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval) you have the basics of a quality education. The other six events solidify that the student has the knowledge of the subject at hand by semantic encoding, responding and reinforcement. I believe students would do much better on standardized testing if teachers were able to dedicate this much attention to each student. With these nine events you have the “goods” for a quality education and the teaching methods involved for every student to get one.

3. L. Vygotsy R. Gagne B F Skinner Lois Lane HS Editor Bob Bartley Wall Street Journal Janet Williams Ed. Testing Serv Herbie Shrek Pixar Entertainment I would tell the workforce of tomorrow to be prepared to use their intellectual skills when starting a new job. Problem solving is a skill that will set you apart from others in your field. If you can recognize the need and go through all the steps to solve that need, you will be steps ahead of your peers. I would make them all cogs in a well-oiled machine. Students, like workers, should be rewarded for appropriate behavior and inappropriate behavior would be extinguished by removing reinforcement or aversive conditioning. Students would be rewarded for good group behavior and the group and teacher would ignore the student if she behaves improperly. How would you prepare the workforce of tomorrow? This guy’s a real Nazi!

4. L. Vygotsy R. Gagne B F Skinner Lois Lane HS Editor Bob Bartley Wall Street Journal Janet Williams Ed. Testing Serv Herbie Shrek Pixar Entertainment Making education entertaining has always been a challenge. Using the basics of my conditions to teach and adding some entertainment couldn’t hurt. Especially since all students learn at different levels. The readiness of a student will determine whether he will be able to learn something. Motivation, particularly, the incentive type can be a very entertaining way of teaching and learning! Adding technology such as an educational video game where students compete against each other is an excellentway for students to learn and have some fun. Sorry, Bob. The education I just described to Herbie would be paired with the types of industries available to a region. Like Intel and Albequerque the businesses could pay their “local corporate taxes” by participating in the students education, building schools at lower cost and higher quality than available through current lengthy bidding processes than school districts. They can also keep the educators appraised as to the needs of industry. The arts would need champions also, however the funding mechanisms would need to be different in some cases. Entertainment is a useless construct unless it is used as the positive reinforcement. Students find learning interesting when they are interested in a topic. Schools should be organized like many of our magnet schools are, around math and computing, performing arts, vocational schools of specific stripes, visual arts, business and accounting, environmental sciences, writing and journalism, the humanities, health care, building trades, etc. Back in my day we didn’t have the multi-media technologies that we have now. We should use enriched teaching methods to reach a higher diversity of students. Herbie is pushy—I still need to ask my question. Can you make education entertaining? Ahem…Lev, How would you prepare the workforce of tomorrow? This guy must be great fun at a party…

5. L. Vygotsy R. Gagne B F Skinner Lois Lane HS Editor Bob Bartley Wall Street Journal Janet Williams Ed. Testing Serv Herbie Shrek Pixar Entertainment Make the consequences of education similar to those on the job. Pay for appropriate behavior, like in a token economy. Students could reach a new grade by earning enough overall money in a lower grade. Advancement to a higher grade increases your pay rate. During the academic year, students could spend their pay for small things from the school store, but only with the school’s currency. That way all students are on a system based on merit. Negative behavior would not be rewarded; if it reaches a certain threshold, you would lose your job or your seat in school. This is the way the world works. Colleges need students who know how to learn and think, rather than students who can temporarily memorize information. Individual attention of mentors, and challenges given at the time the student is ready for them, during a “zone of proximal development” will create those thinkers. Colleges will need to test more authentically, not just with paper and pencil tests for entrance requirements. The system will need to start most intensively in the lowest grades first, so the system will change with them. The higher grades will receive some immersion in these techniques, but it won’t be feasible to change the entire system overnight. Why, of course! My conditions of learning can work for any subject or environment. Using the first, verbal information will be helpful in learning new terminology of the job or in a new class in college. Using your intellectual skills is valuable to your creating your role at your new job or your understanding of the new material being covered in class. Cognitive Strategies are specific to each employee and student. These will determine how well you do your job and how well you can learn the new material being taught. Attitudes couldn’t be more reality based, this is innate in all of us and how we respond to one another. Your attitude at work can make or break you, while your attitude towards school can do the same. Lastly, motor skills are acquired over your lifetime and can be very important if you start working as a brain surgeon or even in construction. These can be applied to college in a reality situation such as music or art class, even in a biology lab. Could you make education more reality based, learn the things we need to know for college or a job? Maybe he’s not so crazy after all.

6. Who would you vote for as Czar of Education? • B.F. Skinner? • Robert Gagne? • Lev Vigotsky? Created by: Bridget Dotzman and Eileen Stec