How Are Students Learning and Who Is Leading the Lesson?
by Ann M Ennis
Many are concerned about the Learning Sciences International (LSI) group contracted by EVSC to show our teachers how to help students self-teach.
As explained in the September 10 School Board Meeting by Dr. Smith, “LSI was a seminal point in shift to make sure that each student is responsible for his learning. We are going away from the lecture model …. The way every person in this room was taught was with teacher at front of room lecturing and we as students accepting and taking-in the information from the teacher.” …
Smith continued, “LSI brings content and delivery improvement. LSI is a perfect fit for SEL (social emotional learning model used throughout EVSC). Students have responsibility to work in groups. … We know that success with executive function skills is the most significant indicator of a student’s future success.†Executive functio includes staying on task, critical thinking, listening, collaboration and delegation.
“LSI was brought in (by EVSC) to help shift in approach to educating students,” Dr. Smith said. After the LSI contract ends, with training being provided to teachers through work-day professional development sessions, “we will be able to continue on without LSI and Mass Insight. We can continue and succeed. This is often not the case” after a contracted consultant company departs, said Dr. Smith.
Dr. Smith ended his part of the Sept. 18 meeting, by saying self-teaching and self-regulation “allow all students to develop to their maximum potential.”
In substitute teaching this fall for teachers using the self-instruction method, and in this particular week for teachers who were pulled from class for 2 days of training in the LSI method, I am concerned about the ideal versus reality of students self-teaching and self-regulating. Introducing this method at Kindergarten and taking it through to 12th grade — perhaps. But introducing this concept with 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th graders does not seem to lead to learning.
I would like more information. I would like to see a well functioning self-regulating, self-teaching, group work classroom with a first or second year teacher in a standard middle school classroom. I hope to get it after the election, no matter the result.
FOOTNOTE: This letter is posted by the CCO without opinion, bias or editing.
I just love how the supposed “Education Experts” keep throwing out these new teaching theories one after another. As scores indicated year after year our nation’s youths are becoming less educated than generations past. We throw more money year after year at the issue and year after year the scores get worse and our overall ranking drops. The department of education in this country is a joke. It wastes taxpayers money and basically exists to at the whim of the teachers unions. It’s time to return education decisions to the states and/or local communities. This trickle down process from a central authority does no student any good. Let teachers teach the way they feel comfortable, or the way that works for their particular class each period/day/semester.
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