Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Michelle Scharfe's avatar

An interesting parallel from my classroom experience is that most high school science teachers don’t seem to know what teaching the Next Generation Science Standards is supposed to look like in practice either. Pre-NGSS, in California at least, there were well-defined subject tests that covered the exact scope and sequence that teachers were expected to teach in order for their students to “succeed.” The day-to-day curriculum was more or less prescribed. Now with NGSS, the standards are vague and more skill-oriented. There is no feedback mechanism in the form of a standardized test at the end of the year to tell the teachers whether or not the students achieved the goals. There is also very little guidance on how to actually help the students acquire the targeted skills. Which is better? I don’t know. I think it really depends on the teacher. In my experience, teachers seem to fall into two broad categories: “just tell me what to do” and “don’t tell me what to do.” I wonder if one type would have more success in an Egan classroom than the other. Personally, I suspect it’s the second type that wants the control and freedom that would have more luck bringing his vision to life. It does seem like a pattern language would help both types though. “Don’t tell me what to to do” could look at the high-altitude, yearlong guidance while “Just tell me what to do” could use the ground-floor, minute-by-minute outlines. Homeschoolers will just continue to do whatever the heck we want, like always. 😂

Expand full comment
Alejandro Piad Morffis's avatar

I don't know if I'm the first but you got my 5 bucks. Well played, sir.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts