Resource Creation: To support our conversations, we need a shared base of information and evidence that underlies current realities and potential decisions by topic:
R1 Purpose of Education (framing target outcomes) - Started 2009; updates Dec 2010 & Oct 2011
R2 Historical Perspective (with systemic analysis)
R3 Current Perspective (legal requirements and realities)
R4 Portraits of Success (identification of solution avenues; see also "bright spots")
R5 Ecosystem Challenges (identification and discussion of barriers, focus at systemic level)
Here are the Education Topics we will address in cycles:
T1 Parent Engagement (framing) (takeaways) - define key roles that parents can/should play - Started Jan 2011
T2 Standards (framing) - input on value of establishing core standards - Started 2/16-3/2 2011
T3 Open Curriculum - w/ scope, not sequence; aligned w/learning science; inclusive of world view / cultural norms
T4 Open Methodology - framing TBD .. discussion of a broadened pedagogy?
T5 Teacher Preparation - sophisticated knowledge and skills to understand learners, brain science, families, social constructs, standards, curriculum, assessment and methodology - Started Jan 2012
- relevant UF article Dec'10 as input (MJ,CJ)
T6 Administrator Preparation - (sophisticated knowledge and skills to understand learners, brain science, families, social constructs, standards, curriculum, assessment and methodology)
T7 Assessment - identification of skillset, interest, goal setting, progress monitoring, standards achievement?; aligned with brain science; inclusive of worldview/cultural norms
T8 Evaluation of Teachers - parental engagement, id of standards, implementation of curriculum, implementation of methodology, implementation of assessment
T9 Evaluation of Programs - parental engagement, id of standards, implementation of curriculum, implementation of methodology, implementation of assessment
T10 Activism- to influence clear, flexible policy to ensure accountability that children meet standard goals - started 2011
Let us share the rationale for our approach.
Throughout our work over our first year, we developed and used a problems-based framework P1-P9. Our initial conversations were to share perspectives, gain insight across stakeholders and get a grip on what we saw emerging as the greatest problems in the educational ecosystem. Once we identified what we thought were the greatest problems, we set about engaging in weekly live conversations on Twitter to expand our thinking, clarify the problems and begin to identify possible solutions.
After several conversations it became apparent that while rich and engaging in the moment, our chats were not accomplishing our greatest goal- which was to work through to solutions identification. This is when we recognized that we needed a repository for compiled thinking that grew out of the chats each week and thus developed our wiki. In the past 6 months we have been actively refining the Twitter chat and wiki integration process to engage in and document our best thinking across time.
Now, based on our experiences with both the process and the content, we are excited to roll out the next rendition of our structure that will guide our work together through the next year.
We recognize that to support high quality engagement and idea generation around challenges in education, we need two things: a resource database where we can develop a body of comprehensive resources that address ideas from multiple perspectives and a venue through which we can bring in thinking from multiple worldviews.
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