 issor2:I worry that we may end up with children who will be put in to a state of shock when they alight on a university campus after all these years spent learning in an active way.
I think pretty much through my entire time at uni I learnt in an active way. I was terrible at school when we were sat in rows and my teachers just told me to do x and y because it was in an exam. The teaching wasn't good for the academic pupils and it put me at a disadvantage I would argue as I was not challenged or engaged. School for me was nothing like being at uni. At uni we were given problems that we had to find solutions to, lectures were about giving us skills and strategies that could be used to solve these problems. I think you could argue that almost every subject at uni expects active learning. Some more than othes of course. CanuckGrrl: The misguided interpretation of "active" learning as "bums off seats" learning
I think you've got it spot on CanuckGrrl, this is either down to those in charge not taking the time to find out what active learning really just not getting it. CanuckGrrl: Not to mention the world of work: we are doing a whole generation of children a huge disservice by leading them to think that learning must be easy and fun. Sure, learning is exciting and mind-stretching and life-expanding---I'd argue that it's the most important thing they will ever do---, but for that very reason it's also hard and serious work that demands their best attention and performance, and we're doing them a huge disservice leading them to think otherwise.
Spot on. I don't see that CfE makes us all have to teach constantly "fun" and "bums off seats" lessons. I see that more as a problem from individual school management. Today two of my top classes spent most of their time in silence working individually. They were learning actively at the time and I often get very positive feedback from them. What's stopping CfE from being academic enough for all children in the main is a lack of money to provide an adequate number of resources (from subject specialists to paper for photocopying) and of course time. You cannot expect every teacher to do all they are asked to do already and produce fully differentiated material for every child in a class of 30 mixed ability pupils for new courses. Please excuse the length of the post.
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