President Obama and Education: The Possibility for Dramatic Improvements in Teaching and Learning
30 Jun 2009-Harvard Educational Review (Harvard Education Publishing Group)-Vol. 79, Iss: 2, pp 210-223
TL;DR: From the unique perspective gained heading Obama's education policy transition team, Darling-Hammond describes President Obama's commitment to making the education of every child a collective responsibility and reviews the major tenets of the new administration's plans for education as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: From the unique perspective gained heading Obama's education policy transition team, Darling-Hammond describes President Obama's commitment to making the education of every child a collective responsibility and reviews the major tenets of the new administration's plans for education. She reflects on the importance of suggested policy changes, particularly focusing on the importance of legislation to improve teacher capacity and retention. Finally, she considers how the field of education might look in 2016 should the Obama administration's education agenda succeed as planned.
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01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: For instance, Kress and Kress as discussed by the authors found that multimodal composing on literature generated a new appreciation for the rewards of this active stance and sustained attention to print texts through multimodality reflection on print meaning.
Abstract: rather than love between two people: When we put it all together we just used different people and it was like every Transmediating with Multimodal Literacies 397 line was a different boy and a different girl. So it wasn’t just one boy and one girl, both happy and then both sad. But it was like one and then another and then another and then another. It was cool.... You got to understand it not only from just one boy and one girl being happy and then sad or just one relationship after another, [but] different people. This clever representation of a repeating cycle of love and loss fits well with Shakespeare’s complex depictions of love in the sonnets. Hazel described another group’s poem showing her appreciation of their physical representation of thematic abstraction: “This other poem, it had like a timeless theme and it showed how [the camera] was like going all around but it was, like, he was in still pictures and I thought that was so cool.” In the end, Hazel saw the purpose for the assignment as “to teach everybody that they can not only write a poem but understand it and teach everyone else to understand it too.” She did well on her Shakespeare test (“got a 98”) and said making the poetry video helped: “It wasn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it was just getting the gist of everything. Like I had to put my mind in a set where, okay, this is not actually what it seems or it’s not literally the sky is dark or something like that. It probably meant like a dark, sad emotion or something. I had to connect the two.” The “gist” seemed to be Hazel’s understanding of an expectant mindset that questioned images for potential symbolic meaning and required active readers “to connect” the literal image with representational possibilities. This insight provided her with a workable strategy for approaching literary texts and possible abstract themes. Students’ multimodal composing on literature generated a new appreciation for the rewards of this active stance and sustained attention to print texts through multimodal reflection on print meaning. By using modes to engage more of their bodies in materially and conceptually composing interpretations; delving into symbolic thinking and abstract meaning; re-reading deeply with purpose; and drawing on and reading their lifeworlds with thematic intent, students developed their thinking and learning through their transmediating efforts in DV composing. In the words of Kress (2010), their “transformative engagements” led to learning, an expansion of their “semiotic/ conceptual resources.” Transmediating DV Composing to the Written Essay The clearest example of the relationship between DV composing and essay writing came from Ms. Watson’s class. Her DV assignments actively served to scaffold the structure of the thematic essay in a way that engaged students, but also focused attention to the thinking and organization involved in this written form. As described earlier, the first DV assignment asked students to create a thematic link between two flash fiction pieces and then make a DV to show it. The second DV assignment asked students to respond to a teacher-provided theme (critical lens) and asked students to illustrate it with examples from life and from The Giver (1996). Her student Nevin was quite clear about the wisdom of this mediation: I learned that writing most of these essays that we have to write for the English III exams are easier than they seem. Like, when somebody explaining something to you, you just getting words on how to write words, but the video gave us another example. So, instead of getting words we got actions to go along with the words, so it helped us understand. 398 Literacy Research Association Yearbook, 60 Only in this class did students suggest that the graduation essays “were easier than they seem.” Nevin’s reasoning that other modes—actions, images, sounds—provided a better mediation than a within-mode explanation—“getting words on how to write words”—seems to be a rational explanation. The thematic abstraction Nevin was supporting in his DV on The Giver (1996), served him well as he wrote a critical lens on the theme of strengths. He was able to flexibly reason about these abstractions: “What we did was about bravery, but this one is about strengths and bravery is a strength. So I basically just switched it around from basically talking about bravery to adding bravery and courage into a strength.” Framing bravery and courage as a moral strength was a thoughtful move. From there he drew on the thematic video he and his group had composed to guide his essay: Like now that I’m writing the essays right after we did that [DV], it helped me understand them more...Like with—like ‘cause with the essay, especially with the one that I’m doing now with the critical lens ‘cause we had to pick out a certain part about The Giver and ‘cause acting it out helped me write my critical lens ‘cause that’s all I had to basically do is go back and think about, okay, what’d we do with the video? And I remember it, okay, this thing and this—I just took the scene and made it as my body, my body paragraph. Using the DV as a mental model for the essay, with scene corresponding to paragraph, mediated his writing multimodally; his acting served as a kinesthetic reminder to use the scene as “my body paragraph.” The sense of embodied memory and cognition is strong in his description. Nevin drew a sharp distinction between this essay and how he had approached earlier ones: “Whatever the statement is before, we used to really sit there and think like, okay—like, I used to basically write a summary of the whole story.” This plot-summary strategy was such a widespread stand-in for thematic abstraction and analysis in student essays, that it appeared on the state rubric as the description for a score of 2 (not passing) on a 6-point scale. What Nevin learned from the DV composing seems relatively simple—unless you do not understand it: The first one that we did on The Giver, I learned to base both body paragraphs on your statement....but now I see just pull out a specific part of the story. Summarize the story real quick like, basically, the main character and what happened. And, once you do that, find a part in the story that best suits the quote and use the literary elements just to back you. Nevin’s move from a plot-driven to a theme-driven essay was what made the essay much easier than he had thought it was. With some effort to shape at the point of utterance, he also provided a conclusion that elaborated what he learned: “And doing the video project, we acted out, basically, the way the literary elements... the way that they helped—basically, the way that they helped us prove why that part of the story relates to the quote.” Here, Nevin seems to realize the persuasive purpose of the essay that makes his own thinking relevant to the writing, and he completes the account of what makes the written argument—the explanation of “why that part of the story relates to the quote.” In all, Nevin has learned through his DV composing to structure his written essay, explain abstractions like strength as inclusive of bravery and following conscience, and use explanation to connect an example to a claim or theme. Transmediating with Multimodal Literacies 399 This idea that DV composing mediates written composing also showed up from Tacita, who was in the same class. She narrated a similar kind of learning. In talking about DV composing and critical lens composing, she explained: “We learn how to use the digital camera and we learn how to edit things out that we didn’t want in our video....It helped me understand the controlling idea better. [How’d it do that?] Because I never understood what it was until I did the video.” This terminology of “controlling idea” was one of many concepts that teachers used to try to teach thematic abstraction to students. In using this term in the DV assignment, Ms. Watson engaged students’ effortful attention to its use as a guiding idea in the DV. Before doing the video Tacita admits, “I never understood what it was.” As an 11th grader scheduled to take the ELA exam, Tacita must have heard the term many times. Perhaps, like Nevin, she was “just getting words on how to write words,” in a way that did not help her to understand. She says, in fact, “ I ain’t never know what it [controlling idea] was FOR. I thought the essays was stupid.” After finishing the DV, she was able to explain the intertextual intent of the critical lens (thematic) essay: In controlling idea, you got to compare the two stories and find out if they got the same controlling idea—you’ve got to see if they’ve got the same controlling idea and stuff. In the critical lens, you’ve got to find two stories that go with the quote, agree or disagree with the quote. [DV] made me understand the essays more. Her DV composing required active thinking that carried over to thinking about print and written texts. A more knowledgeable Tacita understood the purpose, finally, for controlling idea: “The essays are important because if you want to know what the two stories is talking about, then you— or to show what they talking about, then [you show] what’s the point?” In other classes students felt more confident about writing critical lens essays after composing DVs on a literary text. After making her poetry video on Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937/2000), Natalie felt, “I would definitely use that on a critical lens question because now I know a lot about the book. I’ve learned so much about it. And I can just right off the bat tell every single detail about the book.” Because in that class students transmediated the book to a thematic poem and the poem to a poetry video, Natalie had “spent more time with it than any other book that we’ve done.” Dax saw that, “With your essay and with your video you have to have thought before you start it” and in both you need to “perform, meaning writing it down,” and final
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Cites background from "President Obama and Education: The ..."
...Even though they are faced with budget pressures and growing demands for performance improvement and accountability in education, faculty members are being asked to become more involved in teaching, learning, research, and various other services (Darling-Hammond, 2009)....
[...]
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a brief history of educational change at the local and national level, and discuss the causes and problems of implementation and continuation of change at both the local level and the national level.
Abstract: Part I Understanding Educational Change 1. A Brief History of Educational Change 2. Sources of Educational Change 3. The Meaning of Educational Change 4. The Causes and Problems of Initiation 5. The Causes and Problems of Implementation and Continuation 6. Planning Doing and Coping with Change Part II Educational Change at the Local Level 7. The Teacher 8. The Principal 9. The Student 10. The District Administrator 11. The Consultant 12. The Parent and the Community Part III Educational Change at Regional and National Levels 13. Governments 14. Professional Preparation of Teachers 15. Professional Development of Educators 16. The Future of Educational Change
10,256 citations
Book•
18 May 2009
TL;DR: The Double Helix of Teaching: Managing the Dialectic Between Students and Subjects as mentioned in this paper is a well-known approach to teacher education that aims to address the dilemma of teacher education.
Abstract: Preface. Acknowledgments. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION. 1. Creating Powerful Teacher Education. 2. Why Teacher Education Is Important-and Difficult. 3. Addressing the Dilemmas of Teacher Education: Evidence of Success. PART TWO: CONCEPTUALIZING KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND PRACTICE. 4. Conceptualizing the Knowledge Base for Teaching. 5. Developing and Assessing Teaching: Constructing Performances of Understanding. 6. Constructing the Clinical Experience: The Glue for Powerful Preparation. PART THREE: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER. 7. The Double Helix of Teaching: Managing the Dialectic Between Students and Subjects. 8. Educating for Equity. 9. Preparing Teachers to Reach All Students. PART FOUR: ISSUES OF CONTEXT AND CHANGE. 10. Transforming Teacher Education: Institutional Challenges. 11. Developing Professional Policy. Appendix A. Study Methodology. Appendix B. Survey Results. Appendix C. Program Structures References. About the Author.
1,345 citations
"President Obama and Education: The ..." refers background in this paper
...New teachers must see expert practices modeled in all of their complexity and must practice such pedagogy with ongoing support from coaches in the classroom (Darling-Hammond, 2006)....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future as discussed by the authors is a sobering account of the current crisis of public education in America focusing on equity as a critical measure of the situation.
Abstract: As America enters the 21st century, U.S. students continue to slip behind in the world's rankings in science and math. Yet, at the same time, state prison budgets are increasing nearly three times as fast as budgets for education. Linda Darling-Hammond, a chief education advisor to President Barack Obama, bestselling author, and nationally recognized leader in education reform, explores these and many other troubling realities in "The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future". This sobering account of the current crisis of public education in America focuses on equity as a critical measure of the situation. The author identifies the basic lack of access to opportunities at all levels of public education for low-income and minority students and cogently argues that improving America's performance in the global economy is tied to closing the minority - majority achievement gap at home. "The Flat World and Education" offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning America's future and reminds us that every one benefits when all students have an equal opportunity to achieve. It also lays out how the United States can provide that opportunity for every child in every community.
1,094 citations
TL;DR: Lisuride can be administered to persons prior or subsequent to the ingestion of alcohol to block the behavioral and physiological effects of the alcohol as mentioned in this paper, but it is not suitable for the use in medical applications.
Abstract: Lisuride can be administered to persons prior or subsequent to the ingestion of alcohol to block the behavioral and physiological effects of the alcohol.
1,002 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that teacher supply policy should attract well-prepared teachers to districts that sorely need them while relieving shortages in fields like special education, math and the physical sciences.
Abstract: Teacher quality is now the focus of unprecedented policy analysis. To achieve its goals, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires a “highly qualified teacher” in all classrooms. The concern with teacher quality has been driven by a growing recognition, fueled by accumulating research evidence, of how critical teachers are to student learning. To acquire and retain high-quality teachers in our Nation’s classrooms will require substantial policy change at many levels. There exists longstanding precedent and strong justification for Washington to create a major education manpower program. Qualified teachers are a critical national resource that requires federal investment and cross-state coordination as well as other state and local action. NCLB provides a standard for equitable access to teacher quality that is both reasonable and feasible. Achieving this goal will require a new vision of the teacher labor market and the framing of a national teacher supply policy. States and local districts have vital roles to play in ensuring a supply of highly qualified teachers; however, they must be supported by appropriate national programs. These programs should be modeled on U.S. medical manpower efforts, which have long supplied doctors to high- need communities and eased shortages in specific health fields. We argue that teacher supply policy should attract well-prepared teachers to districts that sorely need them while relieving shortages in fields like special education, math and the physical sciences. We study the mal-distribution of teachers and examine its causes. We describe examples of both states and local school districts that have fashioned successful strategies for strengthening their teaching forces. Unfortunately, highly successful state and local program to meet the demand for qualified teachers are the exception rather than the rule. They stand out amid widespread use of under-prepared teachers and untrained aides, mainly for disadvantaged children in schools that suffer from poor working conditions, inadequate pay and high teacher turnover. The federal government has a critical role to play in enhancing the supply of qualified teachers targeted to high-need fields and locations, improving retention of qualified teachers, especially in hard-to-staff schools, and in creating a national labor market by removing interstate barriers to mobility.
605 citations