Thursday, December 20, 2007

Linda Schrock Taylor proclaims "Writing Is Not a Team Sport, Learning Is Not Team-Dependent"

Linda Schrock Taylor laments public education's insistence to use class led instruction:

"I earned (ha!) only one failing grade during my entire college career, and that grade was in a class in my major area, Education of the Deaf. I had to retake the class, of course, but I waited until I could attend a different college in another state; until I could take the class from a professor who actually taught the class instead of assigning group projects that forced us, unwillingly, into peer-led instruction."

Linda explains why this education fad is so ineffective.

I agree with Linda. Students go to class to learn a subject. Public school teachers are suppose to have mastered the material. By forcing students to teach each other you often get the blind leading the blind. There are a few situations in which it may make sense for students to study the subject and then teach each other, but in general group instruction doesn't work for children who know nothing about the material.

One of the reasons we homeschool is so we can avoid the latest education fad. Diane Ravitch documents that education fads seem to come every couple years in her book Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform.

(Hat tip: The Crimson Wife)


----------
Technorati tags: homeschooling, homeschool, home school, home education, parenting, children, education

No comments: