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Robinson's Weblog

These are the ramblings of an inquisitive educator, as recorded in a fancy Weblog. Her continuing mission: to explore strange new insights, to seek out new understandings and new methods of creating engaging learning experiences, and to go boldly where many other educators are headed as well. ​

Happy Reading!

Robinson’s Weblog  #017: What’s the Point? Part Three: To Science Content and Beyond

1/31/2017

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In Robinson’s Weblog #016:  What’s the Point? Part Two: Preparing Students for Life, I wrote that I believe the purpose of education is to prepare students for life—that is to ensure that all students are critical consumers and effective communicators of information; and are able to make decisions based on evidence. These skills are critical to their participation in public policy and for their overall success in life.

For any entity, its purpose is the reason it exists and matters and its mission describes what it needs to accomplish in order to fulfil its purpose. In the case of education, its purpose and mission are the same: to prepare students for life. 

Goals are more concrete and specific. They define what an entity needs to achieve in order to accomplish its mission.  Each component of education needs to have a concrete and specific goal that when achieved, accomplishes the mission and fulfills the purpose of education; i.e., prepares students for life.

The goal of U.S. K-12 science education, which I wrote about in Robinson’s Weblog #008: What’s the Big Idea? Part Two: The Big Ideas about Science Education (The Vision and Goal of the Framework), is articulated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012), and reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). 

By reading it, you will see that the goal of science education goes beyond simply ensuring that students have an understanding of the natural world (science content knowledge), but it also includes components to ensure that students are able to obtain, make sense of, and use scientific knowledge to inform their daily lives. By embracing this goal as our own, science educators do our part to prepare students for life — that is to ensure that they are critical consumers and proficient communicators of information, and are able to make decisions based on evidence.

As science educators, of course we want to give our students an understanding of the natural world, but the goal of science education and all academic subject areas goes beyond increasing students’ knowledge and understanding to empowering them to use their learnings to make informed decisions on things that matter outside of and beyond school.
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Robinson’s Weblog #016:  What’s the Point? Part Two: Preparing Students for Life

1/24/2017

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In Robinson’s Weblog #015:  What’s the Point? Part One: The Purpose of Education, I wrote that our beliefs influence our actions and as an educator, your belief about the purpose of education frames your day to day instruction and can have as much of an impact on your students as your knowledge of pedagogy and academic content. Because of this, it's important to clearly define it.


At the end of that entry, I had the nerve to say that I believe the purpose of education is to prepare students for life. Then, I thought: “Not so fast young lady— a purpose  has to be clearly defined, remember?”  Lucky for me, I’ve already written a weblog entry in which I’ve done just that. So I will use it to help me out here…...No sense reinventing the wheel.

In Robinson’s Weblog #012: Poor Poor Common Core Part One: What's All The Hullabaloo About? I wrote about the need to teach our students to: read with understanding, distinguish evidence from opinion, reason thoughtfully through problems and issues, and go beyond simply making claims to communicating arguments based on evidence.  These skills will enable them to critically consume and communicate information and make decisions based on evidence. This  is essential to their participation in public policy and for their overall success in life.

So that’s it. I believe the purpose of education is to prepare students for life—that is to ensure that all students are critical consumers and proficient communicators of information, and are able to make decisions based on evidence.
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Robinson’s Weblog #015:  What’s the Point? Part One: The Purpose of Education

1/4/2017

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In Robinson’s Weblog #012: Poor Poor Common Core Part One: What's All The Hullabaloo About?, I wrote that while I was reading about the controversy over the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) I got to a point where I stopped reading and stared into the distance as I thought about the state of our social discourse. As I continued to read various debates and arguments I found myself staring into the distance again. This time, I pondered: “Why do our young people go to school in the first place? I mean, what is the point of formal education?”

While it's easy to get caught up in the arguments about educational approaches, standards, and testing; we all need to step back and ask ourselves this question. Its answer represents the “big picture”—the purpose of education. We don’t want to be so focused on the details that we lose sight of the bigger picture.

In Robinson’s Weblog #008: What’s the Big Idea? Part Two: The Big Ideas about Science Education (The Vision and Goal of the Framework), I wrote that the vision and goal for U.S. K-12 science education articulated A Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012), and reflected in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) identify the “big ideas about science education.” But I’m not talking about science education right now. Here I’m talking about the purpose of education in general. 

For any entity, its purpose is the reason why it exists and matters. It is the motivational force that energizes stakeholders to focus on something greater than themselves. Since our beliefs influence our actions, your belief about the purpose of education frames your day to day instruction and can have as much of an impact on your students as your knowledge of pedagogy and academic content. Because of this, it's important to clearly define it.

To clearly define your belief about the purpose of education, think about what you do as an educator, and why what you do matters. 
Ask yourself: 
What is the most important thing that I do for my students?
To help answer that question, ask yourself:
What are am I trying to accomplish for my students and why?
What kinds of changes do I want to bring about in my students?

Next, check to make sure what you’ve identified is a worthy purpose to fulfil. This may require a fundamental change in what you view as important. To do this, look at your answers to the previous questions and ask yourself:
Will these things make a difference in my students’ lives five years after they’ve taken my course? 
What about ten and twenty years later? How much will they matter then?
Again, ask yourself:
What is the most important thing that I do for my students?

I believe the purpose of education is to prepare students for life. That sounds good, but it’s also rather vague. What does being “prepared for life” really mean? I’ll explore this in an upcoming weblog entry. Stay tuned!


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    Here, I chronicle my journey to create engaging integrative STEM learning experiences for students. These weblog entries include tales from the front line of classroom teaching and online instructional design. ​

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