This blog has long kvetched about the tendency to use terms like standards (what proficiencies kids should be able to demonstrate) and curriculum (the material that gets taught in class) interchangably. Michael Goldstein, founder of Boston’s MATCH school observes that education lacks a common vocabulary, which makes life harder for teachers. “They get bombarded all the time with new products, websites, software that all claim they can get students to ‘deeper learning.’ But without a common understanding of what actually qualifies, it’s hard to know if X even purports to get your kids where you want them to go,” he writes.
Goldstein compares education to medicine where there is broad agreement, for example, on the five stages of cancer–and that makes it easier for for medical professionals and patients to work together. “When scientists come up with treatments,” he notes, “they often find them to be effective for cancers only in certain stages. So when they tell doctors: ‘treatment only effective for X cancer in stage two,’ everybody knows what that means.”
In education, no such common vocabulary exists.
“Our sector talks a lot of “Deeper Learning.” Or “Higher-Order Skills.”
“But what does that mean? There’s not a commonly-accepted terminology or taxonomy. Instead, there are tons of competing terms and ladders.
“In math, for example, here’s language that the US Gov’t uses for the NAEP test. Low, middle, and high complexity. I suppose they might characterize the “high” as “deeper learning.”
“Here’s Costa’s approach, a different 3 levels. Text explicit, text implicit, and activate prior knowledge. Again, perhaps the last is “deeper learning.”
“Here’s another take, more general than math-specific, from Hewlett.
“A software like MathScore has its own complexity ratings.
“And so on. You could find 10 more in 10 minutes of Googling.
Goldstein posts a question from Massachusetts’ MCAS tests, a perimeter question that shows four different rectangles and asks, “Which of these has a perimeter of 12 feet?”
“First you need to know what perimeter means. Second you need to know you that you need to fill in the “missing sides.” Third you need to know what to fill in, because you understand “rectangle.” Finally you need to add those 4 numbers. If you only understand 3 of the 4 ideas, you’ll get the question wrong.
“Does this question probe “deeper learning” for a 3rd grader? Who the heck knows?
If this strikes you as mere semantics, think again. A lack of an agreed vocabulary — what is a “basic skill?” What is “higher order thinking?” — is not merely irritating, it can lead to bad practice and misplaced priorities. A third-grade teacher looking to remediate a lack of basic skills might seek help from a software product but she would have “no real idea on how ‘deep’ they go, or how ‘shallow’ they start,” Goldstein notes. “No common language for ‘Depth’ or ‘Complexity.’”
I would add that the problem is more fundamental than that. If a teacher is told “teach higher-order thinking” she might incorrectly assume that time spent on basic knowledge, math skills or fluency is a waste of time. Or, in the worst case scenario, that reading comprehension or higher order thinking can be directly taught.
In reality, without the basic skills and knowledge firmly in place, there’s no such thing as higher order anything and never will be. Yet terms like “higher order thinking” and “complexity” are held up as the gold standard we should be teaching toward. Basic knowledge and prerequisite skills are the unlovely companions of “drill and kill” rather than, say, ”fluency” or “automaticity.” Mischief and miplaced priorities are the inevitable result.
A common vocabulary of diagnosis and treatment would help.