Finally in
Virginia, there is movement to eliminate the multiple choice tests heavily
focused on content. Tony Wagner points out in his book, Most Likely to Succeed, that just because you drill a student on
the definition and spelling of tenacious doesn’t mean that the student will be
tenacious. He further states that
drilling students on solving simultaneous equations does nothing to help them
learn how to solve complex problems in life.
It is definitely time to move away from teachers covering a laundry list
of facts and students completing mindless tasks in order to take state mandated
tests. Performance-based assessments are slowly being implemented and replacing
the out dated SOL tests. For students to be successful on these assessments,
they will need the same skills the new global economy is demanding for them to
be successful. Collaboration,
communication, creativity, and critical thinking are the “Four C’s” that are
integral to our students’ future.
Integrating these skills into the daily curriculum is long overdue.
As economies
around the globe experience a steady decline of large bureaucratic companies,
we can already see job creation coming from small, nimble companies with
creative and innovative workers. Therefore,
the key question for our county is, “How well are we preparing our youth to
succeed?” Tony Wagner states that if we continue to drill the innovation and
creativity out of our students, we face the chilling prospect of having tens of
millions of young adults without the skills necessary to participate and flourish
in this new world.
The
difficult task for many school divisions will be convincing teachers to change
their way of teaching from this decades-old method. If we continue to focus on what’s best for
our students, then there shouldn’t be any debate about the urgency of making
these changes in the classroom. I am encouraged to see inspiring examples of
teachers who have already embraced this new challenge by turning their
classrooms into engaging environments that enable students to create and discover
without fear of failure. Our teachers
and educational leaders are having the important conversations now about how to
embrace the changes that are necessary and identifying the training that will
need to be provided as we move forward in meeting the needs of our
post-millennials or Generation Z.
