University
of California, Santa Cruz
Book On Education Reform Offers Alternative To 'Cemetery Model' Of Learning FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Barbara McKenna (831.459.3521); mckenna@cats.ucsc.edu Five Standards model addresses needs of bilingual, low-income, and other a-risk students SANTA CRUZ — From hearing rooms on Capitol Hill to parent meetings in cafeterias across the country, debate continues on how to help more of America's students succeed in the classroom. According to Roland Tharp, director of the national Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), academic excellence can be achieved by more students — including students traditionally at risk of academic failure. Like most education researchers, Tharp is advocating change but, unlike many, Tharp believes improvements will come not through curricular changes, but by restructuring classroom activities and teacher-student interaction. Tharp is the co-author of the book Teaching Transformed: Achieving Excellence, Fairness, Inclusion and Harmony (2000, Westview Press), which outlines a classroom reform model that has been used successfully in schools across the country — from inner city schools in Florida to rural schools of Native American students in New Mexico to schools with predominantly Spanis-speaking students in California. "When schools open this fall," Tharp says, "the overwhelming majority of students across the country will file into ordered rows, pick up their books, and face their teachers. They will be taught in one subject and then move on to the next, in a recurring pattern of teacher-led instruction and assessment." Tharp calls this approach — seated in rows, quietly and passively receiving knowledge — "the cemetery model." This method has been in use since at least the time of the Civil War and numerous studies have shown that in such a classroom it is mainly students in the mainstream — culturally, economically, and academically — who succeed academically. But, Tharp says, there are ways to structure classroom activity so that all students can improve their learning, including those who are traditionally at risk of failing because of linguistic or cultural differences, poverty, or geographical isolation. A leading education reformer and a professor of education at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Tharp has spent decades studying and developing effective standards for learning. Along with several colleagues, he has implemented and observed his approaches in schools throughout the country with great success. An advantage the standards have over curriculur reform is that they are applicable across grade levels, student populations, and subject matters. Teaching Transformed, which is co-authored by Peggy Estrada, Stephanie Stoll Dalton, and Lois Yamauchi, presents real-life examples of transformed classrooms. In these classrooms students often work in small groups. Sometimes groups are formed based on skill level or language ability while others intentionally mix students of varied skills and different native languages. In classrooms with such structures, children tend to focus intently on their projects, share ideas, take on leadership roles, and achieve high levels of comprehension. While each group focuses on its assignment, the teacher sits with one group at a time, functioning as a facilitator rather than an authority. At the core of this classroom model is what Tharp and his colleagues call "Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy." These standards are: * Teachers and Students Producing Together Teachers in classrooms across the country have successfully applied the Five Standards and researchers from CREDE have been working in close collaboration with demonstration schools in Wastonville, California, and Wai'anae, Hawaii, to comprehensively implement the Five Standards. Teaching Transformed is receiving high praise from other experts in education. "In stark contrast to the dogmatic, reductionist, controlling, 'one-size-fits-all' curricular prescriptions that have gained so much favor in the field of education, these authors propose a pedagogy that actually respects the intellect of teachers and students, and that advocates building on their sociocultural resources in creating advanced, flexible, and diverse circumstances for learning," says Luis C. Moll, professor of education at the University of Arizona. The book presents the authors' vision of an ideal classroom, reviews theory and research supporting their model, and offers a process for transforming any traditional classroom into one structured for the successful learning of a diversity of students. Along with theory, the book offers examples, guidelines, and other resources for creating a transformed classroom. THE FIVE STANDARDS FOR EFFECTIVE PEDAGOGY STANDARD 1: TEACHERS AND STUDENTS PRODUCING TOGETHER The teacher: * Designs instructional activities requiring student collaboration
to accomplish a joint product in the time available. STANDARD 2: DEVELOPING LANGUAGE AND LITERACY ACROSS THE CURRICULUM The teacher: * Designs activities that motivate students to use new language
for everyday and academic purposes. STANDARD 3: MAKING MEANING: CONNECTING SCHOOL TO STUDENTS' LIVES The teacher: * Designs instructional activities based on what students already
know from home, community, and school. STANDARD 4: TEACHING COMPLEX THINKING The teacher: * Presents challenging standards for student performance. STANDARD 5: TEACHING THROUGH CONVERSATION The teacher: * Converses with students about academic topics using content
lexicon and concepts in small group (3 to 7 students) on a regularly
scheduled basis. |