A futures perspective on learning calls for a redefinition of education. Competencies will go beyond basic skills and the emphasis will be on learning how to learn. (Author)

The challenge of education is to preserve the imagination, questioning, and theoretical stance of a five year old, but gradually replace unfounded prejudices and mind-engravings with more accurate theories, ideas, conceptions, and stories. Correct test answers seldom signify genuine understanding. Gardner's book "The Unschooled Mind" (1991)…

Authentic achievement relies on three restructuring criteria. Students construct meaning and produce knowledge, use disciplined inquiry to construct meaning, and aim their work toward producing discourse, products, and performances possessing value beyond school success. Five standards for rating instruction involve degrees of higher order…

By focusing on a polluted river and a visit to a rural Tennessee town, sixth-grade students from suburban Asheville, North Carolina, learned more about this controversy than many of their well-informed parents and teachers. Steps for creating similar interdisciplinary thematic units are described, along with the benefits of team teaching and…

An English teacher's impromptu unit on social problems gave students opportunity to develop writing skills while expanding concept of community. While gathering data on diminishing rain forests (chosen topic), discussing research in small groups or workshops, interviewing community members, sending letters to political representatives, plugging…

Suburban Chicago middle school teachers designed a month-long unit to foster global education, guided by research on integrated, self-selected, and collaborative learning strategies. Teachers initiated brainstorming activities, grouped students by interest, and demonstrated how to be investigative researchers, informative writers, effective…

Medical schools are starting to put students in small groups and help them solve real problems they will face in treating patients. Trend of problem-based learning in medical schools will have ripple effect throughout education. Teachers relinquishing lecturer's role must become adept at listening, answering questions, and helping students frame…

For three years, Center for Problem-Based Learning at Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy has been developing innovative programs in various K-12 settings. Students meet an "ill-structured problem" (like thorium waste) before receiving instruction. Teachers act as coaches and tutors, probing findings, hypotheses, and conclusions; sharing…

Teachers can help students "find" problems by brainstorming potential research ideas connected to interests they already have. Students of all ages can do descriptive, historical, experimental, correlational, and developmental research. Case, field, causal, and comparative research might be more successful with older students. Conducting real…

Describes the development of an authentic assessment model identifying 14 complex thinking processes. Two teachers designed a task allowing high school students to demonstrate their biotechnological knowledge and simultaneously deploy a complex thinking process (decision making). This model required students to synthesize and integrate what they…

Students do not associate traditional word problems with their own experiences because they describe situations textually, rather than contextually, and seem artificially geared to specific number operations and single correct answers. Aided by a state grant, elementary teachers in one Minnesota district are using video anchors to simulate…

The traditional way of studying history is unappealing to many students because they rarely perform the historian's tasks: defining essential questions, sorting through available source materials, determining topics, drawing conclusions, and presenting them persuasively. Teachers in two Rhode Island high schools have provided students with the…

Author's Civil War study group is built around 124th New York State Volunteers (famed "Orange Blossoms"), historic regiment recruited in Orange County in 1982. Several local high school students have participated in program by donning authentic military uniforms and civilian dress of era, conducting primary research, and presenting programs for…

Recounts the influence of a fourth-grade teacher, who taught the author about Brazil during the Depression era and inspired him to dream about traveling there. Has teachers' dream-building time been squeezed out by an overwhelming emphasis on the basics, test scores, and mandated lesson plans and evaluations? Has the potential for inspiration…

For 16 years, students at Missouri high school have been leaving classrooms to enter work environments of their choosing. Community Learning Program is school-business partnership providing many students with stepping stone to future careers. In semester-long program, students are not paid for work but get academic credit. Experience also helps…