Powerful Learning at the Periphery

Can we make students as excited for school before the final bell as they are for what comes after?

When my colleague Sarah Fine and I set out to study deep or powerful learning in the American high school, we started with core classes — math, English, history, science. But despite the fact that the 30 public schools we chose came highly recommended, much of what we saw was disappointing.

Lots of worksheets. Most tasks residing in the bottom half of Bloom’s taxonomy, with classroom assignments directing students to recall or apply but only rarely to analyze, synthesize or create. When we asked students why they were doing what they were doing, the answers were often dispiritingly similar: “I dunno,” “For college, I guess” and, in one memorable instance, “Ask that girl over there; she’s the one who knows what’s going on in this class.”

We also had opportunities to talk privately with superintendents and other administrators about the education of their own children. And here, in unvarnished moments, speaking as parents rather than professionals, they express remarkably similar sentiments. They worry their kids are doing too many worksheets. They fear their kids see school as something to be endured rather than enjoyed. As one told us, “I just want my daughter to want to go to school.”