A Perfect World Is One with No Grades

"To best report learning without the evaluative and sorting/ranking issues surrounding grades, students need to describe (a) what they tried to learn and why, (b) how well they learned it, and (c) how they know (what evidence they have)" (Brookhart, 2019, Support and Report Learning without Grades, ¶2).

Brookhart, Susan M. (2019). A Perfect World Is One with No Grades. ASCD Express, Vol. 14, No. 31. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol14/num31/a-perfect-world-is-one-with-no-grades.aspx

From _The Conversation_: Debunking ... myths about raising bilingual children

Debunking common myths about raising bilingual children

Mark Antoniou, Western Sydney University

By the age of two, children are typically able to say a few hundred words. My son, Alexander, was able to understand almost everything in both languages – Greek and English – but he could say only six words.

Our concerns grew as we watched younger kids overtake his speaking ability. Like many parents, we questioned if we were doing something wrong (even experts can’t escape the fear and guilt that comes with being a parent).

A number of enduring myths surround bilingualism, such as that it causes language delays and cognitive impairments.

However, research shows that raising a child bilingually does not cause language learning difficulties. Any lag in language development is temporary, so parents shouldn’t worry!

Here are some more common myths debunked:

Raising your child bilingually can cause a delay in development

Not true. In fact there are numerous advantages, such as improved executive function (mental planning), metalinguistic awareness (the ability to think about language as abstract units), mental flexibility (processing information adaptively) and creative thinking.

Bilingual children will generally meet developmental milestones within the normal range of language development, but may in some cases be towards the tail end (which was exactly the case with Alexander).

Bilingual children lag behind their peers and won’t catch up

This is a contentious issue, as there is considerable variability within bilingual children. Some children will not show any lag at all.

It has been suggested that a temporary lag may stem from having to accommodate two language systems within the same brain, but these children will catch up within a few months (note that this is not the same as a language delay).

But more research is needed to understand the exact mechanisms that are responsible.

My child will confuse the two languages

False. Although there is some controversy concerning when the languages become separated.
It was long thought that the two languages are fused at first and begin to separate when the child is around five. Recent evidence suggests that the languages may separate a lot earlier than was previously thought.

For example, bilingual children as young as 10-15 months babble differently depending on who they are interacting with (for example, English babbling sounds to the mother, and French babbling sounds to the father).

This suggests that babies are sensitive to who they are talking to from a very young age. This is probably a precursor of code-switching (when bilinguals use two languages within the same utterance).

Five tips for parents raising a child bilingually

1. Be encouraging and patient as you would with any infant, and be aware that a bilingual child faces a tougher task than one learning only a single language.
2. It is very important that both languages serve a functional purpose. Language is, after all, a tool for communication. If the child does not need to use the other language, they will probably stop using it. So, it is important to consistently place the child in situations that necessitate the use of both languages, and ideally with a variety of speakers. Doing so will develop robust speech categories in each language and ensure that they learn to process speech efficiently - which will aid both listening and talking.
3. Many parents worry about the issue of balance, meaning whether a child knows both languages equally well. In the past, it was thought that in order to be truly bilingual you needed to have an equal command of both languages. I conducted a series of studies on very proficient bilinguals and observed time and again that even fluent bilinguals have a dominant language. So, there is little point stressing about a child not having a perfectly equal command of each language because the truth is almost no one does.
4. Parents commonly become concerned when bilingual children mix their languages. Do not worry. This is a normal part of bilingual language development and not a sign of confusion. Even proficient bilinguals mix their languages.
5. If you are concerned about your child’s language development, you should have your child assessed by a doctor and, if necessary, a speech-language pathologist. Bilingual children may present with language delays, just like any other children. If your child has a language delay, early intervention may be required to help them learn their languages.

Mark Antoniou, ARC Research Fellow, MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

[Republished with permission (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/)]

If you're talking 'bout a learning revolution, count Steve in!

A Learning Revolution Project is underway, as is–or soon will be The Learning Revolution Conference (April 21-24, 2014), one of many organised or supported by Steve Hargadon. 

Steve announces these projects and programs in a rack of newsletters and blog posts bursting with information and inspiration with regard to both education and educational uses of technology. For example, the snippets below about risk-taking resonated with concepts of learned helplessness (Maier, Peterson, and Schwartz, 2000) and growth mindsets (Dweck, 2006) that have bubbled up in consciousness as a new semester gets underway.

In follow-up remarks about risk-taking as a fundamental component of proactive learning, Hargadon argued, "Failure is a one of the natural outcomes of risk, but we're not striving for failure--instead, we are encouraging risk and acknowledging that failure will often be the result. / Without risk, there is no progress" (Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶¶2-3). Yet in contrast, Hargadon observed, "… A high-stakes, test-driven education environment induces the opposite of risk-taking, it creates fear, and so results in little intellectual progress" (Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶4).

Celebrating failure itself, of course, makes no sense; nor does never allowing for it. Education is a choice we make in how we think about learners. If we want learners who will take risk, build their skills and talents, and then learn to live their lives fully as contributors and creators, we'll recognize that they need to learn to prepare [for] and take risks, and that failures are an inevitable part of that process. 

(Hargadon, 2014, Final Notes, ¶7).

For more about about Steve's work across the field of education, I recommend browsing through the projects and labs he features on his blog (Steve Hargadon: Projects), and checking out the communities he supports in various other venues (Web 2.0 Labs: Communities). You may well find one or more to suit your own needs. For a bit of follow-up reading on mindsets, I suggest you check out Tomorrow's Professor, post 1324, Mindsets for Learning (April 18, 2014 [JST]), and the list of references included there.

References

Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Random House. 

Hargadon, Steve. (2014, April 15). Learning Revolution Free Events - GREAT Keynotes - MiniCon - ISTEUnplugged! - Striving for Failure? [blog post]. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://www.stevehargadon.com/2014/04/learning-revolution-free-events-great.html

Maier, Steven; Peterson, Christopher; & Schwartz, Barry. (2000). From helplessness to hope: The seminal career of Martin Seligman. In J. Gillham (Ed.). The science of optimism and hope (pp. 11-37). Radnor, PA: Templeton Foundation Press.

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Notes on Schleicher's TED Talk

Schleicher, Andreas. (2012, July). Use data to build better schools. TED Global 2012 [posted February 2013]. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/andreas_schleicher_use_data_to_build_better_schools.html

measuring performance in terms of:
extrapolation,
application, and
preparation for change

PISA (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/)
79 school systems
delivering equity and excellence
spending explains less than 20% of the differences
how money gets spent matters a lot more

range of factors
making "choices that value education, their future, more than consumption today"
embracing "diversity with differentiated pedagogical practices"
personalizing "learning opportunities"

maximizing quality of teachers
recruitment, selection, training, … and beyond