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PAST OR PRESENT PARADIGMS OF THINKING

By

Mike King

Published: July 10, 2011

I n every story there is a story line and what keeps the story line interesting is the back stories.

Today we are going to tell the story of Adopting Technology into the Common Core. We are

also going to tell the back stories of how students will learn best in the Common Core. These

back stories will be about inflection points, and past or present paradigms of thinking. The new

back stories will be about thinking outside of the box for a new generation, a new generation of

learners who will be asked to perform authentically while thinking abstractly.

Let's take one example of an

inflection point as it might be

related to the future. This back

story concerns the launching of

Netscape as Thomas Friedman

points out the importance of

“inflection points” in his tory. You

know, inflection points, the point

in a curve at which it changes

direction from convex to concave,

or vice versa . Friedman states in

his book entitled the World is Flat that when Netscape was launched “We went from a world

where value was created in vertical silos of command and control to one in which value is

created horizontally on this platform by who you connect and collaborate with… I would argue

that shift from command-and-control to connect-and-collaborate is the mother of all inflection

points. … It is the biggest event, I would argue, to change human beings and how they interact,

since Guttenberg invented the printing press.” Now how does this back story on inflection

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points relate to the plot of our story -- Education is at an inflection point – a strategic

opportunity to change course or direction.

We are now introduced to the next back

story of a paradigm, a paradigm of

dysfunctional proportions , the idea of

accountability as established through No

Child Left Behind. A paradigm is a set of rules

and regulations that does two things: (1) it

establishes boundaries; and (2) it tells you

how to behave inside the boundaries in order

to be successful. But what if the paradigm iswrong? What if the boundaries that are set

for you are out of proportion to how you

measure success? In this case the back story

of No Child Left Behind.

A little bit too late, or is it a little bit misunderstood? "Our education system was never

designed to deliver the kind of results now needed to equip students for today's world- andtomorrow's. The system was originally created for a very different world. To respond

appropriately, we need to rethink and redesign." The problem with this statement is that it was

published in 2006 which advocates the old paradigm of thought as the book entitled "Change

Leadership," is operating under the premises of No Child Left behind. What is prominent in this

back story is the failure to recognize a system that forces us to continue to improve the current

system, a system designed in reporting progress on two dichotomy lines, success or failure.

In April of 2011 the National Center for Fair & Open Testing concluded that practices

implemented through NCLB have been unsuccessful. NCLB has not succeeded, with rare

exception, in even maintaining the previous rates of improvement. In a recent June 13th, 2011

article of " eSchool News" the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was reported as saying,

"that 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures in the year 2012 if No Child Left

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Behind isn’t changed. " This statement only reinforces popular opinion that the majority predict

that no one state will meet the law’s goal of having 100 percent of students proficient in math

and reading by 2014.

These statements of predicted failure for public

education under the NCLB Act is articulated in

another way in terms of lack of authenticity in

an article November 2008 article “Why Rising

Test Scores May Not Equal Increased Student

Learning.” In the article the author David

Berliner states, "It is not uncommon for 20-60

school days per year to be spent in test-preparation activities. Children trained to answer questions are drilled on items that will appear

on their test. But that is not education. It is training. It is less clear that any authentic learning

has occurred.” Have we now after ten years of struggling with the reality of the first paradigm,

finally came to grips that the educational system is in fact, in need of reauthorization?

Now that leads us back to the plot of the story and its most essential question, "What is

reauthorization?" Reauthorization is simply moving away from the first paradigm as we arenow in a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is discovering problems that we cannot solve which

triggers a catalyst in new ways of thinking. Thinking the Common Core way. A way to reach

success for all as it is defined in college and career readiness. Yet we know that in every

paradigm shift begins a new set of problems. It is the special set of problems that everyone in

the field wants to be able to solve. But in the shift it becomes very complex in that no one has a

clue as how to solve it.

This article is written for the purpose of providing the reader with information on how to adopt technology into the CommonCore by relooking at traditional classroom tools and transitioning into new ways of teaching and learning. The Digital Sandboxexplores the future of learning through the recreation of 21st Century learning environments. Visit the Digital Sandbox:http://digitalsandbox.weebly.com/