In this important new book, Stephanie Pace Marshall argues that by focusing on reforming the contents of schooling and not transforming the context and conditions of learning, we have created false proxies for learning and eroded the potentially vibrant intellectual life of our schools. Finishing a course and a textbook has come to mean achievement. Listening to a lecture has come to mean understanding. Getting a high score on a standardized test has come to mean proficiency. Credentialing has come to mean competence. To educate our children wisely requires that we create generative learning communities, by design. Such learning communities have their roots in meaning, not memory; engagement, not transmission; inquiry, not compliance; exploration, not acquisition; personalization, not uniformity; interdependence, not individualism; collaboration, not competition; and trust, not fear.
About the Author
Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D. is internationally recognized as a pioneer in leading educational transformation. She is the founding and current president of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; the founding president of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology; and a past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Dr. Marshall has worked in all levels of education—elementary, middle school, high school, and university.
Features
For educators and future educators, here is the conversation and the action needed to change our current educational paradigm and build a better, different educational system.
Author is a popular, pioneering, and well-respected educational leader
She connects systemic change to the nuts and bolts of organizational function and human relationships
The book offers design principles to help leaders transform schools into authentic “learning communities”
