It's Not What You Teach But How

7 Insights to Making the CCSS Work for You

Nancy Sulla

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317820758
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

How do we prepare students to become problem-finders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who can thrive in a global society? The Common Core charts a pathway to success, yet we know that checking off each standard one by one will not achieve the kind of results we want. This powerful book by bestselling author Nancy Sulla has the answers. She explains how teachers can bring students to deeper levels of learning by shifting from the what to the how of the CCSS. She offers seven insights that you can use to teach the standards in a more meaningful way, to bring all of your students to true understanding and application.

You'll uncover how to…

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• Incorporate ends-based teaching to ensure that the instructional focus is on the ultimate goal of each standard and not just on the basic skills;

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• Encourage grappling with content through structured techniques such as problem-based learning, questioning, and simulations;

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• Use cognitive progression, by understanding how the brain learns, to produce real results.

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• Harness the power of language in all disciplines, not just in English language arts;

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• Build executive function in the brain rather than focusing on academic function alone;

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• Increase retention by using learning and practice activities in different ways and by differentiating instruction; and

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• Become a true facilitator, not just a responder to students' questions.

Throughout the book, you'll find a variety of practical examples from across the curriculum, as well as "Your Turn" opportunities to help you try the ideas in your own classroom.

The future may not be easily defined, but it can be shaped by teachers who are right now preparing the next generation of world citizens.

Chapter 1
Problem-Finders, Innovators, and Entrepreneurs

The future is not Google-able.

—William Gibson

Our lives are changing at an unprecedented pace. Transformational shifts in our economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological systems offer unparalleled opportunities, but the interconnections among them also imply enhanced systemic risks. Stakeholders from across business, government and civil society face an evolving imperative in understanding and managing emerging global risks which, by definition, respect no national boundaries.

(World Economic Forum, 2014, p. 7)

Thomas Friedman (2007) asserted that the world is flat. Technology has created one global society, melding individuals and companies in different countries, allowing employees of one company to work from anywhere in the world, and fostering communication and collaboration among peoples around the world. This flattening offers the “empowerment of individuals to act globally” (Friedman, 2007, p. 11). Even work challenges and government policies that seem to be local may have global impact. We no longer depend solely on our own community or country; we are all intertwined; we are a global society. More than sharing information, we solve problems with people around the world, whether a problem is addressing a supply-and-demand issue for goods, collaborating on space exploration or environmental issues, utilizing available personnel for help-desk issues, or averting war. Likewise, we create problems for one another around the world based on actions we take in our own countries that affect the economy, environment, and humanity.

Figure 1.1 Solve for X (www.solveforx.com) Key Graphic

In February of 2012, Google held an experimental event over three days during which “forty-six scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world came together to discuss and debate radical solutions using breakthrough technologies to some really big problems” (www.solveforx.com/about/team). As a result, Google launched a website called “Solve for X” (www.solveforx.com): “A place to hear about and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems.” A key site graphic (see Figure 1.1) defines “moonshot thinking” through three intersecting circles marked “huge problem,” “radical solution,” and “breakthrough technology,” with the intersection being marked “x.” The site offers videos of “Solve for X” talks, opportunities for the public to digitally discuss issues, and the ability to create circles of people interested in the same problems for the purpose of collaboration.

One “Solve for X” video describes thirty-something Leslie Dewan’s innovation for producing energy from nuclear waste. At the time of her “moonshot thinking,” the world had amassed 270,000 metric tons of high-level nuclear waste—a number that was continuing to build at 9,000 metric tons per year. She and colleague Mark Massie designed the “Waste-Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor,” which would convert nuclear waste into electricity. Given 270,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, they predict the reactor could produce enough electricity to power the world for seventy-two years.

Leslie and Mark were Ph.D. students at M.I.T. when they decided to take the next step beyond academia and design a nuclear reactor. They considered that the nuclear waste from a typical nuclear reactor still contained significant energy and determined that they should find a way to extract the remaining energy: problem-finders who went beyond the typical question of simply how to store nuclear waste to how to eliminate it. They won the U.S. Department of Energy’s top award in the Future Energy innovation contest: innovators who developed a unique solution to a global problem. They decided to build these reactors: entrepreneurs who started a company called Transatomic.

In another Solve for X video, Aldo Steinfeld shares his “aha” moment flying from Germany to California in which he realized that, based on the amount of fuel consumed by the jet and the number of passengers on the plane, his carbon footprint for that flight was 1.4 tons of CO 2. A problem-finder sets the stage for innovation. Given there were then no alternative fuels for aircraft, his “moonshot thinking” became how to produce airplane fuel from water, CO 2, and solar energy. An innovator generates new ideas and fuels the drive for entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, Aldo heads the Solar Technology Laboratory at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Zurich, where this idea can come to fruition.

A third Solve for X video shows Dr. Keith Black sharing his “moon-shot thinking” for identifying beta amyloid plaques building up in the brain—the building blocks of Alzheimer’s—through an eye examination. His radical solution would allow people to take significant steps early on to slow the advancement of the disease. Dr. Black knew that pharmaceuticals existed to treat the brain for the plaque buildup. As a problem-finder, he recognized the need to identify the existence of these plaques well in advance of the appearance of the disease’s symptoms, at which point a significant loss of brain cells would have already occurred. As an innovator, he designed a retinal imaging test to accomplish just that. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded NeuroVision Imaging, LLC to develop the capability to perform the test.

Problem-Finders

In a world in which we have to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet, problem finding is an important next step beyond the solving of known problems. Problem-finders:

… sort through vast amounts of information and inputs, often from multiple disciplines; experiment with a variety of different approaches; are willing to switch directions in the course of a project; and often take longer than their counterparts to complete their work.

(Pink, 2012, p. 127)

Perhaps the first reference to problem-finders was made in 1881 by the French philosopher Paul Souriau, as cited by Sawyer (2006, p. 72): “There is something mechanical, as it were, in the art of finding solutions. The truly original mind is that which finds problems.” While Souriau drew attention to the power of problem finding, it appears the term “problem-finder” was first introduced in a study of creativity by Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi (1976). They identified two stages of problem finding: problem formulation and problem solution. They noted, too, that problem finding is not a skill relegated to a talented, creative few; the creativity required for problem finding is more a matter of connecting with purpose than of possessing any particular skillset.

Children can be taught to be problem-finders. More recently, Ewan McIntosh gave a Ted Talk in which he proposed that schools place an emphasis on problem finding, beyond the current focus on problem solving. Teachers who offer students a field of content in which to find and solve problems are developing problem-finders. A global society that must be prepared to solve problems it doesn’t even know are problems yet needs problem-finders. Schools must produce problem-finders.

Innovators

In a society that has moved from an agrarian economic model to an industrial model to an information model, we need “a new engine of economic growth for the twenty-first century …. And there is general agreement as to what that new economy must be based on. One word: innovators” (Wagner, 2012, p. 2). According to www.oxforddictionaries.com, an innovator is “a person who introduces new methods, ideas, or products.” Innovators associate, question, observe, experiment, and network (Wagner, 2012).

Stanford University is home to the ground-breaking d.school (the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design) in which students apply “design thinking” and focus on “how to ease people’s lives.” As a result of their work, students have “developed original ways to tackle infant mortality, unreliable electricity and malnutrition in the third world” (Perlroth, 2013, p. 1); d.school is developing innovators. Teachers who engage students in devising solutions for open-ended, authentic problems are developing innovators. The future of a country’s economy and success as a world leader depends upon the work of innovators. Schools must produce innovators.

Entrepreneurs

Innovators who turn ideas into action are entrepreneurs. The word “entrepreneur” derives from the early 19th century French term entreprendre, to undertake. Yong Zhao (2012) asserts that we need to broaden the use of the term entrepreneur as it applies to today’s society. In the traditional sense, entrepreneurs create jobs for themselves by starting businesses or supplying goods or services. Not all entrepreneurs need own their own business, however; they need only turn their ideas into action. Social entrepreneurs seek to make a difference through the promotion of social values: making a difference in the world that does not necessarily translate into personal profit. Entrepreneur-ship follows innovation: where innovation is the having of new ideas, entrepreneurship is the enacting of those ideas. Both rely on problem finding and innovation. Teachers who provide students with opportunities to engage with real audiences and turn their ideas into action are developing entrepreneurs. A civilization that intends to progress over time, and not vanish, requires entrepreneurs. Schools must produce entrepreneurs.

Tomorrow’s Moonshot Thinkers

Clearly, if we fail to identify and solve the world’s biggest problems, nothing else will really matter. It is likely that most of those “moonshot thinkers” who will, in fact, identify and offer viable solutions to global problems are sitting in classrooms today; perhaps some are sitting in classrooms in your school. If these problem-finders, innovators, and entrepreneurs seem like they will only emerge from among the gifted and talented students, look again. A sixth-grade student read a book on airplane engines and wrote to the Pentagon, suggesting ideas for making its fighter planes more efficient and effective; the Pentagon wrote back. Students living in a town where a new bridge is under construction learned that a plan for connecting a pedestrian/bike path had not yet been devised. They set to work researching and offering innovative ideas, which they presented to the bridge project leaders. These are just two examples of many classroom projects in which students were charged with making a difference.

In order for schools to meet the needs of a global society, they must prepare students to be problem-finders, innovators, and entrepreneurs. None of these skills should be viewed as innate; they all can be taught, to all students, at varying levels. Today’s students are ready to make the leap from passive recipients of information to active participants in a classroom that will prepare them for their future. The world needs problem-finders, innovators, and entrepreneurs.

What Today’s Employers Want

When it comes to the needs of employers, if a picture says a thousand words, then the word cloud in Figure 1.2 says it all. As part of a regional research initiative, WorkForce Now (Regional Economic Research Institute, 2013), three major employers in Southwest Florida (Arthrex, Chico’s, and Lee Memorial Health System) were asked to provide information on their critical employment gaps—positions that are difficult to fill for lack of qualified employees. They shared the job descriptions and requirements of these positions. Feeding these job descriptions and requirements into www.wordle.net—an online tool that calculates the frequency of words and displays them in a font size relative to their frequency—produced this image.

Note that the greatest needs of these employers are for those who communicate well, possess a customer service orientation, solve problems, act well as team players, and utilize technology. An online survey of 318 employers concurs, indicating that 93% value critical thinking, communication, and complex problem-solving skills over a candidate’s undergraduate degree (Hart Research Associates, 2013). “More than three in four employees say they want colleges to place more emphasis on helping students develop five key learning outcomes, including: critical thinking, complex problem solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings” (p. 1). Additionally, the survey revealed that an employee’s ability to contribute to the innovation of a company is a high priority for employers. Whereas schools have been criticized for failing to produce a skilled and knowledgeable workforce for today’s society (Carnevale, 2013), the CCSS now address all of these skills.

Figure 1.2 Wordle Created From Employer Needs

Educating Problem-Finders, Innovators, and Entrepreneurs

Much of the information schools have spent years having students memorize is now all available on the Internet: “Google-able,” if you will. However, while facts, data, and other information are available, what are not are the solutions to complex, real-world problems and, more importantly, the finding of problems. As the novelist William Gibson said, “The future is not Google-able” (comment made at A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Feb. 5, 2004).

In an online Forbes magazine article entitled, “Educate for problem-solving, not factories” (Townsend, 2012), the author asserts that educators “must consider the power of new learning models to unlock the potential of youth … create value by teaching people to make a living as problem-solvers and purposeful entrepreneurs” (par. 18). While computers can automate many rote-skill jobs—such as tollbooth collectors, bank tellers, grocery clerks, etc.—complex problem finding and problem solving is still largely a human process.

Yong Zhao, in his 2012 book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, drives home the need to educate students to innovate and, from their ideas, take action. Zhao shares bold ideas by those who are studying this entrepreneurial phenomena: “Entrepre...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Introduction
• 1 Problem-Finders, Innovators, and Entrepreneurs
• 2 The First Insight: CCSS Achievement Requires Ends-Based Teaching
• 3 The Second Insight: Understanding Requires Grappling
• 4 The Third Insight: Cognitive Progression Is a Lever for Achievement
• 5 The Fourth Insight: The Power of Language Transcends the Disciplines
• 6 The Fifth Insight: Executive Function Is Foundational for All Learning
• 7 The Sixth Insight: Purposeful Instruction Yields Retention
• 8 The Seventh Insight: CCSS Achievement Relies on Teacher Facilitation
• 9 The Learner-Active, Technology-Infused Classroom
• References