|
I am a grant writer for a rural school district in PA, and get to do a lot of research on a variety of education topics. One of my most recent grants (was for $75,000 to provide for teacher training in the area of differentiated instruction.
With DI, teachers are trained to understand that their students may have drastically different learning styles, meaning that while Student A picks up the info from lectures, Student B may need more - like the use of manipulatives, visual aides, etc. I guess there are actually quite a few different types of learning styles that students can exhibit.
Anyway, teachers use differentiated instruction techniques to assess the styles of the students in their class, adapt their lesson plans, and encourage student achievement.
This isn't a cure-all, but it is one of the approaches out there for improving education. I can't say that I agree with everything I see, but I am not an "educator".
I do have to agree with a lot of what OneSnowyOwl had to say. My district clings to the "old ways" that worked in 1966, and refuse to acknowledge changes in the way education is delivered, or even changes in county demographics that are forcing hard decisions.
I could rant for days on the subject of public education...
|