A talk in 4 parts The education problem

Introducing the Learning Illusion and a solution – the 6Cs

A case study: early education Learning vs play Learning via play

Taking the science of learning out of the lab

We are in an education pickle

Well cited facts: America is falling behind in the international rankings (PISA)

17th in reading behind Finland, Poland, Japan 30th in math, a full 13 slots behind Slovenia 23rd in science

50% of our inner city students do not graduate high school The US is 12th in the % of citizens with college degrees

21st Century Partnership – a group of 500 CEOs surveyed say our graduates are not prepared for the workforce

The Military suggests our educational status is a national security problem

Newsweek decries our “creativity crisis.” We are not training students for the jobs of tomorrow

What you probably know

What you might not know

NBC’s Education Nation forum focused on the solution to these issues and did not have one scientist at the table

The development of the core curriculum standards for early language and literacy was coordinated by an attorney with little input from those studying the science of language or literacy

Though the charter school movement seems to offer a popular alternative to the crisis, data show that students in charter schools fare no better than those in public schools

And when evidence-based research is not at the table we get…..

NCLB and its offshoots to support a Learning Industry With a lot of testing of factoids With a lot of teaching to the

test

An achievement gap that has stayed stable for 25 years

Tutoring companies that focus on the preschool set for school readiness (business up 20% from last year)

A 20 billion dollar “educational” toy industry that helps children prepare for school and beyond

Some personal favorites

An award winning superintendent in Atlanta who cheats so that her kids will do well on the exams (July 2011)

And 3rd graders in Florida who take the F-CAT pledge

I will do my best on the testI will focusI will get a good night’s sleepI will NOT give upI will take my time

ArggggggOn the one hand, There is A HUGE and profitable LEARNING INDUSTRY that has defined learning as memorization of content and as scores on a narrowly construed test.

On the other,The relatively new SCIENCE OF LEARNING or LEARNING SCIENCES defines learning as a suite of skills that children need to master to be happy and healthy today and ready for the work place of tomorrow.

Among these skills are PROCESSES of learning like emotion regulation and executive function, attention, memory, problem solving and language competencies that underlie learning. (Meltzoff, …Science 2009)

A talk in 4 parts The education problem

Introducing the Learning Illusion and a solution – the 6Cs

A case study: early education Learning vs play Learning via play

Taking the science of learning out of the lab

Put another way…Our culture is living under the Learning Illusion that what matters for evidence based learning is solely mastery of content

Our job is to help the culture flip the illusion and to see that content is but one of and not the only aspect of learning that leads to success.

Indeed, in school and in the future workplace, memorization of content is

becoming less important!

We are leaving the information age, where getting the factoids was enough….

We are entering a new era, a knowledge age in which information is doubling every 2.5 years.

Integrating information and innovation is key.

As Daniel Pink (2005), author of A whole new mind writes:

The past few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind-- computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind - creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. These people -- artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers -- will now reap society’s richest rewards….

The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills (September 10, 2008)

In an economy driven by innovation and knowledge … in diverse workplaces and communities that hinge on collaborative relationships and social networking … the ingenuity, agility and skills of the American people are crucial to U.S. competitiveness.

21st Century Skills: Education and Competitiveness

And speaking of how this relates to our education – even at the college level…

Laurence Summers in his January 20, New York Times op ed wrote:

…the world is changing very rapidly. Think social networking, gay marriage stem cells or the rise of China. Most companies look nothing like they did 50 years ago. Think General Motors, AT&T or Goldman Sachs…Education will be more about how to process and use information and less about imparting it. This is a consequence of both the proliferation of knowledge — and how much of it any student can truly absorb — and changes in technology. Before the printing press, scholars might have had to memorize “The Canterbury Tales” to have continuing access to them. This seems a bit ludicrous to us today

Success in school and in the global workforce of the 21st century requires what we have called the 6Cs

Needed for learning: The 6 Cs 1. Collaboration:

International collaboration and teamwork is the new reality as no one person can master it all. We must encourage students to work together, to accommodate others’ viewpoints, and to consider how to amplify one’s strengths by using the strengths of others and to build community.

2. Communication:

The grease that allows the new paradigm of international commerce to advance, communication now routinely takes place across geographic boundaries. Communication is about more than just form; it includes taking the listener’s perspective, regardless of cultural differences.

3. Content: Students must engage with subject-matter content in a way that

develops curiosity and encourages them to question.

4. Critical thinking: 21st century knowledge workers must ask the right questions, find

and synthesize necessary data and connect seemingly disparate facts. Students must learn to be skeptical – even of material produced by PhD’s!

5. Creative innovation: Nurturing flexible, high-level thinking that empowers the next

generation to become the inventors, entrepreneurs, and designers will power our economy forward – something that countries like Singapore and China now recognize. Where does this material take me? What are its implications?

6. Confidence: From physics to pharmaceuticals to plastics, if environments for

students do not make it safe to take risks and fail, we become a nation of stagnant followers. Make tasks hard so students can have success and learn from their mistakes. Not everyone gets an “A”

The 6Cs emanate directly from our models of developmental psychology and can be

used to frame levels and profiles of learning.

…..around measurable psychological processes

Our job, if we want students to be prepared for the workforce of tomorrow?

Flipping the illusion

Will also require that we better articulate not only what children learn, but HOW they learn.

And when we focus on how children learn we find that they learn best in environments where they are

Engaged Active Doing something that is meaningful

One recent study…Celebrated a Montessori education over the more traditional education. Montessori classrooms are more developmentally appropriate. They embrace a metaphor of learning that is more more playful in which children are active and less passively involved in learning.

--Lillard & Else-Quest, 2006

The results suggested that…

Children in Montessori classrooms at age 5 yrs. did…

Better in academic tasks like reading and math

Better in social tasks that required positive peer play

Better in tasks that required attention to another person’s beliefs

At age 12 years these children…

Liked school more

Were more creative in their writing

Did better in reading and math

And yet another recent study(Diamond, Barnett, Thomas & Munro, Science, 2007)

Found that playful learning through the Tools of the Mind Program helped children develop executive function skills (EF) like inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility.

These skills are highly correlated with fluid intelligence and outcomes in math and reading.

When teachers promote these skills through playful -- planful learning throughout the day, children’s outcomes on standardized tests increase -- even for poor children.

Can the right kinds of play teach self-control? NYTimes Sept 25, 2009

Finally a recent meta-study

Reviewed 164 studies of young children, (along with studies of adults and adolescents) revealed that assisted discovery learning (playful learning) trumped both explicit instruction and unassisted discovery learning pedagogies!

Alfieri et al., 2010

And again – the same principles for learning even occur at the

college level

NPR January 2012

Lecturing has never been an effective teaching technique and now that information is everywhere, some say it’s a waste of time. Indeed, physicists have the data to prove it.

…students have to be active in developing their knowledge…They can’t passively assimilate it (Mazur) Harvard physics professor Eric

Mazur

A talk in 4 parts The education problem

Introducing the learning illusion and a solution – the 6Cs

A case study: early education Learning vs play Learning via play

Taking the science of learning out of the lab

The Capulets and Montagues of Early Education:

Warring factions or compatible approaches?

Direct instruction (vs) playful learning

OR

Learning (via) play?

Confounding issues of curricula and pedagogy

The case for a core curriculum

Early cognitive skills in language, preliteracy, numeracy, executive function and emotion regulation predict later elementary school achievements. NICHD, Early Child Care Research Network, 2005; Scarborough, 2001; Storch & Whitehurst, 2001; NELP

Report, 2009; Dickinson & Freiberg, in press; Baroody & Dowker, 2003; Raver, 2002 ; Melhuish , 2011)

Interventions in these skills make a big difference in later outcomes -- they are malleable Diamond, Barnett, Thomas, & Munro, 2007; Reynolds, Temple, Ou, Arteaga & White, 2011)

Interventions have have both short and long term effects on outcomes. Campbell, Pungello, Miller-Johnson, Burchinal, & Ramey, 2001; Campbell, Ramey, Pungello, Sparling, &

Miller-Johnson, 2002; Campbell & Ramey, 1995; Schweinhart, 2004; Weikart, 1998; Reynolds, Ou, & Topitzes, 2004; Zigler & Bishop-Josef, 2006

Foundational academic and social skills are critical for school success!

But a strong curricula should be delivered with a playful pedagogy THAT INCLUDES both….

Free play whether with objects, fantasy and make believe, or

physical, is 1) pleasurable and enjoyable, 2) has no extrinsic goals, 3) is spontaneous, 4) involves active engagement, 5) is generally all-engrossing, 6) often has a private reality, 7) is non-literal, and 8) can contain a certain element of make-believe (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2009; Garvey, 1977; Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, 2003; Christie & Johnsen, 1983).

Guided play (Fein & Rivkin, 1986; Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2009; Marcon, 2002; Resnick, 1999; Schweinhart,

2004)

Where guided play is….

• A planned play environment, enriched with objects/toys that provide experiential learning opportunities, infused with curricular content (Berger, 2008).

Montessori’s “freedom within a prepared environment”

• Teachers enhancing children’s exploration and learning by:

-- co-playing with children

-- asking open-ended questions

-- suggesting novel ways for children to explore materials

Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk & Singer, 2009See also Chi, 2009

The evidence supporting a playful pedagogy is strong!

While most of these published studies are correlational, a surprising number also use

random assignment

Why might playful learning work?

Consistent with well worn developmental principles of how children learn Active not passive Students are engaged and constructing knowledge not

regurgitating information Meaningful context Whole child approach to learning

Naturally uses mechanisms that foster strong learning Interest Engagement Intrinsic motivation and autonomy Attention

In fact… The data suggest that the memorization heavy, one-

right-answer approach is not consistent with the evidence suggesting that children learn best when they are active, engaged and learning meaningful material that can be connected to prior knowledge. Or as Chi (2009) suggests:

Active > passive Constructive (adding new knowledge) > active Interactive ( with social partners) > constructive

Looking at examples from social development

A tale of two Spocks

Dr. Benjamin Spock got it all along: social and emotional regulation matters -- a lot

Mr. Spock did not

Emotional-regulation includes?

Impulse and emotion control

Self-guidance of thought and behavior (private speech)

Planning

Self-reliance

Socially responsible behavior

(Bronson, 2001; Kopp, 1991; Rothbart & Bates, 2006)

And measures of self-regulation predict?

• Favorable development and adjustment in cultures as different as the Canada and China!

• Beginning in early childhood, positive outcomes include:

• persistence• task mastery• academic achievement• social cooperation• moral maturity (concern about wrongdoing and willingness to apologize)• sharing and helpfulness

Eisenberg, 2010; Harris et al., 2007; Kochanska & Asksan, 2006; Posner & Rothbart, 2007; Zhou, Lengua, & Wang, 2009; and many others.

The shocking finding??Children with social emotional control

do better in school….

Mischel et.al., (1989) for a review

Guess what happened over time!!!!!Those who waited scored over 200 points better on their SATs?

Eigsti, et al., 2006

Further, we can teach emotional control

Through children’s play

EQ and emotional control does not develop on its own

Children learn it from adults

Children learn it from other children

Children learn it through PLAY: Free and guided

Tan-Niam, 1997

Looking at examples for academic development

Focus on reading… Telling stories

Word play (what rhymes with “hat”?)

Singing songs

Dialogical reading

Reading product labels

Engaging conversations

Dramatic play (Christie)

One recent example: Vocabulary learning:Han, Vulkelich and Buell (2011)

49, low-performing 4- and 5- year olds from Head Start Classroom

Random assignment study: Half in Explicit Instruction Vocabulary Protocol (EIVP); Half in EIVP + play

30 min, 2 X per week for 4 mo

Teach 64 new words (16 per week w/ 4 target words per week)

Results!

Target words better in EIVP + play

In math and spatial skills Finding patterns

Dividing candy and sharing Squire & Bryant, 2002

Sorting trail mix

“I spy”

Noticing more and less (“She got more ice

cream”)

Playing with blocks & trains

Conversations

Playing board games Ramani & Siegler, 2008

Spatial Skills and STEM Disciplines

Research supported in part by Mega Bloks

Ferrara, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe & Golinkoff (2011)

See also Levine, Huttenlocher, Cannon, Pruden, Ratliff & Saunders, 2008

Research Questions Do we talk more about space when we play with blocks?

Do we talk more about space in certain play situations over others? (using words like above, on top of, beside…)

Our design…. 3-5 year olds participated in 2 play conditions with their

parent, either: Free play ( here are some blocks, do what you will)

then guided play (can you build a heliport/ garage)? Guided playa then guided playb ( build a heliport,

build a garage) Preassembled play (here’s a heliport) then guided

play

Play Situations

Pre-assembled Play

Free Play

Guided Play

So what condition prompted the most spatial language? Above, around, over, through….

And did playing with blocks offer any advantage over playing with other toys?

YES!! Spatial Language Results

First, the play context makes a difference! In guided play, 10% or 1 in 10 words were spatial

Second, block play made a difference In non-block play contexts, parents use only 3 to 6% of spatial terms

Focus on geometry:Children learn the defining features of shape in guided

play

Fisher, Hirsh-Pasek, Newcombe and Golinkoff, submitted

We have a hint from the block study that guided play with real objects helps children learn but what is this guided play and how might it work? ?

Which of these are real triangles?

How shape concepts develop?

The shift from similarity- to rule-based classification systems

Environmental exposure & interaction with shapes plays a formative role (Kuhn, 1961; Piaget, 1970; Vygotsky, 1978) Physical, visual, & verbal exploration

Interactive ‘guided’ exploration with adult

Exposure to variations of shape (e.g., typical - atypical shape forms)

We asked

Whether guided play might be a better way to learn than is direct instruction or free, exploratory play for learning shape concepts (triangles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons)?

3 Conditions

Guided Play (+ DI, + AE): Children were taught rule-based classification systems for shapes in a playful, exploratory manner (they were “detectives” discovering the secret of the shapes)

Direct Instruction (- DI, - AE): Children were taught rule-based classification systems for shapes in a passive learning manner (children watched the experimenter act as a detective discovering the secret of the shapes):

Exploratory/Free Play (- DI, +AE) : Children played with shape cut-outs (same as training cards) and wax sticks for approximately the same amount of time as the training conditions.

Shape Sorting

Task Shape Cards: 40 cards, 10 per shape (3 typical, 3 atypical, 4 non-valid)

Procedure: Children introduced to “Leelu the Picky Ladybug” who

only liked REAL shapes.

She needed help sorting some shape cards she found (40 cards; 10 per shape).

‘Real’ shapes were placed in her ladybug box, while ‘fake’ shapes were thrown in a trashcan

Wanna guess where they learned the best?

Results

Acceptance rates of typical, atypical, and non-valid shapes (sorted as ‘real shapes’) by group. NOTE: Adult data was not collected for this study. Data is presented for comparison only. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

****

** ***

And recent results suggest that guided play

….

Might also foster creative thinking!

Fisher, Glazek, Hirsh-Pasek & Golinkoff, in preparation,With support from the Mattell Corporation

Key points and directions forward A strong core curriculum and playful pedagogy are NOT

incompatible

Data suggest playful learning offers a midground position to foster high quality preschool education

We need more research to secure the operational definition of playful learning and guided play

We need more high quality research to examine the impact of playful learning on academic and social outcomes Random assignment studies comparing playful learning to free play alone and to

direct instruction. (We are conducting a number of these studies in math and reading.)

We need to better understand how it works for young children and more seasoned learners

A talk in 4 parts The education problem

Introducing the learning illusion and a solution – the 6Cs

A case study: early education Learning vs play Learning via play

Taking the science of learning out of the lab

We can have rich curricular content

and

adopt a playful pedagogy!

A Huge GAP

What we know in science…

What we do

The Learning Sciences

The Learning Industry

It is time to bridge the GAP!

What we know…

What we do

The Learning Sciences

The Learning Industry

The science seems to…

Offer virtual consensus that children who have time to discover and explore through play learn skills required for success in the global world.

Thus, in Einstein Never Used Flash Cards

We,

Bridge the gap between science and practice

Show how children really learn

Give real life examples that can be used in the school room and in the living room (as well as in the library, museum and media)

And we published

To lay forth the evidence about how play encourages social and academic development

Then we published…

So that parents and teachers could better understand the learning evident even in the early swooshes and swipes of scribbled art.

And in 2009, we published

On October 3, 2010, we took the science of learning and put it in the hands of families in Central Park for children 0-12!

50,000 +

The science of learning in action

* In June of 2011 The Ultimate Block Party travelled to Toronto to support their new playful learning policies in Kindergarten

* And on October 2, 2011 we created a Block party in Baltimore!

* Chicago, here we come!

Over 50 communities want to band together to bring UBP and the science of learning to their town

Finally, September 14, 2011, in Washington at the National Press

Club, we introduced

www.L-rn.com

Our point?

Playful learning can help children develop 21st century skills in collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creative innovation and confidence. It is now our job to use playful learning as a key pedagogy for education both in and out of school.

In the knowledge era …

A child must do more than just learn the facts; she must integrate those facts into a creative framework that solve tomorrow’s problems

To reach her potential as a productive citizen in the year

2040…

she needs to have a high-quality early education that will prepare her as a thinker and innovator in the workplace of tomorrow.

We know what that workplace will demand (The 6 Cs) and we know what it takes to raise intelligent, well-adjusted, successful adults.