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Michael Naylor

Director, Visions & Vibrations International, LLC

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Do you think converting "grading" in education from cognitive fact retention to passionate investment or diverse intelligences is possible?

We know that teaching and learning has largely been modeled on systems of our ancient ancestry and their values. Cognitive fact retention based on training "job skills" has largely dominated our vision of intelligence. Yet intuitive, creative, emotional, spiritual intelligences --- and skills such as: passionate learning, self-discipline, community/social skills, respect for the life cycle/elders, and global awareness remain largely on the back burner. Since students will do what we ask of them: how might we transform assessment, grading and expectations to meet the transformation of education -- so needed today?

Topics: Education Innovation arts education global awareness
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    James Howells

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    Mar 28 2012: A true revolution in education would be for someone to realize that in order for all students to succeed we need to use different tools to measure that ability to succeed. As an analogy...The way I see education today is kinda like those old play-do spaghetti making machines. We take all these students...no I don't like that term...We take all these individuals and press them into one machine and expect them to all come out the same in a nice easy stream. That we can later chop up and fit where we want. We do a pretty good job of mixing the colors and cultures but what about the kids that aren't even "play-do" They aren't of the same consistancy. They are rocks or mud that jam the machine or run right through-it. Today we are just pressing harder on the machine to make them fit because we are looking for the same end result from everyone going through the machine. We need to be able to recognize the different areas of the brain being used we need to recognize different outcomes as valuable other than the standard. Eg. My car broke down. It blew a gasket. I am en excellent test taker and book smart ..witty...good looking...errr off track... but needless to say. I was lost when it came to my car. It made no sense. I was below basic..Failing in every attempt to fix it. I took it to a near by garage that had just opened up and the mechanic fixed it the next day. While taking with the man He informed me that he was a drop out. He just "wasn't a very good school boy." Who was more intelligent..Well in that instance He was by far. A true revolution would be to find a way to measure the success of a student based on more than one factor. we need to recognize the intelligence in Art, Mechanics, Music, People skills, public speaking as well as the conventional forms of measuring school success. We need to recognize them and place legitimate value on them.

    I know that there are places experimenting with 21st century schools where nothing should be taught that can be looked up

  • Varlan Allan 10+

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    Mar 27 2012: I think such an idea needs to be experimented with, but it must be done with a small community. You could do a transitional style like GREENSCHOOL, where the children learn IB standards but there is a large focus on sustainability and environmentalism. The same kind of school could be a transition school to help bridge toward a more diverse intelligences approach.
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    Scott Armstrong 50+

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    Mar 25 2012: I think that grading systems need to be scrapped. It's not what we are measuring that is the real problem, it is how we measure.

    In my class, I know that there are many intangible benefits for the kids and none of them are formally measured.

  • Lillian Mackie

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    Mar 25 2012: I believe that we are training children to become very competitive and taking their childhood away from them. What ever happened to those lazy days of summer when you could just be a kid, use your imagination and play with other kids. Today everything has to be so structured that we are not allowing children to use their creative minds and may even be suppressing that creativity which we so desperately need. Everything is about the best mark and even in today's workforce it is about who sells the most our whole grading system is about the most and we have totally disregarded all other aspects of life. So I would agree something needs to change and the best place is our education system. I believe that there should be a course as part of the curriculum on life which would include things like spirituality and respect for ones self, which would teach children to also respect others ths could be measured by how the child interacts with peers this would have to represent a percentage of the entire mark. I believe that without emotional intelligence in his world there is no success because everything depends on other people and how you are able to interact and get along with others, respect them and work towards a common andbthatnisvtruly lacking in our society today. People just seem to be concerned with themselves.
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