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Changing the way we grade students could trigger a wave of innovation

How students apply what they've learned is more important than a letter or number grade.

  • Schools are places where learning happens, but how much of what students learn there matters? "Almost all of our learning happens through experience and very little of it actually happens in these kinds of organized, contrived, constrained environments," argues Will Richardson, co-founder of The Big Questions Institute and one of the world's leading edupreneurs.
  • There is a shift starting, Richardson says, in terms of how we look at grading and assessments and how they have traditionally dictated students' futures. Consortiums like Mastery.com are pushing back on the idea that what students know can be reflected in numbers and letter grades.
  • One of the crucial steps in changing how things are done is first changing the narratives. Students should be assessed on how they can apply what they've learned, not scored based on what they know.
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This brain balancing act allows consciousness

Two types of thinking have a time-sharing deal going on in your brain.

Image source: paulaphoto/shjk/Big Think
  • Your DMN and DAT neural networks cooperate by staying out of each other's way.
  • FMRI scans reveal a surprising temporal dance.
  • When both systems are at the same activity level, boom, you're unconscious.
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Testing, testing: How will measurement change in the future of education?

When measuring for the future, there is much to consider.

  • We need to embrace a plethora of schooling options as necessary to help different types of learners get to success.
  • On top of testing for literacy and math competence, we should also test for other things that are clearly important to parents, such as whether kids feel safe and cared for. These things are softer but more difficult to assess.
  • To improve our education system, we need to understand we currently only have answers to some huge open questions right now. We are still figuring things out on how to enrich different people's lives as they find their positions in the economy — and society at large.
  • This video is supported by yes. every kid., an initiative that aims to rethink education from the ground up by connecting innovators in a shared mission to conquer "one size fits all" education reform.
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How can cognitive science inform the future of education?

The science of learning is decades ahead of the education system. How can we bring education into the present?

  • The education field has a wealth of cognitive science research that reveals how people learn, yet the applied practice happening is schools shows an enormous disconnect.
  • Things like school bells, siloed 'one-hour-one-subject' classes, traditional grades, and standardized testing are outdated design features of the education system.
  • Equitably educating all learners across diverse populations to help them be as successful as possible will require education innovators to put cognitive science to work in the field, and to re-educate policymakers on what school could look like.
  • This video is supported by yes. every kid., an initiative that aims to rethink education from the ground up by connecting innovators in a shared mission to conquer "one size fits all" education reform.
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Did the U.S. weaponize ticks?

Considering the U.S.'s history of biological warfare, maybe this theory isn't as crazy as it sounds.

Image source: BERTRAND GUAY / AFP / Getty Images
  • Some believe that the Lyme-ridden ticks on the East Coast of the U.S. are the product of government experiments in biological warfare.
  • Under this theory, the ticks were released accidentally or on purpose, exposing millions to the extremely dangerous disease.
  • There's good cause to be skeptical, but the U.S. has a history of conducting biological warfare tests on its own civilians; maybe there's something to it?
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