Week 3 Response to Michelle L.'s What Ifs

I like the idea of a high school class about being a reflective practitioner in life. High school students are developmentally ready for addressing meta cognition. The only flip side is that as a whole they don't characteristically think 'like adults', and there is a developmental reason for that. A class on reflective practice for adolescents would have to honor the fact that even though they can be analytical, they can also be impulsive, etc. Maybe if such reflective teaching were built into student assessment practices across the curriculum, and at the end of four years the students could have a digital student portfolio that chronicled their reflective growth as well as student course work.

I also want to respond to students and teachers being colleagues in intellectual quests. Research in talent development points to students needing mentors in their fields of interest during the high school years. in my opinion, the current structure of high school education is in urgent need of reform. Students don't need to be taught 'at' for another for years. Especially in an age when most students have a smart phone and can google content. Students need to be guided in skills and processes that allow them to develop projects that are relevant to them. Some traditional teaching still needs to be done for new information, but students need to have more ownership over their education and learning. It would help develop generation of problem solvers as opposed to consumers.