63: Building a No Test Future w/ Dr. Yong Zhao
02/22/20 • 23 min
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Yong Zhao, the Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education. Dr. Zhao and I talk about building a movement that ends standardized testing in the United States and how to build classrooms that invoke a student's innate desire to learn. Perhaps the grueling, “rigorous” standardized testing system is actually harming students, not helping? Most teachers seem to understand this, and a recent analysis by Harvard University seems to confirm it.
Dr. Zhao has written and spoken extensively on how testing and test scores harm students. And he’s done the research and work to back up everything he states. It’s up to teachers - those in the field - to actually make change in this endeavor. There’s a lot we’re up against! It makes all the difference.
GUESTS
Dr. Yong Zhao, the Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. Zhao was the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education at University of Oregon, and a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Further, he's served as the founding director of the Confucius Institute and US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.
RESOURCES
- What Works May Hurt by Zhao
- Reach for Greatness by Zhao
- Counting What Counts by Zhao
- The Courage to Be Creative: An Interview with Dr. Yong Zhao
- HRP’s Primer for Human-Centric (Progressive) Education
FURTHER LISTENING
- FreshEd #79: What Works (May) Hurt w/ Dr. Yong Zhao
- ReImagine Schools: Global Competence with Dr. Yong Zhao
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this podcast, we are joined by Dr. Yong Zhao, the Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education. Dr. Zhao and I talk about building a movement that ends standardized testing in the United States and how to build classrooms that invoke a student's innate desire to learn. Perhaps the grueling, “rigorous” standardized testing system is actually harming students, not helping? Most teachers seem to understand this, and a recent analysis by Harvard University seems to confirm it.
Dr. Zhao has written and spoken extensively on how testing and test scores harm students. And he’s done the research and work to back up everything he states. It’s up to teachers - those in the field - to actually make change in this endeavor. There’s a lot we’re up against! It makes all the difference.
GUESTS
Dr. Yong Zhao, the Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. Zhao was the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education at University of Oregon, and a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. Further, he's served as the founding director of the Confucius Institute and US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.
RESOURCES
- What Works May Hurt by Zhao
- Reach for Greatness by Zhao
- Counting What Counts by Zhao
- The Courage to Be Creative: An Interview with Dr. Yong Zhao
- HRP’s Primer for Human-Centric (Progressive) Education
FURTHER LISTENING
- FreshEd #79: What Works (May) Hurt w/ Dr. Yong Zhao
- ReImagine Schools: Global Competence with Dr. Yong Zhao
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
62: Creating Worlds, Game Design & Education w/ Seth Coster
In this podcast, we are joined by Seth Coster, the CEO and game programmer at Butterscotch Shenanigans, who have seen incredibly success on their video and mobile games. Best known for titles Crashlands and Levelhead, Butterscotch Shenanigans was founded by three brothers with no explicit academic background in video game creation. Seth studied to become a Certified Financial Analyst, started a law graduate program, but soon realized he enjoyed the games he created in his free time much more. Brothers Sam, Seth, and Adam Coster also host their own podcast, Coffee with Butterscotch.
The reason we invited Seth was because we see an inherent connection between video game design and education, as well as his own story connecting to a lot of our work at the Human Restoration Project. (And it was awesome to have a connection through Nick, who he went to college with.) I actually introduce the concept of learning by doing by showcasing a clip from Indie Game: The Movie, where developers of Super Meat Boy explain that teaching a player to run and jump through a pop up that shows them how to do it, is not nearly as effective as just presenting a large gap and having the player keep trying until they ultimately succeed (see the show notes!)
Enjoy this array of topics from game design to grading to chaotic science experiments.
GUESTS
Seth Coster, the CEO and game programmer at Butterscotch Shenanigans, who have seen incredibly success on their video and mobile games Crashlands and Levelhead.
Nick Covington, Creative Director of Human Restoration Project, advocate of equitable gradeless learning and realignment of assessment.
RESOURCES
- Indie Game: The Movie Super Meat Boy Clip
- Coffee with Butterscotch (Podcast)
- GDC: Design by Chaos
- Butterscotch Shenanigans
- Medium (Chris McNutt): Game Design, Classroom Design, and the Faux Use of Gamification
FURTHER LISTENING
- S3: E2: It All Orbits Purpose feat. Kendall Cotton Bronk, John Cagle, Skylar Primm, and Elizabeth Martin
- S2 Highlight: Adopting Progressive Ed. w/ Alfie Kohn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Bonus: Summit: Experiential Learning and the SDGs w/ Dr. Jennifer Williams
Interested in using this opportunity for professional development credit? See our template for administrators. Consider running this event past your administrative team prior to completing.
Dr. Jennifer Williams, is the co-founder and executive director of Take Action Global, co-founder of TeachSDGs, professor at Saint Leo University in the College of Education and Graduate Education, and author of Teach Boldly.
In this interactive discussion, we will discuss connecting the UN Sustainable Development Goals to authentic projects in the classroom.
Participants will be posed with these questions, but the conversation will take us on a journey of its own:
- How does one become inspired to start a SDG-related project? How can we incorporate student inspiration and voice to the planning process?
- What components work well in SDG-related projects? What tools, websites, or objectives are there?
- How can we take projects into the community to make meaningful, authentic change for the world?
Please see the attached Google Document for all the notes from this conversation, as well as a variety of external links.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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