Report: Schools, teacher ed programs ignore how kids really learn

10-05-2010

By James Comer and Robert Pianta

Good teachers have always understood that students don’t learn in a vacuum: Kids can’t learn efficiently if they have to walk a gauntlet of gang thugs every day on the way to school, or if they suffer mental problems, or they were up half the night cowering from domestic violence. Now a growing amount of developmental research confirms that as many of half of all students become chronically disengaged, contributing to the high dropout rates and achievement gaps that have plagued our schools for a generation. There is good news: Research also shows that squarely addressing students’ emotional, social, and cognitive needs improves learning. The problem is that this research isn’t being put to wide use.So the question is this: What can educators and schools do to help students from challenging family backgrounds, or those who simply lack the motivation to learn?
That’s what we set out to answer in a new report commissioned by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and released today. (more…)

Also: Education Week

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