Teaching to the Middle
Teaching to the Middle -âThereâs No Such Thing as Averageâ: Todd Rose on Brain Science and the Limitations of Standards
Teaching to the Middle: Incumbent, One Size Fits All Teaching to the Average, Middle, Student Doesn’t Work Because There is no Such Thing as an Average Student.
Teaching to the Middle -Thereâs no such thing as âaverage.â
That a lesson professor Todd Roseâs shared with educators and education entrepreneurs in his keynote at iNACOL in San Antonio, Texas on October 26.
Rose, who currently heads the Mind, Brain and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and cofounded the Center for Individual Opportunity, became well-acquainted with the concept of âaverageââaverage score, average body size, average abilityâafter conducting research for his recent book, âThe End of Average.â
But how did âaverageâ come to be a common construct, and why is it a potentially destructive concept, especially in the world of education? According to Rose, there are two big reasons: First, thereâs no such thing as an average person, and second, itâs inhibiting educators from creating âa principled way to think about individuality.â
Why thereâs no such thing as an average person
Up until 2002, Rose reports that brain scientists believed that in brain imagingâthe use of various techniques to directly or indirectly image brain structureâthere was such a thing as an âaverage brain.â
But Michael Miller, a UC Santa Barbara professor, began to study how the human brain retrieves memory and realized there was no single brain that looked like this mythical average. âWe each have unique ways that our brains retrieve information and create memory,â Rose reported.
This has not just played out in neuroscience, but in every advancement and every field, he adds. In education, this is particularly harmful to students because it affects pacing guides, textbooks and how states measure who achievesâand who fails.
âOur current industrial model is rooted on the belief that there is an average student,â Rose said. âIn most states, textbooks are expected to be age-appropriate, but it just means designed for what the âaverageâ kid knows and can do.â
Yet Rose believes there is hope if we can implement the concept of personalization more actively in schools and other learning environments. âIf we want to get a place that nurture kids, instead of batch processes them, average systems donât work,â he said. Instead, âwe need deep rooted understanding of individuality.â
The three elements that differentiate studentsâand really, anyone
According to Rose, there are three patterns of individuality that everyone should consider when creating learning experiences for students.
The first, jaggedness, refers to any human characteristic that we care about, and canât be reduced to a single data point or score. When it comes to identifying oneâs jaggedness, there are usually a number of different data points that separate each individual student from the next. Take IQ: While two students could test as having the same IQ, the specific elements of what make up that IQâknowledge of vocabulary, reading comprehension, quantitative skillsâcan, and always is, different.
Next, thereâs context. âItâs meaningless to talk about behavior, learning and development if itâs independent of understanding the childâs environment,â Rose explained. He added that oftentimes, adults will ignore context because it can seem âmessy and hard,â but in reality, context offers insights into patterns or conditions outside of a childâs control. âIf we look at the context, we realize that we donât always need to send kids to remediation,â Rose says.
The third concept, pathways, embodies the idea that every human being differs in what pace and sequence will lead to outcomesâan idea thatâs particularly pertinent to the world of education where seemingly every set of state standards and textbooks follow one set, âaverageâ pace. Average-based systems, Rose says, have forced educators, parents, even students to think about learning and development in ladder-like structuresâand that is harmful.
âThere isnât a relationship between pace and ability. We have a huge problem when we have a system thatâs standardized on an average pace,â Rose explained, while displaying an example of how one student in a test case performed: 1) in a timed environment versus 2) at his/her own pace. In the display, the student performs lowest out of the group when timed, and highest when taken at his/her own pace.
How to introduce personalized instruction at scale
Rose isnât worried about acquiring more research or data to back up his case, saying that thereâs actually âa mathematical theorem that proves you canât use averages for human beings.â
His bigger concerns relate to the fact that the concept of average is a deeply held assumptionâand that oftentimes, âbeing right isnât good enoughâ when it comes to challenging assumptions. âJust look at the example of Norma,â Rose says, calling attention to a controversial 1943 statue created by a man of scienceâobstetrician-gynecologist Robert Latou Dickinsonâas an example of the âaverage female form.â
Backing up an idea with knowledge or data never guarantees acceptance. So in order to support competency-based learning and move schools away from likes of seat time, standards, and yes, averages, itâs up to educators to help spread the news.
âItâs the one important barrier thatâs holding us back, that idea of average,â Rose says. âItâs that very mindset, that continued belief in the myth of average.â
Mary Jo Madda (@MJMadda) is Senior Editor at EdSurge, as well as a former STEM middle school teacher and administrator. In 2016, Mary Jo was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in education.
Harvard University
- Graduate School of Education
- Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA)
- What is LILA?
- Mind, Brain, and Education Program
- Thereâs no such thing as âaverage.â
- Center for Individual Opportunity
- Â Science
- “The End of Average.â
- Â Science
- Center for Individual Opportunity
- Thereâs no such thing as âaverage.â
- Learning Innovations Laboratory (LILA)
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Tom McDonald, tsm@centurytel.net; 608-788-5144; Skype: tsmw5752