Educational mindlessness can take many forms.
Here are 8 ways in which it can harm both the students and adults in our schools:
1. Mindless views of teaching and learning that reduce them to formulas and scripts, robbing the teaching-learning process of its complexity and nuance.
2. Mindless teaching that says that one method is as good as another and that it is acceptable to continue to do the same things over and over again no matter what the outcome.
3. Mindless programs and practices which are not aligned with expressed values and goals.
4. Mindless development of and adherence to bureaucratic rules and regulations that do not serve the best interests of students.
5. Mindless lack of concern about the effects of one’s words and actions on others.
6. Mindless references to research, such as “research says…,” with little understanding of the implications and limitations of that research.
7. Mindless meetings that discuss the obvious and debate the trivial.
8. Mindless professional development that does little to strengthen professional judgment, deepen understanding, and create new habits of mind and practice that benefit students.
http://dennissparks.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/8-mindless-ways-to-undermine-teaching-and-learning/
