Inquiry Learning Vs. Standardized Content: Can They Coexist? By Thom Markham As Common Core State Standards are incorporated from school to school across the country, educators are discussing their value. It may seem that educators are arguing over whether the CCSS will roll out as a substitute No Child Left Behind curriculum or as an innovative guide to encourage inquiry rather than rote learning. In reality, as time will prove, we’re arguing over whether content standards are still appropriate. Everyday there is less standardization of information, making it nearly impossible to decide what a tenth-grader should know. Beyond the core literacies of reading, writing, computation, and research, the world-wide culture of innovation, discovery, multi-polarity, interdisciplinary thinking, and rapid change depends on the explosive potential of the human mind, not entombed truths from the past.
Increasingly, any standards-based curriculum is at odds with the outside world. There is only one resolution to the debate. But PBL is the near-term solution. Need a Job? Invent It. Project-Based Learning. Big DIY: The Year the Maker Movement Broke | Wired Business. FreeBIEs. Caine's Arcade | A cardboard arcade made by a 9-year-old boy. Maker Faire | The Greatest Show and Tell on Earth.