Future Wise Educating Our Children for a Changing World

Everyone has an opinion about education, and teachers face pressures from Common Core content standards, high-stakes testing, and countless other directions. But how do we know what today's learners will really need to know in the future? Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World is a toolkit for approaching that question with new insight. There is no one answer to the question of what's worth teaching, but with the tools in this book, you'll be one step closer to constructing a curriculum that prepares students for whatever situations they might face in the future.

K-12 teachers and administrators play a crucial role in building a thriving society. David Perkins, founding member and co-director of Project Zero at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, argues that curriculum is one of the most important elements of making students ready for the world of tomorrow. In Future Wise, you'll learn concepts, curriculum criteria, and techniques for prioritizing content so you can guide students toward the big understandings that matter.

• Understand how learners use knowledge in life after graduation
• Learn strategies for teaching critical thinking and addressing big questions
• Identify top priorities when it comes to disciplines and content areas
• Gain curriculum design skills that make the most of learning across the years of education

Future Wise presents a brand new framework for thinking about education. Curriculum can be one of the hardest things for teachers and administrators to change, but David Perkins shows that only by reimagining what we teach can we lead students down the road to functional knowledge. Future Wise is the practical guidebook you need to embark on this important quest.

David N. Perkins is the Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Research Professor of Teaching and Learning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Recently retired from the senior faculty, he is a founding member and senior co-director of Project Zero, a research and development institute at the graduate school. He has authored several books, including Making Learning Whole, Smart Schools, Outsmarting IQ, and The Eureka Effect.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Learning for Tomorrow 1

1 Lifeworthy Learning: Where Knowledge Goes in Learners’ Lives 7

2 Learning Agendas: The Mixed Blessings of Achievement, Information, and Expertise 27

3 Big Understandings: Learning That Matters in Learners’ Lives 49

4 Big Questions: Learning beyond What’s Settled and Known 71

5 Lifeready Learning: Making What’s Worth Learning Ready for Life 97

6 The Seven Seas of Knowledge: Lifeworthy Learning from the Disciplines 123

7 Ways of Knowing: Powerful Patterns of Thought from the Disciplines and Beyond 143

8 Buckets of Knowledge: Organizing Content across the Years of Education 171

9 Big Know-How: Twenty-First-Century Skills and Beyond 197

10 Knowledge on the Way to Wisdom 223

Notes 251

Index 261

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.