Education Next – Fredrick Hess
“Last week was one of those weeks when I spent way too much time yakking at people. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had the chance to speak at a Philanthropy Roundtable gathering, Thursday I interviewed NYU’s Jonathan Zimmerman on his new book on sex education, and Friday I spoke about The Cage-Busting Teacher at Teaching & Learning 2015. In all of these settings, there’s a natural inclination to want to know “what works.” People want to know: “what works” in philanthropy? What works when it comes to advocacy? What’s the right way to evaluate teachers? What works in sex ed? And so forth. Here’s the thing: I think that asking the question in that way, while totally understandable, reflects an unhelpful bias. There are at least two ways of thinking about human affairs when it comes to “what works.” One is to figure out “what works” and then to promote it through all available means—and ensure that more people do it. The other presumes that “what works” is often a product of context, conditions, and circumstance, and therefore we should be hugely cautious about our ability to understand the world or make it conform to our desires.”(more)