A Tale from a Singaporean 3rd Grade Classroom: Transitioning from “I tell” to “We find”

Elliot: Folks, we MUST share this story with you. It is “pristine” in that it PERFECTLY illustrates how mobile technology can enable teacher change. It is such a powerful example...
Cathie: ... Let me just tell the story, please....
Elliot: ...oops, by all means!
Cathie: In elementary school science in Singapore, teachers typically hand out work sheets and then tell the students the answers...
Elliot: ... in Singapore, teaching is telling, truly...
Cathie: ... so there is no question about what the correct answers are. The students dutifully copy the answers down and then memorize those answers.
Elliot: Bingo! No surprise as to how and why Singaporean students manage those high test scores.
Cathie: But, in a classroom where each student was issued a smartphone equipped with a learning environment and a suite of educationally-appropriate applications...
Elliot: …that’s key!! ...software! The smartphones were equipped with a software environment that enables a teacher to create a complete, coherent, multi-activity lesson, and the software environment also contained software applications that enable a student to create multi-modal, multi-representational artifacts.
Cathie: ...I don’t think you learned all your lessons in kindergarten; you missed the one about interrupting...
Elliot: …well, it’s not too late! My wife, Judy, is a kindergarten teacher!
Cathie (openly laughing): Now I see how she puts up with you! So, back in the 3rd grade Singapore classroom... instead of handing out worksheets, Jane, gave each student a smartphone. When Jane refused to tell the students the answers about plant growth, they asked: “if you don’t tell us the answers, how are we supposed to get the information?” Jane pointed to the smartphones in their hands and said: “You have the power to find out; let’s work together and use the tools in the palm of your hand.” And, not only did those students do better on the standardized tests than the classes using Singapore’s traditional didactic, teacher-tells, students-memorize pedagogy…
Elliot: ... sorry, I can’t resist... when those same students were in 5th grade and taking a cumulative science test, they actually remembered the plant growth concepts from 3rd grade! Kids remembering what they learned in science 2 years afterwards – unheard of?!
Cathie (shaking her head – but still smiling): You’re incorrigible!
Elliot (exuding as much boyish charm as possible): Hey, all I did was steal your punch line; no biggy.
Cathie: Incorrigible – but endearing.
Elliot: It wasn’t that Jane’s smartphone-using Singaporean students memorized the material better than the others…
Cathie: … no, the reason the smartphone-using students did better on both tests was because they understood the plant growth processes – by understanding the “how” and “why”, the students were able to excel at the “what.”
Elliot: Well interrupted!
Cathie: So in addition to doing well on tests that measured “what” knowledge, Jane’s students also learned the “why” and “how” …
Elliot: … and still further, they learned the metacognitive skills involved in managing their own learning!
Cathie: I am glad this is only a blog; if this were an academic research paper we would need references and data and references….
Elliot: … yeah, the academics would pillory us for being so “loose.” Remember the review of one of our papers where the reviewer said we “were making dangerous” statements! Folks, I kid you not – someone actually said that about our paper.