Using Technology Wisely: The Keys To Success In Schools

Annotation

Harold Wenglinsky, a former visiting scholar at Educational Testing Services and expert on quantitative analysis of large-scale data on educational policy, makes very clear his position in this book-length report on the use of technology in K-12 education. Technology used in the context of a constructivist pedagogical environment is often beneficial to student achievement and almost always beneficial to the development of higher-order thinking skills. But, that same technology used in what Wenglinsky terms a “didactic” pedagogy (a pejorative term, thus making clear his position from the outset) is, at best neutral, and at worst detrimental to the learning process.

Wenglinsky supports his conclusions with both qualitative, and more authoritatively large-scale quantitative data gathered from both the 1996 and 2000 National Assessments of Educational Progress. One gets the sense, however, that he went into the quantitative data looking to support a pedagogical agenda rather than to objectively seek understanding. This searching for quantitative support of previous qualitative findings might just be appropriate, in this case, given his admission that the nature of NEAP data does not distinguish direction of causality. The best he can hope to do is to look for a preponderance of evidence across both methods. Admittedly, there is little debate left in the educational community that constructivist pedagogy is effective in and of itself, but particularly so when facilitated by strong curricular support. I just would have hoped for some methodological allowance around the notion that most good teaching is a combination of both direct instruction and more constructivist notions depending on the needs of the current set of students.