Saturday, June 11, 2011

Thursday, June 16th - Live with Denise Pope on "Doing School"

Join me Thursday, June 16th, for a live and interactive Future of Education with Denise Pope, author of Doing School:  How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students. Dr. Pope is quoted extensively in the movie Race to Nowhere, and in this book looks at the educational experience at a well-regarded California public high school from the students' point of view.  She "follows five highly-regarded students through a school year and discovers that these young people believe getting ahead requires manipulating the system, scheming, lying and cheating."  She writes:
These students explain that they are busy at what they call "doing school." They realize that they are caught in a system where achievement depends more on "doing" - going through the correct motions - than on learning and engaging with the curriculum. Instead of thinking deeply about the content of their courses and delving into projects and assignments, the students focus on managing the work load and honing strategies that will help them to achieve high grades.
Dr. Pope believes we need "a new vision of what it means to be successful in school" and that student voices are a key component of any conversation on school success.

Date: Thursday, June 14th, 2011
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern / 12am GMT (next day--international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Elluminate. Log in at http://tr.im/futureofed. The Elluminate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate, please visit http://www.elluminate.com/support. Recordings of the session will be posted within a day of the event here.
Event Recordings: The full Elluminate recording and a portable audio recording (mp3) will be posted here within a day of the event.  The LearnCentral event page is http://www.learncentral.org/event/163806.

Dr. Denise Pope specializes in curriculum studies, service learning, student engagement, and qualitative research methods. She is particularly interested in student voices and the students' perspectives of school. She focuses on academic stress and its consequences for students' mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Her book, Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students (Yale University Press, 2001) was awarded Notable Book in Education by the American School Board Journal, 2001. Dr. Pope is a 3 time recipient of the Stanford University School of Education Outstanding Teacher and Mentor Award.

Dr. Pope is co-founder of Challenge Success, a research and intervention project that aims to reduce unhealthy pressure on youth and champions a broader vision of youth success. Challenge Success is an expanded version of the SOS: Stressed-Out Students project that Dr. Pope founded and directed from 2003-2008. She lectures nationally on parenting techniques and pedagogical strategies to increase student health, engagement with learning, and integrity.


Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students