Improved Test Scores
This topic generates more interest and heated discussion than all the other topics put together. That shouldn’t surprise anyone really. Test scores drive the educational bus and have been driving it for a long time, especially since the advent of the No Child Left Behind legislation. For almost any idea, program, method, you name it these days, the question becomes, “Will it increase test scores?”
For many, this becomes a left-brain versus right-brain analysis. Our way is primarily a left- brain, creative type of thinking. We often say, “I just know what I know” in answer to proving the benefits of Cranium CoRE on test scores. To us it is a “no brainer” when it comes to the evidence.
It is all about research-based evidence that has been around for decades. The process includes: reading aloud/reading along, higher order thinking questions (Bloom’s Taxonomy), discussion (conversation leads to better comprehension) and defending your position (meta-cognition). It is all wrapped up in a highly engaging, hi-tech educational gaming format (Web 2.0). All of these individual pieces have loads of research to prove their effectiveness.
Enter the right-brain dominant thinkers who are highly analytical and need data to support everything they do. They want data on the specifics, so, please don’t confuse them with research that requires an inferential leap of faith. And don’t expect them to watch the process and try to see if it fits the educational puzzle of methods and strategies that work well to meet objectives for life long learning.
Current K-12 education is dominated by testing and also time spent preparing students for these tests. It has a stranglehold on our educational system’s creativity that is often times unhealthy and counterproductive.
Cranium CoRE is a welcome alternative that is very effective at test preparation yet so well-disguised it would never be viewed that way by the students. Just listen to some of the video clips to hear what teachers know to be the truth about this topic. Then try it out and see what you think.