How schools can nurture every student's genius | Trish Millines Dziko

Elise Hu (0:00)

Hey, y'all, Ilyse Huw here. My three daughters just headed back to school with new backpacks, new teachers, and all that first day energy. And back to school season can make me feel like a student again, too. So for this month's TED Talks Daily playlist, we have gathered five of our favorite talks about learning, teaching, and the joy of staying curious. No textbooks required. Happy listening.

You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. What would public school curricula look like if they weren't so focused on helping kids pass standardized tests? Education advocate Trish Millines Dziko has developed a method and ideas for just that. In her 2021 talk at TEDx Seattle, she shares how project-based learning has benefitted students and teachers. Her talk is after a short sponsor message.

And now, our TED Talk of the Day.

Trish Millines Dziko (1:13)

Let me tell you about the fifth grade students at Bowes Elementary School in Tacoma. They spend the entire school year planning to colonize the planet Alpha Centauri to create, to preserve future generations. They will get there on a multi-generational spacecraft so that the grandkids of the people on the ship will arrive at Alpha Centauri ready to start a new civilization. Now, projects like these usually start with a guiding question. And theirs is, how do you sustain life for a generation on a spacecraft? These 10-year-olds get into initial conversations about governance on the spacecraft, the necessities to have on board. Is it even ethical to have a generation live and die on a spacecraft? And what roles are needed to create a functioning community? There are some whispers and some head nods. As the teacher explains to them that this quarter, they're expected to deliver a persuasive essay, a 30-second elevator speech, a model of the section of the spacecraft in diorama form, a system of government with laws and a constitution, and a research display demonstrating their knowledge of planets. That's a lot. But these students aren't phased. They've been here before. What they're interested in is what group they'll be in and what roles they will play. Now, I don't know about you, but when I was in fifth grade, I wasn't doing that. But for many of these students, they have been learning like this since kindergarten. You heard that right. Kindergarten. Shoot, when I was in fifth grade, we sat in cemetery rows in academically segregated classrooms. And sadly, things have not changed.

In most schools, students are sitting, listening to the teacher, and many of them, scared to death, they'll get called on to answer a question. And too often, students are totally deflated, because the teacher is spending more time on classroom management than engaging them. So these students and the generations behind them, they are our talent pool for everything from community organizing to running business, to running government, and everything in between. And as it stands, our public education system is not cultivating future leaders. And in particular, students of color are constantly devalued and marginalized.

Regardless of background, students need to envision themselves as successful in life. And how teachers deliver the lessons plays a big role in that. The most common way to teach is through a textbook or series of textbooks and a scripted curriculum, and then let the test decide if the students learned anything. And while you get coverage, it leaves little room for student voice, exploration, intellectual rigor, and academic risk taking. This is schooling, not educating.

And the long term impact is that students likely won't have that autonomous spirit. They need in the work environment. This is not what most teachers signed up for. It's not. I don't think there's a single teacher candidate that said, I want to be a teacher so I can help kids pass standardized tests.

25 years ago, I left my 17 year tech career. And co-founded a non-profit that prepared students of color for jobs in the tech industry. And over time, we learned about our students' experiences in the public education system. And we began to wonder, what would happen if we rebuilt public schools to develop the genius in every student and give them the tools to be critical thinkers, problem-solvers, ideators, and leaders? So we got a bunch of educators to help us answer that question. Today, my job is to set the vision and strategy for how we partner with public schools to create collaborative, anti-racist learning environments grounded in equity, where students can actively participate in their own education instead of memorizing for tests, where the curriculum is delivered in a way that supports the needs of our students, where professionals in the community are invited to participate in teaching and learning. The teaching and learning is built on interdisciplinary project-based learning. One of the most equitable ways to teach. This approach enables teachers to understand how each student learns, use multiple ways to assess their knowledge, and then make instructional adjustments based on the results. Now, students, they get a chance to set their own goals. They have time to discuss the work. They take academic risks. And along the way, they get to discover who they are as learners. And speaking of learners, let's take a visit to our 5th grade Alpha Centurions and listen in as their teacher facilitates a discussion about how Native Americans live. They talk about the logistics and the preparation behind the colonizers' move out west, and how colonizers always had conflicts with Native Americans. And the students vow that they will do better on Alpha Centauri. They will ensure that everyone has equal rights and lives well. And you better believe it will be part of their constitution. And if you poke your head in the classroom next door, which is rather loud, you will see the kids are in their small groups, using their math skills to calculate the human capacity for their spacecraft. And another set of students will be working on their planet research. When we visit a week or so later, there might be a visiting engineer talking to the students about design specifications. Or the classroom could be empty because the students are at the Museum of Flight, sitting in real spacecrafts and learning how they work. Bringing that authentic context to learning helps students retain knowledge and generate new ideas.