Douglas A. Johnson > Quotes

“The term personalized education is getting a foothold in education.”
― Douglas A Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“Creativity undermines our efforts to create good test takers. The antithesis of creativity is asking for the “one right answer” which is exactly what happens when educators ask students to regurgitate on standardized tests. (Ever wonder why they were called standardized?) Tests are timed; creativity takes time. Tests are supposedly objective; creativity is often subjective. Tests demand respect for the authority of the test takers; creativity questions and often defies authority.”
― Douglas A. Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“School application: Grades, class rank, or even winning competitions are not the key to making students more creative. The truly original thinkers work out of personal need and interest, not for high test scores. In fact, worrying about grades and other extrinsic motivators will also make students risk averse and less likely to take creative chances.”
― Douglas A. Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“my First Law of School Work will kick in: A job not worth doing is not worth doing well. One of the best things teachers can do is work very hard to make sure research projects are well designed and intrinsically motivating.”
― Douglas A Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“Quality control” is the correct role for parents and they can help provide that if they too have the assignment and instrument with which the product will be judged. All teachers should have links to project assignments and assessments on their classroom websites for easy parental access.”
― Douglas A. Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“project-based learning requires that the content is significant, the inquiry is in depth, the work is question driven, the student has a voice in choosing the product, the work is shared with an audience beyond the classroom, and creativity and innovation are “explicitly taught and assessed.”
― Douglas A Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner

“Honor student creativity by giving it a CC License. Students should be required to assign a Creative Commons (CC) license to every final product that is more than clever paraphrasing or a blatant copy.”
― Douglas A Johnson, Teaching Outside the Lines: Developing Creativity in Every Learner