93. Time, Trust, and Mastery in Education with Catherine Saldutti

Education Evolution

Jan 18, 2022•45 min

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Episode description

So much of what we do in education is based around “getting through the curriculum” and checking off skills that students have “mastered.” It’s safe to say that this isn’t working, and it frankly never has.

Every child is different and every child learns at a different rate. The notion that you can teach concepts in a string of ideas and that students will latch onto them in order is archaic.

There’s a different way to approach teaching and learning and this week’s guest, Catherine Saldutti of EduChange has found it. In this episode, we talk about how students and lifelong learners alike can deepen our understanding of concepts over time, the most important thing we need to do as a society if we want students to learn, the role trust plays in education, and what mastery really should look like.

This is such an important conversation stuffed full of resources and tools you can take back to your own school or initiative so we can truly start changing education for our future’s benefit.

About Catherine Saldutti:

Catherine Saldutti has over 28 years of experience in secondary education and has served as a teacher, administrator, professional development provider, program evaluator, and learning systems designer. She founded EduChange in 2000 to fundamentally reimagine and redesign the systems and structures that deliver formal education.

Catherine’s team of senior designers, master educators, and researchers built relationships with over 350 schools in New York City, several school districts across the USA, and in Sao Paulo, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Culiacan, and Tijuana. After a 12-year implementation period in eight global locations, alongside three rounds of academic & scientific peer review, The Integrated Science Program is now powered by Sustainable Open Educational Resources (SOER) that removes disciplinary silos, is competency-based, is grounded in the Sciences of Learning & Development (SoLD) and UDL, is digitally deployed internationally using four different models, and may be customized to local and national requirements.

Catherine also holds a patent for Concept Construxions, a pattern-recognition system that helps learners construct concepts and acquire academic or technical language in social, collaborative ways. Catherine earned degrees from Stanford University, where her independent study on International Technology Education contributed to J. Myron Atkin’s work on TIMSS development, and The Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she served as Chair of the Dean’s Advisory Committee.

Jump in the Conversation:

[2:15] - How Catherine is creating change
[4:19] - Some of the basics of supporting learning
[4:53] - What we’ve learned about learning
[7:43] - Why the one and done model doesn’t work
[8:43] - Students aren’t blank slates
[10:45] - The #1 thing we need to do if we want kids to learn
[12:09] - the heart of the work at Educhange
[14:28] - What needs to happen to start to make this change
[16:46 ] Humans have an emotional relationship with time and it’s one of our biggest problems
[19:40] - The role of “mastery” of standards and what it means
[24:38] - What about systems and structures we have in place need to be/can be dismantled
[26:30] - Turbo time
[31:04] - What people need to know about the concept of time
[34:09] - How others can become activists and transform schools
[37:18] - Catherine’s Magic Wand
[39:02] - Maureen’s takeaways

Links & Resources

Maureen’s TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools

Micro-school feature on Good Morning America
The Micro-School Coalition
Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition
LEADPrep

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