The corporate ed reform’s imagination of learning is limited to student understanding of content, and thus, because of the forms used to measure this understanding, the students’ ability to regurgitate said content.
Productive learning, on the other hand, is about transformation of character.
“Sarason (2004) describes productive learning as thinking critically expressing creativity, tolerating ambiguity, and holding fewer dogmatic values. Such learning leads to great levels of personal responsibility, involvement in the community, and participation in democratic processes.
In other words, productive learning leads to a transformation of character and dispositions whereas the typical shallow learning of many high schools has no impact on student character or dispositions If a school culture is to transform young people and our future as a nation, it must transform young people from acquiescent and disengaged to internally motivated, engaged, and hopeful.”
Ron Newell and Mark Van Ryzin in Assessing What Really Matters in Schools
