Redefining Smart
Awakening Students’ Power to Reimagine Their World
- Thom Markham - PBL Global, President
Equip Your Students To Create Their Own Intellectual Destiny!
The best educators are the ones who empower students to ask intelligent questions and persistently seek the answers, stepping in only when necessary.
Fostering rigorous, inquiry-based learning requires consistent systems backed by research and data. And these are precisely what you’ll find in this book, which details:
- A groundbreaking new approach to content delivery and instruction, geared towards maximizing student discovery, deep thought, exploration, and creativity
- Why educators must let go of student IQ as a concept that influences teaching methods in any way
- How to create a protocol-driven environment that fosters deep sharing and reflection
With this book, you can give your students the two greatest gifts possible: Intellectual confidence and a growth mindset.
"An urgent call for redefining educational outcomes and a compelling argument for personalization of education. Markham convincingly explains why education is much more than developing cognitive skills and proposes practical ways to cultivate what matters."
Yong Zhao, Director,
Institute of Global and Online Education, University of Oregon
"This book will resonate with teachers. Joyful learning that engages both heart and brain is not in opposition to today’s rigorous standards. As Markham explains, students will not be prepared to tackle the challenges ahead unless they learn to think, collaborate, communicate, and feel. This book outlines practical steps to create the culture of inquiry that all children deserve."
Suzie Boss
Author of Bringing Innovation to School and Edutopia blogger
"This is a ground-breaking book, and should be required for new and practicing teachers. Redefining Smart effectively introduces educators to the world of self-directed learning through the lens of how we ourselves must change as educators. The author has captured the essence of contemporary neuroscience, pedagogy, and cultural shifts and woven them into a cohesive and compelling image of who each of us could become if we redefine ‘smart.’"
"Thom Markham passionately engages all students in a positive manner using individualized Inquiry-Based Learning techniques. He includes rigor and relevance as well as extensive research."
"Every idea in this book is critical for educators: from the idea of a classroom functioning as an ecosystem, to addressing creativity, to encouraging and learning from failure, to the ideas of collaboration."
"In Redefining Smart, Thom Markham reflects on the latest research in psychology, medicine, sociology, physics, social media, and business to articulate a clear vision for K-12 education. He synthesizes what we have learned in the past fifty years about human growth, productivity, and creativity to challenge educators at every level to break the mold of an outdated industrial paradigm and systematically rebuild the learning model for today’s and tomorrow’s students and world citizens. On every page he offers convincing evidence, cogent arguments, and actionable next steps for educators, parents, and community leaders who hear his clarion call for system-wide reinvention. This book should be read, discussed, argued about, and referenced by everyone who cares about our children enjoying full citizenship in an increasingly interconnected and dynamic global community. Put it on your short list of must reads."
