Poplin Plan for Education

Prof. Mary Poplin claimed that she has conducted studies that prove children do best in school if permitted “to learn the way they want.” If so, she has not published this evidence. A survey of the standard reference to this research, Educational Index, for the past 10 years makes this clear.

What the research over this period actually says is that direct and systematic teaching, in which children know precisely what is to be learned and the teacher closely supervises and frequently tests for the fulfillment of this task, results in the greatest achievement. Neither students’ ability to think critically or creatively nor their attitudes toward school suffer in such instruction. Poplin’s advice to tailor lessons for individual students does not produce the most learning.

Teachers who follow Poplin’s blandishments thus do so in violation of the best information we have about learning. Unfortunately, the major tragedy in education has been the recurring manner in which teachers have been lured down this path by charismatic standard bearers like Poplin.

PATRICK GROFF

San Diego