Arthur Andersen is constructivist From: Redyarrow Date sent: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 09:43:25 EST To: education-consumers@tricon.net Subject: inside scoop on Arthur Andersen Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) Subj: STW and Corporate America To: DNC0654@iname.com Sender: owner-education-consumers@tricon.net After reading your message about Arthur Andersen which I included at the end of this posting, I pasted an article that I wrote last year about Arthur Anderson onto this email. I first became interested in AA's educational techniques when my brother-in-law who is an exec with a large corporation was talking about training programs for employees and said that his firm would only hire AA as a last resort because their philosophy was that participants train each other best. The corporation he works for had found that AA's techniques of using huge charts on the wall and groups in which the employees developed their own solutions was much less effective than the training provided by training companies like Career Track where the trainer actually "taught" material and didn't just facilitate it. My next experience with AA's style of learning came when I taught a course at Aurora University for regular education teachers in "Classroom Discipline and Mangagement." The university hadn't realized when I was contracted to teach the course that my philosophy was the opposite of that university's. (Aurora University, my St. Charles' school district, and AA are all in bed with each other. Staff from my school district make money at AA; former staff from AA get big contracts for surveys etc. from my school district; our former supt. now teaches at Aurora University; staff from my school district and from AA teach at Aurora University...and on and on. Everyone makes more money and their shared philosophy of constructivism and "teacher as facilitator" are enhanced. My school district would have loved to be AA's model school of the future, but they've been unable to so far, because the parents have to this point fought off the block scheduling which has to be in place for the model to be implemented...that honor went to a school in California.) Anyway, when I taught this course several summers ago to a group of teachers who were at the end of their master's degree program, I turned out to be the only teacher they had had who was not from my school district, from AA, or a die hard constructivist from Aurora University. I inadvertently threw them into a panic on the fourth class session, when I announced that there would be a quiz on the next meeting day - even though I gave them a study sheet which contained a direct reference to everything that would be on the quiz. These teachers had gone through their entire master's degree program without ever having one test or quiz and the thought of one scared them! I was appalled that anyone could earn a master's degree without undergoing any type of objective assessment. Their program had been filled with "group performance assessment" and they had always received grades for group projects. They were actually afraid to independently have to study and then answer a few questions, because they hadn't done that since they were undergraduates. I explained that I needed to know that they had memorized a few key concepts and the only way I could be certain that they had taken the time to study and commit them to memory was if I scheduled a no-nonsense quiz...with no trick questions. Later we would apply the information, but they needed to know it inside out and that meant they needed to memorize it. As the course continued, the teachers began to open up, because everything I was telling them about how to handle students who had behavior problems and how to prevent them was in direct opposition to everything else that they had been taught in their masters program...but the concepts I was discussing made sense to them. After I showed them Anita Archer's videotape on "effective instruction", they stood up and applauded and asked to see it again before the end of the course. I have never received such high evaluations from any course I have ever taught (almost a perfect 10 rating) which had to be due to what the students vocalized more and more as the course continued...they felt that they had learned something for the first time in their program and they respected my direct role in teaching them. By the end of the course we were talking turkey about "teacher as facilitator" versus "teacher directing students' learning and taking responsibility when that did not occur" and they began to use their AA and St. Charles' faculty -taught courses as examples of that dynamic. They confided that the AA taught courses were the worst and that as teachers they realized that the trainer (teacher) didn't have to prepare since the groups came up with the answers. This year AA will have its third educational conference and this one seems flakier than the last. SOme of the speakers reads like a list from an new age conference, I might have attended back in the 60's. Deepak Chopra, himself is presenting. I was amazed to see Marva Collins on the list and couldn't help but wonder if she knows the philosophy pervades this conference. Is she there to attract those administrators who are wishing for more rigor...is she aware that everything about her philosophy is antithetical to AA's??? I wish I knew how much money my school district's already overpaid curriculum director makes when she "facilitates a group" at these conferences. I've had friends who've worked part time during the summer at AA make enough money to buy a car. The message I wrote last year: Those of you who have been on the LOOP for awhile have heard me discuss Arthur Andersen Consulting Firm's influence on our public schools here in St. Charles, Illinois. This international consulting firm has poured a great deal of money into our local school system in , turning our students into guinea pigs for their vision of education for the 21st century learner. Through Andersen's involvement (We found out that they even organized and analyzed our school district's parent satisfaction survey when we traced the return address to the house of one of their own consultants) we became one of the cutting edge schools in Illinois, first to most radically adopt any and all reforms.....and a U.S. Blue Ribbon School to boot. Incidently, the negative results on the parent survey were quickly swept under the rug during the height of summer vacations and haven't been heard of since. When AA had its huge 2 day education conference last year, we hoped that it would be a bust and end forever their thoughts about the untapped school's market. That clearly was all wishful thinking because this year they are having a three day conference and are already advertising it weekly in Education Week. We had a momentary thought of attending as "spies" , but the $1,750 cost for the three days makes that idea prohibitive. Meanwhile, be wary if your local superintendent is attending this conference. They will return to your school district even more entrenched in their current reforms. The advertisement describes the conference as follows: You are cordially invited to attend a unique global conference: ARTHUR ANDERSEN'S LEARNING FOR THE 21st CENTURY APRIL 9-11,1997, ST. CHARLES,.ILLINOIS At this truly Global Conference, you'll experience: The insights of the world's thought leaders Visits via videoconference with facilitators and learners at the Arthur Andersen Community Leaming Center, a modern version of the one-room schoolhouse opened September 1996 at Alameda, California, and other world- class schools. Interaction and knowledge sharing with leaders from Best Practice sites throughout the world on such topics as: - Engaging Stakeholders in Transformation --Reading - Total Quality Management --Math - Strategic Alliances With Business --Science - Technology and Internet Planning --The Arts - Performance Assessment --Self-Directed Leaming - Leaming Envimmnent --Problem-Based Leaming - Apprenticeship and School --Preschool - Teacher Development --Library Planning This will be a living conference in that the interactivity and communications are designed to create knowledge, access the wisdom within all participants, and create a leaming forum that will support networking of participants after the formal conference. Confirmed general session speakers are: + Peter Drucker--Father of Modem Management + Morton Egol--Director of Arthur Andersen's School of the Future Program . Charles Handy--Author of The Age of Paradox + Peter Senge--Author of The Fifth Discipline . Hirotaka Takeuchi--Author of The Knowledge-Creating Com'pany . Margaret Wheatley--Author of Leadership and the New Science + Benjandn Zander--Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra I can only imagine what these three days will be like at the resort-like, lush campus of Arthur Andersen. How could any school administrator afford this cost? Original message that spurred this one: Forwarded Message: Subj: STW and Corporate America Date: 98-01-12 22:33:25 EST From: DNC0654@iname.com Sender: owner-education-consumers@tricon.net To: education-consumers@tricon.net (4Education Consumers Clearhouse) For those of you who have suggested that the way to fight STW is to go directly to the corporations, you might want to visit the following site: http://www.arthurandersen.com/schoolofthefuture which describes the fourth annual School of the Future conference on Learning for the 21st Century hosted by Arthur Andersen on April 15-17, 1998, in St. Charles, Illinois. According to pre-conference publicity: "The major themes of the conference are the need to broaden the basics to include thinking skills, creativity, personal responsibility and citizenship and to create a revolutionary new learning system in support of self-directed, lifelong learners. Dave EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE Sender: owner-education-consumers@tricon.net Precedence: bulk EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE