ABSTRACT
What Counts as Learning? Th ink back to your time as a student in elementary school. Familiar events probably included spelling bees, multiplication tables, and vocabulary lists. In many elementary schools students are awarded ribbons and stickers for memorizing large amounts of information. Th e occasional child might have memorized the entire fi rst chapters of Harry Potter. Such activities, when information is committed to memory, or stored in ways that are easy to “access” until needed, are the familiar hallmarks of elementary education. Parents, teachers, and students are comfortable with the notion of these indicators of rigor in education. Students are assigned “the sixes” multiplication tables one night, and quizzed on them the following day. Students have a very clear idea of what is expected of them, parents know they need to make fl ashcards or to quiz their children in order to help them succeed, and teachers have straightforward, simple means for assessing students.
