A Critical Thinker's Guide to Educational Fads: How to Get Beyond Educational Glitz and Glitter

The history of education is also the history of educational panaceas, the comings and goings of quick fixes for deep-seated educational problems. This old problem is dramatically on the increase. The result is intensifying fragmentation of energy and effort in the schools, together with a significant waste of time and money. Education will never be improved by educational fads, and the manner in which educational trends are marketed guarantees that they will be transformed into fads. In this guide, we briefly critique many of the current educational trends and fads. We focus on making the basic idea behind each of these fads intelligible so that its proper use - and likely misuse -can be taken into account.