I’d also offer a practical problem. This sort of pd diminishes whole class instruction. Young teachers are led to believe that they need similar approaches in all classes at all times. But whole class instruction, done well, is preferable to group learning, done poorly.

Did you see HBO’s Hard Times and Douglass High? Even when classes were out of control, teachers kept the desks arranged in groups. Even when the group arrangement did no more than facilitate gossip, the teachers did not seem to have the confidence to try more traditional methods.

I believe that group cooperative learning is the better way. But in a chaotic school or when students can’t handle it, we need to be eclectic.

I also agree that we’ve backed off from really engaging each other. We need some real debate, not feel-good methods of creating consensus.