George Lucas Educational Foundation
Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Readers’ Survey 2007: Most Overrated Buzzword or Idea

Edutopia readers weigh in on their favorites.

May 8, 2007

NCLB

Coincident with the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Act comes your noisy dislike of its ubiquitous acronym. NCLB stays at number one, the most overrated buzzword for two years running. This is not to say there aren't plenty of other peeve-worthy words and phrases dogging the profession. "Differentiated instruction," "project-based," and "authentic assessment" are just some of the leading contenders that probably grate less because of their meanings, which can be vague, than due to their leaky-faucet overuse.

Our Take

Hear the Buzz

We offer for your reading enjoyment the following sampling of buzzword haiku, created exclusively with words from your responses (with a bit of latitude on the syllable count).

Standard technophobe
out of the box backward
teaching to the test

Equal adequate
seamless paradigm size fits
all expectations

Smart board single sex
iPod based education
New pedagogy

NEXT PAGE OF READERS' SURVEY: Best blog for educators

2007 Readers' Survey Index

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