[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# The Global Search for Education: New Film Focuses on How to Get Thinking Back in Classrooms

## Details

**Authors** Rubin CM

**Year** 2017

**Publisher** CM Rubin World

**Kind of work** press

**Discipline** Education

**Kind of engagement** press

[Read it](https://www.cmrubinworld.com/the-global-search-for-education-new-film-focuses-on-how-to-get-thinking-back-in-classrooms?lang=he&utm_source=chatgpt.com)

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

This article interviews filmmaker Rachel Ferro about the documentary RE:THINKING, which examines three U.S. public schools—Green Hills School, Lehman Alternative Community School, and Bard High School Early College—that emphasize thinking, metacognition, inquiry, and active construction of knowledge rather than memorization alone. Green Hills is specifically identified as teaching metacognition through the DSRP systems-thinking model.

### What they found (results)

Ferro argues that students should become creators of knowledge rather than consumers of information. She reports that teaching metacognition from a young age can help students think in more accurate, creative, and systematic ways and argues that metacognitive students can take greater ownership of their learning and develop deeper understanding. More broadly, the filmmakers argue that being “good at school” should involve asking questions, pursuing ideas, understanding one’s own thinking, and using existing knowledge to construct new knowledge rather than simply memorizing answers.

## Commentary

### In short

Coverage of the work in CM Rubin World. The article independently documents DSRP being used in a public K–8 school as a metacognitive teaching framework and reports the filmmaker’s positive assessment of its effects on student thinking.

### In more detail

Ferro and co-director Deborah Hoard followed different public-school approaches to creating what they describe as a stronger “culture of intellectual life.” Green Hills represents the clearest DSRP application: its K–8 students are taught to think about their own thinking using DSRP. Lehman emphasizes democratic education and students as active co-creators of learning, while Bard encourages questioning assumptions, debate, inquiry, writing, and valuing multiple voices. The filmmakers use these schools to explore a broader question: whether education should focus less on producing students who know how to “do school” and more on developing learners who can question, experiment, transfer knowledge, collaborate, and continue learning throughout life.

**Patterns it shows** D, S, R, P

**How to cite this** Rubin CM (2017). The Global Search for Education: New Film Focuses on How to Get Thinking Back in Classrooms. CM Rubin World.