Ensuring ALL Students Learn

           In response to Professor Drakes blog this week, I completely agree. Schooling really has been about the grade we have received, not about what you’ve learned. What are grades if we don’t really learn? This is something I have often noticed in my upper year physics classes at Brock University. There are many things I should know from previous classes that I received a decent grade in, but the reality is I really don’t. I did at the time, I completed my assignments and studied for tests and in the end got a good grade, but what did I really learn? I learned how to be good at the “game of school” and give my professors the answers they wanted.

            I hope to see changes away from this with twenty first century education. But how does a teacher assess, and give out grades based on what a student has learned? Will higher-level thinking really help students to remember things in a couple years after they have taken a certain class? I guess it’s worth a try. I do think higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are a good end goal for the twenty-first century curriculum and will lead to success if mastered. From experience in tutoring jobs, I have noticed that a lot of times the things students will lack are problem-solving skills. They have all of the facts needed to solve the problem, but don’t know how to think abstractly about them to apply them to real life applications. Without a skill like this, what is the point of knowing facts? You need to be able to apply them, and I think this is an extremely important part of education and curriculum.

            When it comes to Erickson’s structure of knowledge, I don’t really think that you can rank those things in an order; they need to all be of equal importance. You cannot do one without the other, so remembering and understanding are just as important as analyzing and creating. I think a flow chart manner would represent this better.

            Knowing your students is something I believe is extremely important and I don’t think a lot of teachers realize this. You cannot teach to just one type of person. Each student is just as important, and everyone obviously has his or her own way of learning. I think a good way of getting to know your students and assessing where they are at is through pretests and portfolios. I always remember having to fill out these surveys at the beginning of classes, but I never really understood the importance of them. I think a diagnostic assessment is a great way to figure out where all of your students are at, and see what you may need to review. You cannot start every year or semester in the same way. Your lessons, especially at the beginning, need to change with your new students. Learning styles will change, background knowledge will change and the overall environment of your class will change from semester to semester.
            I know that in my future, as a physics teacher, there will be some semesters that I will need to and be able to do a lot of labs and hands on activities, while other years there will need to be a lot more in class practice problems and lessons. These are things that will depend on each class and group of students. In the end my goal is that each student learns important things, not just receives a good mark. I want to be able to prepare my students for university, not just give them the marks that they need to get in. In order to be successful at this I will have to know my curriculum and instruct it based on the different students I will have in my class.

source: http://pjmcclure.com/blog/learn-love-learning/

Integrating the Old Story and the New Story

As I begin to read this book, Interviewing Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st Century Learner, chapter one reminded me of many things I learned last year in EDUC 8P50. The thought of school being a game and when you’re good at the game you will be successful in life. It is usually specific type of people who succeed in this “game of school”, as many teachers teach in a way that only benefits certain types of learners. 21^st century education is attempting to change this and improve education so that everyone can succeed, no matter what type of learner you are.

            I believe in order for this to happen, there needs to be a integration between the old ways and the new ways. The new story can’t be completely new in every aspect, but there can definitely be improvements and changes to the old story. We can’t completely push away from the traditional model, the teacher still needs to teach, and there are still things that students need to memorize (ex. multiplication tables) and be able to concentrate on their own without socialization. If this were to not exist in education in elementary schools and high schools, students would be shocked when they got to university or college. Secondary school still needs to prepare students for university or college or even the workforce, where independent learning needs to exist and you have to be able to obtain knowledge from a teacher or professor.

 I do think that project-based learning can be very beneficial too. It is extremely important for people to be able to work in a group and have good social skills, as this is apart of everyday life and post-secondary school. I think that the curriculum needs to integrate the traditional model with project-based learning to prepare students for life after school whether that is working or more school. The way curriculum is delivered is extremely important. The teacher needs to be aware of the different types of learners in the class. I think it is important for the teacher and the students to have the right attitude when it comes to succeeding. Everyone needs to be aware that anyone can succeed, sometimes this means the teacher having to boost a students confidence and giving them extra help or teaching them in a different way. I don’t think that a teacher can “baby” a student too much though, because again this is not preparing students to be successful in post-secondary school. I think the student has a big responsibility too, they need to learn how they learn best and I don’t really think this is something a teacher can teach them.  The teacher can definitely provide students with different types of strategies on things like problem solving and studying, but students need to be committed to their education and learn how they learn best.

As a future high school physics teacher (hopefully) I am really interested in reading further into this book and seeing real life examples of teachers who are using the new story of education in their classrooms, especially at the high school level in math and science.