Cycle One: Interpretations of the Meaning and Causes of Failure

Cycle One: Interpretations of the Meaning and Causes of Failure

            I am a failure at video games.  I do not know why – I always have been.  I have found them to be stressful and I do not take the time to read the conversations between characters that inform you of the goal for the next level.  Granted, most video game playing experience I have is Frogger, Barbie World, and SuperMario.  Even with these non-violent, kid friendly games I would tense up, feel anxious, and worry about the time constraints and approaching enemies.

            From what I am told, the anxiety I feel while playing a video game is the same response produced in some, if not most, students when it comes to school and exams.  Why am I the opposite: lover of traditional school and coward of the game console?  We will never know.  But why most students love video games and sports but hate school was clearly evidenced by James Paul Gee (2005).  
Sixteen.  
Gee evaluated sixteen different principles of video games that make them attractive that are found in the real world, but not in school.

            My instruction could be modified to incorporate some of the learning principles found in video games to make high school level math more engaging.  Truth is,  I hate to sound like a broken record, but I must teach to a standardized test.  This limits the time I can spend on each topic and how I teach it.  This is true to a certain extent but to another, it is also an excuse.  With the wide access to technology, there is no reason why a student should not be able to start an assignment from where it was last saved (2005).  If in class the student has proven he has mastered factoring trinomials with a leading coefficient equal to one, why should he have to go home and do it again?  With the right use of technology, this student could challenge himself in the same way the Challenge and Consolidation principles work (p. 36).  This student should not have to remain stuck on the same level of homework as the rest of his classmates if he has already beat it. 

            Part of the reason why students fail in school is because school has become too easy.  I believe a vicious, and possibly sub-conscious, cycle exists.  For instance, say I teach Algebra 1 and I know my students have a rigorous, complex, high-stakes, standardized exam to take at the conclusion of the school year.  Looking at student data from the previous year, I see that most of my students are not working at grade level.  I then believe that they will not do well on the exam, so I break down my instruction to become something they can master but not at the level needed to be proficient for the test.  Students know this.  They know when their teacher believe and challenge them.  They also know when the teacher is counting them down-and-out and therefore “dumbs things down” (Terry & Irving, 2010). 

            This may be a reason why kids also love to play sports and buy-in to what their coach’s techniques and instruction.  Look at the brief list of life lessons commonly learned in sports.  Why are these lessons not part of a teacher’s daily objective?  While it is important for students to be able to exercise critical thinking when applied to quadratic function applications, isn’t it equally important that they learn how to be the bug when you’re not always the windshield (Depta, 2015)?  It could be possible that students are failing school because teachers have been teaching the student and not the child.  Kids have been kids their entire lives: after school hours, the weekend, and summer breaks.  They are students part-time.  Most of them probably do not know how to be a strict academic but they are experts in living life as a child.  Childhood they will not fail at, but being an academic, when not supported properly, they might.

            Continuing this note, I feel teachers/administrators often discount student opinions because the former are adults and the latter are kids.  But if teachers are considered the experts of their own classrooms, and not legislatures, then shouldn’t kids be the experts of their own education?  This might be why teachers quit and students fail.  Legislatures make decisions pertaining to a teacher’s career and school leaders make decisions pertaining to a student’s education.  Both are external factors.

            But let’s look at the internal.  The intrinsic motivation and natural curiosity we have within ourselves.  Look at the children discussed in Sugata Mitra’s TEDTalk The Child-Driven Education (2010).  This experiment is the epitome of “if you build it, he will come” from the film Field of Dreams.  If schools are built, and if computers are placed in walls, then students will come to learn (2010).  
This does not mean just build a school, fill it with computers, and let students research whatever they please.  
To maximize the potential from this situation would require thoughtful planning on the educators’ end to make sure a classroom environment is created that encourages facilitation of learning in which students are interested.  
Athletes do not go to a baseball field to learn how make a baseball bat.  If that’s what happened at stadiums players and fans would not return.  Part of the reason why students fail and are not their public school’s biggest fan is because they are not given the kind of education they want.

            To support Mitra’s research and findings, I found a video clip from The School of Life explaining the difference between success in school and, later, success in life in the workplace.  The success Mitra’s students found did not always occur during school hours or through a structured, standard-aligned lesson.  The argument is valid that given the way our schools are designed, success in school does not translate to a productive, easy, professional life.  However, after reading through some of the comments on the video clip, I found the responses profoundly explaining why.  Some comments worthy of being noted are posted below.

References

Depta, L. (2015, June 3). Life Lessons We Can Learn From Sports. Retrieved July 15, 2017, from http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2484221-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-sports

James Paul Gee. (2005). Good Video Games and Good Learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2), 33 - 37.

Succes in School vs Succes in Life [Video file]. (2016, July 18). Retrieved July 15, 2017, from     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Egxm5QuW9o

Sugata Mitra. (2010, July). The Child-Driven Education. TEDGlobal 2010.

Terry, N. P. & Irving, M. A. (2010). Cultural and linguistic diversity: Issues in education. In Colarusso & O’Rourke (5^th ed.). Special education for all teachers (pp. 110-132). Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.