The information presented in this cycle’s readings proved to be
overwhelming – as much of the discussions regarding education can be. Education is complex issue taking cues from
the past, present and future to help make students of all different colors,
creeds, religions, and ages college and career ready. College and career readiness has been said so
many times that it has lost its meaning.
As has most of today’s schooling.
Why do we attend to school? To
prepare for the future? To learn what
was discovered in the past? To socialize
and work with others? To pass a test?
“…careers,
college, and citizenship knowledge in this global economy” (Faust, 2016)
might be the trifecta we have been searching for in public education. But, the citizenship aspect has been
lost. Before anything else – before competing
for a seat in a top ranked university and fulfilling careers were established –
we were all citizens. Before our
beginning years in a classroom, during the midst of formal education while
growing up, and after we have left our college commencement ceremonies we have
been, are, and are still going to be citizens of this world. And we have to get along.
So where do I even
begin when discussing embryonic communities?
To clarify the definition this
article provided some more insight in to which an embryonic school or
community reflects the real world. Therefore,
subjects should not be taught or assessed in isolation. Dewey (Dewey, 1900) stated this again when he
described that “…instruction was not given ready-made; it was first needed, and
then arrived at experimentally” (p. 47) and it has been embodied in Finnish
schools. One lesson consisted of
multiple subjects in addition to art and creative writing (Faust, 2016). Every school or lesson in Finland may not
resemble an embryonic community. But, it
seems the educational leaders are putting in the effort to make every day
schooling like this for their children with frequent play breaks and enrichment
courses in music and language (Hancock, 2011).
Testing is on the back burner.
Evolutionarily speaking, standardized assessments are a modern,
man-made, creation that does not come naturally.
So why does America
seem to test so much? To a certain
degree I support the need for students to take comprehensive exams and for
teachers to have curriculum standards to adhere to. But why has testing become so overwhelming
that for three weeks in April, my school rearranges its schedule to allow
students to come to school, sit for four hours in front of a computer screen,
and then leave? It does seem to come out
of a need to compete – competing to have the brightest students and the most
profitable economy. Clearly our current
system is not working if other standardized tests must be given for students to
pass and earn a concordance score because they did not pass the first standardized
exam.
As I was reading I
tried to put myself in a similar classroom situation that Finnish teachers are
given. Honestly, it seemed weird. How would I be able to prove that my students
were learning, staying on pace, and meeting the standards if they weren’t given
a test every 10 class periods and compared with the other classes down the
hall? While watching Hardy’s (2010) TED
Talk about the Green School in Bali, I caught myself thinking, “When are these
students going to need how to how to grow all these vegetables?” And then I remembered, “When are my students
going to need to find the 100th term of a sequence or use the
multiplicity rules to determine polynomial behavior?”
The former situation
incorporated more cross-curricular, relevant learning than any of my lessons
from the past three years have. The
former is an embryonic community of which Dewey, and Finland, would be
proud. But isn’t the Green School a bit
extreme? Unrealistic? While it’s great to boast about being off the
grid (Hardy, 2010) this isn’t practical.
The students at the Green School are not taught how to problem solve,
create, or collaborate with technology.
Isn’t one of the goals of education to prepare
our students for the future? Isn’t it
necessary to be fluent in technology to be a good citizen? I think Dewey would agree.
From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school
comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school
in any complete and free way within the school itself; while, on the other
hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school. This is the isolation of the school – it’s isolation
from life (p. 67).
It’s
unfortunate. I do not know how to create
an academic embryonic community. I
strive each day to create a class environment that teaches the social skills,
respect, and critical thinking needed in this world. This is a start.
References
Faust, S
(Director). (2016). The Finland
Phenomenon [Film]. Memphis, TN: True South Studios.
Dewey, J. (1900). The School and
Society (Chapters 1 - 3). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hello Marissa,
ReplyDeleteI believe you raised some really great points and questions in your post this week. The first one to stick out to me was where you said, “College and career readiness has been said so many times that it has lost its meaning”. I think this is a true statement for a lot of aspects in school we just keep saying them like “be respectful” but if we are not teaching things sort of things in a variety of manners how can we expect all students to understand these important but repetitive phrases. I think this has happened because we have put less focus on the social and personal aspects of school. Which leads to the questions you bring up later on what is the purpose of schooling?
I would be interested to hear what you think is the the purpose of schooling. It is a surprisingly, easy yet hard question to answer. For me, this question has a simple and a complex answer the simple answer is for students, to learn and grow as people. The complex answer would not fit into one of our post, it may even take up an entire book. You mentioned some aspect of the purpose of schooling in your post but I hope you comment with what you think is the purpose is. But I think this question, inadvertently makes you wonder what your school does that does not relate to the purpose of learning.
Another, great point you part up is about how much we test and how it would be odd if we did not always test. “Honestly, it seemed weird. How would I be able to prove that my students were learning, staying on pace, and meeting the standards if they weren’t given a test every 10 class periods and compared with the other classes down the hall?” After, readin this I thought, that would be weird for like two seconds but then I realized that I have only been teaching three years and this is the only kind of teaching I know. I believe I would excel in this kind of environment, students could still display their understand and knowledge of topics, content, standards but in different forms and on tests just less of them. I hope this becomes more common in schools as I believe it will allow more students to learn, grow, and succeed, which is the purpose of schooling.
Great Post,
Corey
Hey Marissa, thanks for sharing your thoughts on our embryonic community unit. I agree that the readings were overwhelming because it can seem daunting to try to do everything all at once. Simply teaching a subject without any of the classroom management is difficult enough! Then we add in all of the extra stuff and it seems impossible. I do not think that it is though. I think it is a matter of effort and experience. I think the longer that we are in the classroom, the better we will get at creating awesome classroom communities. The problem is that too many teachers are getting overwhelmed because of all of the testing, evaluating, etc. so they do not get a chance to get enough experience to be great. That is why I liked the Finnish schools. The teachers were valued and trusted to do their jobs. Not being evaluated several times, every year by our administrators would be amazing. It would be a more relaxed atmosphere and I would feel like I could just do my job. I also liked that they were not in the classroom as many hours as we are. Sometimes I feel like I do not have time to do my job. I am in the classroom so much and I do not have time to plan a great lesson!
ReplyDeleteI also agree that testing in the U.S. is out of control. One of the reasons that I have seen that is a reason that our current standardized testing system is not working is that they are such high stakes for our schools. The fact that they decide how much funding a school will get is making schools teach to the test. All that matters is how students do on the I-Step or M-Step. The problem with that is that they keep changing the tests so that as soon as the teachers figure out what they are supposed to be teaching, the test changes and the students are tested on something that they have not even been taught yet. Therefore, those test results really are invalid, but they are still used to evaluate the teachers and the school. Maybe if we only had our students take the PISA when they are seniors like Finland, then our scores would soar because we could focus on learning instead of how to take a test.
I think that it is possible to know how your students are doing based on summative and formative tests in the classroom. For me, I never look at my students’ standardized test scores to figure out how to teach them. Finnish teachers still test in their classroom even if they do not do many standardized tests. It would be great to not have all of the standardized test days taking time out of class. We could actually be working on their learning and not testing for weeks out of the year.
When it comes to the green schools, I agree that his idea is not one that can be copied and used in every school! There is no way that an open-air building would work in Michigan winters. I do think that we can use ideas from there to incorporate into our schools. We are a global community after all and I believe we need to take responsibility for our resource use. Small changes in every school could have a huge impact on our ecological footprints. The benefit of teaching those students to garden, in my opinion, was that first of all it caused them to learn biology. Secondly they had to work together in order to make it work. Thirdly, I think the point was that after learning how to do it, they can continue to garden when they get older.
Thanks again for your post, it made me think of things about the readings that I had not previously. I hope you have a great school year!
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your post and the dialogue it created! I really enjoyed reading it all.
Sorry about the overwhelming feeling! Not my desire, believe me :) I'm aiming more for inspire or stop-and-think. But you raised so many great questions. So your post both inspired and made me stop-and-think!
I really like the thought experiment you did. What if: No tests. No teacher evaluations. No curriculum guidelines. In truth, the problem is not these things, but how they have come to define us. As the article says, we start to forget the human element.
But let's stick with it. Take it all away. How do we know students learn? One easy way to answer that is through Dewey. Humans are always learning! It's not possible to go through a day without the opportunity to rethink a habit or belief. To see something new. To try something new.
So let's assume students are learning. Then the questions become different. What are they learning? What are they doing with what they are learning? Is what they are learning valuable? Is it what they will need in the future?
If we focused just on those questions, without any of the stress, our job would be so interesting! Our job is to get into children's minds and help them to clarify what is going on there, to start to chart a path of their own choosing. I mean, that's what parents do every day. We know our kids are growing and changing faster than we can ever keep up with.
I loved the Dewey quote you ended with because it's one of those that makes life clear for me. Our goal is to bring the curriculum and life outside school together. I need to know both halves, as a teacher. I use the curriculum to help children solve problems and understand issues that are important to them. I also teach kids how to live more interesting lives outside of school, because there is so much that they don't even know about! We show them what is possible!
To be honest, I think this vision is hard right now, because we teach math mostly in isolation of questions kids might want to learn. Math is this great tool for revealing the world (thinking not just of physics, but also statistics). Also for controlling the world. But we assume to prefer the "pure" over the "applied" approach. That one is out of my pay grade!
So where do you end up? Social skills, respect, and critical thinking. Not sure you can do any better than that. That said, I encourage more of those thought experiments. Devote 10 minutes a week to classroom experiences that assume you and your students are completely free of all standards and tests.
Teach math with such freedom and see what comes of it!
Thanks for your work!
Kyle