My Talking points:
Math teachers indicated that they rely on a textbook for
more than 80% of their teaching and most math teachers (at least 60%) reported
that their instruction is quite similar to textbook tests. – Center for the
study of testing, evaluation, and education policy.
Mayor of New Jersey strongly backed the pedagogical approach
of using “constant drill and repetition” and even said “It is not that hard to
give answers if someone just told you what to say. They memorize back and know and get used to a
lot of A’s on quizzes” But when asked if
he would send his own children to this type of school, he answered “no, those
schools are best only for certain children”.
Imagine the difference between your child running home and
saying “I had a great day because I got an A, got the highest mark in the
class, won the math challenge” or saying “I know understand how to reduce
fractions, multiply two digit numbers, or argue critically”. One is saying learning is a means while the
other is regarding learning as an end.
Research has shown that an overemphasis on achievement:
1)
Undermines students interest in learning
2)
Makes failure overwhelming
3)
Leads students to avoid challenging themselves
4)
Reduces the quality of learning
5)
Invites students to think about how smart they
are instead of how hard they tried.
When we get carried away with results, we wind up,
paradoxically, with results that are less than ideal. Evidence has shown that our ideal long term
goals for our children and students are less likely to become reality when the
education system and its stakeholders become preoccupied with standards and
achievement.
If the point of school is to achieve and demonstrate success
instead of stretch your thinking and be challenged, then it is completely
logical that a child will always take the easiest route; sometimes the
unethical easier route.
501 mothers were questioned and more preferred their
children to complete projects that would involve less struggling but result in
success than those where their children would learn a lot more, struggle
through it, and could potentially make a lot of mistakes. Is this right?
Candle project – rewards slowed down the thinking.
The probability of getting a reward has the same brain
action as someone who is addicted to drugs.
Rewards promote just as much bad behaviour as good ones.
People of different abilities tend to learn more effectively
on a range of tasks when they’re able to cooperate with one another than when
they are trying to defeat one another.
Grades divert attention from education itself and otherwise
prove counterproductive. They also do
not provide accurate and reliable information.
Interesting studies:
When teachers use hands-on interactive learning activities,
students who were not graded at all did just as well on a proficiency exam as
those who were. Students who attended
elementary schools where no grades were used matched a sample of students who
had received traditional report cards for 6 years. 5th graders who were told they
would be graded on how well they remembered the social studies curriculum had
more trouble understanding the main point of the text than did those who were
told no grades will be used. Even on
strict recall the graded group remembered less.
Studies have shown over and over the more creative the task
the worse of the performance of students when grades are used. Only when comments are given, instead of
numerical scores, will the learning increase.
Ruth Butler’s experiment
Tests and grades may make students learn today
but will they may not want to tomorrow
Are you suggesting that there be two classes, one for the high achievers and one for the rest?
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