Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Class Reaction- Student Reform
I have been pondering this thought for a few weeks now, and brought it up to my group tonight during the discussion. This semester we have, naturally, put much weight on teacher, community, and governmental responsibility to create a conducive learning environment for students. We have discussed through Tyack and Cuban, as well as Strike, Soltis, and the Curren text, the importance of reforms within schools whether it be ethical, financial, or resource related. However, I think that a big issue is student motivation, and the responsibility that needs to be put on students to achieve. When students are underachieving, it is the teacher who catches the flak. While I completely realize that teachers should motivate and work with each student to meet standards, and ensure that students are achieving, I think that students are coddled and lack self-motivation. Of course I do not mean all, but working with students at a local high school, I sensed that many were VERY used to their hands being held throughout the learning process. I do not have any solutions, but I do know that even parents do not put the same responsibilities on their children to succeed as they do teachers. Intrinsic motivation is a valuable attribute, yet many students do not possess this due to a variety of factors. At some point the buck needs to be passed to the student if we are encouraging education as a means of democratic participation. In any case, I think it is an interesting point to consider while we think about reform. What can educators do to better motivate students? How can they view standardized tests as being important? How do we engage them in material so that they better achieve?
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2 comments:
It is interesting that you bring this up now, because I have been thinking along the same lines. This is the one aspect that really does bring a professional aspect to our job. We understand our content area, the child's developmental issues and we uniquely see the performace, or lack of performance. As a result, it is up to the teacher to come up with ways to tap into that individual's motivation. This diagnosis is the creative, professional discretion part of the job. We will never reach them all. I don't believe that any one school district formula can motivate them all. We have to practice our profession on the individual student, and then count even one success as great.
In management the challenge is really to motivate your employees. This too has to be done individually. It doesn't take a manager long to realize that it is cheaper to train soemone than to keep firing in search of the perfect employee. Years ago I susbtituted in a fourth grade classroom. There was one student who just turned his test in blank. I knew from my son that this boy was an excellent athlete. One day I gave him an open book Social Studies test. He wrote his name on the test and laid his head down to sleep. I couldn't stand to watch it. I finally went to him and asked him why he didn't try. He told me that he didn't know anything. I told him he didn't have to know anything. Just look up the answers in the book. He told me that he thought he would still fail. I told him he needed to look at it like a basketball game. Right now the score was zero, but each answer he found in the book would be like scoring a basket. What else do you have to do? He opened his book and begun to search. I saw him writing answers. He smiled at me and said that's two. Later the teacher called me to ask about his high scores that week. I explained what happened. Just the little bit I knew about him allowed me to motivate him.
We need to be actively part of systemwide attempts to motivate, but nothing will replace the teacher knowing the student. Each person has their own on button.
Lack of student motivation does create a bigger problem for the public education system. It seems twisted when you consider that teachers are working hard to teach the material that students will need to know for the standardized tests, and students don't care about the tests because they don't really understand why they're important (besides passing a grade level). Students don't understand that a single test is the judge not only for their own personal acheivement, but the effectiveness of the teacher as well as the school. I guess the key is creating lessons that are interesting and relevant to your students, and hopefully this will engage them in learning. I would like to think students becoming more intrigued and actively involved in lessons will in turn help them perform better on tests.
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