EXPERIMENTS IN EDUCATION
Vol.XXXV September
2007 No.9
Professor Emeritus
20 I West 22nd
U.S.A
In this article the
learned and prolific author discusses the relationships between the school,
students and society in terms of national and state objectives, self-directed
achievement, the curriculum of school subjects and the vast resources rendered
accessible by I.C. T and virtual learning.
Students come from
different socioeconomic levels in society. Thus, they do not come to school
with equivalent background experiences. Students from upper and middle class
socio economic communities do better in test results as compared to those who
come from poverty homes. By viewing mandated test results, it is quite obvious
that money assists in securing the good things in life such as tours of other
nations! states as well as reading materials at home,
and the possibilities of attending prestigious private schools and
universities. Parents of higher income levels possess a higher level of
educational attainment and do more reading at home which provides a good model
for children. Better clothes for children, better homes, and the possibilities
of healthful nutrition are further advantages of having adequate incomes. After
school programs of lessons in different fields in music and dance further
accentuate benefits of being in the upper income levels.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal law of 2002 emphasizes cognitive
objectives, largely, for all students to attain on a specific grade level
(grades three through eight and a high school exit test). For any grade level,
students take the same test. This is generally true regardless of ability
levels or cultural factors such as being a special needs student, an English
Language Learner (ELL), or a student from a minority group. All take the same
3tandardized grade level tests with the same time limits for test taking. Any
separate category such as special needs children (mentally retarded students,
for example) need to show adequate yearly progress or the entire school is
deemed as "falling." It's a one size 'fits all' set of beliefs
involved in testing (Ediger and Rao,
2007a).
More needs to be said
about the home and environmental conditions which students experience from
birth to and including th.e public school years.
Those students who grow up in poverty have several strikes against them. They
have not experienced models conductive to doing well in school. The late A.H. Maslow (1954) emphasized five general sequential needs of
individuals in order to do well in life. The lowest level is for individuals to
have adequate nutrition, sleep and rest, as well as have appropriate clothing.
The second level is
for individuals to have safety needs met. Freedom from danger and abuse is
important. The third level stresses having belonging needs met. All like to
experience feelings of belonging. Being isolated and shunned does not make for
happiness. Next, esteem needs must be met. Each person desires to be recognized
for achievements made and not be bullied. For improved performance in school,
all may have esteem needs met with praise and other forms of rewards for
improved performance. Then too, individuals like to become the kind of person
desired, as a final objective. Maslow's hierarchy of
human needs provides a framework for goals which most individuals crave and
wish. Too many students experience tremendous obstacles to success in school
and in life generally. No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
advocates seemingly believe that all students on a specific grade level can
experience success regardless of the home and societal environment.
Value added approaches
in testing would better reveal an individual student's progress as compared to
predetermined standards as advocated by NCLB. In valued added approaches, each
student would compared with his/her previous test
score to ascertain achievement. Achievement for any student is desired rather
than achievement of predetermined standards. The latter stresses a student
setting out to achieve what a remote set of test makers believe that learners
should achieve. In contrast, value added procedures emphasize a student's
achievement over previous test results. Is growth in evidence?
Too many reports
indicate that student's are drilled in reading and mathematics, the two areas
of the curriculum presently being tested, in order to do well in passing to the
next higher grade level as well as to meet adequate yearly progress (A YP).
Science was added for the 2007-2008 school year. This still leaves out social
studies, health and physical education, as well as art in the school
curriculum. A well rounded education stresses more than two or three curriculum
areas.
Then too with drill
being stressed as a method of teaching, the psychology of learning is not being
emphasized in teaching and learning situations. The writer strongly recommends
that the instructional arena promote the following criteria for teachers to
follow: emphasizes active involvement of students in learning. The student is
then fully engaged in the learning process and not a passive recipient of
knowledge and skills; stresses purpose in learning in that it assists learners
to perceive the values inherent in achieving; builds self confidence in the
learner to be resilient in the face of obstacles; motivates students to become
intrinsically inclined to achieve, grow, and develop; develops and explores
student interests to attain relevant objectives of instruction; and emphasizes
students developing self efficacy in promoting self confidence within learners
(Ediger and Rao, 2007).
A
variety of rich learning experiences will assist students to develop optimally
in diverse I facets of achievement, be it in knowledge, skills, attitudes,
morality, and ethics. Positive attitudes toward each learner will guide
learners to feel the necessity of
proper health care humanely and wisely toward others. (Medical, dental and
optical) for all in society
The school curriculum needs to develop talents of
individuals fully. No talent should be wasted but rather fulfilled in meeting
personal desires and wishes. Teachers
need to listen to their students to ascertain what they hope to learn as well
as the means of learning. This still leaves ample time for achieving basic
subject matter knowledge and skills. Questions which students have must be accepted as
having worth and need adequate elaboration.
Many times, students
reveals interests through the selection of library books to be read during
sustained silent reaidntg (SSR). For those not
reading well by the self, the teacher shsould read
aloud fascinating library books during story time. Narrative expository and
creative works (poetry) need to be inherent in the read aloud. When reading
aloud the teacher must use proper voice inflection. Library books for SSR and
the read need to be on a variety of genre and reading levels to provide for
individual differences, with emphasis on the following:
different kind
of work performed by individuals in the societal arena.
bibliotherapy and
how individuals overcame selected difficulties and problems
People in foreign lands with
cultural likenesses and differences.
natural disasters such as tornados,
hurricanes, mudslides, earthquakes, among others, and how welfare and relief
groups assist victims in these tragic
times.
the necessity of proper health
care (medical, dental and optical) for all in society.
honesty in government to make for a
viable democracy
identifying racial and other
prejudices which hinder achievement of individuals in society.
helping the needy and less fortunate
in the societal arena.
Students need to engage in
doing community service with appropriate supervision in safe places. Community service with appropriate supervision in safe places.
Community service project must stress relevant objective, care fully chosen and
aimed at improving society. Readiness for each project needs to be in evidence
so that lifelong participants will be developed. Thus, worthwhile learning
opportunity will result in doing community service. A variety of
developmentally appropriate activities to achieve objectives need to be in the
offing.
Students
need to learn about the local community through excursions, the internet, power point presentations and from resource people in the
community. Experience pertaining to the community.
Experiences pertaining to the community should be meaningful and encourage
student in life long learning. Through discussions, students may gain in-depth learning. Problems will
be identified and answers sought may gain in-depth learning’s. Problems will be
identified and answers sought using diverse references sources. Students need
to learn from first hand experience as well as through semi concrete and
abstract learn activities. There are additional follow-up experiences which
student might well experience pertaining to community learning experience such
as
making a college
doing a report in class
dramiatzing the role of a worker
in the community
conducting a
panel presentation on life in a community
Developing a bulletin board display on community
helpers
participating in a
seminar on different levels of government
reporting on a
city ordinance
committee work
and report on penalties for law violations (See Parker, 2001)
Students should always be
encouraged to classroom setting. Virtual communities then can do extra work such
as volunteering to serve on be brought into the
classroom setting to stimulate writing a classroom newspaper. Each activity interest and curiosity. School and society
have participated in should be appraised in terms of been brought closer
together via video thoroughness, quality, effort put forth, and References
involved thought.
Virtual communities, due to
technology use, have made it so that a distant place, or any area / region, may
be brought right into the classroom. There is then no scheduling of buses and
chaperones. Also, no appointments need to be made with the place of visitation.
Programs allow students across country to visit a zoo, for example, without
getting on the school bus. Behimann wrote (August 27,
2007) the following:
(
A ninth grader] ,300 miles away chimed in. with a question, "Would
the animal bite?"
Schaffer, the distant learning coordinator at Lee Richardson Zoo,
was confident it wouldn't.
“The only time an animal will
bite you if you hurt it or if it looks like its foods”, he said from the Finn
up Center for Conservation Education at the zoo. The students followed
Schaffer’s lesson via video ... The zoo has been providing live programs for
ten years. . .
Technology has made it
possible to bring live programs, even from remote areas, into the
classroom. The virtual fields trips emphazise reality and might well relate to almost any
social studies/science unit of study being taught in the classroom setting.
Virtual communities then can be brought into the classroom setting to stimulate
interest and curiosity. School and
society have been brought closer together via video.
Reference:
Behlmann, Emiley (August 27,2007),
"Virtual Field Trips," The
Ediger,
Marlow, and D. Bhaskara Rao
(2007a), Administration of Schools.
Ediger, Marlow, and D. Bhaskara Rao (2007b),
Maslow, A.H. (1954), Motivation and Personality.
Parker,
Walter C. (200]), Social Studies in Elementary Education.