School that challenges
That's right everyone, I'm posting because of something I read in a textbook for my ed class. On eof the topics that I was reading over dealt with common philosophies that are being decided upon and published by different content areas of teaching. There are so many commonalities, its surprising, especially considering the fact that most people view content areas as almost dueling and in disagreement on teaching methods. Not true. One of the commonalities caught my eye. It was that school should be challenging. Sounds pretty straight forward, right? That is until you think about it's significance. Here's a quote:
"While some people think that expereiential, collaborative, or self-chosen tasks are easier for students, teachers using state-of-the-art practice know that the opposite is true. "Letting" students choose their own topics for writing, for example, makes their task harder, not easier. If the teacher commands: 'Imagine you are a butterfly. Write one paragraph with lots of adjectives telling how it feels to land on a flower,' the author's job is basically fill-in-the-blank. The really hard job for young writiers is to find their own topics every day-- pursuing the promising ones as far as they will go, discarding the clunkers and starting over again. When teachers steadily assign writing topics without asking students to develop their own subjects as real writers do, they are establishing a pedagogical welfare sustem and lowering the standard of instruction." - from Best Practice (third edition), by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde
My thoughts stem especially from that last sentence. I run into a sort of frustration at work with students who are being asked to come up with their own ideas. They are evidence of the reliance on this "welfare" system when it comes to writing. And then professors, parents, students and administration wonders why student struggle when deciding on a degree. They either switch multiple times, or hold off deciding as long as possible. Is it any wonder? When everything is spoonfed for so long, it comes as a shock when the decision becomes our own. We have no idea what our interests may be.
Now I know this does not apply to everyone, but I can think of quite a few people that this applies to and that startles me.
"While some people think that expereiential, collaborative, or self-chosen tasks are easier for students, teachers using state-of-the-art practice know that the opposite is true. "Letting" students choose their own topics for writing, for example, makes their task harder, not easier. If the teacher commands: 'Imagine you are a butterfly. Write one paragraph with lots of adjectives telling how it feels to land on a flower,' the author's job is basically fill-in-the-blank. The really hard job for young writiers is to find their own topics every day-- pursuing the promising ones as far as they will go, discarding the clunkers and starting over again. When teachers steadily assign writing topics without asking students to develop their own subjects as real writers do, they are establishing a pedagogical welfare sustem and lowering the standard of instruction." - from Best Practice (third edition), by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde
My thoughts stem especially from that last sentence. I run into a sort of frustration at work with students who are being asked to come up with their own ideas. They are evidence of the reliance on this "welfare" system when it comes to writing. And then professors, parents, students and administration wonders why student struggle when deciding on a degree. They either switch multiple times, or hold off deciding as long as possible. Is it any wonder? When everything is spoonfed for so long, it comes as a shock when the decision becomes our own. We have no idea what our interests may be.
Now I know this does not apply to everyone, but I can think of quite a few people that this applies to and that startles me.