| 2. Teaching Students Based on their Individual Strengths. We understand that every child is different. Each child has individual needs and personal factors that drive their motivation. No two students are motivated by the same learning activity to the same degree but we must expect all students to be successful learners. We must present materials to students that are within their capacity to learn yet is challenging and connected to prior knowledge. Children learn best if they are immersed in their experiences and are given opportunities to actively process what they have learned. The best learning takes place when necessary facts and skills are embedded in experiences that relate to real life. This is truly a child-centered educational system. Some outcomes of this model are that students feel safe and involved in their education and acquire a sense of self-worth and acceptance. There is a mutual trust between teachers and students with a sense of community and family. There is genuine caring among individuals and a sense of responsibility for the student success. Teachers demonstrate an understanding of their subject matter and continuously strive to better themselves and students value themselves and others. No one can disagree that children learn better in smaller classes than in larger ones. In smaller classes, children do not get “lost in the crowd”. There is a large cost that is incurred but in order to realize the benefits of child-centered classrooms this is a small cost to pay. The bottom line is that every change to public education requires an investment of funds. Creating small learning communities does incur additional costs notwithstanding that the positive effect of smaller classes becomes very cost effective in the long run. Many teachers have been known to adopt various new strategies in order to teach more effectively. One promising strategy involves using adaptive learning to tailor instruction to each individual student. Teachers are moving away from the traditional classroom model where one teacher works with an entire class having all students doing the same things at the same time to a classroom where teachers give more focused attention to small groups while other groups work independently. In the traditional education model, each teacher works alone, isolated in their own classroom without communication from the school or from peers. This is a factory-style model. Teachers need to work with other educators sharing information about their curriculum and how it can be related to other subject so it becomes interdisciplinary. There also must be ongoing conversations among the teachers about the students they teach in common, sharing observations and coordinating efforts to monitor how the students are performing throughout the day. By schools restructuring to support small learning communities, teacher effectiveness multiplies. Second, schools should identify who their best, most effective teachers are and then empower them to lead and help train other teachers. Teacher mentors and teacher advisories have been proven to help solve the problem of retention and it helps to reduce isolation, allowing teachers to problem-solve together. By reducing the size of a school by creating mini-schools, we are rethinking the role of teachers and their place in the educational structure. In this model, teachers will become critical thinkers and problem-solvers adjusting the educational process to effectively meet the ever-changing needs of their students. There are many social advantages in creating mini-schools. When students are in a large school it is very easy for them get “lost in the crowd”. While in small learning environments, everyone is needed to be part of the learning experience. Shy students who would never be part of teams, clubs, or other educational activities will be encouraged to participate and will be supported by teachers. Attendance and dropout rates fall, and social disruptions such as behavioral problems which are disruptive to the learning process in large schools seem to be diminished to a level that can be handled by the staff of the mini-school. One of the reasons why students “do not get lost in the crowd” is that not only is every student known by an adult, but in smaller learning environments the students build closer relationships with peers, where students tend to know one another and thus care for each other. Everyone has a place where they can feel safe to be themselves without fear of the embarrassment of failure. It is this environment which allows all students to develop the self-esteem needed for success in school. Educational research has made great strides in outlining what works to improve educational outcomes for students. Yet nothing is more important than a developmentally responsive education. These reforms must lead to changes in the way educators look at curriculum, instruction and assessment. If it is our goal to promote intellectual development, then we must understand how the differences in the family and social circumstances of all students affect them and their readiness to master a rigorous curriculum. |
| 1. Integrated Curriculum and Its Effects on How Children Learn. Educational leaders have the responsibility to ensure that curriculum is integrated through all subjects and nothing is taught in isolation. Curriculum needs to be aligned to the real world with a school climate of respect and discipline. There needs to be a school culture which will have everyone working together where all students can achieve. We can all agree that effective teachers must also find ways to personalize this learning process so it is both relevant and challenging for each of our students. By moving the process from a teacher-centered classroom to a student-centered classroom, we will foster the student’s ability to become a lifelong learner. This occurs when we educate them through their learning styles, nurturing their individual talents, rather than the mass production approach we currently apply to teacher-centered classrooms. Student-centered classrooms make teaching exciting. Teachers no longer work in isolation and begin to work in a team environment. Subjects are integrated throughout the curriculum and relate to the student environment. Skills and knowledge are developed in the subjects of language arts, science, mathematics, social studies, music and art. Team teaching ties together the subjects where all of the student’s teachers plan together to give greater meaning to learning. This shared learning environment motivates teachers and learners to see life problems in a broad sense of creating meaningful associations to the learning process. Creating these associations in the curriculum allows teachers to develop a sense of ownership to the learning process. When teachers develop this sense of purpose and they feel that they can make a difference, their willingness to remain in this educational setting will be strengthened. Teachers who also work in teams are able to recognize and confront problems which developed in the learning environment. Teachers also appreciate the social support of fellow workers when they work together to solve issues in their classrooms. The benefits of this integrated curriculum approach also include elevated student results. When what is learned in one area of the curriculum is applied to skills learned in another area of the curriculum, then students see relationships between the different subject areas. As soon as this happens, learning takes on new meaning. Learning in isolation is just facts that deal with abstract ideas. But, by integrating the curriculum, students see relationships, concepts and underlying ideas of the core curriculum where meaningful concepts and connections can be discussed to develop sense to what the students are learning. When we make education more meaningful, concerns about achievement diminishes and we begin to understand that learning experiences are retained and remembered much more easily than memorization of facts. Learning takes place when meaningful ideas and concepts are tied to the learning styles of individual students. The concept of student-centered learning is enhanced when teachers demonstrate the skills to customize learning for students with a large range of individual differences. Students come from many different cultures bringing varied experiences, abilities, and family values to the classroom and teachers must deliver education to these students. Assessments are important to improve instruction and support student successes. Teachers need to have greater knowledge and skill around how to develop lessons that lead to student mastery. In addition, teachers need to be prepared to make data-informed decisions at varied levels of assessment, from once a year state testing to ongoing assessments at the classroom level. This information will then be used to deliver rigorous, relevant and personalize learning for individual students. Creating an environment where teachers continue to improve their effectiveness is enhanced by collaboration. Teachers collaborating with each other to create environments that support learning and self-motivation is an outcome all teachers need to strive for and achieve. In contrast the performance standards movement is less concerned about what students learn and more fixated on how they learn and what they know. Howard Gardner’s, “theory of multiple intelligences” is seen as the opposite to the core knowledge movement. Gardner sees the core knowledge movement as “One Size Fits Few” and a perfect example of American style education. Many educational leaders and teacher unions feel that there are so many unanswered questions on implementing the Common Core that the whole process is flawed and thus, it is being revised on a federal level. When we look at educational policy across the country, many states are creating exams based on the standards. Educators and parents have just finished a decade-long experiment in standards-based, test-driven school reform called No Child Left Behind. NCLB required states to adopt rigorous curriculum standards and test students annually to gauge progress towards reaching these standards. Under No Child Left Behind, all 50 states revised their standards and began testing every student in grades 3 to 8 and in high school. But NCLB was a failure. Most schools did not raise their academic performance or the performance of their students. Failure was looked at as a failure of the schools themselves. And in an attempt to fix these failed schools, blame fell on those individuals who worked in the schools. Consequently, when we look at a list of our schools in our nation, more than half the schools in the nation were on the list of failing schools and the list was growing every day. When we look a student-centered learning, teachers need the skills to customize learning for students accounting for various individual differences. Students come from many different cultures bringing their varied experiences, abilities, and family values to the classroom and teachers must deliver an effective education to all students. High quality instruction must include methods to teach to student differences in interests, readiness and learning profiles. Students must learn by doing, being involved in what they are learning. Collaborative learning by working in small groups encourage social behavior which speaks volumes on how students grow and mature. This learning must be supported by making counseling, health- care and social services available on site. Every successful school realizes that having an excellent rigorous curriculum with effective teachers will fail if delivered to students who have severe emotional or health problems. These issues will always inhibit the student’s ability to function at a high level in school. Therefore, we must be prepared to look at the whole child, meeting their physical, emotional and social needs as well as their educational needs. |
| Educational Issues Facing Our Schools…………………… Anyone who looks at our schools can see many issues that need to be clarified as to their importance in improving our schools. By focusing on these issues or the deeper things that make a successful school we will have a greater understanding of how these elements work together to create a school culture that provides positive outcomes for all children. |
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