Is Schooling Equitable?
Growing up as an average performing student, I never once thought that schooling was equitable. A-honor-roll and perfect attendance students were the only ones who seemed to be rewarded for their achievements. Don't get me wrong, A-honor-roll and perfect attendance are great achievements that deserve to be celebrated, however only celebrating those students sends out the notion to other students that you must be "perfect" in order to be rewarded and/or celebrated for your academic achievements.
Every student learns differently although, public schools nowadays don't really seem to take that into consideration. Most schools don't take the time to learn and understand the different ways lessons can be taught. Students' academic achievements are determined by how well they perform on an exam or standardized test, but in reality, tests aren't the only way to monitor a student's academic progress. A student's academic achievement should be based on their progress relative to their past achievements, this way a student can see where they are improving and work towards realistic goals, rather than aiming for "perfect" which isn't always manageable.
By taking the time to learn and understand students' different ways of learning, we as teachers and educators are able to offer an equal learning experience for every student involved. We can do this by offering a big array of alternative learning services where students can choose which application they learn better with. By being able to cater to each students specific needs we can ensure progress in every students' academic career and create a positive learning environment that makes students excited to learn and succeed.
Ana,
ReplyDeleteI greatly appreciate how you drew attention to the fact that we don't celebrate the learning process enough, and we put far too much emphasis on achievement. I actually was an A-honor roll student, but my brother was not. I almost felt guilty when my mom would hang my certificates in the living room because school came so easy to me, while he struggled, and I can only imagine how seeing those awards every day was like a constant reminder. He eventually became completely hopeless about school, to the point where I had to push him to graduate. On the flip side, I ended up facing a completely different struggle in my schooling, where I was rewarded so often for things that came easy to me, that when challenges arose I would become frustrated, often times giving up or finding shortcuts. I think these awards based on achievement are damaging for kids who "underachieve," because it makes them feel like they aren't good enough, as well as the "achievers," because it makes them complacent in their development and stops them from striving for more. As nice as the notion sounds, I personally believe we should do away with these rewards all together.
Hi Tori! I'm happy to hear an opinion from your point of view. I can only imagine how detrimental constant praise could be when you encounter something difficult. However I have to disagree with your statement about rewards. I don't think rewards should be done away with, I think we need to focus on rewarding and praising our students when effort is shown and progress is made rather than just rewarding them once they reach the end. I actually came across a tiktok from @christy_faith where she elaborates more on how helpful this strategy is for students.
DeleteHi Ana,
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your blog post about the pressure on students to be perfect in order to receive praise, it occurred to me that this also correlates with how students are disciplined in schools. It's way more likely for students who already aren't doing well in class to end up on their teachers' radar for negative reasons and that leads to more discipline which in turn leads to these students simply wanting to give up rather than keep trying to learn. We as teachers already have a lot on our plates with all the things we have to teach on top of taking care of our students but I absolutely agree with you, if we take the time to observe how our students actually learn, adapt our lessons to their needs, and then encourage them regardless of whether they did perfect or not, they will do so much better. It reminds me of what Rita Pierson talked about in her TedTalk. Her student only got 2 questions right out of 20 and instead of writing a bad score on his paper, she wrote +2. He got the same grade but the delivery made him want to try harder the next time. It's things as simple as that that help us create a more equitable environment for our students.
Hi Katy! Yes! I love the example you gave from Rita Pierson TedTalk! Students won't want to learn from people they don't like, much less put effort into something that they already know they don't perform well in. By praising the students effort we're showing them that as long as they are trying they are learning and that's what we want them to do, learn.
DeleteHi Ana! I really related to your thoughts at the beginning, as I was also an average student in school. I never got praised or awarded for making A's and B's, but I would watch as the "all A" students got rewarded. I also agree with you that the schooling system does not take into consideration how students learn. There is so much pressure put on students to be perfect, when in reality, no one goes through life being perfect. I remember the nervousness I would feel before taking a STAAR test, thinking that my whole academic career relied on my score. As I got older, I realized that state tests (in my opinion) do not show what a student is capable of. As future educators, we need to do a better job of being open to different learning styles, like you mentioned. If we took away the nerve-wracking factor of the classroom, I feel that school would be a more equitable place for our students. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Mallorie! I can relate so much however being an average performing student, I never feared failure because i never had to. I was a good student who received good grades, but were they perfect? no, they weren't and it always bugged me how you had to be pretty much perfect to get recognized in school. I agree that as educators we should seek alternative strategies that are more helpful to students and their different ways of learning.
DeleteHi Rebekah! Thank you for mentioning the different type of assessments that are offered at Texas State. From my experience as a former STEM major, tests were the only assessments in my core science classes, and my grades on these difficult exams made me feel hopeless. I'm glad to hear that Texas State is beginning to expand their curriculum to cater to more students learning needs.
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