I know I've been quiet for about a month on my two blogs, and this is a part of the reason why. I'm working on improving the way I run Edubacon and maybe get some more interaction. Based off of the materials I've posted, and posted by others, I'm making an article/post/e-mail to send out to many potentially interested people like teachers. This post is to let you all know I'm still working on this stuff and to give a pre-view of what I'm working on.
During the process of creating what I'll be mass e-mailing, I did some research on the internet. Yes, I know it's a big surprise for a college student and blogger to do internet research, but stay with me for a moment. I wanted to check out search results for the name I'm thinking of using. See, nothing too crazy. In doing so some interesting articles and blog posts came to my attention that I would like to share that go right in line with my efforts.
First is an article about being too focused on the results, and not enough on the process. In essence it say that students are people too, so teachers should treat them like people with real feelings and personalities. In effective communication it's important to remember to listen, actively listen, to the other person. Not paying attention to the feelings and personalities of his students, the professor found that he was driving his students to hard to make sure they got the point right then and there.
Article: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/569446
Second is another article that deals with professors and pushing their students too far, this time to the point of shedding tears. Its big point is to look at a student more like how a parent looks at their children. Rather than looking at all the faults and things that could use correction, that professor thinks teachers should remember the potential of each student. Just because the student has faults, isn't the best, needs a lot of work, is going to fail your class, doesn't mean they are less worthy of your time or less in need of your help.
This article has comments after it, and one of them jumped out at me. 'Although I agree that grades should be based on performance and we should lead them to good work habits, I don't see that I'd teach them anything by kicking them in the teeth while they're down and telling them "that's life, suck it up." How does it diminish us or coddle them to take a few minutes to listen to their stories, sympathize, and give a bit of advice, particularly if they are going to fail the course? Ask them a few questions nicely "Why do you think you are having trouble with the material?" and their answers might lead you to the advice they need (eg. "the counseling center has help for test anxiety" "You might consider switching to another major such as ____"). This is higher education not boot camp.'
Article: http://chronicle.com/article/When-Students-Cry/47540/
Third is an article that covers how a school was handling the real life scheduling problems of their student athletes, and the reaction it received. Their solution was to give the 2% of the students who are student athletes a priority when registering for courses. The article doesn't take a side. but instead shows different sides of the situation. I really like the quote at the end of the article, as it acknowledges the reasoning while saying there may be a better way. It's a common problem with solutions. Just because there is a legitimate reason for the proposed solution doesn't make it automatically the best solution.
Article: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2008-11-10/student-outrcy-ignited-athlete-priority-registration
Fourth is a blog of a student teacher from a couple years back that I encourage you to read. While it only lasts a semester, it has many interesting insights into the world of a person teaching and learning at the same time. While not always comfortable, the reactions from the students was enough to encourage that teacher to discount the teachers and staff who seemed like discouragement.
One of the students, in an assigned letter to the teacher, said this at the end of the course. "Throughout the semester, it seemed like you didn't want a day to go to waste. You always had us writing, analyzing, or discussing. I really appreciated this because it made me feel as though I was going through the same emotions and experiences of the characters. All the analyzing made them come alive. Your standards took a while getting used to because many of the English teachers I've had in the past went easy on me. I also wasn't used to having so many essays, but your comments were so helpful that I think my writing has improved significantly. You pushed us hard, but I'll be mature enough to say that is was worth it . I really hope that you teach 11th grade English next year or even AP English." To be honest, I wish I could find a way to make contact with that teacher. She sounds like a very interesting and insightful person when it comes to teaching. I'm glad she blogged about her experiences. Now I share them with you.
Blog: http://teachingtochangetheworld.blogspot.com/
The fifth and last of the interesting things I've found in researching the title I'm considering deals with the big question I'll be tackling, "When will I use this in real life?" Its a Q&A site with a question specifically about when algebra is used in real life. While the other things I've mentioned deal with the people, communications and results in a more traditional way, I focus on this question of usefulness as a part of motivating student to care about learning the material. The fact the the question is well known to occur says a lot about how schools teach students in general. That's also why I intend to send the completed article/e-mail with a bunch of links for those interested in finding out more. There are some great answers found to the question that should be shared with teachers to share with their students.
Q&A: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/52324.html
Q&A: http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.why.math.html
In general, I'm intending to pull from the materials I have easy access to and to find more to use in what I send off. By using a small article with several pointed, dedicated links I'm hoping to get some of the teachers to read more into this. Maybe some will share the links or forward the e-mail. Maybe some people will come and get involved in the discussions about improving education. If you want to share some information with me, I welcome the contribution. This is likely to include the summary posts I've had planned for Edubacon for months, so there will be credits for those people who have contributed to that effort.
Some people might wonder why I care so much and refuse to stop when my ideas don't work. To put it simply, I've dealt with bad teachers that meant well, bad situations beyond my control and still have retained my love of learning. Then there are the results of the current approach to education that is doing horrors to our future. One business teacher I had said that he saw the lack of focus on business ethics in business classes as part of the reason for the economic problems we're going through. Education matters, a lot.
Then there is the way people generally view school, learning and education. A necessary evil is not what should be thought of, though there will be some work involved. It's like sports and video games where there are more and less pleasant parts, but on the whole it should be considered a good thing, not a bad thing. One of the comments on the second article I mentioned that if you get to know your students you should be able to see the problems coming a mile away. While I'm not sure how feasible it is for teachers with a lot of students, or for game designers to implement through code, there is something to be considered in the concept. The more about the person you know, the more real and human they become to you. That information enables you to more easily treat the person like a person rather than a thing.
In line with the Weekly Specials posted on Edubacon, I'll give some more links I've found relating to this material. If you know of other good resources, please pass them on to me. While I may not be blogging much at the moment, I am working on a few projects, including this article/e-mail that I will post in parts and/or the whole.
Links and Descriptions:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm
- It's a wonderful page of links that I intend to explore. It's huge. The few pages I've looked at so far have all had really good content.
http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/Student_motivatation.html
- This is a breakdown of motivation beyond what I've done. Very interesting and informative. It should be very useful to most people who have reasons to motivate others.
http://www.nwrel.org/request/oct00/textonly.html
- This is an official booklet on motivating students. While haven't read it yet, the promise of "a discussion of research and literature pertinent to the issue" is enough reason for me to be interested.
Have fun, spread the word and tell me what you think,
Igen Oukan
