This weekend my wife and I had a group of friends stay with us at our cabin. One of our visitors was 2 1/2 yr old Charlotte. Charlotte spent the weekend questioning everything. Why do fish swim? What is that? Why is the boat loud? All these questions made me wonder...why don't the kids I teach in 9th and 10th grade ask this many questions? Do they think they know everything already? Do they not care anymore because all the answers are at the tip of their fingers on the internet? Wow...I sound like Charlotte with all my questions!
University of Virgina scientest Daniel Willingham set out to answer questions like these in his new book Why don't kids like school? USA Today interviewed Daniel to try to promote his new book and answer a few questions most teachers and parents have. I was surprised by some of his answers. Willingham explained that it is difficult for teachers to make school challenging for students because they want a mental challenge that is not too easy but is not too difficult. Who are they goldilocks? He also went on to explain why we remember certain things and not others. Using dissection as an example, he explained that often times kids are thinking of how gross it is and not what they are doing. Maybe they should try the virtual dissection online?
Willingham explained that good teachers get students to think about the main point or central theme unavoidably. Using Pearl Harbour as an example, he described how from the Japanese point of view rather than the American, this was much easier to do. The biggest surprise for me came when Willingham explained there is no such thing as visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners. He explained how people differ in their abilities and interests but that there is no such thing as different learning styles. Willingham vaguely cited over 50 years of research to support his claim.
I remember being a kid and being excited to go to school. Coming home and telling my mom what I'd learned that day or showing her some new skill I'd developed was the highlight for me. At some point things changed, and school was a chore or something I had to do and no longer fun. Maybe, it is because the same methods for delivering information are repeated from K-12 and then into college. Maybe it was too easy and I wasn't challenged enough. No matter what, I think this class has proven that we need to find creative ways to engage and challenge our students. Gone are the days of teachers standing in front of the class lecturing then we hand out a worksheet and repeat 200 days out of the year. Hello blogs, podcasts, wikis, discussion threads, online simulations, etc. If we don't adapt to how students learn or how they want to learn, we can expect our students will be bored and lifeless in class. This is not the classroom I want nor the teacher I want to be.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Students Transferring To More Affordable Colleges
Does the name of your school guarantee you will get a better education? How about the price tag? In today's current economic times, more and more kids are transferring from their expensive private schools to cheaper public school alternatives. In fact, the article talks about one girl whose family started a college fund for her and was nearly wiped out after year one. She had attended Tufts University in Massachusetts paying nearly $50,000 a year. After one year, she decided to transfer closer to home and is now paying $15,000 a year.
Public colleges are reporting a spike in transfer applications citing many reasons but most notably money as the main reason students are transferring. Students are unwilling to pay the high price for private undergrad education when many have aspirations to attend graduate school and know a higher price tag is lurking in the future. It also seems that this attitude is filtering down to high school seniors who are now more aware of what they are spending on their education.
My personal opinion is education is what you put into it, not what the name of your school or how much the school cost. I attended Minnesota State University, Moorhead and so did my wife. We both feel we received a great education at a low cost. Through hard work in the summer and some help from our parents, we were able to escape college with no debt. To me, this is the most important part. Who wants to start a new career with the average college student debt of $21,000 hanging over their head?
At some point, private colleges will have to adjust what they charge or the amount of financial aid students receive if they want to keep their clientele. I don't feel that you receive a better education at these places but the networking possibilities you receive from attending a prestigious school does exist. Often times, graduate of these schools have enough connections to land better paying jobs right out of college. In the current economic turmoil, with job competition being at one of its highest levels, maybe this is worth the amount of debt you graduate with.
What I try to stress to students that ask for my opinion is education is about hard work and putting in effort. If you do these two things you can not go wrong. At the end of your undergraduate education, you should feel like you were challenged and you should feel well prepared for the real world. After that, it is all about presenting yourself to your future employer and impressing them with your skills, not about the name of the school on your diploma.
Public colleges are reporting a spike in transfer applications citing many reasons but most notably money as the main reason students are transferring. Students are unwilling to pay the high price for private undergrad education when many have aspirations to attend graduate school and know a higher price tag is lurking in the future. It also seems that this attitude is filtering down to high school seniors who are now more aware of what they are spending on their education.
My personal opinion is education is what you put into it, not what the name of your school or how much the school cost. I attended Minnesota State University, Moorhead and so did my wife. We both feel we received a great education at a low cost. Through hard work in the summer and some help from our parents, we were able to escape college with no debt. To me, this is the most important part. Who wants to start a new career with the average college student debt of $21,000 hanging over their head?
At some point, private colleges will have to adjust what they charge or the amount of financial aid students receive if they want to keep their clientele. I don't feel that you receive a better education at these places but the networking possibilities you receive from attending a prestigious school does exist. Often times, graduate of these schools have enough connections to land better paying jobs right out of college. In the current economic turmoil, with job competition being at one of its highest levels, maybe this is worth the amount of debt you graduate with.
What I try to stress to students that ask for my opinion is education is about hard work and putting in effort. If you do these two things you can not go wrong. At the end of your undergraduate education, you should feel like you were challenged and you should feel well prepared for the real world. After that, it is all about presenting yourself to your future employer and impressing them with your skills, not about the name of the school on your diploma.
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