Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, Essay Example

Introduction

In the teaching field, every grade of study has a course curriculum that the teacher is supposed to follow in order to adequately teach each child. Nonetheless, every teacher becomes aware that each child is very different in his/her learning pattern. In any given classroom there will be students who can perform according to the curriculum and those that cannot. Psychologist, Jean Piaget, is credited with analyzing how children learn. He developed the theory of how and when child cognitive abilities develop. According to his theory, it was useless trying to teach a child something that he/she was cognitively incapable of learning. In the past decade or so, the United States has been transformed from a manufactured based economy to knowledge and technology based world. In order to ensure that students are ready to live in the 21st century, educators must ensure they are receiving an appropriate education for their learning capabilities, which in turns prepares them to acquire a college education.

Teachers Role

Teachers play a dominant role in student learning. As a result, teachers should be involved in decision making choices that directly affect student outcomes. Likewise, teachers must be interested and motivated to improve student learning. Nonetheless, the role of the teacher directly depends upon the leadership style of the principal. Principals that want to see improvement ensure this by allowing teachers to take on leadership of producing favorable learning outcomes. When teachers are allowed to do this, they are able to link their own learning and development to student learning. Teachers who have a vested interest in student learning are more likely to be successful and produce great gains in student achievement. These teachers view student low achievement as a direct reflection of their teaching ability (Durrant & Holden, 2006   ). Consequently, they strive to ensure maximum student achievement. Teachers help to build the culture and school climate within their schools. The school culture and climate is driven by passionate teachers who display a joy of teaching and excitement about student learning. Accordingly, school culture can be either positive or negative on the school reform process (Blasé, Blasé & Du, 2008   ). For years, researchers have been trying to figure out how achievement can be raised and what are the best ways to go about doing that. Finally, the realization that teachers are instrumental in the process has finally occurred to researchers and policy makers. There is an abundance of evidence that that indicates that teachers are the critical link in school reform. Muijis & Harris said, “Schools badly need the leadership of teachers if they are to improve” (pg. 969). Likewise, research has proved that teacher leadership has an astounding affect on students, teachers, principals, and other stake holders (Elmore, 2000). Also, research has shown that teacher networks, or those groups of teachers who collaborate in order to maximize student learning, are more successful at accomplishing that goal than teachers who do not (Elmore, 2000).  Also, low levels of professionalism, ineffective school culture, and utilizing appropriate assessment methods have been noted as contributors to school failure.

School Improvement

School improvement cannot be defined merely as increased standardized scores in order to meet annual yearly progress. Yet, some researchers have defined school improvement as enhancing teaching processing to increase student achievement (Durrant & Holden, 2006   ). School improvement is so much more than student achievement. Obviously, school improvement encompasses structural changes, management, planning, placing as much emphasis on learning as teaching, and implementing strategic planning (Durrant & Holden, 2006). The importance of school reform or improvement has been studied for years by using standardized testing and accountability systems to help determine if improvement has been achieved. For example:

“Society should communicate its expectations for what students should know and be able to do in the form of standards; both for what should be taught and for what students should be able to demonstrate about their learning. School administrators and policy makers, at the state, district, and school level, should regularly evaluate whether teachers are teaching what they are expected to teach and whether students can demonstrate what they are expected to learn. The fundamental unit of accountability should be the school, because that is the organizational unit where teaching and learning actually occurs” (Elmore, pg. 12. 2000).

Again, it should be reminded that to measure school improvement achievement, tools other than test scores must be used. As a result, schools that are implementing and using teacher leadership are taking a more holistic approach to the problem. With the holistic approach, the main objective is to implement a joy of learning from both teachers and students. Learning must involve various strategies, such as cooperative learning groups, differentiated instruction, and leaner centered delivery (Blasé, Blasé, & Du, 2008).

Cognitive Ability

“Cognitive abilities are described as brain-based skills that one uses to carry out any task ranging from simple to complex. Perception, attention, memory, motor, language, executive functions, and visual and spatial processing are all cognitive abilities” (Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. pg. 532, 2005). Most cognitive abilities can be improved with use. Likewise, some cognitive abilities can decline when they are not used regularly. Recent studies have concluded that in children having friendships can enhance cognitive ability. This comes from the finding that social/interactional relationships are the underpinnings of social development. For example, “Studies that identify relational and developmental advantages of friendship for cognitive developmental advantages of friendship for cognitive enhancement…These studies assert that pairing children on the basis of friendship should be used with greater frequency in the school to promote the pupil’s cognitive enhancement” (Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. pg. 528, 2005). Kutnick and Kington add that when children have friends they are more socially competent than children without friends.  They also convey that children with friends make easier transitions from one stage in school to the next than children who have no friends. They also discuss that children with friends score better academically and specifically do well in creative writing, music composition, and curriculum based creative tasks (Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. 2005). Teachers support this idea in their daily classrooms when they allow students to complete group assignments. Often students are grouped by teachers, but sometimes students are allowed to choose their own partners to complete group assignments. Students learn well from each other. Also, a child’s cognitive ability affects what he/she retains from one school year to the next. According to Semb, Ellis, and Araujo, the amount of knowledge that students loose is relatively small compared to that which the do remember (Semb, Ellis, and Araujo, 1993).  Nevertheless, the number of practice opportunities a child has had with the concept can affect how much knowledge he/she retains as well. According to Julian Stanley, teachers seem to believe that their students come to them with no prior knowledge of the subject area. Stanley goes on to convey that this is a fail-safe strategy (Stanley, 2000).  In other words, the teacher believes that if he/she teaches everything, there will be no option of failure. However, this strategy wastes precious time. When a teacher spends the first two weeks of school teaching information that the child knows already, time has been wasted. Those two weeks could have been used teaching subject matter that the child did not retain from the prior school term. Each teacher must realize that each child is unique and learns in a unique way; therefore, differentiated instruction is the most effective method to use with students. When this is properly implemented, each child is receiving what he/she needs.

Social Development

Social development can directly affect a child’s ability to perform academically. Teachers are very aware of the behavioral problems a child may have. These behavioral problems can offset the entire environment of the classroom and hinder the learning process. Having students actively engaged is the key to true learning. The day has passed and gone when teachers lectured to students sitting in straight rows. When walking into the average classroom today one can expect to see moving from station to station, talking to peers, cutting and pasting, coloring, and working in collaboration to complete a common task. Often, students who have behavioral problems cannot actively engage without causing a disruption. These behavioral problems can be brought on by numerous underlying problems-mental issues, reading problems, anxiety, etc. According to Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta, “Ideal classroom settings create frequent and sustained opportunities for behavioral engagement in learning. When children participate in activities, raise their hands in response to a question, show attention toward the teacher or are actively involved in a reading or writing exercise, they are showing evidence of behavioral engagement” (Jason T. Downer, Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, and Robert C. Pianta, 2007).  The study conducted by Downer, Kaufman, & Pianta conveys that this type of engagement is critical to cognitive development and school success. Reading aloud or quietly has been associated with positive academic achievement. Every teacher wants this model in their classroom. However, every teacher is trying to figure out how he/she is going to pull off a lesson with active engagement when they have one or more behavioral problem children in their rooms. Downer, Rimm-Kaufman, and Pianta point out some risk areas and how to best remedy those problems. They convey that some strategies pose challenges for children who have behavioral problems because it requires them to use self-regulatory skills or cognitive abilities beyond their capabilities (Downer, Rimm-Kaufman, and Pianta, 2007). When this happens, the child will be off task and disruptive. The teacher must plan for those children as well. These children need differentiated instruction. This is a time when teachers may want to co- teach or elicit the help of the special education teacher to assist. More importantly, these students need tasks that are not above their cognitive or academic abilities.

Special Education

Many people are against special education inclusion including educators, parents, and even some students. Special education inclusion remains a controversial issue. Consequently, there are adamant advocates on both sides of the issue (Downer, Rimm-Kaufman, and Pianta, 2007). Many view inclusion as a policy driven by an unrealistic expectation that all students will meet standards at the same time. Likewise, there are those who believe that all students belong in the regular education classroom, and that effective teachers are only those who can meet the needs of all the students, regardless of what their needs may be. Somewhere in the middle of this are groups of educators, parents, and students who are confused by the concept altogether.  The most common complaint from general education teachers was that they were not supported by the special education teacher. The majority reported that they had received no support at all. Many teachers also reported never receiving and IEP for resource students. All teachers would prefer knowing who their resource students are at the beginning of the year, rather than months into the school year. They also wanted specific strategies to help their students, not generic strategies like allot more time, give fewer items, etc. Many teachers also cited that special education students’ behavioral problems often got in the way of their learning and the general education students’ learning too. The frustration for many teachers was that their resource students are so low functioning that it was merely impossible from them to benefit in the general education classroom. Many of the special education students lack social skills to fit in with the general education students. A great deal of the special education students chose not to interact with the general education students and when they became frustrated, they exhibited inappropriate behavior.

Conclusion

There are several aspects of the educational system that must be changed in order ensure that students are prepared for the 21st Century. Teachers want to teach; they must be allowed to do that. Teachers want to prepare for the real world, not just students who can pass standardized testing. Teachers need support, especially novice teachers.  Great principals retain great teachers. All students learn differently and therefore must be taught differently. Teachers are capable of this strategy.  Educators face many challenges every day when trying to reach the varied needs of all of their children. School communities need to work on solving the problem of declining student academics, rather than bandwagoning every new concept that researchers present. This confuses students and educators alike. Some strategies that worked should have never been changed. Cooperative groups are great for some classes and some students, but are more than impossible for other students to achieve.  For example, “Change produces tension. We tend to become comfortable with the known and anxious with the unfamiliar” (Hill & Barth, pg. 2. 2004).  In other words, teachers should be given the option to use what works for their students, not just forced to use a strategy because statistics say it works.

References

Blasé, J., Blasé, J., & Du, F. (2008). The mistreated teacher: A national study. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(3), 263-301.

Downer, J. T., Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., & Pianta, R. C. (2007). How Do Classroom Conditions and Children’s Risk for School Problems Contribute to Children’s Behavioral Engagement in Learning? School Psychology Review, 36(3), 413-432.

Durrant, J. & Holden, G. (2006). Teachers leading change: Doing research for school improvement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Elmore, R. F. (2000). Building a new structure for school leadership. New York: The Albert Shanker Institute. Available: http://www.shankerinstitute.org/education.html

Hill, D. M., & Barth, M. (2004). NCLB and teacher retention: Who will turn out the lights? Education and the Law, 16(2-3).

Kutnick, P., & Kington, A. (2005). Children’s friendships and learning in school: Cognitive enhancement through social interaction? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(4), 521-538.

Muijs, D., & Harris, A. (2006). Teacher led school improvement: Teacher leadership in the UK. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22, 961-972.