...America: Dumbing Down Our Students Back in the day, school was a place to learn. It was a place to get smart. Now it has turned into a psychological headquarters. It is like America is saying, “Who cares, as long as our students feel good about themselves.” Schools have stopped teaching important facts. Some teachers do not feel their students need to know what was taught back in the day. According to Charles J. Sykes, “In a 1990 survey of college seniors, 42 percent couldn’t name the dates of the War Between the States within half a century” ( Sykes, 4). Why don’t our teachers care anymore about teaching about important events or even science? Many of them have said it is because they just are not useful facts. I would have to disagree. I believe that you should know the background of this country you live in. I think students need to be taught about our founding fathers. I fear for our future generations. The school systems are dumbing our students down and they are too worried about how the students are feeling than what they are learning. So the question we are all asking teachers along with the school system is, “Why are we allowing students to be dumbed down?” How are we going to elect a president in the future who never had a background in math, science, or most importantly, history? Our future generation does not know what we were taught when we were in school. Some public schools have even removed certain subjects because they are not necessary or the school cannot...
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...style to become the best possible educator possible, they must first know their role in which they occupy. In the same manner one must also know how to motivate their students both extrinsically and intrinsically. In knowing the differences of motivation the educator must know the dynamics of group motivation and how to employ it, while at the same time understanding the structural factors that make up said motivation. It is in all these areas that an educator can continually reach for perfection. In biblical education the concepts are no different and should only encourage the teacher to do their absolute best to reach perfection. The beginning of the process has to begin with the role of the teacher. Knowing one’s role as an educator is possibly the most important step in educating. If the teacher does not know his or her role as it pertains to the classroom must be clearly defined. The teacher should be seen as the head of the class, but in the same manner the students must know that the teacher is also a learner as well. The students need to feel that they are able to ask questions and not suffer any retribution for challenges to perceived absolutes. The teacher is the role model in the classroom and will be under a close observation from the students in the way in which they act, react and perform in the day to day instruction. If a student asks a question and is then made to feel as if they should not have asked the question, the student may no longer ask...
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...Learning Styles People are different and therefore do things differently, such as how they learn. How does one assimilate information the best? In this paper, this writer will discuss how to figure out a person’s learning style, different styles of learning, and how to accommodate the different learning styles. By understanding one’s individual learning styles, people can change the way that they teach and study in order to increase the knowledge that is retained. How to Determine Learning Styles There are multiple ways to figure out someone’s personal learning style. A person can look at ways that they study best for clues. Does an individual need to write and read everything, watch videos on the subject, must learn by doing, or a combination of these? A person could also take a questionnaire and based on their answers, come to the conclusion of their learning style. One of the most popular ways to learn one’s style of learning is to take a questionnaire created by VARK (VARK, 2014). Different Styles of Learning According to VARK learning questionnaire, the populace fall into five categories. These different sections are visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic, and multimodal (Vark, 2014). Visual consists of learning best by studying with diagrams or pictures. Visual learners, while studying written words, should find that highlighting information useful ((Blevins, 2014). Persons that are more aurally inclined learn better by listening to information. The aural learner...
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...Learning Styles Learning style is the way an individual learns best. There are several different learning styles, and ways to determine your learning style. VARK is one tool used to determine your learning style or styles. VARK, developed by Neil Fleming in 1987("Learning," n.d.), suggested that there are four different categories of how individuals learn best. Fleming called these modalities. This questionnaire is to help individuals have an idea of their preferences for learning. Preferences may be different than strengths. This questionnaire is about how an individual learns best, not how they behave doing things of leisure. The acronym VARK stands for the four modalities that students learn best by, which is Visual, Aural, Read/write, and Kinesthetic sensory. The two learning styles VARK identified for this student is Aural and Read/write. They had equal numbers. Aural is learning best by hearing and speaking. This can include any form of listening and speaking including email, on the phone, texting, listening to lectures or speakers, discussion. These individuals like to hear the information first, and then talk it out, ask questions, have a discussion. The learning style Read/write is learning best by words, and any form of words. These learners love dictionaries, quotes reports, and power point to name a few. No only do they like lists, they make lists also. They like using manuals. This student found the VARK questionnaire to be extremely correct. The type of...
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...area and how we learned. In “School is Bad for Children,” the author John Holt criticizes formal education in general, in the world and in the U.S. educational system. He describes how children feel when they go to school. Holt describes firstly what happened to the students when they go to school, and what they want to do. Then, he takes the case of the teachers, and describes them. After that, Holt analyzes that when the students are in school, they are not feeling well because they can’t communicate and speak to each other; they are not social. At the end, he gives his own opinion to conclude the article, and make suggestions. In my opinion, I totally agree with John Holt that school doesn’t make better the students, and that we have to change it. The Jail For students who go to school, it is be out of the world, out of the society; school is like a jail. Holt describes, “In fact, he learns how to live without paying attention to anything going on around him.” This sentence shows that we are totally out of the world; nowadays, the world is a society, it is important to don’t be individual and just care about you, but in school, you have to be like that; individual and don’t help each other. For me, this is the truth. I take the example of my experiences in French schools, students can not even speak to each other, the teachers are very indifferent about the students, and sometimes the students can be resentful and drop out of school because of the teachers and how they are...
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...The Environment: The Role It Plays in How One Learns Name Course School Name Instructors Name The Environment: The Role It Plays in How One Learns Have you ever found yourself sitting in a classroom or at a lecture and afterwards not remember anything that was just mentioned? On the other hand, how about that same material was being taught to you and instead of being lectured to you, you were given the opportunity to see it happen or do it for yourself; this time you remembered all the information. People in the past, present and future face this common issue. We all have our own way of learning, and a lot of factors can play into what we remember, and how well we remember them. One factor that contributes to this is the way you specifically learn, or your learning style. There are many types of learning styles out there, but the three most well-known and agreed upon types are Visual, Auditory, and Tactile/Kinesthetic. They all have their own style and setting that make them effective to each individual. A second factor is the setting of the environment you are in. In today’s modern society, the standard classroom is not the only setting to learn in. As such, there is the “traditional” classroom setting versus the online classroom. A third factor is the actual environment you are in and the way it can aid or inhibit your ability to learn. The first type, the Visual method, a person learns and remembers most effectively by having something...
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...is not only about teaching the students from textbooks. Teaching a class goes way past just the textbooks. Often when we hear the word “education”, we think that children are going to school and being lectured by a teacher who has power over them and the classroom. Parents leaving their children at school, expecting the best for them, that they will be receiving the fullest potential of education they can ever receive. As well as parents and children relying on the teacher with their full knowledge that the children will be learning at the kid's pace. Unlikely, that is not the case. There are many ways a teacher can help their students, and they would, but they are very limited due to standards...
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...Philosophy Children learn in many different ways. The best I feel is through being actively engaged in the classroom. I am a strong believer in children needing hands-on learning, having an abundant supply of interesting material at their disposal and a caring and loving teacher to guide them through their learning experience. I feel that my goal, as a teacher, is to simply guide my students down the right path. To set out a so-called road map with a plan, agenda, and the tools needed to reach the end. I plan on putting the needs of the students first and try to remember that they are all very different in their own ways and will each have different needs, rather it be emotional, or educational. I feel that a constructivist approach will benefit the students the best and best support my educational philosophy. A constructivist believes that children create their own learning experiences and use their previous experiences to develop ways of solving challenges. Constructivists also believe that children learn better in groups. Children will benefit from learning how to work with others and watch how other students solve problems. To better implement my philosophy in the classroom I would need to set up a both welcoming and student-centered environment. I would probably have students desks paired together in groups of four, to allow for group activities, discussions, and teamwork. The borders of the classroom would have specific learning center areas set up where students could go during...
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...BEST WAY TO STUDY For some time, research studies have concluded that we do not learn / study in precisely the same way. For this brief commentary, I have deliberately grouped both terms as similar. While this common sense approach towards scholarship represents a welcomed message for parents and students, many teachers still teach a large number of pupils one way, more often than not, by using traditional teaching styles that might appear to be successful for the teacher but unsuccessful for a large majority of the youngsters seated in front of them. This is incorrect teaching -- proof that common sense continues to be not all that common within many of today's classrooms. My following commentary attempts to address this key issue, while at the same time, to offer suggestions for possible classroom improvement. If teachers require their students to receive domain-specific information in a way that does not correspond with their dominant learning modalities, to perform under classroom conditions that interfere with their preferred learning, or to demonstrate learning in such a way that fails them to use their more dominant intelligences, then such teachers create within their students forms of artificial stress, reduced motivation, and repressed performance. Along this same line of thinking, there is a considerable body of research evidence suggesting that many special education students who have been formally categorized, for example, as learning disabled (LD) are, in fact...
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...Philosophy Children learn in many different ways. The best I feel is through being actively engaged in the classroom. I am a strong believer in children needing hands-on learning, having an abundant supply of interesting material at their disposal and a caring and loving teacher to guide them through their learning experience. I feel that my goal, as a teacher, is to simply guide my students down the right path. To set out a so-called road map with a plan, agenda, and the tools needed to reach the end. I plan on putting the needs of the students first and try to remember that they are all very different in their own ways and will each have different needs, rather it be emotional, or educational. I feel that a constructivist approach will benefit the students the best and best support my educational philosophy. A constructivist believes that children create their own learning experiences and use their previous experiences to develop ways of solving challenges. Constructivists also believe that children learn better in groups. Children will benefit from learning how to work with others and watch how other students solve problems. To better implement my philosophy in the classroom I would need to set up a both welcoming and student-centered environment. I would probably have students desks paired together in groups of four, to allow for group activities, discussions, and teamwork. The borders of the classroom would have specific learning center areas set up where students could go during...
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...Applications to Non-Traditional College Students “(Kenner, Weinerman) and “Adult learning styles and on-line educational preference” (McGlone). The articles describe multiple aspects of how an adult learns compared to a child and what life experiences adults bring into their educational environment. Adult learning theory is based on the way to adult learners comprehend and learn as they are older adults and not children. This theory also studies how adults learn when studying online. Newer adult learners bring learning styles and life experiences that provide a more critical foundation. Online learning is now the new basis for adult learners. To understand how adult learning theory works, the teacher must first understand andragogy, which is an advanced field of psychology in which the age of the learner, is studied. An andragogy study is a process-focused approach and was not studied until the 1960s and 1970s. Before that, only pedagogy was studied, which is the way that children learn. Children and adults learn completely different. In recent research, it is shown that adults learn best with a self-paced learning environment, which means instruction from the teacher and all of the guidance done solely by the students. Most adult learners are more eager than traditional students to learn since this is normally their second chance at a good education. Most adult learners are more eager to learn and stay goal oriented than traditional students because they have reached a certain...
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...of education. First of all, Education starts at home. When we are born, we start to learn from our parents on how to speak, walk, and eat and so on. Eventually, we learn to stand up on our own and not to depend on others. I believe that education is the ability of learning new concepts or ideas and when or how to apply them. We learn things by seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing. Education is a process we go through daily because everything is learnt with time. I believe that the purpose of education is to learn so as to become productive persons. Education involves both teaching and learning. We learn by seeing or hearing and we do not necessarily need someone to instruct us how to do it. For instance we learn language by repeating words. However things like mathematical equations we need someone to show us how to solve them. In order for me as a teacher to communicate what I know I need a guide. This is where the curriculum comes into place. The curriculum consists of mathematics, science, English, history, and other courses. These all help students to choose a career. I believe that as a teacher I should be a role model, that is, someone students may look up to when they have any doubt, a person that can guide and help them. As a teacher I must enjoy showing students what I already know. I believe that one of the biggest qualities I can have as a teacher is to do my job with love and enthusiasm showing that I know what I am teaching. Teachers’ must...
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...VARK: How Do I Learn Best? Everyone has a different learning style, and this affects how they learn. “Learning style is a term used to refer to the methods of gathering, processing, interpreting, organizing, and thinking about information” (Marcy, 2001). If a student understands how they learn, they are able to maximize their learning. VARK, an acronym which stands for visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic learning modalities (Marcy, 2001). The VARK is a questionnaire of 16 questions to help determine a person’s sensory preferences (Marcy, 2001). It was developed by Neil D. Fleming in 1987, to improve teacher’s development and to help students become better learners (Marcy, 2001). Using the questionnaire, it divides students into the four categories of learning styles (Marcy, 2001). Once the learning style is found, the questionnaire provides different learning strategies for the student. Understanding ones learning style is imperative to being a successful student. Once the student acknowledges how they learn they can collaborate with their teacher to enhance their learning experience. The VARK questionnaire “can be a useful tool for faculty because it empowers them to teach more effectively” (Marcy, 2001, p.118). The writer took the VARK questionnaire to determine their learning style. Preferred learning style, learning strategies, along with how the awareness of the learning style can help influence teaching and learning for the writer will be discussed. According...
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...VARK Analysis Paper Elaine Boyd Grand Canyon University May 24, 2015 VARK Analysis Paper According to the VARK questionnaire the learning strategy that best describes this student’s style is multimodal learning style. Experience has shown this person learning to be strongest in visual and kinesthetic and less in the aural and read/write styles. Amazingly, this corresponds with the results of this questionnaire. Multimodal learning style means that all styles are used to some degree. Many people find they need the same material taught using several of the learning modes to grasp the meaning of the subject being taught. This finding is very accurate looking on past experiences with understanding of written instructions being the most difficult. It is necessary to not only listen to the instructor, take good notes, review notes and recite information out loud to really understand and learn the material provided. Participating in study groups is extremely helpful for many, as not only do you repeat what was discussed in class, but you hear information from another student’s perspective. This information may have been missed or not understood completely. Let’s look at the other different learning styles. First, there is visual, which means you use colors, flowcharts, and pictures to point out important parts. You use symbolism and prefer different arrangements. You like teachers who use hand gestures, posters, slides and graphs. It is advised this...
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...what preference of learning works best for you to give you the nest chance at a successful education. The acronym VARK stands for visual, aural, reading/writing, and kinesthetic and is a great tool to help assess your type of learning preference. Neil Flemming and Charles Bonwell created the VARK system in order to help their students understand what method best fits their learning style(Khanal, Shah, Koirala, 2014). The goal of the VARK is to improve learning and retaining information in the best style for the individual student. These preferences also help the student not only learn how to take in the information but also how to give out the information as well. VARK designed four categories of learning styles a student may learn best at. The first type of learning style is visual. This type of learning basically is when pictures, maps, graphs, etc., are used in place of words themselves, ( Flemming, 2011). For example, the learner may understand looking a map to see where a country is located rather than someone saying it was close to another country. This type of learner does not do well with power points or still pictures. This type of student does well with symbol association of important information as well. The second type of learning style is the aural. This type of learning is when a student does well in lecture type settings. This type of learner can process information better when heard a loud. This also means the student learns well from speaking to themselves...
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