educationtidbits

I was thinking this past weekend about the whole state of education and our public school system.  While talking to a parent of a middle schooler about the current round of testing, I recalled that my state’s test is more or less just a measure of vocabulary.  Basically, a parent (or the child) could go online and print off a list of vocabulary and then work through that list a few items at a time and the student could, in theory, ace the test.  If we look at it this way, the teacher is basically irrelevant as far as this particular  measurement of their proficiency goes.  Of course, this scenario is definitely the exception, but it could happen.

In the past, various measures of success have been tried, some with pretty good success, but discarded because they don’t work for all situations and all students.  The reality is, however, that a one-size-fits-all assessment doesn’t work any better than a one-size-fits-all educational system.

So, what is the answer?  Well, I guess the truth is there is no ONE answer to this dilemma.  In my last blog, I looked at online education as an alternative.  Online education certainly caters to a certain group of students who have the discipline and/or supervision to keep on top of the assignments, but it’s not always the most interactive or interesting approach to teaching a specific subject.  In fact, for some students, it’s even more boring than the regular classroom lecture approach.

Another alternative, which has both its pros and cons is that of expeditionary learning, sometimes labeled as “Outward Bound.”  Of course, O.B. is a specific program and set of funding,which is often in the balance based on availability of funds at both the state and federal levels; however, the results are oftentimes amazing, as such programs get students out of the mainstream classroom and apply learning to real-life situations.

I became intimately tied to expeditionary style learning when I was teaching in an ESL program at a local university.  When I found that we were going to be studying White Fang in the reading/writing class, I instantly thought of a place I had just visited a year earlier, the Wolf Education and Research Center in Winchester, Idaho.  In anticipation of our visit, we watched a video in listening/speaking class about Jim and Jamie Dutcher who started the wolf pack currently at Winchester.  We learned a LOT of vocabulary related to wolves, adventures, the region, and much more.  They wrote short articles and essays on  related topics, and we watched a movie about wolves in addition to the movie version of White Fang.  Then, we scheduled a field trip to the WERC where the students met the caretaker of the facility along with two of the assistants.  They got to see the wolves through the enclosure and take some pictures.  They went to the visitor’s center and listened to our guides explain about the pack and their journey from the Sawtooth Region to Winchester and how the pack has dwindled from the original numbers for various reasons.  When we returned to the classroom, they wrote a reflective essay on their experience and the unit as a whole.  In the end, they learned some valuable verbal and aural communication skills and vocabulary knowledg.  They also had real-life reasons to write that made sense to them and gave us valuable assessment materials to help them advance their skills overall.  In short, expeditionary learning in this environment only makes sense because they needed real reasons to use this new language they were learning.

The basic concept behind expeditionary learning is to provide a real-life use of the target skills and then use the classroom time to preload the skills and knowledge the students will be using in the outing (whether it be for a day, a week, or a month).  When they return, they reflect on their experience and do a self-evaluation.  Instructors who accompany them on the outing, assess their skill levels at various steps along the way, guiding the students to challenge themselves more and more.  The instructors then do a final assessment of the students’ skills, usually on a pass/no-pass basis, but sometimes on a percentage or letter grade basis, depending on the subjects.

The overall value of expeditionary learning, then, is that it engages students in setting goals for their experience and evaluating their progress in meeting those goals.  However, the drawbacks of such programs, thus the major criticism, include the costs, logistics, and teacher training.  In order to transport kids from the classroom to the outside world, it costs more than most schools can afford.  Unless a district applies for and receives Outward Bound funding, it’s generally not feasible for the majority of students to participate in a full-blown expeditionary learning-style classroom.

Expeditionary learning, however, can be accomplished at a smaller scale if a school is devoted to such a practice.  Usually it’s easier when the school uses an alternative schedule, such as block scheduling or 4-day/week classes or a combination of the two.  There are also programs that are devoted to expeditionary learning.  A friend of mine runs a program called Adventure Learning Camps, which is a non-profit, generally inexpensive program, that takes kids and adults to various locations in the U.S. to teach them wilderness survival and ecological awareness skills.  Of course, this is only one of many programs, which could be joined together to form an educational network that is devoted to teaching kids through the act of doing.

Now, as with all alternatives, expeditionary learning is not necessarily for everyone.  Some students do much better in the traditional classroom.  Some do better in the isolation of the online environment.  Others will struggle regardless of what environment they are in.  There is no magic wand to make our educational system somehow fit everyone.  I do think it’s essential for students to have access to a system or part of the system that works for them.

In my first blog, I asserted that the current public education system needs to change in order to adapt to the various needs of students, some of whom may not fit in with our mold of this one-size-fits-all mentality, which is primarily a top-down strategy guided by financial interests.  The reality is that while some aspects of a school have to run like a business, what you’re dealing with is real people who have real needs (not all academic, mind you), interests, and abilities.

Many solutions have been presented to solve our current educational crisis; however, few have had wide-ranging effects on the population of students as a whole.  Locally, there is a big push toward online classes in order to offer a wider range of course offerings, especially for schools struggling to staff even the core subjects (as is the case at the school in which I teach).  On the surface this seems like a viable solution for a daunting issue.  However, as with many other “alternative” education strategies, it is NOT without problems that need to be addressed.

Online classes, as anyone who has taken one can attest, require a whole different set of study skills and motivations.  If a student is inherently driven to succeed, these classes are a great way to break from the lecture-style mode of teaching.  However, most students do not have the discipline it takes in order to stay on track.  As a technology coordinator for Distance Degree Programs at Washington State University, I saw plenty of college students crash and burn in such classes because they didn’t have the organizational skills and internal motivation to keep plugging away at their assignments.  Many of these students lost a lot of money in the process, as they had to retake these classes at an additional cost.  I’m now seeing similar problems with the students at my school.  It’s not that they can’t succeed, but they need additional coaching and guidance throughout the process.

Another issue with the online course option is that of communication between the student and the teacher and the lack of interaction (in many courses) with other students in the course.  Whenever I took online classes, I struggled with the same thing.  I had several teachers who had so much going on in their offline lives that their online students ended up being pushed on the back burner.  Again, it’s not an impossible hurdle, but there need to be more effective measures to ensure timely and meaningful communication if this mode of instruction will work to its full potential.

My suggestion for any student, parent of a student, teacher, or administrator who is considering online learning as an alternative to the standard class is to take an inventory of what is required in this environment and ensure that all the ducks are in a row before even beginning the class.  Find out who is teaching the class, what their philosophies are, how best to contact them if a problem arises, and create a schedule to keep yourself on track.  Granted, much of this is established (or should be) when it comes to creating a course, but it’s never good to assume this is the case.  In an online environment, students must take a lot more ownership over their learning than in an onsite, lecture-based class.

Having rambled on about the issues with online education, I have to admit that if the option had been available to me when I was in high school, I would have jumped at it.  I was one of those highly motivated, extremely bored students who was fully capable of taking basic instructions and running with them.  I’m not saying this to be cocky by any means.  I’m just saying that it takes a certain kind of student to succeed in these classes.  Therefore, if we are to develop a system that fits the variety of shoes our students bring to the counter, we need to look at integrating as many options as possible, not just putting all of our eggs in one or two baskets.

Please allow me to introduce myself before I begin.  My name is David Martin, and I have been teaching in various settings for the past 12 years.  I have been a one-on-one tutor, an ESL teacher, a college Freshman comp teacher, and most recently a high school English teacher.  In all of these settings, what I’ve noticed most is a need for changes based on differences in how society is structured.

My biggest pet peeve as a high school teacher is the student who says I can’t because [any number of reasons].  I chasten them to reorganize their thinking, but that seems to only work temporarily.  Unfortunately, this is not so much a statement of what the student is capable of but what our system directs their thinking toward.   No Child Left Behind is only one symptom in this illness that has infected our educational system, however.  As educators we can have mixed feelings about NCLB, but the root cause runs much further back than NCLB.

After World War II, we created a system by which colleges were inundated with new students riding on the coattails of the GI Bill.  This started a push toward higher standards in our education system and more pressure on students to become college bound.  Of course, other educational opportunities existed, but because of the fact that college was now seen as a safety blanket against the draft, and more military men were leaving the service to enter the colleges, it was inevitable that schools would change drastically and educational policies would adapt to cater toward what students need in order to succeed in college.  The intentions behind these changes, as well as with NCLB, were good.  However, not every student is cut out for academia and the stresses it places on those who partake of it’s fountain of knowledge.

We have created a system that, instead of pushing kids forward into a successful adulthood, leads to higher and higher dropout rates, increased disciplinary problems, and more and more kids being labeled as ADD/ADHD.  Whatever happened to letting kids fall into a track that was comfortable for them that would cater to their special interests, needs, and abilities?  Tracking has become a dirty word under NCLB, but why does it have to be?  After all, not everyone is going to be a budding poet or an Einstein.  What will it take to change our one-size-fits-all educational system into one that is truly effective given the parameters of the 21st Century?  This is what I would like to accomplish, in part, through this blog.  I encourage you to add your ideas, criticisms, examples, etc. to the conversation.  Only when we create a dialogue that includes parents, teachers, politicians, factory workers, and more can we make the changes everyone keeps begging for.