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1-MY
CONCERNS ABOUT EDUCATION
2-TEACHING
AND LEARNING HISTORY
3-MOTIVATION:
THE ROAD TO ACHIEVEMENT
4-EDUCATIONAL
PARTNERSHIPS
5-A
NEW CURRICULUM FOR THE NEW GLOBAL ORDER
6-THE
PURPOSE OF EDUCATION
7-THE
CRISIS IN OUR SECONDARY EDUCATION
8-VIOLENCE
IN SCHOOLS
9-THE
INTERNET AS A TOOL FOR TEACHING L.E.P.
STUDENTS
My
Concerns About Education in the
U.S.
(click on the title to go back )
By Carlos J. Diaz
1-Descentralization: There are huge educational
differences among states, school
districts, schools, and classrooms in both form
and substance. We, as a nation, do
not have a common set of principles, goals, and
standards for our education. Public schools in
America should provide equal opportunities for
every child. Most democratic
nations have a centralized educational
system.
Is decentralization one of the main causes of
the crisis of the American Education?
2-Academic Freedom: This is the cornerstone of
American education. For many
people, the American system of education is
suffering a deep crisis; control and
accountability are terms used by politicians
and administrators -not always in the
right direction- as ways to solve the problem.
Every teacher in Dade should follow
the CBC and the Sunshine State Standards, but
we have freedom to choose among many different pedagogic
methods
and strategies ( not necessarily the best).
There is a modern theory that states that
“less is more”. The bureaucratic
burden that exist on administrators is limiting
their capability to control academic activities
inside the classrooms; many teachers
say that after they close the door, they are
the kings / queens in their classrooms.
Teachers, like any other group of persons, have
many different forms and qualities as individuals.
The FCAT, Florida Writes, SAT, and other
standardized tests do not show
the results of the work or performance of
individual teachers with their students.
What is the best way for society to be sure
that individual teachers comply with the
curriculum they are suppose to teach and that
they are using the best instructional
strategies? or Should we trust them not matter
what?
3-Expectations of Education: They are so
diverse that it is assumed that schools
should replace many of the functions that the
family, community, church, and other
social institutions had in the past and try to
solve many of the problems that we
foresee in the future. The school has to
transmit knowledge and baby-sit children; it has
to take care of their emotional problems,
discipline them, and prepare them as
future global citizens; schools should provide
the necessary skills to the future
workers, help them to develop good moral
values, and prepare them to use the
technology available out there, in the real
world; it also must entertain them,
channel their energies in a proper direction,
keep them out of bad influences, and
prepare them to be good inhabitants of planet
earth, to coexist with their
environment, and to be able to fix the mess
that we are leaving behind as our legacy.
Are our schools prepared -structure, personnel,
funds, definitions- to face these
responsibilities?
4-School Academic Structure: Most of our
secondary schools offer a long list of electives like
home economics, driving, and cosmetology that
are limiting the possibilities for teaching
“core subjects”; we are graduating
students with a very superficial knowledge that
later need to take remedial courses to enter in
college; at the same time, the
employers are also complaining that our
graduates don’t have the basic skills even for
entry-level positions; and finally, many
students think that they wasted their time in
school. We are still pretending that we can
teach something in auditoriums with 200
students. Academic and personal isolation is a
major professional trend in
secondary schools and colleges. Most public
schools in America only offer a 6 ½
hours school day and a 180 days school year,
this without considering interruptions,
announcements, visits, field trips, fire
drills, standardized tests’ days, cultural
activities, and some other non-academic things
that happen every day in our
schools.
Can we provide an appropriate education for our
children within this framework? Are we
fulfilling our obligations with our customers?
Is someone happy with our work?
5-Classrooms’ Population: Most of our
secondary schools’ classrooms are
overcrowded. In every classroom we can find 4
or 5 youngsters that are not
interested at all in what is happening there,
that do not belong there. More and
more students come to school with emotional or
/ and disciplinary problems and are
required to stay there. Students sent to CSI
come back again and again with a worse
attitude every time. Teachers have to spend a
great deal of time dealing with
situations that result from these
realities.
Can a teacher teach under these conditions? Can
we meet the individual needs of every
child under these circumstances?
6-Standardized Tests: Even though most
educators and researchers agree that
standardized tests are wrong, that they are
incompatible with a totally decentralized
system in which nothing is standard, that we
are one of the nations with a higher
affluence of immigrants from different cultures
in the world (and those tests are in
English), that educational researchers and
scholars recommend the use of
alternative assessments because of the multiple
intelligences of human beings, that
the results of many of those tests don’t
mean anything for the students taking them,
that a lot of students fail those tests; even
though everybody in this
field is aware of these realities, we continue
using standardized tests. Most of those
tests only measure the students’ skills /
knowledge in Math and English (what about
the other subjects?). However, the state of
Florida is using only these kind of tests
to assess the quality of our education and
grade our schools.
On the other hand, all teachers are free to
elaborate and give
their own tests to their students in their
subject matters, those that really decide whether
the students pass or not, those that really
mean something to them. In the same
school and department different students can
take different exams in the
same subject. The system has not a valid way to
know if a particular group of
students really acquired the competencies
required for any subject matter.
This is a totally inconsistent
situation.
When are we going to establish a reasonable
policy for academic assessment?
7-The New Corporate Order: The most prevalent
issues nowadays are related to
privatization, charter schools, neoliberalism,
cutting funds for social programs and
education, introducing advertisements and
commercials in public schools in
exchange for computers and other resources that
the government is not able (or
interested) to provide. Most educators and
reformers trying to solve the crisis are
addressing the symptoms instead of the real
causes of the crisis because the
circumstances do not allow them to go beyond
that. Republicans are suggesting
vouchers as an alternative for children in
“failing schools”.
Will public education survive in a world ruled
by omnipotent and omnipresent
corporations? Can we also have choices dealing
with corporations?
8-The “Deep Structure”: The world is
experiencing so many changes that it is even
difficult to stay informed about them.
Computers and information are among the
most changing fields and both are closely
related to education. Education is
expanding from the cognitive to the affective
domain. The world is becoming
smaller. However, the way we teach, the way our
classrooms are structured, the
way teachers’ professional formation is
designed, the content of most of the
curriculum we teach and the books we use, all
of that is very similar to the education
we had 30 years ago (which means centuries in
our age). Many old teachers
recognize that they can not change and we can
not do anything about it (tenure?
academic freedom? teachers’
unions?).
Are our educational system able to change with
the times?
9-Social Recognition: Teachers are the worst
paid professionals in the U.S. We also
have less social recognition than many other
professionals. This situation is very
different to what occur in many other developed
nations (ex. Japan & Germany).
For a long time, the federal government did not
have a Department of Education;
President Reagan even tried to eliminate it. As
a society, we spend much less money
in education than in entertainment, defense, or
buying unnecessary things.
Politicians, educators, and all our economic
and social leaders are aware of what is
happening to our education.
Is education considered a priority in our
society? Are we really willing to solve the
crisis? Do the people with the power to do
something really want to save public education?
Teaching
and Learning
History.
(click on the title to go
back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
Teaching and learning history is a puzzling
job, which is full of dilemmas,
deficiencies and absurd situations that will
have a very deep and lasting impact on
our society. If I had to summarize the central
idea of what I have read about this
issue, I would have to use only one word:
disaster. Many scholars tell us that
research results in this field are “thin
and uneven”. Trying to achieve a better
understanding about these opinions, I looked
for different points of view of well
known historians and
researchers.
1-What is history? Is it a science? Who has
written the history we know? Why is it
important? What history should we
teach?
“History has often been criticized for
being essentially the story of how the
victors won and how the elites ruled. This
tendency has been called enshrined
history.” (Giese 1996, p. 305). “It
would not be going too far to say that our heads
are completely filled with lies. It is simply
that in many cases history is written by
the victors and is filtered through the prism
of their prejudices” (Shekman 1993, p.
2). “One is astonished in the study of
history at the recurrence of the idea that evil
must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We
must not remember that Daniel
Webster got drunk but only remember that he was
a splendid constitutional lawyer.
We must forget that George Washington was a
slave owner... and simply remember
the things we regard as creditable and
inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this
philosophy is that history loses its value as
an incentive and example; it paints
perfect men and noble nations, but it does not
tell the truth.” (Du Bois, W. E. B.,
1935. Black reconstruction. In Loewen 1995. p.
18). We tend to present “...our
leaders as heroic statesmen, not imperfect
human beings.” Because of this “Our
children end up without realistic role models
to inspire them. Students also develop
no understanding of causality in history.”
(Loewen 1995, p. 35). “We do not protect
our children from controversy (and difficult
issues) by offering only (the best,
prettiest, and softest side of the history) in
school. All we do is make school
irrelevant...” “Rock songs...,treat
AIDS, nuclear war, and ecocide. Rap songs discuss
racism, sexism, drug use -and American
history.” (Loewen 1995, p. 294).
“Our transactions with the past are based
on memory...instrumental and
affective memory....Being highly subjective and
intensely personal, memory often
produces incredibly vivid recollections, but
these are just as often
erroneous...Memory expands and changes
overtime.” (Giese 1996, p. 276). “It is
conventional for historians to distinguish
between primary sources and secondary
sources...artifacts, books, papers, government
documents, letters, oral accounts,
diaries, maps, photos, reports, coins,
stamps...constitute what historians call the
historical record...The historical record is
highly selective, often biased, and always
incomplete.” (Giese 1996, p. 279).
“...much historical evidence is actually
incidental
to the situations described...some of the
available records are left because of the
self-conscious action of historical actors...
Every source is biased in one way or
another and must, therefore, be scrutinized
skeptically and critically.” (Giese 1996,
p. 280). “...evidence in history is
particularistic, and interpretation is dependent on
the historian’s perspective.” (Downey
& Levstik 1991, p. 403).
“Historians, like other people, are
remarkably different with respect to their
interests, values, and experiences. Each
historian exists in his / her own subjective
past -the personal meaning that attaches to
nationality, social group, ethnicity, class,
family, schooling, and so on- as well as an
ongoing present.” “...time, place, and
values (their environments) affect
historians...Historians feel pressure to secure
tenure and promotion, to enhance their
reputation, to publish in the best
journals...Those influences tend to keep
historians attuned to the state of the
collective body of historical wisdom...”
(Giese 1996, p. 283).
Personally, I think that history is very
important because it helps us to know the
past and avoid the mistakes other people made,
because it helps us to understand
the present and construct / predict the future
in a better way. History is an
important element in making a nation strong. It
contributes to mature our
youngsters’ character, morals, and ethics.
I think history allows us to live a better,
more fulfilled and happy life because
possessing historical knowledge help us to be
aware of the causes and consequences of many
things around us. History is also a
necessary discipline for many professions like
journalism, foreign service, politics,
teaching, and many others.
Without any doubt, I consider that we must
teach history ensuring that multiple
perspectives are presented, making clear for
our students that there is not a single
and easy truth, expressing our points of view
with honesty, being as much
open-minded as possible, preparing our students
to be able to develop and
express their own opinions. I think we should
stimulate our students to be skeptical,
to challenge anyone who tries to tell them whom
to believe in and to make them to
swallow “absolute truths”. Debate
should be a required activity in our history
classrooms. The Socratic “why” should
be the word that we most use when we teach
history to them.
2-What is the role of textbooks in our history
classrooms? What kind of textbooks
do we use? Why do we use those
textbooks?
“...the teaching of history, more than any
other discipline, is dominated by
textbooks. And students are right: the books
are boring...Textbooks exclude conflict
or real suspense.” (Loewen 1995, p. 13).
“...national surveys have confirmed that
teachers use textbooks more than 70% of the
time.” (Loewen 1995, p.288). “It is
widely assumed that textbooks dominate history
and social studies instruction...90%
of classroom time involves the use of
curricular materials, two third of this time is
spent on commercially produced materials,
mainly textbooks.” (Downey & Levstik
1991, p. 406).
“Students exit history textbooks without
having developed the ability to think
coherently about social life...Even though the
books bulge with detail, ...(they) still
leave out most of what we need to know about
the American past. Some of the
factoids they present are flatly wrong or
unverifiable”...“History is furious debate
informed by evidence and reason. Textbooks
encourage students to believe that
history is facts to be learned”...“In
sum, startling errors of omission and distortion
mar American history.” (Loewen 1995, p.
15-16). “There is widespread agreement
that textbooks are a problem...The critics
castigate textbooks for poor or bland
writing, an emphasis on coverage over depth of
treatment, (and) omissions of all
sorts...” (Giese 1996, p. 303).
“...textbooks (also) promote wartless
stereotypes...”
(Loewen 1995, p. 33). Trying to find who is
responsible for all these problems,
“...publishing executives blame adoption
boards, school administrators, or parents,
whom they feel they have to please, for the
distortions and lies of omission that mar
U.S. history textbooks. Parents...blame
publishers. Teachers blame administrators
who make them use distasteful books or the
publishers who produce them.”
(Loewen 1995, p. 283). “..textbooks mirror
our society and contain what that society
considers acceptable.” (Loewen 1995, p.
292).
Even though most teachers and administrators
are aware of the problems that
history textbooks have, they continue using
them. They could use the books being
active complements and filling in the blanks,
but some teachers like textbooks as
they are because many teachers do not like
controversy and they already have their
old lesson plans designed according to those
books; teachers prefer to teach as they
were taught and it is harder to teach
open-endedly. Textbooks, even the bad ones,
make teachers’ lives easier.
“Teaching against the book is hard...(there are)
problems of time and workload. Resources are
also a problem...Teaching against the
book can also be scary. Textbooks offer
security. Teachers could get in trouble for
doing that.” (Loewen 1995, p.
290-291).
3-How do we teach history? Why do we teach
history like that? What are the
consequences? What advice should we take from
research results?
“All over America, high school students
sit in social studies and American history
classes, look at their textbooks, write answers
to the questions at the end of each
chapter, and take quizzes and examinations that
test factual recall.” (Loewen 1995,
p. 299). “...most American history courses
operate in a gray emotional landscape of
pious duty in which the United States has a
good history, so studying it is good for
students.” (Loewen 1995, p. 301).
“Teaching that emphasizes facts and the textbook
puts students in a passive role...Myriad
instructional strategies do actively engage
students in authentic work... Simulations, role
plays, mock trials, case studies,
small-group cooperative learning projects, and
individual research projects...(can do
it).” “...classrooms become places
where students learn unexplained nonsense, where
students cannot explore important topics in
depth...” (Giese 1996, p. 302-303).
“...a fundamental problem in the high
school curriculum is that we try to teach
too much...” “...we are addicted to
coverage.” “...depth must replace coverage as
a
primary principle for organizing
instruction.” (Giese 1996, p. 302-303). According
to many scholars, the problem is provoked by
the dichotomy between “quantity vs.
quality.” Many world history students has
never seen beyond WW I and most
American history students wonder what happened
after the Civil War; that is the
reality and part of it is a result of the
current academic policy of “less is more”.
Even though this modern principle is “in
place”, lessons are still superficial, boring,
and so on. Do our students have the right to
learn about all periods and processes in
history? I would not hesitate to answer: yesss
!!!!, they do. I agree that
we can not teach everything. But, the problem
resides in what methods teachers are
using to approach this situation., in the use
of adequate instructional strategies and
proper planning. It is absurd to provide
excuses and support to those who are not
doing their job. Let’s help them to decide
what issues are more important in each
unit, what details should be left out, how we
are going to present the lesson, what
strategies and resources are more productive
and appropriate for each theme and to
save time, what we should present in the
classroom and what the students -with our
guidance- must research by themselves.
Let’s elaborate a better CBC, let’s direct
the
workshops we organize to solve concrete and
practical things. Planning is a
crucial matter to solve this dilemma. But,
under not circumstances, we should be
allowed to make “disappear” complete
periods of history. That is my point of view.
Downey & Levstik (1991) advise us that
“..the use of primary source materials in
history instruction makes high school students
more sensitive to the interpretive
nature of history.” (p. 403); that
“...history embedded in literary narrative
elicited
strong interest among students and could be
used to encourage (them)...historical
fiction and biography could encourage a
student’s interpretation and analysis of
textbook versions of history.” “As
children have been found to be generally
uncritical of narrative sources, critical
analysis needs to be part of instruction.” In
many researches, the results show that
“...the teaching methods most commonly
used were class discussions, lectures, and
periodic tests and quizzes...(as well as
other) teacher-centered (activities, such as)
question-answer recitation...” (p. 404).
“...teachers tend to adopt the terminology
currently in vogue to describe what they
do, whether or not they have altered their
teaching methods.” “...the way history is
taught and the quality of history teaching vary
widely among the schools and among
teachers within each school.” (p.
405)
Personally, I am in favor of using as much
audiovisuals as possible teaching
history (color transparencies, poster boards,
videos, etc.). The use of technology, like
CD-ROM multimedia and the Internet, are
necessary resources if we want to be at
the same level that most of the things our
students use today for their entertainment.
After several studies made on the use of motion
pictures for educational purposes, I
strongly think that movies about historical
themes are very useful as a complement
in teaching history to young children. The
combination of cooperative and
competitive activities is a crucial issue when
we talk about teenagers who love sports
and competition and are under the heavy
influence of peer pressure. I mentioned
most of the activities I do to motivate my
students in my paper about motivation.
I have read as much as I could about
cooperative learning. Thelen (1954) studied
what is called the group investigation approach
to cooperative learning; Sharan
(1984) saw cooperative learning as a way to
eliminate racial prejudice and improve
social relations among students by creating
cultural / racial mixed teams in
classrooms; Cochran (1989) studied how
cooperative learning strategies could help
L.E.P. students to succeed in regular
classrooms; Kagan (1992) developed what we
call the structural approach to cooperative
learning; Johnson and Johnson (1994)
explored how to integrate handicapped students
into regular classrooms and
develop what they called “experiential
learning” or learning by doing; Slavin (1995)
studied how cooperative learning affects
students’ achievement; Aronson (1997)
developed the Jigsaw, which was adapted later
on by Slavin. All my students are
grouped and work in teams. One of the most
important forms of assessment that I
use are team projects and students love doing
them. My teams compete between
them and I systematically reward the best
results in different ways. This method is
especially important for me, because all my
students are in ESOL I / II and the
possibility of helping each other is vital for
them.
4-How important is the preparation of history
teachers? What kind of history
teachers do we have?
“How history gets taught in the schools
also depends upon how and how well
history teachers know their subject. Not only
do expert history teachers have a large
store of information at their command, they
also had a vision of history, a perception
of the discipline...” (Downey &
Levstik 1991, p. 405). “Many history teachers
don’t
know much history: a national survey of 257
teachers in 1990 revealed that 13
percent had never taken a college history
course, and only 40 percent held a B.A. or
M.A. in history or had a major with some
history in it.” “...fewer than one in five
stay current by reading books or articles in
American history.” (Loewen 1995, p.
286-287). “Some high school principals
assign history to coaches, who have to teach
something, after all.” “...60 percent
of U.S. history teachers (are out of their field of
competence).” “...the subject is not
(so difficult), ...anyone can teach it (using the
textbook!).” “history teachers also
have higher class loads than teachers of any other
academic subject.” (Loewen 1995, p. 289).
Only high school social studies classes are
assigned to work in auditoriums where more than
two hundred students pretend
that they are learning something. It is hard to
accept that, in many cases, “...social
studies teachers are part of the problem, not
part of the solution.” (Loewen 1995, p.
291). I think this is not only their fault. Who
should prevent that to happen?
5-How our students perceive history? Is history
an interesting or boring subject
matter? Should we be amazed for student
attitudes toward history?
“High school students hate history. When
they list their favorite subjects, history
invariably comes last.” “...Outside
of school, Americans show great interest in
history. Historical novels...often become
bestsellers.” “The series The Civil War,
(North and South, and The Cold War ) attracted
new audiences to public television.
Movies based on historical incidents or themes
are a continuing source of
fascination...” “American history is
full of fantastic and important stories. These
stories have the power to spellbind
audiences...” (Loewen 1995, p. 13).
Downey & Levstik (1991) affirm that
“History and social studies are widely
thought to be one of the least popular of
school subjects, in part because of the use
of teaching methods and materials that kill
student interest in the subject.” (p. 406).
After discussing all the problems existing in
the manner we teach history, it is totally
normal and easily predictable that students
feel this way. The thing is if we are
willing and capable to change this terrible
situation. Is our educational system really
interested in enforce a policy aiming in that
direction?
Controversial Issues to Debate
1-Coverage vs. depth
2-Teach by the book or against the
book.
3-The controversial issues: AIDS,
homosexuality, racism, social inequality, imperialism, trust in our
leaders and institutions, and so on.
4-How to solve the present situation in
teaching / learning history? Does our society want us to do
so?
5-What should be the role of teachers? Are we
responsible for what is happening?
Motivation:
The Road to Achievement.
(click on the title to go
back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
Most of our students consider the subjects
within the field of the social studies the least
interesting and useful and the most irrelevant
among all those they have to study as part
of the school curriculum. The major reasons and
arguments behind this judgment are:
poor and repetitive instruction, superficial
instruction, lack of teacher’s enthusiasm
and knowledge of the subject, and lack of use
of modern technologies. Goodlad
(1984) told us long time ago that “The
data from our observations in more than
1,000 classrooms support the popular image of a
teacher standing or sitting in front
of a class imparting knowledge to a group of
students. Explaining and lecturing
constituted the most frequent teaching
activities...” (p. 105). “Students receive
relative little exposure to audiovisual aids,
field trips, or guest lectures.” (p. 124).
“Three categories of student activity
marked by passivity -written work, listening,
and preparing for assignments- dominate ... at
all three levels of schooling.” (p. 124).
“Students’ experiences with writing
(and reading) decreased as they moved from the
upper elementary to the senior high
grades.” (p. 106). “...guidance in improving
performance and teacher’s praise of
students’ work dropped...about 50% from
elementary to senior high classes.”
“All those characteristics we commonly regard as
positive elements in classrooms were more to be
observed at the early elementary
level.” (p 112). (There is ) “... a
decline in (the use of) amenities such as good
instructional materials and attractive
comfortable classrooms.” (p. 125). Today’s
situation is more or less the
same.
Some key concepts and ideas related to
motivation:
1-“Students’ attitudes and levels of
motivation are a function of a complex set of
variables.” (Massialas 1996, p.
82).
2-“Motivation to learn is defined as a
student’s willingness to engage in efforts to
achieve an academic goal and to persist in
those efforts.” (Massialas 1996, p. 83).
“Student motivation naturally has to do
with students’ desire to participate in the
learning process. But it also concerns the
reasons or goals that underlie their
involvement or noninvolvement in academic
activities.” (Lumsden 1994, p. 1).
“Motivation is usually defined as the
process within individuals that stimulates
behavior or arouses us to take action. It is
what makes us act the way we do.”
(Arends 1998, p. 76).
3-According to Van Sickle (1996), the factors
which determine students’
motivation to learn can be grouped in three
categories: goal values, means values,
and goal expectancies. The author took Carol S.
Dweck (1989) work as the
foundation of his analysis. Students’
motivation will depend on how students answer
the following questions:
How important is this for me to learn? (Goal
value)
How do I feel about participating in this
learning process? (Means value)
How likely am I to be successful and achieve
the goal? (Goal expectancy)
Van Sickle (1996) identifies those factors as
follow
Goal Value: Incentives (privileges, grades,
library pass, skip examination, public
recognition, and bulletin board notes),
Personal Relevance (sense of security,
sense of affiliation, sense of competence, and
sense of influence) , and Academic
Environment (general expectations / feelings
regarding what is worth learning
and the appropriate ways to do it). See the
Reinforcement Theory (Skinner,
1956), the Needs Theory (Maslow, 1970), the
Social Learning Theory (Bandura,
1977), and the Theory of Identity Development
(Erikson, 1968).
Means Value: Comprehensibility (concepts, new
vocabulary, identify key people),
Instructional Variety, Friendship (classroom
environment, cooperative learning,
compete / contest like in real-life), Feedback,
Affective Impact (emotional engaging
effects, real-life dilemmas, drama / fiction,
storytelling, teacher’s role model), and
Concrete Experiences (role playing, simulation
gaming, artwork, interviews to
real-life actors, hands-on activities). See the
Multiple Intelligences Theory
(Gardner, 1983), the Triarchic Theory
(Sternberg, 1986), and the Stimulus
Variation Theory.
Goal Expectancy: Goal Specificity (avoid risk
and ambiguity, everything should
be clear), Self-Expectations (you can do it
!!), and Task Relevant Resources
(availability of necessary resources to achieve
the goal). See the Social Learning
Theory (Bandura, 1977).
Van Sickle also identifies -following Dweck
(1989) theories- the two general
orientations to achievement that prevail in
today’s schools: learning orientation
(concern with acquiring knowledge) and
performance orientation (concern with
favorable social judgment: looking well and
avoiding problems).
Personally, I think that motivation is a
critical issue for the process of teaching /
learning and that teachers’ knowledge of
the “laws” / principles that rule / lead to
the achievement of students’ motivation is
conclusive for the success of our work. I
have tried to read as much as possible about
this topic (see references) and to apply
the best experiences to my teaching.
.
Key Points of Major Theories about
Motivation
1-The Reinforcement Theory (Skinner, 1956):
Positive reinforcers following a desire
behavior enhance the probability that that
behavior would be repeated and negative
reinforcers following an action reduce the
reoccurrence of the undesired behavior.
2-The Needs Theory (Maslow, 1970): Individuals
are motivated to take action and
to invest energy in the pursuit of three
outcomes: achievement (be famous, be cool,
have social recognition), affiliation (be part
of the peer group, belong in some place),
and influence on other people
(leadership).
3-Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977):
Motivation is the result of individual
expectations about his/her chances to succeed
and the degree of value or satisfaction
for achieving the goal.
4-Theory of Identity Development (Erikson,
1968): People pass through eight stages
during their lives; each stage involves a
central conflict. With regard to the so called
stage of “the crisis of the school
years”, Erikson tries to explain the process of
struggle between accomplishment vs.
inferiority, identity vs. confusion, intimacy vs.
isolation. He describes the need of belonging
and the necessity for recognition of
young people.
5-Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner,
1983): People have a combination of
eight different types of intelligences, with
the predominance of one or two of them.
Because of this, each individual learns in a
different way and performs better in
some disciplines than in others. Those
intelligences are: verbal/linguistic,
logical/mathematical, intrapersonal,
interpersonal, visual/spatial, musical,
body/kinesthetic, and
naturalist.
6-The Triarchic Theory (Sternberg, 1986):
Teaching to the brain, right and left
hemispheres. People should be exposed to a
broad diversity of educational
experiences and complex relationships which is
in correspondence with the brain’s
structure and functioning way.
7-The Theory of Stimulus Variation (???):
Teachers should change the kind of
instructional activities / strategies they use
in every lesson / unit to keep their
students’ attention, to keep them engaged,
to avoid being boring.
Personal Experience
Looking for the motivation and academic
achievement of my students I am using
the following instructional strategies and
activities:
-Dynamic lectures: use of transparencies with
color maps, works of art, and cartoons, active note taking,
questions/answers, debate.
-Unit summary prepared by me: vocabulary, key
leaders, major events, causes & consequences, controversial
issues.
-CD-ROM auto narrated picture shows: close
captions / subtitles.
-Thematic poster exhibitions
-Systematic use of motion pictures about
historical themes: video clips in class, video analysis at home,
debates in class. (See list)
-Subscription and bring to class history
related magazines (World Press, Military History, Historic Traveler,
Biography, National Geography, American Heritage, American Legacy,
American History): use them in projects.
-Teams created following the theory of multiple
intelligences. Their own names.
-Research Projects by teams including models.
Go deeper.
-Knowledge contests by teams. Review
content.
-Weekly competition between the teams
(team’s and individual grades): Awards, bulletin board for
results, party.
-Book reports on classics of literature related
to history.
-TRAFO writing activities (playing
roles).
-Quizzes of multiple choices. After every CD
Picture Show.
References
Arends, R. I. (1998). Learning to teach.
Boston, Mass.: MacGraw-Hill.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Cochran, C. (1989). Strategies for involving
L.E.P. students in the all-English-medium classroom: A cooperative
learning approach. Washington, D.C.: National Clearinghouse for
Bilingual Education.
Cullen, F. T., Cullen, J. B., Hayhow, V. L.
& Plouffe, J. T. (1975). The effects of the use of grades as an
incentive. Journal of Education Research, 68, 277-279.
Dweck, C. S. 91989). Motivation. In A. Lesgold
& R. Glaser, Foundations for a psychology of education. N.J.:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Erickson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and
crisis. New York: W. W. Norton.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory
of multiple intelligences. N.Y.: Basic Books.
Goodlad, J. (1984). A place called school:
Prospects for the future. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. T. (1990).
Social skills for successful group work. Educational Leadership,
January, 29-33.
_____. (1989). Cooperation and competition:
Theory and research. Edina, Minn.: Interaction Book.
_____. (1986). Learning together and alone.
Cooperation, competition, and individualization (2nd ed.). Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Kagan, S. (1992). Cooperative learning. San
Juan Capistrano, CA.: Resources for Teachers.
Krajcik, J. (1994). Project-based instruction.
Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan.
Lumsden, Linda S. (1994, June). Student
motivation to learn. ERIC Digest, Number 92
(ED370200).
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality.
(2nd. ed.). New York: Harper and Row.
Rencher, R. (1992, July). School leadership and
student motivation. ERIC Digest, Number 71 (ED346558).
Sharan, S., Kussell, P., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R.,
Bejarano, Y., Raviv, S. & Sharan, Y. (1984). Cooperative learning
in the classroom: Research in desegregated schools. Hillsdale, N.J.:
Erlbaum.
Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human
behavior. New York: Free Press.
Slavin, R. (1995). Cooperative learning. (2nd
ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
_____. (1994). Using student team learning.
(4th ed.). Baltimore, Md.: John Hopkins University.
_____. (1984). Students motivating students to
excel: Incentives, cooperative tasks and student achievement. The
Elementary School Journal, 85, 53-62.
_____. (1983). Cooperative learning. New York:
Longman.
Slavin, R., Sharan, S., Kagan, S.,
Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. Webb, C. & Schmuck, R. (1985). Learning to
cooperate, cooperating to learn. New York: Plenum
Press.
Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Beyond IQ: A triarchic
theory of human intelligence. New York: Cambrige University
Press.
Thelen, H. A. (1954). Dynamics of groups at
work. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
Van Sickle, R. L (1996). Questions of
motivation for achievement in social studies. In B. G. massials and
R. F. Allen (ed.), Crucial issues in teaching social studies K-12 (p.
81-110). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
Educational
Partnerships (Chapter
Review)
(click on the title to go
back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
Tucker, J. L. (1991). Global education
partnerships between schools and universities. In K. A. Tye (ed.)
Global education: From thought to action. (p. 109-124). VA:
ASCD.
Summary
A. Main Idea
The author mentions that conventional wisdom,
research results, and his own
experience have showed that partnerships
between schools and universities have not
been very successful in the past. However, he
says that global changes during the
last years are promoting national school
reforms; establishing joint efforts between
schools and colleges are an important part of
those reforms. He also explains that
“...educational collaborations must
include other groups, including business and
labor, foundations, and a broad coalition of
community-based, non-governmental
agencies.” (p. 111). The rationale behind
this idea is the necessity of making a better
use of our resources, achieving a higher
quality in our shools’ performance, and
providing a global education to our students,
which is a national priority today. Dr.
Tucker identifies some examples of good
programs or partnerships across the
country; FIU and MDCPS, in Miami, have
established one of these successful
collaborations. He explains that this
partnership has to be a long-term one to reach
the expected results.
The author explains how the fact that global
education is interdisciplinary should
be an additional reason to facilitate the
educational partnerships. He identifies four
principles to succeed in this endeavor: culture
and leadership; global education is
for everyone; the partnership must be rewarding
for everyone; and a conceptual
framework is needed. He describes some ways how
this collaboration could take
place:
Creation of a university speakers’ bureau
of international students where they
can jointly participate in many
activities.
Classroom teachers can be mentors for beginning
teachers.
This partnership is full of rewards for both
sides. It creates access to the
multitude of resources of the other partner;
the university has “the opportunity to
conduct cooperative research in the school with
a minimum of bureaucratic
hurdles...” (p.120); the school can obtain
“library materials, advice by professors,
space for meetings, seminars, and
workshops.” (p. 120). The collaboration also
creates the “opportunity to link
pre-service and in-service training programs.”
(p.
121).
B. Relationship to Education Practice. Personal
Opinion and Experiences.
I consider that education partnerships are an
ineludible requirement to solve
many of the existing problems in our schools
today and a necessity to achieve the
global education that students and teachers
need to survive in “Spaceship Earth” or
in the “Global Village”. I would say
that the most important ways to improve
schools and universities performance under the
current international circumstances
are through close links between educational
institutions and international
corporations and organizations; interchanges of
teachers / professors and students
between different nations; academic, cultural,
and athletic international events; the
use of the Internet. Our country has the
privilege that many of the most important
corporations and international political
organizations have their headquarters in
our territory.
When professors and classroom teachers are
exposed or get involved in
participating and solving problems in real life
economy, politics, science, or society,
their teaching become much better, richer in
experiences . When students combine
their academic learning with working activities
in real life factories, labs, political
campaigns, or charity organizations, the
knowledge, practical skills, discipline, and
experiences they acquire prepare them better
for the future. When corporations,
political parties, or social organizations can
have the help of some additional hands,
get in contact with or know in advance their
future employees, and at the same time
they improve their public relations and enhance
their community image, everyone
obtains profits. When we can send some of our
students and teachers to schools or
universities in other countries and receive
some from those nations, both parties
benefit.
History is full of examples of how
international academic interchanges can be
done. Communist governments understood very
well the political potential of
bringing students and teachers from African,
Asian, and Latin American nations to
study in their universities or schools as a way
to influence the future intellectuals of
those countries. Before that, Great Britain and
France used similar policies with the
youngsters from the richest families of their
colonies. Many world leaders today
were educated in American universities. My
point is that the world needs to expand
these interchanges to a global and massive
level. Communist countries’ educational
policies succeeded linking schools with
factories / farms and universities with labs,
big industries, hospitals, etc. We have better
conditions to do it. Personally, I
worked during several years in Moscow
supporting the activities of thousands of
Cubans (university professors, graduate and
undergraduate students) who were
part of the academic interchange between Cuba
and the former Soviet Union. I can
say that it was a very interesting experience
for all of them. Miami Senior High is
receiving students and teachers from secondary
schools in Belorussia and sending
some of our own over there. FIU is another good
example that it can be done.
The movement toward partnerships has not been
without natural impediments.
In the case of schools - universities, these
differences have evolved from disparities in
institutional funding and resources, student
bodies, faculty role, and institutional
leadership. These factors, combined with the
historical separateness of our loosely
coupled systems of secondary and post-secondary
education, have led to a lack of
mutual understanding. Fortunately, many
experiences demonstrate that those
problems can be overcome with appropriate
planning and sensitivity. Perhaps, our
worst nightmare is the fact that we have not a
national system of education, that
every state, district, and even every school
follows different policies. A less
decentralized system would make easier and
cheaper the relations between that
system and our corporations, foundations,
organizations, and foreign nations.
With regard to schools - businesses,
collaboration can take many forms.
Businesses can provide guest speakers, special
demonstrations, the use of their
facilities, special awards, scholarships, or
other incentives for the students. The
program to create “Model Schools”
developed during the presidency of George
Bush, the Goal 2000 Educate America Act of
1994, and the School-to-Work
Opportunities Act of 1994 are examples of the
interest of the federal government in
promoting this kind of collaboration; millions
of dollars are available to support
those programs, but we are not doing our best
to make it happen. If we had really
well structured vocational programs in our
schools, enough vocational counselors,
and a clear vocational policy, the connection
between schools and businesses could
be a real partnership, but the situation is
something different. Though such
partnerships may enrich school programs, they
do little to facilitate fundamental
changes in classroom teaching and learning. A
deeper involvement is needed for
both corporate America and our schools if the
key issues affecting us are going to be
addressed. The experience of the Industry
Initiatives for Science and Math
Education (IISME) in California and the
University of Washington’s Ford Fellows
Science / Math Project are good examples in
this field.
I believe that education at all levels will
change little by little according to the
pace and needs required by the society in
general. There are many experiences
available and everyone is aware about the need
of deep reforms. The content,
structure, and form of global education and
global education partnerships will
depend on global economics and global
politics.
Carlos J. Diaz
A New Curriculum
for the New Global Order (Chapter
Review)
(click on the title to go
back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
Becker, J. (1991). Curriculum considerations in
global studies. In K. A. Tye (ed.), Global education: From thought to
action. (p. 67-85). VA: ASCD.
2-Summary
A. Main Idea.
The author explains how our world is becoming
more and more interconnected
and Americans are linked to what is happenning
around the world. He says that our
nation needs citizens who can understand
international issues and that a good
citizen today should have a global perspective.
He concludes that our educational
system must change, that the school curriculum
should lead to a better preparation
of our students for “... living in a more
pluralistic, interwined, international
system...” (p. 70). Obviously, the
discipline more related to this needed process is
Social Studies.
B. Relationship to Education
Practice.
Education is a field that invites many
opinions. Expectations of education are so
diverse that it is assumed that schools should
transmit knowledge, baby-sit children,
take care of their emotional problems,
discipline them, prepare the future citizens to
fulfil their civic duties, provide the
necessary skills to the prospective workers, help
them to develop good moral values, and many
other things. Education gets the
blame when young people misbehave, defy
societal norms or enter in the working
world without the proper preparation, even
though many other institutions and
factors are also responsible for those
problems.
Trends in curriculum, such as making textbooks
and courses more multicultural
and global oriented, draw fire from those who
believe that one education’s essential
function is to provide a common language of
allusions, texts and events that should
be central to every American’s
consciousness, that national interests and loyalty are
more important than this “left
oriented” global education. However, changes in
American population have had tremendus impact
on public education; bilingual
education is an important example of that
impact. In addition to that, changes in
the world arena have brought international
events into the classrooms. The content
and structure of the school curriculum is part
of the so called “deep structure” of
schooling and it is not easy to change this
“deep structure”. U.S. education policies
change according to the political agenda of our
politicians. While most of our elected
officials recognize that educating the future
and potential work force should demand
top priority, in recent history our leaders
seem to have had relatively little impact on
the state of education. The resistance to
change has been stronger than any policy
directed to modify the essence of our schools.
Becker affirms that the “...social
studies curriculum in most secondary schools is
organized around topics that were
established 60 years ago.”, that
“...international studies receives scant
attention...”
in our schools (p. 69), that “High school
social studies courses seldom provide
extensive discussions of international
organizations such as the United Nations...”
(p. 70). And those are only some of the many
current problems of the process of
teaching / learning social studies in our
schools.
The Council of Chief State School Officers
(1985), the National Commission on
Social Studies in the Schools (1989), the
Council of State Governments, the National
Governors’ Association, the National
Council for the Social Studies, and many other
organizations have recommended changes in the
traditional pattern of social studies
courses. These changes include giving more
attention to world history and world
geography, introducing more content focused on
Asia, Africa, and Latin America,
infusing in the curriculum contents related to
global issues like energy, peace, the
environment, population, and many
others.
3-Evaluation
A. Personal Opinion
I think that there is a long way to go before
education in America hits its mark.
The need for a global education is something
evident, obvious, like the need for
peace, the need to end poverty, and so on. This
is only one of the issues that we have
to address to improve our educational system
which is crying for a deep and general
reform. Individual teachers and schools should
play their role pushing for these
changes. In this new century, no doubt many
American
institutions will be closely scrutinized.
Learning to examine our assumptions and
challenge our existing notions of “how
things should be” is one of the most
important lessons that public and private
education should provide. I am totally
sure that the economy and the society,
according to the path they take in America
and in the world, will provoke the adequate
changes in education to fulfill their
requirements.
Even though this book is almost ten years old
and some of the data and events
the author used or described are outdated, the
main ideas with regard to the needs
required by the new global order are current
and valid today. We are moving
forward at an extraordinary speed; political,
economic, and technological changes
are occurring so fast that some times it is
difficult to describe the details on the sides
of the road and predict what is going to happen
next. However, there is not doubt
that we are going to need people with a global
education. But the content, the
structure and the orientation that the future
education is going to have in America
is not clear in the same way to
me.
Carlos J. Diaz
The
Purpose of Education (Reaction
Paper)
(click on the title to go back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
Spring, J. (1999). Wheels in the head:
Educational philosophies of authority, freedom, and culture from
Socrates to human rights. Chapters 1 - 3 (p. 3 - 46). N.Y.:
McGraw-Hill College.
We know that education and schooling are not
synonymous. Schooling is just one
of the many components that intervene in the
lifelong process of education.
Education includes the media, the family, the
influence of peers, and many other
elements. Between education and schooling exist
an interdependence, a mutual
influence. At the same time, education is a
social activity and it is conditioned by
what is happening in society, by the moral
values, ideals, concepts, and truths
existent in a particular society and time. I
agree with Dewey (p. 20-24) when he said
that all these elements mentioned above are
products of particular social situations,
that they are social constructed, that they
serve a social function. Because of that, they
are subjected to change, they differ from one
culture to another and from one time
to another. It has also been proved that
socio-economic factors play a crucial role in
education.
Man is a social being that can not survive in
isolation. Society is the way
men live together. How they relate to each
other, what rights and responsibilities
they have, how much freedom they have, and what
laws and rules are present will
determine the type of society, values, and
education they have. Democracy, as it was
defined by president Lincoln, is the society in
which exists a government of the
people, by the people, and for the people. In
other words, it is a way of governing in
which all citizens participate in their own
affairs; they are the source of power; the
people are the sovereigns. In this sense, the
government and the authority it
represents (people’s authority) are
legitimate and fair.
Every society needs a government and laws and
some people have to enforce those laws.
All types of societies involve politics and
ideologies. Society is not a neutral institution.
Education and schooling, of course, are also
affected by those variables, but also by
subjectivism, because every individual
-teachers, administrators, students, parents,
etc.- participating in those processes brings
with him / her his / her own ideas,
values, and political position. It does not
matter who or what social institution
controls the process of schooling: schooling
can never be objective or neutral.
Freedom is a hard concept to define. I looked
in several encyclopedias and
dictionaries and they all avoid a straight
definition; they only mention academic
freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of
religion as specific terms. For me, the
concept of freedom involves many different
issues: physical and spiritual security
and integrity, economic independence, access to
knowledge and information,
justice, the right to express the own ideas and
opinions, the capacity to take
decisions and choose from different options
without the risk of endangering the own
security and integrity, and the respect to
other people’s rights and freedom.
Freedom is a relative term and always should be
limited by the freedom of others. I
do not agree with those who include as part of
their freedom the right to exhibit or
promote violence, pornography, guns, racism,
vulgarity, or any other thing
considered by the majority of society as
negative or potentially harmful for other
people. Personally, I think that our freedom is
destroying the foundations and
essence of our democracy.
The United States is one of the best places to
live in our planet today. We enjoy a
great deal of some kind of personal freedom;
our government and laws are based on
democratic principles and ideals; we are a very
stable society ruled by the law and
in which justice prevails most of the times;
the U.S. is a very rich nation that enjoys
economic prosperity. We are also the most
powerful and influential nation of the
world.
On the other hand, the American society is
based on a great deal of
individualism; people are participating less
and less in politics and the will of the
majority is being replaced by the will of the
most powerful; big corporations and
their money are more and more influential every
day in our politics and in every
aspect of our lives -including education. While
we enjoy all those privileges mentioned
before, many other countries in the world
suffer hunger and misery, political oppression,
illiteracy, diseases, and many other
calamities. Man is also destroying his own
natural environment and depleting
non-replaceable natural resources at light speed,
trying to keep his throwaway economy growing
endlessly. Inside the U.S., we also
have a big gap between the rich people and the
growing lines of the poor. Because of
all those facts, we have to differentiate in
this paper between ideals and reality. I
will address how schooling should be
idealistically or philosophically speaking. What
we are really seeing around the world and even
here, the course that the world is
following as part of the new global order, is a
totally different picture. If we do not
distinguish between these two different fields
of study, we could be considered very
naive.
Spring presents a great review of the different
philosophical positions developed
over time trying to explain how should the
world of education work, which is the
best approach to improve education, and how to
achieve more freedom in our
schools. Freedom is a key issue for all of the
scholars cited by Spring and for Spring
himself. I consider that the purpose of
education is to prepare people to live in
harmony with our natural environment and in
society, to be useful to themselves
and to others, to be able to achieve happiness
for themselves and to be able to
provide it for others. Education should involve
both the cognitive and the affective
domains. Education, like society, needs some
kind of authority and nobody in both
systems of human organization can have total
freedom. In many cases the
educational philosophies we see in the book
present dichotomies: we should choose
between an authoritarian or a democratic model.
However, I think that we can take
the best experiences and ideas from both, that
in many respects they are not
exclusive. The problem is that most of the
times we go to the extremes; it has been
difficult for us to achieve and stay in the
middle point, which was suggested as the
best solution for many of the oriental
religions and philosophies centuries ago.
Society and school must have some kind of
structure and they need to have some
leaders; I would suggest one based on the
personal merit, individual aptitudes and
preferences -according to the multiple
intelligences (Gardner)- of people, instead of
on economic status or resources and ruled by
democratic principles. Candidates for
any public position would submit their
biographies that would be verified and the
people would vote on that. This exclude
political parties, political campaigns and the
money they involve, and political
appointees.
Schools should support order and law. The
problem is passing the right laws and
electing the right officials to keep the order.
The majority should prevail without
violating the rights of the individuals. The
existence of different social groups,
professions, trades, and / or classes is normal
and inevitable. People should have the
same opportunities, but total equality is
impossible and nobody wants that; society
needs diversity. The problem is to avoid /
forbid the huge differences or gap among
the groups in terms of wealth and
influence.
Learning and schooling should be based on
individual interest, needs, and ability.
It is absurd and expensive trying to force a
student to learn something he / she
does not want, does not need, or is not able to
learn, as part of a mandatory "common
education" for all. Everyone should learn the
academic basics, but this should not be at the
secondary schools which were designed for
higher academic levels of knowledge.
Instead of lowering the academic level of our
secondary schools to make students
with other types of intelligences, needs, or
interests fit and survive in them, we need vocational
programs / schools to provide the proper
development to the special aptitudes, needs, or interests of
those
students. The high school should be the bridge
to college. However, taking the advice of
Theodore R. Sizer (1992) and the
recommendations of the Commission for the
Reorganization
of Secondary Education in its final report of
1918, we could reinvent the "comprehensive
high school", with several different schools
within the same school; a high school with
different well structured tracks, some
vocational and some academic. Schools also
should provide social mobility as always, but
the goal of it has to be different; success
in life should not mean becoming rich -which
should be forbidden beyond some level
of wealth (how much is too much?)- but reaching
a better possibility to be happy,
working in the chosen profession, being more
useful to society and to oneself.
I think that schools also have to keep and
increase their extended social services.
The social problems and changes occurred at the
begining of the past century are still present,
plus drugs, more guns, AIDS, and many new
challenges; we lost the war against poverty,
immigration still is a critical issue, and our
cities are more overcrowded than ever.
But our schools need more resources to match
these demands, not vouchers.
Society has and always will try to influence
people. We will continue putting
“wheels in the head” of people.
General education and schooling have different stages.
While children are in their early years of
schooling, they can not decide what
thoughts they should own; they are not mature
enough for that. Schools should help
them to develop critical thinking, but at the
same time schools have to direct them to
build some necessary emotional attachments and
make the students internalize some
basic ideas, concepts, and values according to
the existing society. This is not
indoctrination and we should not be afraid of
that, but of having the right society.
Schools should also provide free access to
knowledge, but at some levels it is
necessary some kind of censorship, according to
the age and level of emotional
maturity of the children. We should defend the
rights of individuals, but also
promote cooperation and work for the common
good. People who only are
concerned with their own needs and desires are
not good to society. The importance
and priority of our individualism as a society
is one of the major sources of our
many social problems. General education can be
a free and spontaneous process,
according to individual will and choice;
schooling needs direction, according to social needs.
It is very interesting and contradictory that
specialization and our
growing corporations are promoting individuals
that instead of having the
opportunity of “...gaining knowledge and
beliefs through actions of (their)
individual will...” (p.42) and developing
their individualities, are being transformed
into ignorants, only literate with respect to
their narrow positions and the
operations related to them. Some
companies’ policies even forbid exchange of
information between employees or questions
about salary or other issues. This is
what is happening in our global village, when
everything is more and more linked;
some interests are trying to isolate people
while pretending to defend the individual
freedoms of them. Schools should fight this and
promote cooperation and
socialization to prepare children to live in a
global world.
I see that schools should be part of the
solution of the problems we have, but in
reality those problems are beyond the reach and
the influence of our schools; society
is not changing in the direction that most of
our educators would like and the same
is happening to schools; then, they are
becoming part of the problem.
Philosophically, if we were able to use all the
experience accumulated by humanity
and to take the middle road, we would be able
to succeed, but I do not see this
happening.
Carlos J. Diaz
Crisis
in the Secondary Schools
(click on the title to go back)
By Carlos J. Diaz
I-Introduction
Most people say that public schools are
suffering a crisis of lack of credibility
and effectiveness; others think that nothing is
wrong, that everything is according to
the master plan, that one of the reasons why
public schools still exist is to make some
students to internalize failure. You can even
listen to some individuals arguing that
the government and the big interests in the
country don’t care about what is
happening to the public schools because their
children don’t attend to those schools
anyway. The reality is that only half of the
students that enter high school graduate;
most of those who go to college have to take
remedial courses; businesses complain
that our graduates do not have the minimum
skills and knowledge for entry-level
positions; many parents and students think that
being in school is a waste of time.
Nobody is happy with our work.
According to Goodlad (1984), as a result of one
of the largest and deepest
researches done in the field of education,
“The data from our observations in more
than 1,000 classrooms support the popular image
of a teacher standing or sitting in
front of a class imparting knowledge to a group
of students. Explaining and
lecturing constituted the most frequent
teaching activities...” (p. 105). “Students
receive little exposure to audiovisuals aids,
field trips, or guest lectures.” (p. 124).
“Three categories of student activity
marked by passivity -written work, listening,
and preparing for assignments- dominate (...)
at all three levels of schooling.” (124).
“Students’ experiences with writing
(and reading) decreased as they moved from the
upper elementary to the senior high
grades.” (p. 106). “...guidance in improving
performance (and) teachers’ praise of
students’ work dropped...about 50% (from
elementary to senior high classes).”
“All of those characteristics we commonly
regard as positive elements in classrooms where
more to be observed at the early
elementary level.” (p. 112). From
elementary to senior high “There was increasing
less use of teacher praise and support for
learning, less corrective guidance, a
narrowing range and variety of pedagogical
techniques, and a declining
participation by students in determining the
daily conduct of their education.”
“Paralleling the steady decline in these
instructional procedures was a decline in
amenities such as good instructional materials
and attractive comfortable
classrooms.” (p. 125). We could add to
this list of calamities the growth in violent
incidents in schools, in the rate of drop-outs
among minority children, and in the
number of students taking drugs or becoming
members of gangs.
In this moment we have a tracking system that
includes AP and honor courses,
programs for gifted students, SARP, BVIP,
programs for students with
exceptionalities, and bilingual programs for
LEP students. In the middle, we have
the mainstream or regular students, also known
as “the disinherited”, because they
are not covered by special federal or state
programs, which means extra funds and
better opportunities; most of them receive
their lessons in auditoriums where 200
students pretend that they are learning. Even
the lucky ones, those assigned to
special courses, don’t have well
structured programs directed toward a clear goal;
sometimes, a student is taking some honor
classes, some regular, and some bilingual,
all mixed together, like in a
salad.
Many politicians, mainly the Republicans, are
crying for choices, vouchers,
charters, and privatization; they reclaim the
restoration of praying in schools to
recover the lost moral values; they ask for the
elimination of the bilingual programs
(they succeeded in California), for making
schools and teachers accountable, and for
grading their work using the FCAT for that
purpose. They also suggest to cut funds
for general education and make parents
responsible for the education of their
children. The family is the only hope, they
assured in the “Contract with America”.
II-Stability
Since the moment when Horace Mann created his
“common schools” in the 19th
century, until this day, economic interests,
national defense, school districts, and
politicians have put pressure on public schools
and made them to go back and forth,
and to explore countless “new”
programs. First, they wanted a common curriculum
for everyone; secondly, the “comprehensive
high school" was created; later, they
decided to go back to academics and passed the
NDEA to match the scientific
achievements of the Soviets; in the sixties,
President Nixon started his “career
education” to restore the order; later on,
Reagan discovered that we were “A Nation
at Risk”; after that, Bush, Sr. saved
education with his “Model Schools”; Clinton,
a
moderate Democrat, approved Goals 2000 and
School-to-Work;
Contract with America recommended choice and
privatization, and President Bush, Jr.
developed "No child will be left behind",
also insisting on vouchers.
In all these years, America has not had a
national system of education; Reagan
even tried once to eliminate the Department of
Education, which is the main link
between the Feds and public schools; the
American education has not a well defined
set of principles, goals, standards and a
philosophical purpose as a guide for all teachers in
the
country. Nobody can clearly say what our
schools are suppose to do or to teach or
what educational theory or philosophy should be
used; this is a matter of opinion or
circumstances. Now, some educators are trying
to create National Standards and a
system of National Certification for some
exceptional teachers. The federal
government has to use its funding power to push
some specific programs, because
education is a responsibility of the 50
different states and thousands local districts in
the nation.
For me, the first step to finally approach this
issue seriously, is to pass a law or to
amend the constitution to give us a real and
stable system of education that future
politicians can not manipulate; some kind of
Educational Bill of Rights for our
children. These Educational Principles and
Foundations - if you prefer another
name- should be a natural result of our
democratic ideals and educational
experience. Multicultural and multilingual
education, tolerance and respect for the
rights of minority groups, high academic
standards, equal opportunities for all
Americans, technology and ecology , and moral
values are some key words that
should be in that document.
III-Equal Opportunity & the Right to
Choose.
Thomas Jefferson wanted a “natural
aristocracy”; the government should
provide equal opportunity for all the children
and, at some point, find out who had
the best “natural” aptitudes and
support those students until the end to make them
the future leaders of the society. Horace Mann
thought that equal opportunity was
giving the same education to all the children
in the same schoolhouse. However, that
was an illusion even at that time; Catholic
Irish Americans, German Americans,
African Americans, Native Americans, Mexicans
Americans, Asian Americans, and
many other minority groups were not part of
those common schools; they had to
attend to segregated schools.
During the first years of this century, those
who supported the idea of the
comprehensive high school, vocational
education, and the principle of meritocracy
thought that equal opportunity was tracking the
students according to their abilities
and interests, keeping them under the same
roof, and, at the end, ranking them
according to their individual results, ready to
be sent to the market. However, this
social race within the school, considered
fairer than the one that was having place
before in the job market, was still
inequitable, because every student had a
background and some personal circumstances that
helped or hurt him / her in the
race. This is still a current issue in
education. Even when the government tries to
balance this type of inequalities, the problem
remains. Besides, we have to
remember that schools are funded by property
taxes, which does not help to
equalize the race.
I consider that we should add to the principle
of equal opportunity another
element: the right to choose. Schools try to be
“scientific” and fair sorting machines
(Spring, 1976), but the place where you happen
to live, the program you are
assigned to, and the teachers you have, play a
great role in what your real
opportunities are. Parents and students should
have the right to decide what school,
what program or track, and what teachers they
prefer,
within the system of public schools. Schools
should be funded according to the
number of students they have and to the
socio-economic circumstances of those
students -poorer students should receive more
funds- (this is a critical element to
achieve a more realistic “equal
opportunity”). It doesn’t matter in which
neighborhood is any school located and how much
the local government collected in
taxes there. The school system would have the
responsibility of transporting the children to
the chosen school. The laws of the market will
decide the destiny of each school or class.
IV-Scientific Management
Schools have to be run based on the principle
of cost-effectiveness;
administrators should have the power to keep
what works and discard what doesn’t
work. Even though schools are not businesses,
they should use their resources in the
best possible way. They must also consider
their students as their customers, and
treat them like that. Schools may advertise
their good results and the services they
offer, to attract clientele. We have to be
useful, to satisfy the needs of our students
and the needs of the society to which they
belong. Schools are suppose to be aware
of the market’s demand for every type of
profession, to be able to properly advise
their students. Any entity to survive needs to
operate following the law of the
demand and supply. In the sixties, our society
suffered educational inflation; they
flooded the colleges with students and then,
there were not jobs for too many
graduates; the same situation happened to most
communist countries when they
tried to have better educational systems than
the western nations. We don’t need
that; we can not work blindly. Standardization
is important for productiveness and
saving; all the additional and / or unnecessary
procedures should be eliminated; all
the school districts should follow the same
administrative rules and procedures, use
the same forms, and reduce their bureaucratic
personnel. We have to reduce expenses
at the top and direct those resources toward
the places where they are more needed and
useful: the classrooms, to increase the quality
of our product (our students), to be profitable.
V-Assessment and Accountability.
Our state pretends to evaluate and grade our
schools based on the results of the
FCAT. Depending on those tests’ results,
the schools will be punished or rewarded;
the state will take their funds away to give
vouchers to the students in the “failing
schools”. Let’s take a look to this.
The FCAT, Florida Writes, HSCT, SAT, and
other standardized tests are additional exams
to those that our students are required
to take as part of their regular courses; this
means more time and expenses. The
FCAT measures mainly the students’
abilities or skills in Math and English; what
about the other subjects? Most of those tests
have not a direct impact on the
students; they do not decide if the students
fail or pass a particular subject or
academic year; many of them are not interested
in those tests at all. In addition to that, the
new proceedings require that even the LEP
students in the first levels of ESOL have
to take those tests. This situation reminds me
my readings about the immigrants
who came to the US from southern and eastern
Europe in the beginning of the 20th
century; they were forced to take IQ tests to
show that they were inferior races, less
intelligent people, and to explain why the
government must restrict their entrance
and should control the breeding (Eugenics) of
those already here, to preserve
America’s purity. The schools, which are
very interested in the results of those tests,
are promising to give rewards (perhaps a trip
to Bush Gardens or Disney World) to
the students who obtain good results. Now, some
schools are even creating specific
courses to prepare the students for those
tests. What does the state really try to
achieve with this system of assessment? Is this
a way for blaming and condemning
the victim or to discreetly privatize our
education? Is this what Republican
neoliberalism is all about? Are we going
back?
On the other hand, based on the principle of
academic freedom, our teachers
elaborate all their own tests for their
students, whose results do not show if the
students learned what they were supposed to
learn. Teachers are supposed to follow
and comply with the CBC and Sunshine State
Standards and to teach some specific
curriculum approved by the state; however, the
state has not a way to control what
is really happening in each individual
classroom. We have the TADS and PACES
based on classroom observations that last some
minutes, some times a year, but teachers
are almost free to use whatever instructional
strategies they want. Many politicians
claim for teachers’ accountability and are
trying to change their system of payment,
using merit instead of seniority as the major
criterion, but teachers’ unions are very
concerned about how it would be implemented
without giving too much power to
administrators, who could later be capricious
or unfair to particular teachers.
I agree with the idea that schools and teachers
should be responsive to the public,
but we have to create a reasonable system of
assessment. I would suggest to
eliminate all the standardized tests and the
TADS. The state would develop the
regular mid-term and final tests for all
subject matters taught in the secondary
schools every year, according to the SSS, and
evaluate the schools based on the
results; the administrators’ evaluations
would depend on these results, not the
schools’ funds. All students would be
required to pass those tests in order to be
promoted to the next grade. Every school would
prepare a list with its teachers’
names, by departments, ranking them according
to their students’ results in those
tests; these results may not be used directly
to remove a teacher from his / her
position. Both, the schools’ and
teachers’ lists would be published in the local
newspaper; parents and studen
