Spring 1998
Vol 6 Issue 2
IN THIS ISSUE...
New Alignments in Calculus Instruction
Change: Do We Really Have a Choice?
Change, Learning, and the Future.
Using a Student's Fund of Knowledge to Guide Discovery
You Say You Want and Evolution?
SEE ALSO...
The Labyrinth
Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Change, Learning, and the Future
Jon Robinson
Student, PVCC
I am from Canada and the biggest change I experienced in learning was when I moved
to Arizona. I was only in high school here for one year, so I do not have that much
experience to draw on. Perhaps the biggest difference was how teachers treated their
students. It seems obvious that teachers would love it if all their students got
A's. However, most, if not all, would agree that the individual students need to
earn their grade. In Canada, high school students were treated more like college
students; the teachers wanted the best for their students, but the responsibility
was left to the students (i.e., attendance). In Arizona, the high school students
have their hands held, even in their senior year. "Extra credit" was a
completely foreign concept to me. At first I thought that it was a worthwhile concept
-- and it is if properly applied. Unfortunately, it is misused. Extra credit should
be awarded based on 'extra' scholastic effort; going the extra mile so to speak.
Awarding extra credit because a student dressed up for 'Mardi Gras Day,' or brought
in a can of food for the food drive makes a mockery of the educational system. When
extra credit is misused, a student's grade does not necessarily reflect their scholastic
achievement.
This kind of misuse of an inherently good idea is likely to aggravate students lackadaisical
attitude towards school -- otherwise known as 'faking it.' Faking it is usually the
attempt to receive the desired grade while doing the least amount of real work. Misapplied
extra credit makes it easier to achieve that B+, for example, because instead
of taking the mythology quiz, you can wear a silly-looking costume one day, bring
in three cans of red beets, or a can of Spam the next day. In the future, it would
be a good idea to restrict the allocation of extra credit for solely academic work.
Students will either get lower grades (maybe more realistic grades) for the same
amount of work -- "Tough lucky, Danny," or will do more work to get their
desired grade, which is a positive trend.
Luckily, this giving away of grades seems to stop at institutions of higher learning.
To the credit of PVCC, I have not seen this kind of abuse of extra credit. As might
be expected of college, as compared to high school, there is a stronger emphasis
placed on 'scholastic' achievement. In fact during my time at PVCC, only a couple
of classes even offered a chance to earn extra credit. This is not very surprising,
I would expect colleges to treat academic studies more seriously. Of course, colleges
are not perfect, and they have their own problems. As the future looms just beyond
the present, people start looking for some new, innovative changes.
An interdisciplinary approach to learning should be a key change in the future of
education. In school, students are taught different 'subjects' which are isolated
areas of learning. In real life, however, these different disciplines are all related.
Thus, the life of a student is far removed from that of the working world. An interdisciplinary
style of education would help students see how everything is connected, from business
to science to philosophy -- and how you need all kinds of different skills for all
careers.
Another benefit of an interdisciplinary education manifests itself as environmental
concern grows. Integrated learning shows the connection between disciplines and their
impact on other disciplines. This makes a student, one who has benefited from this
new approach, understand how selling cars may encourage economic growth and yet still
encourage environmental destruction.
It seems that an interdisciplinary education offers all that the traditional education
offers, and some new benefits that have not been considered before.