Content Knowledge - Session Two Blog

Mind the Gap

1. On page 12, Ravitch says, "Testing, I realized with dismay, had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end in itself."  She argues that instead of raising standards, testing based education was responsible for "dumbing down" schools.  I absolutely agree with this.  Instead of content being the most important part of a student's education, their test scores on standardized testing was what measured how well a school was doing; this is so true today in so many of our schools.  Schools and teachers are being forced to teach to the test instead of teaching the content in a sequential, logical style that reach students.  Schools are measured by a score and not by the richness of the curriculum or the integrity and hard work of their students and teachers.

On page 13, Ravitch says, "We will continue to chase rainbows unless we recognize that they are rainbows and there is no pot of gold at the end of them.  We certainly cannot address our problems unless we are willing to examine the evidence about proposed solutions, without fear, favor or preconceptions."  This idea has can be tied to more than just the evolution of education.  This is true in so many issues that we have in our individual lives, experiences and in our society.  Yet, in the text, it goes back to what Ravitch talks about in terms of panaceas and the attractions of find that easy solution that will take care of everything.  If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.  Instead of trying to find one perfect fix all for education, let's really look at how our students are learning, where we are failing them, where they are succeeding and create expectations and effective evaluations. 

2.  On page 16, Ravitch gives her description of a well-educated person.  I agree with the second part of her description in that she says, "the well-educated person has learned how to explain ideas and listen respectfully to others."  I believe that a well-educated person is able to articulate and explain, with confidence, their ideas and beliefs in a respectful matter.  I love that she mentions listening respectfully to others.  Just this evening, I was thinking about students and a conversation that I had with my parents over dinner.  We were talking about high school students today and the entitlement that most of them feel.  After reflecting on the conversation, I was thinking to myself that so many high school students do not know how to listen to others.  Instead of seriously taking a moment to listen to what someone is saying, it seems that they are usually waiting to say what they would like about the subject at hand.  So, instead of listening, analyzing and then responding, they are usually figuring out how they want to respond, therefore not listening to anything the person they are talking to is saying.  I also believe that a well-educated person is able to formulate ideas and thoughts and is able to confidently articulate them to others based on the educational background and current events.

3.  The discussion on Ravitch was very positive and engaging.  ANAR stood out the most for me and I think that there are many parts of it that are still VERY valid today.  I also think that there are parts of it that are too general and do not take into consideration the demographics on different campuses.  Not all students can fit into a little box.  To state that students should have to do more homework, without mentioning whether this will really help students gain a better grasp of the content, seems a bit unreasonable.  It seems that this part of the document had more to do with quantity rather than quality.  The other part of the document that struck a nerve with me was the description of the "smorgasbord" of electives that students were taking at that time and that they were taking away from the core courses.  I strongly disagree with this and I don't find it relevant in education today.

One of the topics that I was hoping to discuss a bit more was the debacle over the history standards and how that led to testing based education.  I found this section very interesting and very disheartening at the same time.  In an earlier response (I don't remember if it was during this course or from 401) I mentioned how much I dislike the saying "pick your battles."  I find it very disheartening that because the history standards were taking heat from politicians and other powerful groups, they were abandoned and no one wanted to take the risk of tackling what was developed.  Even though this would obviously be beneficial to students getting a better understanding of our nation's history, everyone shied away and let it be.  In turn, we turned our backs from standards and content based learning to testing based education.  I would have loved to discuss this more in class in order to get some different opinions.

4. One of my main content knowledge gaps has to do with aquatics.  I am very strong in individual and dual activities and strong in rhythm and dance.  Yet, when it comes to aquatics, I need to re-examine the mechanics of swimming, strategies in teaching and ways for students to participate and practice.  One of the resources that I will most likely use is www.pecentral.org.  This website is full of ideas and lesson plans for physical education teachers from kindergarten to high school.   There are multiple lesson plans on aquatics that I can look through and examine in order to help fill the gaps.  I also found a book called The Complete Guide to Simple Swimming that breaks down the four basics strokes and the mechanics needed to be successful.  This will help remind me of the techniques and mechanics that I learned in my undergraduate studies (Shari Otto is wonderful!) at St. Mary's.  The last resource that I found was also on a website, yet the site provides many articles on how to teach swimming.  The first article that I found was called "Teaching Strokes 101" and was written by Jim Reiser, a professor at the University of South Carolina.  This is a great start to trying to bridge the gap.

5.  In the research article that I found done by Papaioannou, Tsigilis and Kosmidou, they found some results that I found very useful to my topic.  The article found that there is a correlation between the mastery of goals and a mastery-oriented environment created by the teacher that will facilitate students becoming more intrinsically motivated.  This is exactly the kind of findings that I wanted to use in order to find out what the most effective teaching strategies prompt students to become more intrinsically motivated to be physically active.  The other aspect of this article looks at is the measures of motivational climate.  I found that this has lead me to question the self-reporting done in the other studies that I have found concerning the motivational climate of a sample.  I will most likely be using the resources in this study to find something similar.

In the study by Sun and Chen, I found my first introduction to Self Determination Theory (SDT), which is a common theory throughout my research.  SDT is defined as "...a theoretical approach that offers an insight into the underlying motivations in the learning process ... it explains human motivation by focusing on the importance of human inner resources for development and behavioral regulation."  I need to a bit more research into the actual framework of the theory and how it is measured; most studies use questionnaires as a measure.  In this particular study, the researchers found that there was no correlation between instrinic motivation and learning in a physical education environment.  Yet, students with higher intrinsic motivation tended to have a higher rate of engagement which is what I am interested in finding more information about.  Also, how to aid students into creating that intrinsic motivation.  In the discussion part of the article, the authors discuss how all students (no matter how much intrinsic motivation may be observed or measured) need extrinsic motivation because of the activities they may be asked to participate in.  This makes so much sense to me and has opened my eyes to the fact that I am not going to be successful in motivating all my students to want to be physically active in everything I ask them to do.  I think that, at some level, I am aware of this, yet I do want to see what other research is out there about motivation.


6. Meg, I am a bit confused about the research that we are finding for your class and the research that we are finding for 403.  At the beginning of the program, I felt like all of this research was going to culminate into the capstone project and flow together.  Now that I have had one class of 403, I am more under the impression that we are supposed to be finding strictly content based research for your class and then pedagogical for 403.  So, is it more that we are using your class to become more knowledgeable in our content area rather than aiding our research for our capstone?  Or can all of the research be for the project and for both classes whether it is content specific or on pedagogy?  I feel a little less confident on how everything is coming together.  Having asked and stated these things, I would like to say that I know this is the first time for this program and that we are all trying to iron out what works and what doesn't; I just wanted to get a better feel for how things are supposed to go.
Thank you!

I responded to Jessica O'Connell jlo510.blogspot.com, Kelly Giotta smc-mat-giotta.blogspot.com, and Sarah Uhler uhlersarah.blogspot.com.