Listen to the following commentary: 474 Back to School, from This American Life, WBEZ, and comment on the following questions. Follow discussion board format by making original post of 250+ words and make at least 2 comments (4 sentence minimum) on your classmate's posts. Have fun with the conversation.
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-school
According to the audio, how do we "fix" the American education system? What are the changes in the biology and the brain that are challenging learners today? What should kids be learning in school today, k-12? What psychology experiment did you find interesting and why?
According to the podcast, removing standardize testing from the curriculum would be the best way to improve it. These tests are an inaccurate way of measuring students’ knowledge. They can only show their cognitive thinking rather than being able to showcase both cognitive and non-cognitive brain functions. Educators became obsessed with seeing “results” from their students on these tests, hoping that their performance will look good, but the truth is these tests only cover a sliver of what students need to succeed in life. Standardized tests leave our personal skills, social skills, and all sorts of other non-cognitive brain activity.
ReplyDeleteThe largest challenge for student today, according to the podcast, is stress. As a student, loads of pressure is put on you from teachers, parents, and even yourself. Too much of this pressure can cause your brain to develop abnormally. Also, if the student's home life is stressful, their cognitive skills will not develop properly. Rather than testing students over and over, which only stresses them out, educators should find a way to relieve stress and test both cognitive and non-cognitive activities of the brain.
In grades k-12, students should be learning about skills and knowledge they need to be successful in life. Whether that is a little different for every student, which is ok. Students need to learn that being self-aware is very important, along with the knowledge.
The part of the podcast that I found most interesting was the part on stress. Stress is so common in adolescents and its good someone finally acknowledged that it does have an effect on students. So often administrators and teachers are quick to dismiss that stress is a real thing that can completely alter a student's attitude or performance. So much pressure on an individual from so many different directions is incredibly hard to deal with, no matter what kind of student the child is.
I agree with you on how stress can be incredibly hard to deal with and that it can alter a students performance and how it can change the way they act. I know from personal experiences that stress does affect a students ability when learning and completing work. Stress also does really affect the attitude of a student, I know when I am stressed I get angry a lot faster then normal, and I have less patients.
DeleteI agree with you about stress being the largest challenge for students today. Stress, especially at a young age can cause a child to shut down or give up. Stress for me personally is a great factor in how well i do in a class, if i feel calm i do well, but if i feel overly stressed, i feel at times like giving up, and my motivation to accomplish a task is greatly depleted. I agree that educators should find a way to relieve stress.
DeleteI agree with you that stress is the biggest challenge students have to deal with. Also, I agree with the fact that removing standardized tests is the best way to help fix America's education system. Its funny, they say stress is so bad, and yet SAT's are one of the biggest conductors of stress to students. That just shows how well stress and testing coincide.
DeleteHow we fix the american education is to remove standardize testing from the curriculum because there tests are not the correct way to measure students knowledge. These standardize tests don't show our cognitive skills which are big part for what students need to succeed in life.
ReplyDeleteThe changes in the biology and the brain that are challenging learners today is stress. When the brain does something over, over and over again, pathways get more ingrained causing repeated stress affecting the development of the child's brain. This repeated stress causes the brain to be always in this emergency mood causing it to be hard for the child to focus in school making it seem like they have ADHD or something.
Children today should be learning non-cognitive skills, like social skills, personality, and character. They should learn these skills because it can be taught unlike cognitive (intelligence) skills. Non-cognitive skills are just as important to cognitive skills to how children succeed in life.
A psychology experiment that interests me is the marshmallow experiment.The marshmallow experiment was where there was 4 year olds put into a room, and told here is a marshmallow, if you want one ring the bell but if you can wait until I come back myself then you will get two marshmallows instead of one. This was interesting to me because hearing how hard it was for these young children to sit there and wait for a period time, I wonder if it the same way for children that are older even adults. For people my age I know it would be hard for them too, they wouldn't react in the same manner as the young children did, but they would still have a hard time just sitting there waiting to get the snack.
I also found the marshmallow experiment very interesting. And I do think that it is the same way for older kids & adults. Self control never really goes away, no matter what age we are. It's just the situations that change. As a kid, it'd be hard not to eat that marshmallow and resisting the urge to do so is an important life skill. And that skill could be applied to situations as a teenager too (i.e- resisting the urge to check your phone in class)
DeleteI thought that the marshmallow experiment was interesting also! I agree with the fact that you said students our age would have an issue waiting too. Just looking around our school, the students are so impatient and nag when they do not get their way. The experiment studies patience in a way that most would not have even thought of!
DeleteAccording to the audio, the best way to "fix" the American education system is to stop focusing so much on standardize testing and focus more on non-cognitive skills. Standardize testing isn't the best way to show how much a person knows about that topic. They talked about in the podcast how supposedly a GED is the equivalent to getting a high school diploma but studies show that kids with a high school diploma do much better. Educators have become so obsessed with test and results and fail to focus on things that will help the student better succeed in life, for example non-cognitive skills.
ReplyDeleteThe largest challenge that students face today is their home life and stress, which correlates with each other. When a student comes from a home that isn't structured, low-income, or abusive, he or she will show up to school more stressed, and even worse, it can effect how your brain develops and you will lack non-cognitive skills that will help you. If you continue to test a kid over and over again and they continue to fail, its just going to stress them out more. You should figure out a different approach to it so that you can test their non-cognitive abilities as well.
Grades k-12 should learn more cognitive skills that will help them succeed later i life rather than just focusing on standardized testing all the time. If they focus on non-cognitive skills as well as cognitive, they will see a better improvement in grades.
The experiment in the podcast that interested me most was the experiment about how attachment can help your kid do better in school. I found this interesting because I never really thought about it this way, when I see a kid with poor school performance, the first thing i think of is maybe that just don't care and that's its only their fault but attachment with your parents could affect your grades. Kids who were attached to their parents had significantly better grades which makes a lot of sense to me now that I think about it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete*non-cognitive.
DeleteI agree that students should learn non-cognitive skills instead of the main focus be on cognitive skills. Teachers are just so abscessed with seeing results on test they lose the thought of teaching the skills that can really be teacher. Cognitive and non-cognitive skills are both very important to a persons life if they are going to succeed or fail. It would be so much easier if teachers taught non-cognitive skill because it actually can be taught unlike cognitive skills can not be taught.
I definitely do agree that the attachment between a student and parent is important, but I don't think that it applies to every student out there. There are for sure students who do very well in school without the support from their parents. From a humanistic point of view, this could be because that student wants to do their best and feel like they did their best internally, despite what the outside environment has to say. Unfortunately, not many students are able to do that without some sort of reward (which could be the affection from their parents).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI definitely agree with what you're saying about schools focusing too much on standardized testing. Also I feel that schools now are so stuck up on just getting students to pass their classes more than actually teaching the students the material. schools should focus more on teaching in ways that students will consume and be able retain the information. each student is different and can learn better in different ways.
DeleteBecause educators focus so much on getting their students to pass their class, I can totally see how you would think that many teachers become so "obsessed" with test and IQ scores that they forget to teach important life skills as well and that is why I agree with you that Non-cognitive skills should be taught just as much as the cognitive skills we are learning in the classrooms today.
DeleteBased on the pod cast, the best way to fix the American education system is to get rid of Standardized testing. Standardized testing is too stressed and it is not only a way to see where the student is in their learning, but for the teacher to benefit from. It is not even all about the kids, it is now something for teachers to obsess over and want to excel in. These types of tests are inaccurate because they only show the cognitive side of things learned, not the non-cognitive development which is just as, if not more important.
ReplyDeleteWhile listening to the pod cast, it was very evident that the largest challenge for students in today's society is stress. Due to the lack of information and teaching of "non-cognitive" skills, students are not able to deal with stress and other social and internal issues that they should be able to. Not only is it stress from school that students are enduring, but stress from their home lives also. Growing up in a bad environment can cause problems with brain development and eventually health problems as an adult. Children should be informed of ways to cope with such problems and maybe even learn the skills to prevent them and that can be done with being taught non-cognitive skills.
Students in today's society, grades K-12, should be learning non cognitive skills to help them succeed in life. Yes, having good grades can get you places (academically) but not having social skills, or self-actualization will not allow them to go even further. Students need a solid mix of both cognitive and non-cognitive skills to reach their full potential.
The experiment talked about in the podcast that stuck out to me the most was the one regarding affection from parents. They discussed rats whose mothers comforted them in their early stages of life and how those rats excelled in life. This study also applies to humans in the sense that no matter how bad a situation someone could have been in while growing up, if they received the proper affection from their parents during early childhood, that child was more likely to thrive in life compared to a child that was NOT shown affection. Secure attachment with a parent is necessary. I found this interesting because I see how it can be true while observing some students at WLHS.
I agree with you that students from grades K-12 should be learning both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. This is because an individual should not only be book smart, although have common sense and be able to carry out a conversation with another person. I also found the experiment on rats testing their affection from their parents interesting. Although my question to you is do you think that it applies to every student? Personally I do not because maybe one would use that as motivation and it would give them courage to keep pushing through the hard times.
DeleteIn the podcast, the best way to improve the American education system is to draw the attention away from cognitive skills and start focusing a lot more on the non-cognitive skills. Paul Tough describes how there is way too much emphasis on cognitive learning. He provides examples of this by saying how things like I.Q tests, Kumon, flashcards, etc are introduced at an early age and are not helping kids later on in the future. Tough then goes on to say that it should be the non-cognitive skills that we should be focusing on. Skills like tenacity, resilience, self- control, personality traits are the things that are vital in education and are the things that kids these days should be learning.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, one of the biggest challenges learners today face is the broad concept of stress. Doctor Burke addresses this when she explains that is trauma and stress that leads to poor performance in kids. She gives an analogy of running into a bear in the woods. When people approach this bear, the “flight or fight response” clicks on. This response releases adrenaline and the long term stress hormone called cortisol. This is what causes the pupils to dilate, cold skin, faster heart rate, etc. It also, however, clicks off the “thinking” part of the brain. And when this hormone gets activated over and over again, it creates a pathway that gets engraved, effecting the pre-frontal cortex of the brain (where the noncognitive- or executive- functions are). If you’re in this constant state of emergency, the “bear” (or in this case, the stress students receive from standardized testing), never goes away.
As terrible as this stress may seem, there were experiments done on students to prove how simple it is to teach kids these non-cognitive skills. One that interested me was the one with the college mentor. This college mentor would work with middle school kids and work with them only a few times a year. The only message this mentor was allowed to tell the kids was that if you think you can be intelligent in school, you will end up improving. And just that one simple thought showed improvement within girls who do math. Studies show that once girls got to middle school, they fall behind in math with the boys. But just this confidence boost allowed them to catch up with the boys 100%. I found it very surprising that it just took something as simple as that to make such a huge difference.
I also referred back to the "fight or flight" response. I thought it was an interesting example on how standardized testing can cause so much stress while incorporating how it works in the brain and what systems are not being developed. I feel as if many students are in that stage of "flight" in our high school. Many kids may find something interesting to do even though it is an act of wrong behavior because other students get amusement out of it. This encourages one to keep going forward with the action causing one to lose other parts of their non-cognitive and cognitive functions!
DeleteAccording to the podcast, in order to "fix" the American education system, we must remove standardized testing. Standardized testing is an inaccurate way to measure a student's knowledge, it focuses too much on Cognitive skills, and not nearly enough on Non-Cognitive skills. Standardized testing has become an obsession with teachers and no longer focuses on seeing a child's growth, but shows instead how well a teacher can have their kids memorize whatever is in a textbook. Most skills you need to succeed in life are not included in most text books, and they are not included in Standardized testing.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest challenge in learners today, according to the podcast, is stress. Stress affects students in many negative ways, at a young age stress can affect brain development, and cause greater issues into adulthood. Stress isn't only experienced in school, life at home can be very stressful as well, and many kids don't know how to deal with stress well because of the lack of Non-Cognitive skills being taught to them in schools. Teachers should find a way to incorporate cognitive and non cognitive learning in their classes. Without Non-Cognitive skills being taught, the teaching of Cognitive skills will be affected, and stress has a lot to do with this issue.
Kids K-12 should be learning a blend of both Cognitive, and Non-Cognitive skills. It is important to learn and excel in academics as well as learn Cognitive skills to succeed in life. A greater improvement in grade and in behavior will be seen if both skills are taught through aging.
The Psychology experiment that i found interesting was the one involving children, and the affection that they received from their parents. This experiment interested me because it showed how children that received affection from their parents as they were growing up, lead them to have a more successful life. It was shown that those who received affection in early child hood thrived, while those who did not receive affection did not. Affection from parents in early stages of childhood can help boost a child's confidence and therefore help him succeed in his future life. You can observe these things anywhere that you may be, including our own school.
I firmly believe that the best possible way for improving American education would be to remove standardize testing from the curriculum completely—or if not, tweak it. Standardize tests do not accurately show a person’s knowledge. These tests also leave out a bit of important information such as a person’s ability to communicate as well as someone’s very own personal skills which may include drawing, constructing, reading music, or other non-cognitive skills.
ReplyDeleteThe toughest challenge that children face today is stress—both in school and at home. The podcast describes a study in which children coming from low income families—especially ones with no structure—are likely to be more stressed. And when teachers pile on test after test it only stresses them out more. Also, when a child is struggling to pass and is required to stay after for extra help or study sessions, it puts more stress on the child. I believe that there needs to be a new take on things. Whether standardize tests are dropped completely or not, something needs to change. For starters, we could make the tests more suitable for the individual giving them the choice of a more kinesthetic, hands-on, or auditory test based on their way of learning. For instance some people understand questions better when it is read out loud to them. Also, including a person’s special skill could increase their desire for taking the test because it is encouraging to them if they do something they are passionate about!
Students K-12 should focus on both cognitive and non-cognitive skills just as much as the other because I believe that both are essential to everyday life and can be more personalized. Important skills such as self-control, coping, creativity, leadership, cooking, and many others can be taught and should be taught. If they focus on these non-cognitive skills more, I am positive that there will be an increase in grades as well as an increase in a person’s success later in their life because these life skills are essential.
An experiment that was discussed in the podcast which struck out to me the most would have to be when the fifteen year old Kuwana was arrested for punching a cop and when she got out of jail she had a talk with her great grandmother who was able to get through to her. After this talk she began to start doing her homework, she stopped skipping class, and she did not hang out with the same people. In one year her GPA went from a 1.8 to a 3.4. And then she took on a course called “Goals” which taught her non-cognitive skills such as self-confidence, obedience, discipline, and motivation and after taking the ACTs her scores went up and she was accepted into college. This really moves me because it proves how important non-cognitive skills really are and how someone who can start from the bottom in a low-income family with many issues and lack of important life skills can get their life together and become successful. That non-cognitive training gave her grit and changed her life completely.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. How standardize testing doesn't completely reflect what a student knows, and how stress is a students biggest challenge. I feel like teachers now just want to push through the syllabus and hand out the test rather than trying to figure out what works best for each student. If they keep using the same method over and over again to test the students that fail every time, they aren't going to learn and build more stress like you said. I liked your idea of having alternative ways to take the test. You're right, some people who hear the questions out loud might do better rather than just reading it. I also agree with your idea how students k-12 should learn. If we focus on the non-cognitive skills early in life then the cognitive success will follow.
DeleteBased on the pod cast, the best way to “fix” the American education system is to focus more on non-cognitive skills then cognitive skills. What is meant by non-cognitive skills is social skills, and skills on how to be more successful rather than focusing more on standardized testing. One reason why is because standardized testing provides additional stress on top of others who have stress at their own home. It is clearly stated that standardized testing is not the best way to test children because it leaves out a major brain function such as social skills and ones personality.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately one of the challenges that learners face today is stress, heavily branching from home life. If a young boy or girl is in a house that they experience violence then the development of non-cognitive skills are stunted. The example that was stated was fight or flight when someone sees a bear. It is proved that the development of the prefrontal cortex is undeveloped and that causes one to be in the constant state of emergency. In the situation when someone is in the constant state of emergency, there is no delay in gratification or impulse control.
Some of the most important aspects that the grades from kindergarten thru a senior in high school should be learning are non-cognitive skills, such as social skills. Also delaying gratification so that one can be successful in life rather then wishing for ones destiny to turn out successful.
Lastly I thought that the most interesting experiment in the pod cast was the experiment where scientists took a series of mother and children rats. Then they put them in a state of fear, scientists picking them up, and then they would put them right back down to their mothers. What the experimenters concluded was that some of the mothers would, for lack of better words, comfort them, lick, and groom them to calm the rats down. What they also observed was that this only happened at a young age. This is called secure attachment, which also happens in humans. It focuses on non-cognitive skills which makes some parents react to their child’s feelings. To find out, the rats that were comforted were better at mazes and more confident. This also applied with humans, the ones who were showed compassion at a young age were more likely to participate and engage in conversation, more confident, and were better at making friends.
i really like the point you made about delaying gratification because you would rather have a success already then wait. wishing for the destiny to turn out successful also would never happen without the basis of non-cognitive skills which should be taught thrugh the school system for children to adapt.
DeleteAccording to the podcast, to "fix" the American education system requires the removal of standardized tests. Standardized tests only showed a child's cognitive skills, and does not show the true strengths of a child's knowledge. Standardized tests are used because it is the easiest way to measure stuff that is taught in class, although, it puts non-cognitive skills to the side, ignoring them.
ReplyDeleteWhat is challenging learners today, is stress. Stress is greatly affecting the way children perform in school and can affect how well you do in life. Kids that are having a hard time dealing with stress don't really know how to deal with it. They weren't taught how to deal with it at school and they don't have any non-cognitive skills to help them cope with it. Kids who grow up in poor conditioned environments also have it hard. They could be victims of abuse or trauma, greatly inhibiting the way they cope with stress.
Students from K-12 should be taught both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. These types of skills are both important no one should be limited to just learning cognitive skills. Non-cognitive skills are important to learn as it leads children to a better life.
The psychology experiment that I found the most interesting was the marshmallow experiment. I found it interesting and humorous when some children were restricting themselves from temptation of just one goody. They knew that if they waited, they would not just get one goody, but two goodys. Some other children, unfortunately, did not understand that if they were patient, they would get a better reward. And so they fell into the temptation of the goody and ate it immediately, and were found, later in life, to be less competent than those that actually waited.
I also liked how the child constantly said 10 minutes in his little whiny voice.
i like the point you made with how kids are not getting the non-cognitve skills they need to help them deal with the stress. the things is the y will need those skills later in life and that is something that the schools should provide. this is to ensure that the kids wont have a hard time dealing with problems.
DeleteThe best way to "fix" american education is to stop focusing on half the child and start focusing on them as a whole. A childs GPA and IQ and the grades they get on their tests are only a small portion of what a child needs to be successful. Children need to learn other skills such as self control, social skills, character and much more in order to achieve higher goals. Except, the education system isnt the only thing that holds children back from learning these non-cognitive skills. It really begins at home. According to the podcast, children who dont have a good connection with their parents, children who live in poverty, children who live a rough childhood tend to lack these necessary skills, and have a much harder time performing well in school. The podcast also stated that when a child suffers from a traumatic childhood, whether it be a violent household, living in an unsafe neighborhood, living in poverty, or even lacking positive parental role models, can affect the way a childs brain is developed. These things cause a child to constantly be stressed. Being stressed affects the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain that withholds most of the non-cognitive skills such as self control, memory, and reasoning, and when stress is constant it causes that part of the brain to develop differently. Just because a child lived a traumatic life and lacks these skills does not mean they cannot learn them later. Non-cognitive skills are very teachable. Since a child cannot control what life they were born into, schools and educators should help these children learn these skills to prepare them for life. I believe, each school and every grade (k-12) should have at least one course that teaches the necessary non-cognitive skills that were not taught at home.
ReplyDeleteThe psychology experiment that interested me the most would be the rat experiment. The rat pups whose rat mothers groomed/cared for them were much more successful at mazes and less fearful than those whose rat mothers did not. This stands out to me particularly because of a personal connection that is somewhat similar. My mother breast fed my younger sister for FOUR years and now my sister has attachment issues and hates to be alone, as where i was not breast fed and was much more independent at my sisters age. They connect just because it shows how much the way a parent treats you and raises you affects your life.
I agree with you on the point about how a students GPA doesnt quite determine how successful you are going to be in the future, but i disagree anout the IQ part. They use in example in the podcast how your IQ is pretty solidified. They say if you are top dog when you are 14, you are most likely to be top dog when you are 30. Also, I disagree with your statement about how we should stop focusing on some of the children and start focusing o them as a whole. If a child shows terrific cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, why should we focus on him as much as another child when we can give the child in need more attention.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean give a child more attention I meant that we shouldn't just focus on cognitive skills.
DeleteAnd I never said that IQ isn't solidified I said it's merely just a part of what someone needs for success.
DeleteI agree with you on the point about how a students GPA doesnt quite determine how successful you are going to be in the future, but i disagree anout the IQ part. They use in example in the podcast how your IQ is pretty solidified. They say if you are top dog when you are 14, you are most likely to be top dog when you are 30. Also, I disagree with your statement about how we should stop focusing on some of the children and start focusing o them as a whole. If a child shows terrific cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, why should we focus on him as much as another child when we can give the child in need more attention.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to at least improve the American education system would be to remove the standardized test part of the curriculum. Using the standardized test to show students’ knowledge does not show the non-cognitive part of the brain it only shows the cognitive part of the brain. That is why some people are horrible at taking standardized test and others are really good at taking those types of test. That is just one part of their brain function that makes them good standardized test takers. What it doesn’t show is the social and personal aspects of the non-cognitive brain functions. Obviously those are important because people use these functions in everyday life and their skills for that will continue to build no matter the person, everyone takes time to develop these things and that’s why the cognitive parts of the brain function differently and cannot show everything about a person.
ReplyDeleteFor learners today the challenge for them is the stress that is put on them. It comes from everywhere including teachers, other school related things, parents, friends, and finally yourself. The pressure from some is a lot to put on their shoulders. This can also take effect on your brain if there is too much pressure the brain will develop differently. In school when students take the standardized test this is causing even more stress, they should rather get both sides of the brain with cognitive and non-cognitive to show all aspects of a person. In schools the students should be taught different lessons on both cognitive and non-cognitive concepts. This is because later in life you’ll be able to have that full knowledge of how to prepare. And through that time your brain can develop and get used to the different situations. It will be different for everyone but starting early will help a lot in the long run.
The experiment that interested me the most was the part about parents having some sort of attachment to their child or children. They showed that most kids who were attach somehow had much better grades then those without. It makes sense that a kid with bad performance could be missing out on a part of them that could help them develop better non-cognitive skills.
According to the podcast the best way to fix the education system is to not make standardized testing so important. Standardized testing is not a fair way to judge kids. We need to put more focus onto teaching kids’ non-cognitive skills such as self control so that they can then try to learn the cognitive skills.
ReplyDeleteThe largest challenge for kids is dealing with stress. When kids are put under a lot of stress at a young age their brains develop differently. Because they are constantly in a stressful environment they are constantly in a state a fight or flight. When they are in fight or flight all of the time the part of the brain that helps with self control doesn’t develop correctly.
In grades k-12 kids should be learning non-cognitive skills as well as being taught the content of the class. I think in the younger levels they need to focus more on non-cognitive skills and how to handle stress. But as the kids get older they can handle more stress because they have developed the basic non-cognitive skills. so they can then learn more intelligence based skills.
I found the marshmallow test interesting because you could hear the kids struggling to wait just a few minutes to get their snack they would say things like “10 minutes! 10 minutes!” They knew if they could just wait then they would get a second treat yet waiting was incredibly difficult for them. The kids who did not struggle to wait as much as the other were more successful 15 years down the road they had high SAT scores and how much money they were making. Kids who develop non cognitive skills like self control are more likely to be more successful later on in life.