Student Motivation, School Culture and Academic Achievement: What School Leaders Can Do by Ron Renschler
University of Oregon, February 1992
Topic 1 - Motivation and School Culture
This was an interesting topic to read in the article because I always question the role of my school culture and its effect on student learning in the school. There can be a very negative and separated feeling in my school most of the time, and it is apparent that the students can pick up on these slight nuances as much as the faculty tries to hide it from them. I wonder if I was a student how I would feel about learning if I knew that the principal thought that most teachers were always doing something wrong, as if they are stupid and cannot be trusted to give a quality education to them. If I was in a classroom like that, I would feel like school was a big joke. I would test my teachers to see if they could actually teach me something. I’d probably make them work harder and be less respondent just to prove a point. If I felt like the person instructing me was an idiot, I wouldn’t care about my work. I’d let my social life take over and go through the motions of doing work, with minimal effort. Sometimes I feel the school culture plays a big role in our classrooms at my school.
In the article it states that the administration has a heavy hand in the way a school culture is presented to faculty and students, and that once that model is in place the implementation would trickle down through the ranks. As I reflect on my administration, I don’t believe that they properly display the appropriate attitudes necessary to invoke motivation in staff and students. Even with that obstacle, as a teacher I feel that I do my best to avoid falling into the trap placed by administration to fulfill their “expect the worst” prophecies about the teachers in our school. I imagine, no matter how hard I try that there can be some residual, subconscious effects on my morale and dispositions. After thoroughly studying the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards, it seems apparent to me that teacher disposition is relied heavily upon in terms of creating successful students in the public school systems. I am an enthusiastic teacher and I have deep content knowledge, however, I question whether or not the amount of trust present within the administration may hinder my performance. Through that, I expect that there could be some negative consequences for the students attending classes in my school.
According to Maehr and Braskamp (1986), in their book The Motivation Factor: A Theory of Personal Investment, they focus extensively on motivation in organizational settings. They come to the conculsion “that there is a relationship between organizational culture and personal investment - that knowing something about the cultural facets of an organization allows us to predict employee’s job satisfaction and organizational commitment.” The dimensions Maehr includes in his model of the psychological environment of the school include:
-accomplishment - emphasis on excellence and pursuit of academic challenges
-power - emphasis on interpersonal competition, social comparison, achievement
-recognition - emphasis on social recognition for achievement and the importance of school for attaining future goals and rewards
-affiliation - perceived sense of community, good interpersonal relations among teachers and students
-strength/saliency - the perception that the school knows what it is about and that students know what is expected
The results of Maehr’s study on motivation in the school system shows that even though teachers usually hold the burden of motivating students, that it is equally the responsibility of the administrators in the building to increase morale in order to have a positive effect on the students performance.
All in all, my action research cannot control the administrative realm, only my own actions in my classroom - therefore, I plan on putting forth my best efforts to ignore the negative environment throughout my daily disposition. Hopefully, with that I can thwart the permeation of negativity in my students’ motivation.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Motivating the Students by Jo Budden
This article has several suggestions for improving student motivation in the classroom. Because it is written by a European author, it discusses teaching English to students that are EFL classified. While my students are American, I can relate their learning to EFL students because many of them are bilingual with English as a Second Language. Being one who has studied (unfortunately, not mastered) many languages, I can understand how learning a new language could present certain struggles and frustrations that people born and immersed in the language do not face. On the topic of motivation, I have personally experienced a lack of motivation to continue learning other languages. I reflect on this because if my students ever acted upon their desires to rid themselves of the frustration and stagnancy of learning English, I would have seen many future drop-outs in my classes. I applaud my students for their efforts because I believe that there is nothing worse than doing your best and not seeing any benefit to the work.
The article makes an excellent point, “Adults are usually in your classroom because they have made a choice to be there and in most cases, a financial commitment towards their learning. However, children and teenagers often haven’t made their own decision to attend the English class and they are obliged by either parents or the school to do so.”
Some of the strategies mentioned to increase motivation were:
-star charts and effort charts
-setting goals
-progress markers
-questionnaires
-feedback sheets
-personalization
-bringing in outside resources
-reminding students of the value of learning
I was thinking of star charts and effort charts, but sometimes I wonder if that would be considered an extrinsic motivator, with a reward for the highest achiever. For the purpose of my study, I have decided to glean the use of questionnaires, feedback sheets, bringing in outside resources and imparting the value of learning on to my students. I believe that we already set goals in the classroom, each student knows that the goal is to achieve the highest - but do they know what they have to do in order to reach that goal? Probably not, even though I tell them every day. What can I do differently to get the students to comprehend what I am telling them?
This article has several suggestions for improving student motivation in the classroom. Because it is written by a European author, it discusses teaching English to students that are EFL classified. While my students are American, I can relate their learning to EFL students because many of them are bilingual with English as a Second Language. Being one who has studied (unfortunately, not mastered) many languages, I can understand how learning a new language could present certain struggles and frustrations that people born and immersed in the language do not face. On the topic of motivation, I have personally experienced a lack of motivation to continue learning other languages. I reflect on this because if my students ever acted upon their desires to rid themselves of the frustration and stagnancy of learning English, I would have seen many future drop-outs in my classes. I applaud my students for their efforts because I believe that there is nothing worse than doing your best and not seeing any benefit to the work.
The article makes an excellent point, “Adults are usually in your classroom because they have made a choice to be there and in most cases, a financial commitment towards their learning. However, children and teenagers often haven’t made their own decision to attend the English class and they are obliged by either parents or the school to do so.”
Some of the strategies mentioned to increase motivation were:
-star charts and effort charts
-setting goals
-progress markers
-questionnaires
-feedback sheets
-personalization
-bringing in outside resources
-reminding students of the value of learning
I was thinking of star charts and effort charts, but sometimes I wonder if that would be considered an extrinsic motivator, with a reward for the highest achiever. For the purpose of my study, I have decided to glean the use of questionnaires, feedback sheets, bringing in outside resources and imparting the value of learning on to my students. I believe that we already set goals in the classroom, each student knows that the goal is to achieve the highest - but do they know what they have to do in order to reach that goal? Probably not, even though I tell them every day. What can I do differently to get the students to comprehend what I am telling them?
Motivating Students by Barbara Gross Davis
University of California, Berkeley (1999)
According to the article, there are many factors that influence a child’s desire to learn. “Interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as patience and persistence,” it states. My question to that is, what if none of those factors are present in the students you teach? Then how do you solve that problem?
The article also mentions that, “Most students respond positively to a well-organized course taught by an enthusiastic instructor who has a genuine interest in students and what they learn.” Now, I know I fill the role of the enthusiastic instructor who has an investment in her students and their learning, but well-organized....... I’d like to think I’m well-organized at least! My room is organized. Their folders and notebooks are organized. But for a well-organized course, I think I’m missing the mark.
Now, I’m not sure if there is truly anything I can do about it though, and let me explain. My school currently has several initiatives for the literacy classroom. We have a writer’s notebook the students are to use a few times a week with planned lessons out of the literacy team’s book study on notebooking. Also, we have a reader’s notebook that the students are supposed to reflect on their independent reading that is to be done in the classroom. In addition to the independent novel, the students are also supposed to work in small groups with leveled novels in a literacy component called “reciprocal reading”. After that, they are supposed to read the textbook anthology together and I am supposed to teach a minilesson on the story we are reading. We also have to have a period of writing, guided writing, independent writing, shared writing, and peer editing. Then there is the time put aside for conferencing with students and their revision and word processing time. This has to be done each week. Did I mention I’m also responsible for teaching Social Studies?
Forget organization because it seems impossible in my school! Heeeelllllp! I have to do these initiatives, but there are too many interruptions and schedule changes to accomplish everything each week. How can I meet the demands of my employer while giving my students a well-organized course?
Strategies from this article that I will employ in my classroom:
-ask students to analyze what makes their class more or less motivating
(refer to instructor morale, relevance of material, course organization, appropriate level of difficulty, participation of students, variety, rapport, and understandability of examples used to explain in class)
-letting students have some say in choosing what will be studied (democratic teaching style)
-emphasize mastery and learning rather than grades (question: what if students don’t really care about their grades?)
University of California, Berkeley (1999)
According to the article, there are many factors that influence a child’s desire to learn. “Interest in the subject matter, perception of its usefulness, general desire to achieve, self-confidence and self-esteem, as well as patience and persistence,” it states. My question to that is, what if none of those factors are present in the students you teach? Then how do you solve that problem?
The article also mentions that, “Most students respond positively to a well-organized course taught by an enthusiastic instructor who has a genuine interest in students and what they learn.” Now, I know I fill the role of the enthusiastic instructor who has an investment in her students and their learning, but well-organized....... I’d like to think I’m well-organized at least! My room is organized. Their folders and notebooks are organized. But for a well-organized course, I think I’m missing the mark.
Now, I’m not sure if there is truly anything I can do about it though, and let me explain. My school currently has several initiatives for the literacy classroom. We have a writer’s notebook the students are to use a few times a week with planned lessons out of the literacy team’s book study on notebooking. Also, we have a reader’s notebook that the students are supposed to reflect on their independent reading that is to be done in the classroom. In addition to the independent novel, the students are also supposed to work in small groups with leveled novels in a literacy component called “reciprocal reading”. After that, they are supposed to read the textbook anthology together and I am supposed to teach a minilesson on the story we are reading. We also have to have a period of writing, guided writing, independent writing, shared writing, and peer editing. Then there is the time put aside for conferencing with students and their revision and word processing time. This has to be done each week. Did I mention I’m also responsible for teaching Social Studies?
Forget organization because it seems impossible in my school! Heeeelllllp! I have to do these initiatives, but there are too many interruptions and schedule changes to accomplish everything each week. How can I meet the demands of my employer while giving my students a well-organized course?
Strategies from this article that I will employ in my classroom:
-ask students to analyze what makes their class more or less motivating
(refer to instructor morale, relevance of material, course organization, appropriate level of difficulty, participation of students, variety, rapport, and understandability of examples used to explain in class)
-letting students have some say in choosing what will be studied (democratic teaching style)
-emphasize mastery and learning rather than grades (question: what if students don’t really care about their grades?)
Increasing Student Engagement and Motivation by Cori Brewster and Jennifer Fager (October 2000) Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
After reading this article, I've come to several conclusions.
First, my main goal should be to create intrinsically motivated students. There are various reasons why, but I will cite them from the text as they were bulleted and easy to pinpoint in the article.
Intrinsically motivated students:
-earn higher grades and achievement test scores
-are better personally adjusted to school
-employ strategies that demand more effort and enable them to process info deeply
-are more confident about their abilities
-use logical informational gathering and decision making strategies
-are likely to engage in challenging tasks
-are likely to persist and complete assigned tasks
-retain information and concepts longer
-are more likely to be lifelong learners, continuing to educate themselves outside the formal school setting long after external motivators such as grades and diplomas are removed
These are the exact outcomes I seek for the students in my class. I'm wondering what I can do to promote intrinsic motivation in my students.
The article's research states that there are several ways I can increase the students' motivation. Some of these strategies I feel I already employ in my classroom, but still I'm not seeing the results. Is this because the students I see are not being broken of bad past habits? Is it because their home life negates the positive work we do in class?
Some strategies I already use are:
-using extrinsic rewards sparingly
-ensure clear expectations for performance in class
-making students feel supported and welcome
-responding positively to student questions
-working to build quality relationships with students
-breaking large tasks into a series of smaller goals
Some strategies I will try are:
-promote mastery learning by giving students another chance to complete assignments that they didn't do well on
-evaluate students based on the task, not in comparison to other students
-evaluate student work as soon as possible with clear and constructive feedbak
-model and communicate the value of lifelong learning
-develop ways to involve parents
-ensure course materials relate to students' lives
-highlight ways learning can be applied to real life situations
-arouse student curiosity about the topic being studied
After reading this article, I've come to several conclusions.
First, my main goal should be to create intrinsically motivated students. There are various reasons why, but I will cite them from the text as they were bulleted and easy to pinpoint in the article.
Intrinsically motivated students:
-earn higher grades and achievement test scores
-are better personally adjusted to school
-employ strategies that demand more effort and enable them to process info deeply
-are more confident about their abilities
-use logical informational gathering and decision making strategies
-are likely to engage in challenging tasks
-are likely to persist and complete assigned tasks
-retain information and concepts longer
-are more likely to be lifelong learners, continuing to educate themselves outside the formal school setting long after external motivators such as grades and diplomas are removed
These are the exact outcomes I seek for the students in my class. I'm wondering what I can do to promote intrinsic motivation in my students.
The article's research states that there are several ways I can increase the students' motivation. Some of these strategies I feel I already employ in my classroom, but still I'm not seeing the results. Is this because the students I see are not being broken of bad past habits? Is it because their home life negates the positive work we do in class?
Some strategies I already use are:
-using extrinsic rewards sparingly
-ensure clear expectations for performance in class
-making students feel supported and welcome
-responding positively to student questions
-working to build quality relationships with students
-breaking large tasks into a series of smaller goals
Some strategies I will try are:
-promote mastery learning by giving students another chance to complete assignments that they didn't do well on
-evaluate students based on the task, not in comparison to other students
-evaluate student work as soon as possible with clear and constructive feedbak
-model and communicate the value of lifelong learning
-develop ways to involve parents
-ensure course materials relate to students' lives
-highlight ways learning can be applied to real life situations
-arouse student curiosity about the topic being studied
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Success in Mathematics
1) Summary Statement
In order to be a successful learner in the discipline of mathematics, a student must possess various skills, dispositions and areas of knowledge. A student must be able to solve varying problems, communicate their reasoning and explanation, make connections to previous knowledge and real-life experience, use logic and reasoning in the disciplinary activities, use and create symbolic mathematical representations to support ideas and effectively utilize technology to enhance mathematical applications.
In addition to possessing certain skills, successful students must also have the right attitude towards math to gain the most relevant and valuable experience with work in the discipline. These attitudes and dispositions are also reflective of teaching practices and therefore directly apply to both learner and instructor. The students must feel a genuine excitement or interest in activities that help them to learn the mathematical concepts, rather than memorize procedures. These activities should evoke interest and engagement based on meaningful and life relevant problems. Students must possess attitudes that will lend themselves easily towards the necessary collaborative and cooperative nature of maximizing learning in math. Dispositions such as respect, high self expectations and motivation to advance are also valuable, but in summation it should be noted that these attitudes and dispositions are not intrinsic in all students of mathematics and therefore depend a lot on the teacher’s influence.
Finally, and at the core of the discipline, students must acquire knowledge principles from their career as pupils of mathematics. Essentially, the students must know number sense and operations, principles of estimation, geometry, measurement, patterns, relationships, procedures, probabilities, statistics and discrete mathematics.
With that, the knowledge, skills and dispositions that make up the components of a successful learner of mathematics depend on a highly qualified and enthusiastic teacher who shares the same qualities and characteristics as the standards envision for the student who will study from them.
2) How do the NJCCCS meet diverse student populations?
- Ethnicity
o Math is cross-cultural and multi-lingual in nature
- Special Needs
o Math is recursive, representative, symbolic and uses algorithms
- Multiple Intelligences
o Math is collaborative, individual, visual, concrete, abstract, creative and found everywhere in daily life
3) How do the NJCCCS not meet diverse student populations?
Since mathematical concepts build upon one another, if the student does not actually learn previous skills it is difficult for them to advance
The NJCCCS do not take into account teacher fallibility or external factors that might prevent their embracing and progress in mathematics
There is an inherent assumption that all areas of math from the previous year were taught and mastered by the student, which is not always true because of time constraints, absences or other struggles – forcing students to play a constant game of ‘catch up’ that would hinder the growth of necessary attitudes and dispositions towards the discipline of mathematics
4) What do they imply is of value? (in reaction to teaching and learning)
The implicit value necessary in the teaching and learning of this discipline, mathematics, is essentially the enthusiasm, excitement, engagement and relevance of math to the life experience. Logic and reason, two tenets of philosophy and the basis of all coherent thinking, are the ultimate goal of mathematical studies.
In order to be a successful learner in the discipline of mathematics, a student must possess various skills, dispositions and areas of knowledge. A student must be able to solve varying problems, communicate their reasoning and explanation, make connections to previous knowledge and real-life experience, use logic and reasoning in the disciplinary activities, use and create symbolic mathematical representations to support ideas and effectively utilize technology to enhance mathematical applications.
In addition to possessing certain skills, successful students must also have the right attitude towards math to gain the most relevant and valuable experience with work in the discipline. These attitudes and dispositions are also reflective of teaching practices and therefore directly apply to both learner and instructor. The students must feel a genuine excitement or interest in activities that help them to learn the mathematical concepts, rather than memorize procedures. These activities should evoke interest and engagement based on meaningful and life relevant problems. Students must possess attitudes that will lend themselves easily towards the necessary collaborative and cooperative nature of maximizing learning in math. Dispositions such as respect, high self expectations and motivation to advance are also valuable, but in summation it should be noted that these attitudes and dispositions are not intrinsic in all students of mathematics and therefore depend a lot on the teacher’s influence.
Finally, and at the core of the discipline, students must acquire knowledge principles from their career as pupils of mathematics. Essentially, the students must know number sense and operations, principles of estimation, geometry, measurement, patterns, relationships, procedures, probabilities, statistics and discrete mathematics.
With that, the knowledge, skills and dispositions that make up the components of a successful learner of mathematics depend on a highly qualified and enthusiastic teacher who shares the same qualities and characteristics as the standards envision for the student who will study from them.
2) How do the NJCCCS meet diverse student populations?
- Ethnicity
o Math is cross-cultural and multi-lingual in nature
- Special Needs
o Math is recursive, representative, symbolic and uses algorithms
- Multiple Intelligences
o Math is collaborative, individual, visual, concrete, abstract, creative and found everywhere in daily life
3) How do the NJCCCS not meet diverse student populations?
Since mathematical concepts build upon one another, if the student does not actually learn previous skills it is difficult for them to advance
The NJCCCS do not take into account teacher fallibility or external factors that might prevent their embracing and progress in mathematics
There is an inherent assumption that all areas of math from the previous year were taught and mastered by the student, which is not always true because of time constraints, absences or other struggles – forcing students to play a constant game of ‘catch up’ that would hinder the growth of necessary attitudes and dispositions towards the discipline of mathematics
4) What do they imply is of value? (in reaction to teaching and learning)
The implicit value necessary in the teaching and learning of this discipline, mathematics, is essentially the enthusiasm, excitement, engagement and relevance of math to the life experience. Logic and reason, two tenets of philosophy and the basis of all coherent thinking, are the ultimate goal of mathematical studies.
Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions
The vision of the mathematics standards is focused on achieving one crucial goal:
To enable ALL of New Jersey’s children to acquire the mathematical skills, understandings and attitudes that they will need to be successful in their careers and daily lives.
Big Ideas:
Number Sense
Numerical Operations
Estimation
Geometric Properties
Transforming Shapes
Coordinate Geometry
Units of Measurement
Measuring Geometric Objects
Patterns
Functions and Relationships
Modeling
Procedures
Data Analysis (Statistics)
Probability
Discrete Mathematics – Systematic Listing and Counting
Discrete Mathematics – Vertex-Edge Graphs and Algorithims
Skills:
Problem Solving
Communication
Connections
Reasoning
Representations
Technology
Dispositions:
Students are excited by and interested in their activities.
Students learn important mathematical concepts rather than memorizing and practicing procedures.
Students pose and solve meaningful problems.
Students work together to learn mathematics.
Students write and talk about mathematics every day.
Students use calculators and computers as important tools of learning.
Students foster respect for the power of mathematics.
Students set high expectations for themselves.
Students go beyond the standards to advance their understanding of mathematics.
To enable ALL of New Jersey’s children to acquire the mathematical skills, understandings and attitudes that they will need to be successful in their careers and daily lives.
Big Ideas:
Number Sense
Numerical Operations
Estimation
Geometric Properties
Transforming Shapes
Coordinate Geometry
Units of Measurement
Measuring Geometric Objects
Patterns
Functions and Relationships
Modeling
Procedures
Data Analysis (Statistics)
Probability
Discrete Mathematics – Systematic Listing and Counting
Discrete Mathematics – Vertex-Edge Graphs and Algorithims
Skills:
Problem Solving
Communication
Connections
Reasoning
Representations
Technology
Dispositions:
Students are excited by and interested in their activities.
Students learn important mathematical concepts rather than memorizing and practicing procedures.
Students pose and solve meaningful problems.
Students work together to learn mathematics.
Students write and talk about mathematics every day.
Students use calculators and computers as important tools of learning.
Students foster respect for the power of mathematics.
Students set high expectations for themselves.
Students go beyond the standards to advance their understanding of mathematics.
Analysis of NJCCCS - Math (Presentation Posting)
“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Twenty years ago, the nation began standard based reform as an idea to improve schooling for instructors and pupils alike. The standards established what students should know and be able to do and were supposed to offer guidance to teachers, curriculum writers and educational administration. The state standards, upon review, are all too much vague, complex and lengthy. The intentions are good, but the fact that many teachers are forced to focus their time to ‘teach to the test’ releases the accountability that all the standards are met at each grade level. This leads to gaps and repetitions in content for the students and creates problems for the educators in the child’s future. Additionally, two experts from American Educator journal state that, “State tests and state content standards don’t always match up.” Now that we have standards in place, it’s time to redo them so that they are clear and specific and a more reasonable length. In an attempt to flesh out the state standards in Math, our group has examined the nature and purpose of the essential information that will help guide teachers through the understanding process.
“Keep it simple, stupid.”
The standards help curriculum writers because they act as a springboard for developmentally appropriate instruction that builds upon prior learning. They assist teachers in determining what should be taught in the classes they are assigned. Standards hone in on specific items of knowledge and skills that successful students should master throughout the year’s lessons. In an attempt to create a list of concepts students must understand and value in order to advance, the standards became unclear and tried to encompass everything at every level. Overwhelmed teachers have fallen prey to the complexity of standards and opt for relying on the 800 page back breaking textbooks of the district mandated curriculum to “cover” the material instead of offering students a deeper understanding of the discipline. Identifying strong core standards and limiting the length and convoluted language will help give educators and curriculum developers the necessary foundation for a content rich, sequenced curriculum with aligned assessments.
“After all, what is more central to schooling than those things that we, as a society, have chosen to pass on to our children?”
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has confirmed that student performance is directly related to the nature of curricular expectations. Through their research, it has revealed that the focus, rigor and coherence of Math standards are of utmost importance. These three aspects are the basis of strong Math education. Unfortunately, the attempt to focus has been lost through creating a ‘to-do’ list of too many topics for coverage instead of mastering fewer topics during a given school year. This unintentional reversal of purpose leads to students who don’t have a firm grasp of the concepts they need to build upon in the later years. Administrators and standards demand rigor in the classroom, but that falls short when students need remedial teaching of basic concepts in order to process more advanced and abstract Mathematical thinking. Finally, coherence is the most important part of well-developed Math standards. The inherent weakness of our Math framework is that there is too much covered at each grade level, some may even be called developmentally inappropriate, and the breakdown begins a domino effect of struggling students at each level – preventing proper advancement.
“Everybody else is doing it, why can’t we?”
While the question of why American students miss the mark on Mathematics assessments worldwide, one has to consider whether it is the diversity and poverty of our students or our standards before placing the blame. Math curriculum does promote varied skills, concepts and activities to reach a variety of students without sacrificing individualism but it has not fostered continued growth in many students. Because standards are open to interpretation by the teacher planning the lesson there is also great variety of content taught among courses with the same level and title. This variability in course content and the plentiful amount of requisite standards creates a set of artificial tracks in the curriculum that have negative ramifications on Mathematical literacy. While other, more successful, countries focus on fewer topics, they also demand that Math is taught in a meaningful way. Curriculum writers must delineate what is important to teach and articulate those choices through the standards, textbooks and assessments of the discipline.
“Through rose colored glasses…”
The most valued aspect of teaching and learning that the standards imply is that of student and teacher dispositions. The attitudes towards Math of both pupil and instructor help to foster the strong relationship necessary to understand the essence of Mathematical thinking and its relevance to everyone’s life. It may be easy to see how a student of the discipline can break their bond with Mathematics when they feel frustrated or confused due to the standards pushing too many demands when teachers are unable to meet and address all concepts for student mastery.
“Less is more.”
Ultimately, the review of the New Jersey Math standards has brought to light the fact that the political machine’s, controlling standards development, eyes are larger than the students’ academic stomach. We have too much on our standards plate, and the abundant cornucopia of knowledge and skills that teachers must pass down the table to their students each year never truly makes it to the other end. Students are being left behind due to superficial ‘coverage’ of Mathematical concepts instead of truly digesting what is most important to learn. This starts the end of what was once a beautiful relationship between student and discipline, leading to feelings of distaste for Math and eventually avoidance of the subject altogether. Overextending teachers and students result in the reversal of what the standards’ original goal was: The student’s internal motivation to advance. In order for the standards to improve, states and districts must bring mathematicians into the standards setting process and push the politics out.
Twenty years ago, the nation began standard based reform as an idea to improve schooling for instructors and pupils alike. The standards established what students should know and be able to do and were supposed to offer guidance to teachers, curriculum writers and educational administration. The state standards, upon review, are all too much vague, complex and lengthy. The intentions are good, but the fact that many teachers are forced to focus their time to ‘teach to the test’ releases the accountability that all the standards are met at each grade level. This leads to gaps and repetitions in content for the students and creates problems for the educators in the child’s future. Additionally, two experts from American Educator journal state that, “State tests and state content standards don’t always match up.” Now that we have standards in place, it’s time to redo them so that they are clear and specific and a more reasonable length. In an attempt to flesh out the state standards in Math, our group has examined the nature and purpose of the essential information that will help guide teachers through the understanding process.
“Keep it simple, stupid.”
The standards help curriculum writers because they act as a springboard for developmentally appropriate instruction that builds upon prior learning. They assist teachers in determining what should be taught in the classes they are assigned. Standards hone in on specific items of knowledge and skills that successful students should master throughout the year’s lessons. In an attempt to create a list of concepts students must understand and value in order to advance, the standards became unclear and tried to encompass everything at every level. Overwhelmed teachers have fallen prey to the complexity of standards and opt for relying on the 800 page back breaking textbooks of the district mandated curriculum to “cover” the material instead of offering students a deeper understanding of the discipline. Identifying strong core standards and limiting the length and convoluted language will help give educators and curriculum developers the necessary foundation for a content rich, sequenced curriculum with aligned assessments.
“After all, what is more central to schooling than those things that we, as a society, have chosen to pass on to our children?”
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) has confirmed that student performance is directly related to the nature of curricular expectations. Through their research, it has revealed that the focus, rigor and coherence of Math standards are of utmost importance. These three aspects are the basis of strong Math education. Unfortunately, the attempt to focus has been lost through creating a ‘to-do’ list of too many topics for coverage instead of mastering fewer topics during a given school year. This unintentional reversal of purpose leads to students who don’t have a firm grasp of the concepts they need to build upon in the later years. Administrators and standards demand rigor in the classroom, but that falls short when students need remedial teaching of basic concepts in order to process more advanced and abstract Mathematical thinking. Finally, coherence is the most important part of well-developed Math standards. The inherent weakness of our Math framework is that there is too much covered at each grade level, some may even be called developmentally inappropriate, and the breakdown begins a domino effect of struggling students at each level – preventing proper advancement.
“Everybody else is doing it, why can’t we?”
While the question of why American students miss the mark on Mathematics assessments worldwide, one has to consider whether it is the diversity and poverty of our students or our standards before placing the blame. Math curriculum does promote varied skills, concepts and activities to reach a variety of students without sacrificing individualism but it has not fostered continued growth in many students. Because standards are open to interpretation by the teacher planning the lesson there is also great variety of content taught among courses with the same level and title. This variability in course content and the plentiful amount of requisite standards creates a set of artificial tracks in the curriculum that have negative ramifications on Mathematical literacy. While other, more successful, countries focus on fewer topics, they also demand that Math is taught in a meaningful way. Curriculum writers must delineate what is important to teach and articulate those choices through the standards, textbooks and assessments of the discipline.
“Through rose colored glasses…”
The most valued aspect of teaching and learning that the standards imply is that of student and teacher dispositions. The attitudes towards Math of both pupil and instructor help to foster the strong relationship necessary to understand the essence of Mathematical thinking and its relevance to everyone’s life. It may be easy to see how a student of the discipline can break their bond with Mathematics when they feel frustrated or confused due to the standards pushing too many demands when teachers are unable to meet and address all concepts for student mastery.
“Less is more.”
Ultimately, the review of the New Jersey Math standards has brought to light the fact that the political machine’s, controlling standards development, eyes are larger than the students’ academic stomach. We have too much on our standards plate, and the abundant cornucopia of knowledge and skills that teachers must pass down the table to their students each year never truly makes it to the other end. Students are being left behind due to superficial ‘coverage’ of Mathematical concepts instead of truly digesting what is most important to learn. This starts the end of what was once a beautiful relationship between student and discipline, leading to feelings of distaste for Math and eventually avoidance of the subject altogether. Overextending teachers and students result in the reversal of what the standards’ original goal was: The student’s internal motivation to advance. In order for the standards to improve, states and districts must bring mathematicians into the standards setting process and push the politics out.
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