|First article|
Desirable School Curriculum
Garlikov, Rick. "Desirable School Curriculum." Garlikov. Web. 22 February, 2010. http://www.garlikov.com/teaching/bettercurriculum.html.
This article explains how the curriculum are allowing students to just learn the facts and the ideas said by the reading but Rick Garlikov thinks that the curriculum and the teachers should put more effort in that the students are able to evaluate facts and find the significance. If the students are able to do that and they can use those evaluations and significance and put it as visuals, the students minds would be able to grow. The author wants to change the curriculum so that the students are able to think through the problems and understand what the texts/problems are showing.
The article reveals how the curriculum of the school is decreasing the students learning ability in thinking and communication. Learning the basic subjects, math, science, english and history are helpful but they are not helpful in a way that would interest the students more, and let them find the significance and evaluation by themselves. Students should not only be taught with the practical studies such as dealing with economic but are able to learn what they are interest in. By coming up with new ideas for the students to choose and think deeper in, the students learning ability in thinking and social skills would broaden. The school should also come up with better "decision-making and dispute resolution" using evidences/facts to help the students with their studies and in their own lives.
|Second Article|
Typical School Curriculum and Instruction Are Too Narrow and Wasteful
Garlikov, Rick. "Typical School Curriculum and Instruction Are Too Narrow and Wasteful". Garlikov. Web. 22 February, 2010. http://www.garlikov.com/narrowcurriculum.htm.
This article argues how society confuses schooling with education and many students feel that they are wasting their time because they don't feel interest or engage in the subjects. People put a lot of money into the schools to gather better resources and teach the students better but the schools can teach the students better with less expenses. Rather than teaching what the system are saying, schools should get more outside sources, such as great speakers, volunteer teachers, and outside events to let the students to receive more opportunities. The schools should let the students engage more in conversations and the teachers should give more feed backs to the students to improve their thinking and learning of the topics.
I agree with the article that there should be more fairness and importance in the education we are learning. Many students think it is a waste of time to go to the classes because they want to learn other things that are more intriguing. However, I think it is also hard for the teachers to come up with ideas that might interest the students and when the teachers do, it might change the students minds or the opposite. Rather than funding the school to magnify the system to everywhere, the funds should go to inviting the students to different places for the students to have more experiences. Even if the funds are not a lot, education does not have to be taught in a classroom with non-thinking but straight forward facts for the students to remember.
|Third Article|
Gender Issues.
"An Educator's Guide to Gender Bias Issues."UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN n. pag. Web. 22 Feb 2010. http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/ACCESS/gender.html.
The article argues about gender bias about girls interests in the technology field, especially computers because the author said as girls grew up, they would begin losing interests because of parents, and people around them. The author wants equality for girls in the technology field and gives comments on how parents, educators and manufacturers should encourage females to use technology as their field. The whole article speaks about technology is good for the females to use and have the people around them to encourage the females to have interest in technologies.
The article, besides the technology conflict, says that classes and courses should be more gender separated but put the gender that has less interest in the subject be put in that subject. To have the gender equality, the author said it is a good way to have a schedule where the gender can both exercise in that class equally, in size of the class or in interests, so it will not be female or male dominated class. And because of the way the parents, the manners, and how the society sees females, that the females are the feminine type that the technology, especially computers are not really their type, that the manufacturers and researchers do not go in depth with the girls' interests/favors in games and computers' preferences. By building their interests of computers throughout the whole school years, the girls can increase the percent in the activities of computers so the equality between females and males can balanced out.
|Fourth Article|
Single-Sex Education
"Single-sex education." Wikipedia n. pag. Web. 22 Feb 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-sex_education.
It is a wikipedia page about how single-sex education is the basis of tradition as well as connecting to religion, and how the separation of gender in the schools have gave improvement in the gender's education. However, same-sex education also lacks opportunities that co-ed schools can provide. The page has authors that gives details about the scientific parts of the female's brain compared to the male's brain, and comparing about the education habits that both gender have. Then it lists in different countries of what the same-sex schools are like and the countries laws about same-sex.
It tells how females have different educational habits than males and by having them separated in schools/classrooms, it differentiate their ability and interest in the areas of studies. Many schools and in other countries allow it because of religious reasons and letting the females to be more females and males to be more males. However, it also creates inequality as the females cannot experience classes that mostly male does and vice versa. Same-sex education might create a better improvement that directs towards either gender but it lacks the experience that co-ed schools can give because having both males and females together give better working and school environment.
|Fifth Article|
Five Ways to Make Schools Better
"Five ways to make schools better." Ladies' Home Journal n. pag. Web. 22 Feb 2010. http://www.lhj.com/relationships/family/school/five-ways-to-make-schools-better/ .
There are five ways to make the school better and that are: "start a mentoring program", "lobby for phones in the classroom", "keep recess", "make sure teachers have e-mail" and "push for conflict-resolution programs". These five choices will help increase the students improvements in academic, build up self esteem and keeping recess help with concentrating with activity better. Having telephones and emails allowed the students to access for help from teachers and the teachers calling home even if it is in class.
The five ways that are suggested in the site helps both the students and teachers learning. Although there should be some possible restrictions with the telephones and some freedom and freedom between the teachers and students. The conflict-resolution program can help kids be more opened, when having another group of kids with them as it is more comfortable. Dealing with issues with kids, in my opinion, that the teachers need to considered the kids feelings first before putting their own opinions. A topic can be that the teachers are or are not able to help kids deal with problem due to age difference? The topic of being mature first rather than fairness? The teachers need to be discipline over the students rather than listening to the students problems?
Edit (HW #42 - Additional sources):
|Article six|
"Pisa international rankings." BBC NEWS (2007): n. pag. Web. 1 Mar 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7126388.stm.
This article comprises the rankings of education about "How 15-year-old pupils compared" in Reading and Mathematics in the world.
In this Pisa ranking site, it shows how well the kids (15 year olds for this case) do in the two huge subjects, Reading and Mathematics and Taiwan was placed first in Mathematics in the above average while Japan was located quite down the list. This shows how China has a better/stronger mathematic field than Japan.
|Article seven|
Zhang, Xiao . "Chinese Families Spend Heavily on Children's Education." CHINA.org.cn. 23 November 2001. China Today, Web. 1 Mar 2010. http://www.china.org.cn/english/2001/Nov/22548.htm.
This article talks about how many Chinese parents spend a lot of their income (about one-third) on their chlidren's education. The parents and the students both think by getting in a good school, especially prestigious can allow a brighter future. So the parents would get loans and be in debt so that their children can get the bright future they want. "Making sure my kid gets the best possible start", one of the parents said in the article.
I think that this article places forth what the "slogan" is for China's education. By having a good education, there would be a brighter future and the families are willing to risk their money and send their children to any prestigious schools if they can get in. In the article, it states that children's education is "second only to their spending on food", which I think is really big but not surprising (at least for me). The parents would also send their kids to another country to get better experience and come back with a better degree. The topics that I came up was how parents pressure the kids to get as good grades as possible and how Chinese families are financial crisis because of China's education.
|Article eight|
"Japan School System." Japan Guide. Web. 1 Mar 2010. http://educationjapan.org/jguide/school_system.html.
This website talks about how the Japan's education system works and the schooling (kindergarten, middle school and high school). Then it gives a brief description of how cram school can let the children get into a good senior high school and college because they need to take entrance exams. Then it talks about Japanese teachers and how they teach, base on the state's curriculum but the teacher can give their own teaching method.
I think topics that are spoke in this website a lot are exams and pressure given that the children spend 12 hours a day (before homework) on school stuff and extracurricular activities + cram school. They are taking cram school to get a good grade on the entrance exam to get into the good college. I think this is similar to China as it is competitive and the fees are high as well. Both the countries have similarities in testing, high fees and pressure.
Additional Sources [placed here for saving]
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/77753.html --> how the high standards give the students a lot of pressure and cause suicidal rate to be higher than other countries. Article is not complete.
http://edu.cn/20041203/3123354.shtml --> Education system in China
http://www.kcg.ac.jp/kcg1/student_html/jspse.htm --> Japan's System of Post-Secondary Education
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