{"id":826,"date":"2016-06-15T15:30:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T20:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/?p=826"},"modified":"2016-10-25T11:07:58","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T16:07:58","slug":"are-your-students-stuck-in-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mlc-wels.edu\/wels-educator\/2016\/06\/15\/are-your-students-stuck-in-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Students Stuck in the Box?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Heidi Groth<\/em><\/p>\n

Students today are free from independent thinking that pushes them to use their God-given creativity.<\/p>\n

While that may seem a bit harsh, consider carefully the type of curriculum that students experience in our schools. Do our classroom procedures, assignments, assessments, and facilities encourage students in their creativity or do we lead them by the hand to the answer that we want? It is too often a priority for a teacher to cover specific information during the year rather than teach and encourage students to use their critical thinking skills. In further efforts to form students into the kind we want, we reward students based on their compliance rather than performance. The children who are easy on the teacher or can regurgitate the information are praised; children who disrupt the class with their tangential questions and do not complete their worksheets are the ones who are failing.<\/p>\n

Are we punishing students for thinking outside the box?<\/p>\n

Too often the pressure to perform as well as the public school overwhelms our curriculum. Classrooms are driven away from open-ended activities fueled by student interest into units of study that can be measured.\u00a0 \u201cThose who believed that knowledge is complex, and that students are unique, opposed efforts to assess students\u2019 knowledge via a single test. Further, doubts that standardized tests can provide an objective and unbiased assessment also had an impact on respondents\u2019 opposition to standardized tests.\u201d (Magee & Jones, 2012, p. 79)<\/p>\n

The lesson plan in the classroom is preparing students for school rather than for life. Assessments like matching, true and false, and multiple choice offer no outlet for the students who naturally think differently. The natural desire to think outside the box is quashed because we would like to get on with our lesson. However, students who are able to creatively problem solve and apply critical thinking skills are more apt to succeed against peers who rely on memorized facts or figures.<\/p>\n

Society has been flooded with ribbons, trophies, and ceremonies designed to reward students; unfortunately, those rewards are often given for students meeting a preconceived list of expectations rather than using them to celebrate students who challenged themselves to work using their creativity. Young people then become dependent on an outside source to tell them what to do rather than think for themselves.<\/p>\n

This is especially harmful with regard to personal relationships and responsibility. \u201cAsserting your own identity within the structure of a community in a healthy way takes time, patience, and mistakes along the way.\u201d (Anthony, 2012, p. 54)<\/p>\n

Children have been trained to look to adults for the answer. They are losing the ability to establish lasting meaningful relationships with others. Instead of finding intrinsic joy in connecting to others, individuals crave extrinsic rewards to affirm their misplaced and fragile self-esteem.<\/p>\n

Recess would be a great time for students to learn how to interact with one another and explore their personal limits. Sadly, many of our playgrounds today are made so safe that they remove opportunities to explore. \u201cThe contemporary elementary school playground is designed as though playground activity contributes nothing to thinking, relating, and creating.\u201d (Bruya, 1988, p. 10) Playground implements are carefully designed, installed, and maintained to ensure an activity space that is free of danger but does not challenge them to play creatively.<\/p>\n

Students would be well served to have play spaces crafted to promote creativity and cooperation. Manipulative materials such as PVC pipes, cardboard boxes, sidewalk chalk, and tarps would provide students with equipment that could be imagined into a wonderland. Imaginative play naturally calls for participation, so those imaginative activities would push children to work and experiment together; it is beneficial for educators to remember that learning does not happen only within a classroom.<\/p>\n

Schooling should be designed to prepare students to use their God-given abilities in the world around them. Students should have the confidence to take risks both personally and professionally. Confidence in risk-taking is not taught but earned.<\/p>\n

Curriculum should be primarily built around activities that foster critical thinking: encouraging students to have reasoning behind their answers and teaching children how to think through a process instead of providing them with a product.<\/p>\n

Heidi Groth (\u201906) currently teaches kindergarten at Christ-St. John\u2019s\u2013West Salem WI. <\/em><\/p>\n

References<\/p>\n

Anthony, M. (2012). When Friendship Hurts, Scholastic Instructor, Winter 2012, <\/em>53-57.<\/p>\n

Bruya, L.D. (1988). Play Spaces for Children: A New Beginning, American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, 2<\/em>(1), 1-243.<\/p>\n

Magee, R.G. & Jones, B.D. (2012). Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 12, <\/em>71-82.<\/p>\n

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