New Culture of Learning

Douglas Thomas made a statement about standardized testing that I wholeheartedly agree with. He said utilizing state testing was like treating students like every other student, and teachers like every other teacher (Thomas, 2012). We have stopped allowing children the opportunity to experience learning. Instead, we have pushed our students and teachers to focus on passing a test that may not truly show their growth and understanding. He also mentioned that we are not meeting students where they are, with how they learn (Thomas, 2012). Students develop their own interpretations by gathering facts from different sources and analyzing them before moving forward (Thomas, 2012). From experience, students perform much better when they are given autonomy to navigate their learning and enjoy the activities, they are engaging in. Throughout the ADL program, I have realized that our goal should not be to teach content, but instead HOW to learn so they can become successful lifelong learners in any capacity.

As I reflect, I believe I have been focusing on pieces of the learning environment, instead of looking at it in its entirety. Thinking back to how Thomas mentioned people do not enjoy teaching past second grade because third grade is when state testing begins, I think about my journey as an educator (Thomas, 2012). During my first two years of teaching, I taught second grade. I was much more relaxed, my students engaged in more fun and interactive lessons, and we enjoyed learning so much, they often forgot they were learning the content. Although, I have seen a tremendous difference during my three years in third grade. Our administrators, teachers, students, and parents are stressed the entire year because we are concerned about the students passing their state tests. We lack the fun and imaginative side of things because our sole focus is cramming in as much content as we possibly can. We do this to ensure they do well, not only for them but also for the teachers because it is deemed as a reflection of how effective we are as educators. Now I must ask myself, what would happen if we were not hyper-focused on drilling content, but instead allowing our students to create, explore, and experience? As an educator, providing an environment that is conducive to students’ learning is critical. We must give students the space to be inquisitive, inventive, and to make and learn from their mistakes. Although I cannot achieve this if I am stuck on simply teaching to a test, it is imperative that I encourage them to use their imagination and creativity to solve real-world problems outside of strict content areas.

References

Douglas Thomas. (2012, September 12). A New Culture of Learning [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM80GXlyX0U