WeBlog 5

             After reading Pinar’s Chapter 2 this week, one of his quotes keeps reoccurring in my thoughts.  His statement of, “Standardization makes everyone stupid” (55).  This statement precedes, “Because intellectual labor is also an emotional undertaking, the individual teacher’s judgment is necessary to rebalance and restructure these various elements each day, in each class” (55).  When I read this, I immediately underlined and starred the page.  I have blogged previously about how Everyday Math hinders students’ ability to learn and makes it impossible for teachers to teach to their specific students.  Programs like Everyday Math standardize not only the math curriculum, but also the presentation of mathematical concepts.   These programs create robots as teachers and students; the teacher read the scripts to the students, and the students regurgitate the information back to the teachers.

                 This reading proposed a question in my mind, “What are the pros and cons of standardization?”  Both Pinar and Apple would agree that standardization removes the teaching out of teaching, but what do the advocates of standardization believe?  What do the results of standardized tests really show about a school or teacher?  Many of these questions could be answered through much research.

                  Another question that rose while reading Apple’s work last week was, “How can teachers be trained differently at the university level to be more successful in the classroom?”  In Arnot’s piece, she states, “In the United Kingdom… responsibility for the school curriculum and its teaching had been devolved to the teaching profession, and teachers who were represented as experts in curriculum delivery to the diverse needs of local school communities” (18).  I do not believe that the public agrees that teachers are experts of curriculum.  Furthermore, when we discussed teaching in inner city schools, many of us in class did not feel qualified or ready to teach students in these settings.  Can teachers be trained differently in college for these situations, or must one learn by doing?

               Finally, the last question that has always boggled my mind is, “What motivates the unmotivated students?”  Jean Anyon’s work discussed the class system found within education.  I too found this to be true, but what is the cause of this segregation?  Is the cause offered opportunity, motivation of the students, money, or something else?  In class, we also discussed what made students strive for their best.  Is it their family, their upbringing, a teacher, or biologically their make-up?  Students who just seem to not care have always mystified me.  I want to know if there is a trend among these students; be it economic status, location, race, academic promise, or gender.  All schools have the students who succeed and those who do not.  I want to know what makes those unsuccessful students unmotivated to try.

                    Even though my questions have risen from reading Pinar and Apple and also from class discussion, I feel that they are of all different topics of education and curriculum.  Classroom standardization, teacher preparation, and student motivation are all topics across the board.  I am interested to discuss these questions in class to discover if others have asked themselves the same questions or if I can narrow down any of my ideas into a specific research topic.  The topic I find the most interesting would be student motivation, but I am unsure about the research performed in this area.