In the final movies of the Harry Potter Series, we were presented with the topic of the Deathly Hallows and the story of the three brothers. The Story can be viewed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgmEEDyeDv8 At the end of the story there are three components of the Deathly Hallows: the elder wand, the resurrection stone, and the cloak of invisibility. If a person is in possession of all three items, it makes them one master of Death. In the same way, the skills discussed in this website, if harnessed and understood properly memory, problem solving, metacognition, and behavior principles), are all that is necessary to making someone one master of education. In school, students are continuously presented with new information and problems. By using your memory, you can remember facts and things previously done in class. You can better understand the information by studying and doing homework. To get yourself and others more motivated to do this, you can utilize the behavioral strategies. When you are presented with new problems, you can use your problem-solving skills and previous knowledge to complete the task. All the while, using metacognition to track your understanding and knowledge of each subject so that you know how well you are doing and what to concentrate on more. |
An opposing theory is presented by the Article “Six Ways the Common Core is Good for Students” by Cindy Long. In this article, they explain that all students need is the common core because it does the following:
(1) puts creativity back into the classroom (2) gives students a deep dive (3) ratchets up rigor (4) it is collaborative (5) it advances equity (6) it gets kids college ready. From other studies, it has been proven that common core actually does the opposite of all most of things. Teachers are mainly focused on the kids grades and only solving problems the way it will be on the standardized tests. Teachers do not have time to make their kids creative, go in depth into subjects, think critically, and give teachers the ownership of their curriculum. Additionally, not all kids want to go to college, so why should everyone be taught in that manor? The only benefit of common core is presented in their fifth argument. For students who move around frequently, their schools will all be one the same page and they can continue to learn the same material. If the only benefit from common core is that kids who move around frequently are still learning the same material, is it worth it? Should these kids just be homeschooled? We believe that it is not worth compromising creativity, learning deeply about subjects, thinking critically, and taking away teachers’ curriculum ownership just to make things easier on a few families that move frequently. Instead, we propose that schools emphasize on the topics that have been proven to work: problem solving, metacognition, behavioral principles, and memory strategies. Together, these topics can make kids go much farther than common core. |