Academic Multisource Synthesis Essay
Although I have passed many classes not many of them have made a real Impression on me, not even the ones I’ve gotten an A in. Instead these classes have given me a false sense of security and low expectations of what it takes to be successful. Obsessing about grades from social pressures causes many students to have a lack of creativity and open-mindedness, sometimes impairing their ability to learn. Some would say that our style of education limits the learning of basic concepts and creative thinking by teaching “right answers” and not giving to credit to other answers that may be just as correct. Others feel as though our school requirements and quantitative analysis of student’s academic standing forces them to be more grade orientated as apposed to trying to learn new concepts. American Education encourages and rewards instant gratification for earning a good grade even if nothing was really learned. Grade obsession impairs learning by setting low standards for students, forcing memorization and de-motivating students from thinking out side of the box.
Some would think that it is the student’s fault for not learning everything taught in class even though it may just be a flawed system. Alexander Calandra sheds some light on issues that can arise from the way instructors teach and how tests are structured, in his short story Angels on a Pin: The Barometer Story. The story is about a physics test in which a student found a question that he could answer many different ways. He answered it with a correct answer that was not the teachers intended answer and proceeded to argue his answer was correct. This problem is not just a good story but, a bigger issue with our education system that needs to be addressed. The students professor in the story wanted to fail him for not giving the “correct answer” although he was only thinking outside the box (a very important problem solving skill). So what I took from the story is our education system sometimes punishes creative thinking as well as rewards students who don’t know why an answer may be right. This is a flaw in our system of education that if we have definitive answers correlating to grades someone who is putting in effort to make breakthroughs and comes up with new answers gets a low grade there-by
de-motivating creativity. Paulo Friere (author of “The “Banking” Concept of Education”) had a similar perspective on our type of education. It was that teachers, only teaching things one way, have a negative impact on students’ creativity. Narration in the classroom causes a stale boring environment full of memorization, instead of a captivating challenging environment that encourages real learning. It also makes it easier for students to pass without a proper understanding of what they are being tested on, which can lead to a spread of false information.
Many students pass and fail every year, although it is not always a good representation of their skills. It may be causing a lack of effort to really understand a subject. In the article, Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students, by John Tagg, he speaks about two past students of his. On one hand he had a student that had failed but had learned and remembered some concepts from the class and applied it to her life. On the other hand a student who had succeeded in the class does not still retain any of the answers he had learned to pass the class. He also doesn’t apply any of the concepts presented in class to his life. It’s a strange contradiction that leads me to believe that a lot of the time that a student’s grade point average (GPA) is an inaccurate representation of a students abilities and knowledge. Friere would say is positive reinforcement to keep students memorizing answers. Tagg said “Those who set performance goals tend to take a surface approach to learning; those who set learning goals tend to take a deeper approach.” If this is the case then some people who believe our education systems grade point average system is working well could actually push themselves to take a surface approach. They do this by trying to get an A. If they have an A then they don’t have much incentive to learn the concept more in depth.
Like John Tagg, Friere does not place the blame of poor learning/ teaching on the students. In Paulo Freire’s The “Banking “ Concept of Education, He relates our education system to a banking system, where the students are banks and the teachers deposit knowledge in them. He explains how that style of teaching is very dangerous, in that it causes students to lose their voice and adopt the “correct voice” from the teacher. Concepts may also be taught using this method right or wrong and be considered correct. The style of teaching also forces students to memorize more which is not a good learning practice. Memorizing something without knowing the concepts behind it opens the door for propaganda and also makes the content that was memorized useless next semester when it is all forgotten, to make more room for the next set of answers to memorize.
Our way of teaching is not as productive as thought before. It has been based on quantitative analysis of a student’s knowledge at a given point; therefore it can easily be a poor representation of a student’s knowledge and abilities. Since there is usually only one acceptable answer to each question we are not teaching concepts but only answers. If we are not teaching concepts just repetitive answers we are limiting students ability to critically think as well as be creative. These issues can lead to propaganda and incorrect information with no concepts or facts to back it up.
Bibliography Calandra, Alexander. "Angels on a Pin: The Barometer Story." Norgaard, Rolf. Composing Knowledge Readings for College Writers. n.d. 158-160.
Friere, Paulo. "The "Banking" Concept of Education." Norgaard, Rolf. Composing Knowledge Readings For College Writers. n.d. 239-251.
Tagg, John. "Why Learn? What We May Really Be Teaching Students." About Campus (2004).