Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham
Part A:
Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel T. Willingham is a book about the workings of the mind and how to be access students by knowing how the mind works. In each chapter he leads the reader through the questions that we ponder, the concrete of what that looks like, how the mind works around that question, the data the backs that up and then finishes with the implications for the classroom.
In chapter one Willingham discusses thinking. He reminds us that thinking is hard but an enjoyable experience. We like it based on content and level of difficulty. If it is too easy or hard then we are bored or blown out. Thinking relies on four factors: the information
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For all subjects, the basic processes must become automatic in order for students to advance their learning to the next level. Practice helps transfer of knowledge because it makes the deep structure more obvious.
Teachers want students to “think like a scientist…historian…mathematician.” Chapter 6 shows that students are cognitively not able to do it. Students are ready to comprehend but not create knowledge. Being an expert (or thinking like one) is not reachable for students because they haven’t received all of the knowledge and practiced it enough to think in terms of function. Activities that call for them to “think like an expert” will not give cognitive knowledge for students but will boost motivation because it is interesting and fun. Don’t expect novices to learn by doing what experts do. Students need the breakdown and practice of basics before doing so.
There is so much talk of differentiation based on the different types of learners. Chapter 7 says that no one has found consistent evidence supporting the theory of differences in people that have them preferring one style over another. In other words students are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn. Willingham shows the difference between ability and style. Ability is the capacity for success in certain area of thought. Style is the biases or tendencies to think in a
In school everyone learns differently; however, according to the article The Myth of Learning Styles, “The idea of learning styles is based on a theory… developed in the early 1980’s.” (pg 1.) A lot has certainly changed from the 1980’s as we learn new more material in every class we take. With this being said, someone the scientists referred to in the article “assumed” that learning styles challenged the way of the educational system when in reality, it is simply a myth. Students, like myself, only prefer to process information that they find useful or interesting to him or her. Thus giving us the problems of that teachers may take too long to cover one idea, and students may miss out out on information because he or she did not prefer that learning style.
For years, there have been many theorists who have shared their views on how individuals learn. Such research has determined that individuals have different learning styles. It is important for teacher to understand the learning styles of both themselves and their students because it helps them to relay the subject knowledge to the students. The teacher is in a position where they must be able to assess the learning styles of their students. This means that the students and teachers are both in a process of learning.
Being aware of learning style is beneficial for individuals in both teaching and learning roles. By knowing personal strengths and preferences, the learner is able to devise ways to augment and tailor the way in which information is received and processed regardless of the way it is presented. With that being said, those that are in teaching positions must make the realization that not everyone learns in the same manner. Being aware of this will lead the teacher to discover new ways to present information in a way that will address the needs of all members of the class. If all parties involved are knowledgeable of prominent styles within a group; the teaching learning environment can be much more effective.
Education and school. Some of you are now grimacing at the prospect of being trapped inside a classroom. Others are now thinking what I wouldn’t do to be able to go back and start all over again. Now don’t worry, I’m not going to convince you that you should love school. My job isn’t to change your perspective on school like a politician would do.
Thinking must be practiced in each content field at each educational level. For the teacher, this means hard work. To teach students to memorize facts and then assess them with multiple-choice tests is a much easier choice to make. In a course that emphasizes thinking,
Olson’s premises for the book are that engagement in learning is the key to a happy life and that school separates many individuals from that possibility. School practices that wound and make students hesitant learners have to be investigated so they can be changed. If we understand what school wounds are, why they occur and what can be done about it, we don’t need to harbor these wounds forever.
The beauty of mankind is that we are all unique in countless ways. We are all gifted with our own particular sets of skills, talents and interests. To state the overused cliché, we are all like snowflakes; no two people are exactly alike. I take comfort in the fact that no one can tell me exactly how to live my life solely based on the notion that it’s my life. I am my own person with my own personality, my own set of goals, and my own plans for the future.
“Just as students have different personalities, they also have different ways of learing (Slavin, 107).” Learning styles are another important factor to incorporate when implementing the best learning environment. Learning styles are defined as an individual's mode of gaining knowledge. The most common learning styles addressed are auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. Auditory leaners understand information through hearing. Visual learners need more visual aids in the learning process, such as diagrams, webs, or pictures. Kinesthetic learners learn better by using manipulatives or by being physically involved in the learning process. Learning styles is a piece of the “backbone” of differentiated learning. Both are used to individualize instruction to help students achieve the most success.
Why do students get bored in class all day? Recess is a time where students can have fun and play so let me tell you why you should have recess. You get to talk to your friends, play with your friends, and let out energy . These are beneficial to a student’s daily routine at school.
In the practice of teaching, it is the responsibility of a teacher not only to teach students subject matter, but to teach students in order to enable them to grow and develop as a person. While it is essential for students to have an understanding of academic material, it is also equally as important that when students finish their education they have skills to use in
Education benefits individual mentally, emotionally and physically by placing them in better place than they were previously before. Everybody would agree that learning something new would take place throughout the life. Learning style defined as "A term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience" (Reid, 1987, p. 89). Furthermore, Felder and Henriques (1995, p. 21) explained learning styles as "the ways in which an individual characteristically acquires, retains and retrieves information". However, different learners possess different characteristics and different preferred learning styles to perceive, process, take in and understand information.
Learning styles and barriers to learning can be by the VARK to give a profile of learning preferences of how a person takes in and gives out information or Tidwell and Rodgers Practical learning styles Questionnaire. The VARK learning styles determines if the person learns by being a theorist, reflector, activist and/or pragmatist. The practical learning styles questionnaire looks at how people learn by their orientation, whether they are a realistic or creative, by their interaction, are they a doer or a thinker, by how they represent things, either by words or pictures, and how they process information, whether they are a surface or deep processor. There are many other
Willingham, D. T., Hughes, E. M., & Dobolyi, D. G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 266-271. doi:10.1177/0098628315589505
Learning styles is one of the ways schools have changed over the past couple of years in regards to diversity. The varieties of learning styles of students have become more
Students may not like going to school but, it is for the best. By going to school students can get an education and get a job or go to college and