Why Students Should Be Preparing For Students For Years Well Into The 21st Century

Summarizing: This essay is about being the first person in your family to go to college. These challenges are sometimes so formidable especially for immigrants students, whose cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds were vastly different from those of predominantly.Acclimating to school’s cultural climate can be difficult and combating this situation can be easier with a help of older peers, teachers and guiding professors. Secondary and post-secondary institutions have created programming to better support and mentor first-generation student.

The school must discipline creative thinking, as it will play a crucial role for the future. Bronson and Merryman report in their article that an

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,

Students will be challenged and asked questions that push them to refer back to what they’ve read. This stresses critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that are required for success in college, career, and life (p.1)

Public education in America needs reforms to adjust to today's fast paced, technology based society. "Changing Educational Paradigms Animation" by RSA Animate and "Reinventing Education for the 21st Century" by Tony Wanger, prompted me to wonder how does teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills in schools socially and economically benefit students? Both of these videos touched on critical thinking and problem-solving skills and their importance in educating today's work force, but Tony Wanger blew me away with High Tech High, a Sandiego high, middle, and elementary school dedicated to teaching problem solving skills to a wide range of students (Wanger). This school system was an excellent model of students working on their own to create, utilize problem solving skills, and display their hard work. This gave me the idea that we need to shift our education to focus on critical thinking and problem-solving skills to better benefit students entering the work force.

Between 1870 to 1988, there has been a significant change in education which has affected the type of education we have today. The main change in education has been the curriculum and the access to education. Society and education have been developed immensely that has allowed women and working-class children to have access to education. Since 1870, the education curriculum has seen many changes of development that has had a positive outcome on education.

However, the standards set by Common Core break the chains of monotonous memorization that holds students down by relying on a combination of both multiple choice and open-ended questions that will develop necessary thought processes (“’Next-Generation’ Test” 1A). Including open-ended questions on the Common Core standardized tests encourages critical thinking in order to develop an answer to questions, allowing students’ true knowledge to shine through. Rather than taking a guess at what an answer may be or recalling temporarily stored facts, students must think questions through logically, a skill that will serve Mississippi students well throughout their lives. In addition to providing open-ended questions for deeper thinking, Common Core also targets higher level thinking that will prepare students for college courses and career training. In today’s college setting and workforce, former students are being forced to reevaluate their learning strategies after years of learning how to take a test. Individuals accustomed to rote learning fall behind in courses and job training because they do not understand how to digest material and turn it into useful information. However, Common Core eliminates the learning barrier and allows for student growth through formulated objectives directed toward a creative and insightful thought process. Because Common Core relies heavily on critical problem solving objectives, Mississippi high school

The vast majority of high-stakes tests are still in the standard multiple choice format and although this format takes less time to both create as well as grade, this format has notoriously neglected higher order thinking skills (Jehlem 2). This format focuses on the recollection of facts and has as a result turned many schools into drill centers designed to improve test scores rather than teach students meaningful material. In order to instill the importance of learning rather than trivialize the process the federal government owes it to students to create various assessments that promote higher order thinking skills instead of expecting all students to excel on a single version of a poorly created

Are schools teaching students to broaden their minds and think creatively or are they just preparing them for tests? It is important to know whether standardized tests are actually beneficial for students’ learning. Over the last decade, standardized testing has been a more prominent focus for schools. Many students have to be tested every year in order to know what classes they would be placed in. Not only do tests determine what classes students will take but they may also determine whether or not they would be accepted into certain schools. These tests are a major factor that determines whether students advance in their education or not. This major focus on tests steers away from the actual purpose of schools: to teach students and ensure they understand the material. Standardized testing is not that beneficial because it hinders students’ full

Schools across the nation are eliminating programs that enhance creativity or even discussions about the current world events. They all have an identical curriculum and are set up to proceed one type of mind that processes information in one way. Thus, high-stakes testing pressures students to improve their performance. Lisa Collier states, “… So many Michigan students stayed home when their assessment tests were given last year that several high schools were threatened with loss of accreditation. In Illinois, 200 students expressed their scorn for the state's exam by showing up-and deliberately giving the wrong answers. Critics feel the students are being turned off to learning because they're being force-fed the dry facts and figures needed to excel on high-stakes tests…” The school is more about testing now, and we have turned away from creative teaching to teach a test and have unmotivated the students to achieve success.

However, this creative spirit is quickly lost as students progress through their years in education, where independent thought is second to memorization and repetition. While vocabulary quizzes are common, this expansive vocabulary is rarely utilized in creative writing but rather regurgitated on the SAT examination. Instead of exploring the ways math could be used in various careers that students might pursue, math classes require memorization of trigonometric angles. In ethics class, instead of presenting one’s own views and providing support for these views, a student is expected to simply repeat what was said in class, whether the student agrees with these opinions or not. However, anyone can simply repeat back previously provided information and duplicate past processes. Education should be about finding creative new solutions to problems in the world today and encouraging individual thought that will change the world in the future. In order to improve the world, it is necessary to think of new solutions to problems. Creativity is necessary to come up with these solutions, and by stifling creative thought in education, educators are also stifling progress in the world. The goal of education is to prepare students for the rest of life, and educators are obligated to encourage creativity in order to achieve this

Over time standardized testing has become a main focus of class time. According to Micah L. Issitt and Maureen McMahon, it is impossible to create a test that accurately measures intelligence. Students express themselves and intake information in different ways than others. This makes the idea of measuring intelligence based on testing a very unrealistic standard (n. pag.). As a result of the increase of testing many students are beginning to feel as if only their test scores matter. The scores of these tests are said to help students get into good universities and lead them to a brighter post secondary future. Students are focusing a lot of their time studying for tests that will help them get an education after high school. However, many colleges are interested in things other than the scores from tests. Laura-Lee Kearns, who examined the impact failing a standardized test had on students, explains that these tests are used to determine who is thriving but they fail to see creativity (n. pag.). Many post secondary pathways are interested in creativity and innovation, not only scores from mandatory standardized tests. Kamenetz Anya and Steve Inskeep explain that many teachers feel as though they are unable to focus on important subjects that could be useful to their students. They are forced to devote much of their time to preparing lessons based on the standards created by testing. These teachers are focusing most of their class time trying to prepare students for standardized testing while other topics are being ignored, such as creativity (n. pag.). Standardized testing focuses mostly on math, English and science, but fails to recognize the creativity of

Are students now being encouraged to develop their own learning and comprehension or is their education being made on an assembly line? The United States has been a very powerful force in the economic world, but the students who will eventually take over, who of which are in a world of an outdated curriculum and education system will be unequipped. Students have accessibility to this new technology that is improved by the day to aid in learning, but there is very little opportunity given by schools to capitalize on the new ways to reach their students in a modern way. The education system and its teaching traditions what students go through now is the exact same thing that their grandparents learned, just subjects have broadened and have been

Today’s education system has become focused on standardized intelligence testing and what works best for the majority. This system, although created to help the masses, is impersonal and only benefits a specific group of students who learn the best through testing. Those students who think creatively and use imagination are left behind. This is why intelligence tests are not accurate measurement of a child’s knowledge as it does not account for creativity and the child’s individual strengths. Changes need to be made within the school system. Instead of focusing on what is “correct” schools should be encouraging problem-solving through the process of making mistakes and failing. This challenges a student to learn about themselves and the world around them. When everything is already laid out for them it is easy to follow. There is no single way of thinking. By making a student have to think on their own it stimulates creativity and allows them to better connect concepts to real world situations.

Education a hundred years ago is far different from the education today. Each generation is exposed to more and more information. This information needs to be processed and delivered to individuals. Education is the vehicle to do this. Reading, Writing and arithmetic will always be the backbone to education. However, education must also look at society and determine what more is needed to do. In our society today, computer and AIMS testing are the main focal point. Over ten years ago, high school students were being exposed to the use of the computer. Today in the 21st Century, children in kindergarten are receiving the necessary information to become computer literate. Without education keeping its eyes on what is happening in society, the next generation will be left behind. Education is the eyes and ears for society. The young people in schools are receiving