EDUC 450: Reflection – Ideal School

Top 3 aspects of my ideal school:

After our own group’s discussion and listening to the ideas presented by other groups, I feel that the following characteristics would be those that I would most prioritize.

1. Field Experience – This incorporates the idea of putting a greater emphasis on having learning occur outside the classroom than within the confines of a traditional school setting. Having students able to interact with environments and situations that actively use the knowledge they would otherwise read from a textbook, observe in a video, or copy notes from a board would be the best way to effectively communicate the knowledge as well as engage student interest to deepen understanding.
2. Flexibility – A school that acknowledges the diverse areas and types of knowledge and expertise would further students abilities to explore their interests. Providing opportunities for student to explore interests outside of the academic subjects can still enable critical thinking skills, while promoting creativity and preparation for real world possibilities to pursue these skill sets and specialized knowledge.
3. Interdisciplinary Study/Collaboration – Teachers that work with fellow subject experts or with teachers of other specialties can not only add variety and attract interest in a subject, but can challenge traditional assumptions made of certain types of knowledge. For example, students are able to find the math in art, understand the necessary relationships existing between farming, culinary practices, and marketing techniques. It provides a greater sense of how successful communities and environments need to work with one another to best use each other’s strengths and weaknesses to create success as a whole.

Revision of Inquiry Topics

Previously listed:

1. How changing instruction modality affects student observations? Does continuously changing types of instruction help or are certain topics understood with specific types of instruction?
2. Does the amount of homework (practice) help student understanding?
3. Can frequent review improve students’ long-term understanding of topics?
4. Cumulative vs. non-cumulative instructions, review, and testing.
5. Working in groups: should students’ always be allowed to choose when they want to work with others? 
6. Calculators – to what extent should they be used in lessons and practice?
7. How much time should be focused on using technology within a math classroom? (Graphing tools, Touch pads, interactive programs, etc.)

Given today’s discussion with a focus on school structure, I would like to add a possible topic regarding teacher collaboration within the department and between departments:

• Can collaboration between teachers of the same department help student understanding by standardizing expectations for all classroom learning objectives, as well as sharing the results of techniques used?
• Could increasing student interest and engagement through the use of different subject areas, for example art, help students’ to better understand concepts?