Stubbs, Monica. (2009). Education Reform

In the United States, education reform is an issue. The educational system graduates many uneducated students every year. There are students who have several credit hours in a certain subject; but when asked a question pertaining to the subject reply,” I do not know the first thing about that stuff.” Earning credit ought to mean that something was learned. Thus, the way students are taught needs to be reformed. By reforming the educational system in the following ways, we can achieve a well-educated population.

If students were in a learning environment in which they could have more one-on-one time with professors, they would better understand the material. In a class that contains more than twenty students, some students are afraid to ask questions when they do not understand because they are too shy to speak in front of a large group of students; they believe that if they speak, everyone in the class will think they are stupid. Classes should not exceed twenty pupils simply because it helps improve the entire classroom atmosphere. If educators teach small classes, they are more apt to recognize when some of the students do not understand the subject matter. When instructors realize that part of the class is lost, they can stop and re-explain. By doing so, the students would better grasp the information. The negative side to having only twenty students per instructor is there would soon be a lack of professors. In some academic areas, there are already not enough professors to teach the existing courses. Another downside is that more professors would need to be hired which in turn could cause schools to lose money. Reducing class sizes is not the only piece to amending the education system.

Instead of assigning students meaningless and agonizing bookwork that can end up being copied from a fellow classmate, make the students participate in hands-on activities where their brains are forced to envision real-life situations. The only subjects that need mind-numbing bookwork are English and Math. These subjects require memorization of rules. The only way to remember them is to work examples over and over. In all other classes, instruction should be mostly based on hands-on activities. Anytime bookwork is required for a grade, there is a risk that students will copy the answers from fellow classmates. Doing so helps students in no way. If most bookwork were eliminated, pupils would be forced to learn the material through experience. The problem with switching to mostly hands-on activities is time. Hands-on activities are more time consuming than are lectures or bookwork. In some high schools, students attend 8 forty-five minute classes daily. After roll is taken and the students settle down, there is only about thirty minutes left. During this short time period very little can be accomplished. No teacher or student wants to even consider a longer school day. Today, nearly all states impose a certain structure upon teachers. If teachers follow those structures properly, nearly every minute of class time is used up, leaving no time for extra hands-on activities. If the states’ regulations were more flexible, then teachers could incorporate more projects into their classes. With more projects, students would learn more from experience.

In addition to shrinking class sizes and becoming more hands-on, students should not be required to take paper tests. There are people who have test-taking fears which cause them to blank out. In place of written tests, students should be allowed to demonstrate what they have learned. For instance, in a Spanish class, the student should have to speak Spanish to the teacher, write in Spanish, and translate what is being said. Using this method, knowledge is put into action; meaning the pupil learned the information rather than memorized it. The disadvantage to this plan is it would be extremely difficult and tedious for the teachers to test every student individually. But these tests would be more accurate and worth the effort because the professors would know exactly how much information the students had retained; therefore students would receive a more accurate grade.

By using these approaches, the educational process could be modified to produce more graduates who are better educated in all aspects, not just in their major areas. These changes would eventually create the most educated workforce in existence. Having the most educated workforce would be a great accomplishment for the United States.