October 20, 2023 - Entrance Slip - Marks, Grades and Their Effects in Schooling

I believe that assigning a letter grade/percentage onto students' work is not an effective way of determining their learning in a course. As stated in the article, many students suffer a great deal from stress and/or anxiety when it comes to testing specifically and when grades are presented as a percentage/letter. Students worry about doing well, which could result in them not doing as well as they would have with less stress and anxiety. Another aspect of percentage/letter grades is that students focus more on the grades they are receiving than on the actual aspect of learning; they use memorization to get through the unit rather than attempting to understand the materials. I do believe there are some positives to letter grades, it provides a sense of accomplishment for the student when they receive a good grade and it can help to show students where they are at in their learning. However, I believe this could be done more beneficially through direct feedback rather than a student having to interpret a percentage or a letter grade. The negatives I find using this grading system is that too much of the focus for students is on the grade itself, not on understanding the content. Using this grading system, students feel more pressured to get the best grades, they are constantly comparing themselves to others rather than focusing on improving their learning. “The competition among students resulting from grade comparison may be interpreted by some as a positive motivator, but others would argue grades are a poor substitute for self-motivated learning.” I agree that having competitiveness between students regarding grades is not a good lesson. Our role as educators should be to motivate students to want to learn, to show students why they should be interested in what they are doing during the majority of their young lives. As I don't believe a letter/percentage grade actually reflects a students understanding, I could envision teaching math and physics without this grading system. “The education system is supposed to value learning, yet we hold students and teachers accountable based on percentages and test scores as if they reliably and accurately measure learning.” As grades are the majority of students’ stresses, dismissing this grading practice and measuring learning based on how students interact with the content and allow them to solely focus on increasing their knowledge at their own pace, I believe we could see a vast change in both science and mathematics. Students' interests in the subjects would increase and thus they would take more from the classes than memorizing in order to achieve that perfect ‘A’.

October 19,2023 - Inquiry Project Starter

 My Question: What are the most effective student learning styles in mathematics and physics?

Analysing the topic:

Concept A: What are the major learning styles students use for mathematics and physics?

Concept B: Are there better practices than what is currently being used that could increase student understanding in mathematics and physics? 

Concept C:  The importance of students using a learning style that promotes learning over memorizing.

October 5, 2023 - Exit Slip

In class today, we talked about gender biases in STEM and I noticed there were a lot of similarities in many people's stories of high school classes being very balanced. Conversely, once you get into university you start to realize the high ratio of men to women in STEM, with men over numbering women. To me this showed that there are some factors which deter women from pursuing STEM following highschool; whether that be parental, societal, or based on the individual's interests.

Personally, I found a lot of similarities in this as I grew up with four other brothers, I had experienced a lot of bias towards science in particular. Growing up my brothers were all well known for being very skilled in mathematics, and they were all called naturals whereas I was always told I had to work hard if I wanted to achieve the same levels that they were. Similarly, I was told if I wanted a career, I had to go to university, whereas, they didn’t need to because they had options outside of schooling that I didn’t. This motivates me to teach students that if they are good or passionate about something, to persevere and not feel pressured or discouraged by outside factors. 

In class today we also talked about our inquiry projects and I am planning on researching learning styles. More specifically, I want to understand why students choose to learn in a certain style for mathematics and physics in particular. Also why that particular style does or does not work, then come up with a more general learning style that is beneficial across-the-board (for most students) in mathematics and physics.

October 5, 2023 - Entrance Slip - Swing/Parkour Strict Grid of Schooling

As a future educator, I worry about how to implement and successfully ‘swing’ or ‘parkour’ the traditional ways in order to be an effective teacher and help students to learn. Once I become a teacher, I hope to find an appropriate balance between being in and out of the ‘grid’. I believe as role models for students, teachers need to show that not always conforming to the strict grid, but by being flexible and thinking outside the box, you can be creative and receptive to new patterns of learning. “One that neither rejects nor accepts the grid, but ‘swings’ it,” stood out to me because as a teacher you need to be able to balance the curriculum, time management and expected learning outcomes but also promote critical thinking and problem solving in unique ways to keep students engaged. 

I really enjoyed how the article referenced parkouring outside the binary formulations, by taking an artistic approach to the current, institutionalized ways of teaching one can implement a more innovative outlook for students. I believe there are multiple ways of approaching school and each will benefit some students more than others. I think you need to be flexible with the grid to achieve a more creative and critical thinking classroom while also teaching students how to effectively learn and absorb the tools that are beneficial for their problem solving skills.