Do We Value the Teacher's Role in Social Education?

Standardized tests give us a limited amount of information about students' academic development but tell us little or nothing about their social development. As these high-stakes tests continue to reshape school curriculum, teachers often wonder whether the social education they impart to students is valued or important.

In our TLN daily discussion, one teacher asked: "If the kids remember me and something I did that helped them become 'socialized,' but don't remember all the content they're required to learn, have I come up short? Is society satisfied if all we do is move students forward academically?"

Another teacher responded:

"Well, keep in mind that one can move significantly forward in a life of crime, mental illness, abuse, etc. Is it 'significant learning' without worthwhile application? Is it progress if they can name the state capitals, but fail to grasp just how diverse the lifestyle is in those different states? No, it's not enough to just be memorable. But neither is it enough to simply transfer information without helping children develop the ability to apply what they learn and to consider the ethics of how they make those applications.

"For me, the real measure of student learning is not what can be recalled at the end of an academic year, but the mastery of knowledge, skills, and mindsets that serve a person for a lifetime. I can measure my success on transfer of information with formative and summative assessments during the year, and that will help me adjust instruction and address gaps in student knowledge and understanding. But meaningful learning may very well be more accurately measurable in ten or twenty years."

Comments

[John Norton]

[Mary shared these thoughts about measuring teacher effectiveness:]

If you want to know whether your teaching makes a difference, ask your students.

Reflective writing on learning and goal setting is probably the most powerful change in my teaching in the past five years. When you reveal to students the goals of a course, and the stumbling blocks to getting there, your students will view you as the fully rounded human being that you are, and they will tell you the truth.

What do you want your students to know? Formulate an assignment that asks them to consider that question. Then, when they are finished with the unit/assignment/chapter, ask them what they now know that they didn't know before. If you have created a community where mistakes and missteps are as welcome as the "right" answer, then they will reward you with the truth of what they think they know and what they think they still need to learn.

And, in telling you what they think they don't know, they will be setting a new goal for themselves. Its just like raising a child. Let's hope we all want to raise the best kids we can.

[Rebecca]

"... meaningful learning may very well be more accurately measurable in ten or twenty years."

What our society looks and sounds like in the future is the true measure of our work. This is why we teach. Because we're not afraid of waiting for results 10 to 20 years later.