ENGL 1007 Podcast Recording

The podcast discusses the flaws in the current education system, including the lack of relevance in the curriculum and the emphasis on standardized testing. The hosts highlight the negative impact of these issues on students' learning experience and mentality. They also discuss the pressure and burnout caused by exams and the need for more holistic assessment methods. The conversation emphasizes the importance of creativity and critical thinking, as well as the need to prioritize mental health over grades. Hello, and welcome to our podcast, Patching Holes in the Modern School Curriculum. This series is brought to you by Aidan, Abby, Max, and Alice, and this podcast will be focusing on how the current school curriculum and way of teaching is impacting the learning experience of students and their mentality. Education is something that has become more accessible for people over the last few decades, and for many, it is something that is highly encouraged for them to pursue. For first-generation students, education often holds a significant and transformative meaning for their lives and for their family. For others, it may mean a way to continue their family legacy and further their opportunities in the future. Overall, education is something that holds value and importance. However, as students, we can definitely see holes in the education system that needs to be patched. To start off, I would like to talk about the curriculum of the current education system. As someone who has gone through the K-12 education, I find that the stuff we're learning are so structured and often have no relations to the things I'm interested in or things that are relevant to the outside world. I completely agree, and I think that anyone would say that at some point they didn't enjoy what they were being taught. I think that we hear all the time that we'll never use, for example, some of these crazy complex math equations in real life, especially when you get into college and are, say, a communications major who will probably never use math outside of school. Yeah, I find that I won't put as much effort into something if I'm not interested in it. I think a lot of other students would agree to this as well. This would change my mentality towards education because I'll think that the things I'm learning would be useless to me in the future, so I hold less importance to it. We can see a relation to this point in Bell Hook's Teaching to Transgrasp, where she reflects on her experiences as a Black woman in school. She talks about when she attended an all-Black school, her desire to consume knowledge was something that she looked forward to because she learned early that her devotion to learning was a counter-hegemonic act, a fundamental way to resist every strategy of white racist colonization. She was passionate about learning because the information taught to her actually had a purpose, but when there was a racial integration of school, she sees her education change, and she explains that knowledge was suddenly about information only. It had no relation to how one lived, behaved. It was no longer connected to an anti-racist struggle. Thus, to white schools, we soon learned that obedience and not a zealous will to learn was what was expected of us. She was no longer passionate about learning because her education wasn't about the practice of freedom anymore, and this really goes to show that your interest in what you're learning significantly impacts your mentality towards your education. Another large flaw in the education system is definitely the emphasis placed on standardized testing, and this ranges from final exams to the really big ones like the SAT and the ECT. Every student is allowed the same amount of time to complete the same questions, but are standardized tests really fair? Teachers often cram in lesson plans to meet the objectives of these tests, but I really don't think that this method truly benefits students. Exams do not accurately measure a student's comprehension. They only show how well students can take a test and memorize information. I think we can all remember a time when we spent hours with flashcards trying to memorize a bunch of definitions for an exam. So tests are effective at measuring short-term learning and memorization, but not long-term retainment of the information. I think this really limits creativity in the classroom and can truly hinder the teaching of other important information. So I'm really interested in the part where you mentioned creativity. It seems to be really a key element that's missing from a lot of standardized tests. So just how do you think that creativity impacts students? Well, standardized tests often focus on mindless memorization and just regurgitation of random facts rather than critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and this can really limit students' ability to think outside of the box and express themselves creatively. I actually read a research article by Johnny Salinas who explained that these tests are geared to a different, less sophisticated kind of knowledge. Students face being provided irrelevant information placed in difficult formats, which neither provide a structured learning basis nor promote useful information. Yeah, and what about the teachers? How do you think, like, standardized testing affects their teaching methods? Well, teachers often feel pressured to, you know, teach to the test, which means they focus more on test preparation and repetitive lectures rather than providing interactive and engaging learning opportunities, and this can really be detrimental to students' overall learning experience. Yeah, it sounds like there are many challenges associated with these standardized testing. So what do you think can be done to address these issues? Well, one solution could be to move away from standardized testing and instead focus on more holistic methods of assessment that take into account the diverse needs and abilities of students. Also, providing teachers with more flexibility in their curriculum and encouraging creativity in the classroom could really help improve the overall learning experience for students. Another important argument against standardized testing is test anxiety. Test anxiety is the most common academic impairment in grade school, high school, and college, and that's no surprise considering that midterm exams and final exams are sometimes worth a significant portion of your overall grade. Before an exam, students often isolate themselves to cram, which can lead to a lack of social interaction and support. The pressure to perform well on exams can lead to all-night study sessions and irregular sleep patterns, which can just further impair cognitive functioning and compromise overall well-being. The lack of sleep, coupled with the high-stakes memorization-based nature of exams, makes it more likely that students will experience burnout, and that's a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion. An article I read recently by the Honor Society details that burnout can manifest as feelings of self-doubt, detachment, and reduced motivation, which truly hinders students' ability to perform at their best. My thoughts definitely align with that. I've totally been in that position before. Definitely within this freshman year, I've studied for tests super late, and I've worked as hard as I can just cramming for that test, and I still end up with a bad grade. Once that happens, I just feel so tired, like there's not anything more I can do. I've been in the spot where I feel like, oh, is this even the right major for me? Luckily, that hasn't happened, but I think for some people, once they start to fail these tests, not do as well, despite all the hard work that they've put in, they're just so tired that they just no longer feel confident in what they're doing and either want to change it, want to drop out. But there's absolutely some kind of feeling of burnout, being super tired, no matter the work you put in. It's all because of these assessments. It's just, it's super rough. I can definitely also agree. I've been in that position so many times before, where I have a big exam coming up, and the next day, and I go to the library, and I just study, study, study, and try to get all of these random definitions crammed into my head. And I recently read an article by Samantha Jackson, who highlighted that all of this stress that students face can actually cause low performance on the standardized test, because even though they are spending all of this time studying for them, it leads to feelings of failure and disappointment about themselves when they perform badly on an exam that they stayed up, say, all night studying for. Yeah, it's really concerning to hear about the impact of exam stress on students' well-being. Do you think, like, do you think there's too much emphasis being placed on the exams? I absolutely do. Pushing yourself to burnout over an exam is all too common, and that just goes to show that there's way too much emphasis being placed on these exams. It's important to remember that grades are not the only measure of success, and that mental health should always come first. I did a lot of research myself about standardized testing. I'm definitely seeing a lot of relation here. I've been a student for 13 years now, and through my experience, when I find myself preparing for a test, it just completely holds me back from the rest of the class, because I'm trying to memorize something. You know, it's all just memory. You're not actually learning anything. So even if I do well on that test, I've memorized it correctly, I'm still not going to be learning as much. So sure, I might get that grade, but when it comes to the moment that I might have to apply that knowledge either in another class, in the real world, in a lab, anywhere else, I'm just not able to do it. So I actually, I conducted interviews in my dorm asking people about their education experience. It seemed to align with them, too, that they were just memorizing for tests and not necessarily learning the important things and learning how to apply it. Yeah, for sure. I think it's really annoying how tests take up so much time and focus when you can be learning something else or doing other things for your benefit. But it just takes up so much time, and then you end up forgetting a lot of the content, and then you end up not even needing a lot of it as well. So it's just really annoying how there's so much emphasis on it, it takes up time, and you don't need it ever again. Yeah, exactly. And it's super frustrating. So you think like, oh, there's no way that this is right. There's no way that this is possibly what we can do. So there's got to be some kind of solution for it. The obvious thing would just be to remove standardized testing. But I'm in engineering. I'm in a lot of math courses. Some of the people in my interviews that I just mentioned, the people that I interviewed in my dorm said that as much as it would be great to not have tests, there's just some classes that simply can't not have exams. You know, that's definitely the case with my math classes. There's not really another way to assess your knowledge. So yeah, unfortunately, there's just no way to get rid of tests. I completely agree. There are definitely some instances of class subjects that kind of need some kind of assessment in order to make sure that you understand the material. The solution definitely isn't to completely get rid of testing in school. But I think for some classes, some kind of alternative would definitely be beneficial for subjects that don't need all of these exams based on memorization. Yeah, it really puts the future of education in a tough spot. Students will struggle with tests. On the other hand, in the case of some subjects, there's just no way for testing to be in existence. Yeah, I completely agree. I think part of what makes tests so difficult is the weight that they carry on the grades. If you get one not so good test, you're done. Your grade is kind of like, it's bad, no more A, which then demoralizes a lot of students. Do you guys think it'd be a good idea to decrease the weight of tests in the courses? Yeah, I think that actually that would make a lot of sense. The weight is a lot of what have dropped in my grades, just because it's such a heavy part of our grade. I think finals in some of my courses were worth 50%. I do fine the entire class, and then the exam comes, and I'm not doing that well. Actually, again, going back to my interviews, there were some people saying that their teachers, I know the physics classes here, the teachers focus the weight a little more on labs than they do grades, and I thought that was really cool. And this was before I took physics when I interviewed him, but now that I've taken it, I've seen it, and it absolutely does help. The labs are different. It proves something a little more than doing the test. For the tests, you're just cramming and memorizing, and you have a formula sheet, so it's just showing that you can plug in a formula somewhere. I think the lab, you're actually learning more, and it's a lot more reflective and worth a grade because you're applying that knowledge. You're presented with something, I mean, an example for physics, you're presented with something moving in a circle or moving down a ramp, and you need to understand how that's applied, what equations to use for that. So I think overall, I think weight should be more focused on some kind of lab. It's just, it's more, it's more proof, more worth a grade just because you're learning something. It's just a much more enriching experience than taking a test, memorizing it, and forgetting it. You'll remember something from a lab a lot more than you will from an exam. Yeah, like you mentioned before, there's obviously some courses and majors that need some kind of assessment for students, but there's definitely other ways that educators can be testing us on the content we're learning other than us taking exams. Now that we're mentioning the fact that tests can just be kind of punishing, it reminds me of something I came across. There was an article I saw that was encouraging educators to return the test that students take. So you take your test and it's returned, you understand which problems you got wrong, which problems you got right. The writer of this article described in her experience, she walked into the classroom without any idea of why she scored a C on her exam, and she had no idea how she could not make this happen again. She didn't receive her test back, so she has no idea where her mistakes were, so she has no idea where to improve. I definitely agree with this. There's some exams that I haven't gotten back, and I have no idea where my mistake was or not. Luckily here, I think I actually do get my test returned pretty often, but clearly if there's articles where students are complaining that they're not getting tests back, it's still a problem. So it seems to be improving if I receive tests back, but other people clearly aren't, and it's still an issue. I definitely see what you're saying, but how would that help their grades? That's a good question. And I mean, honestly, I think returning tests, I think by returning tests, there's no way to really increase a grade. But I think, I don't know, thinking about it, maybe there's a way teachers could host a review session for your exam and maybe add a little extra credit. But other than that, I can't think of too many things. I will say, we were talking about decreasing exam weight before. I think the combination of reduced weight as well as returning these tests would ultimately increase grades, because your test isn't as much, and then you get it returned, too. So if you don't do well, you're getting it back, so you're learning where your mistakes are, but it's also not going to affect you that much if the weight is down. So it's kind of a combo of these two solutions that I think would be best for students. Yeah, I think that would be very beneficial, just for the purpose of school and just for students' grades and mental health. And then one more thing I was taking a look at. I read some of Professor Gert Biese's work. It was part of this piece he wrote, Don't Be Fooled by Ignorant Schoolmasters, Role of the Teacher in Emancipatory Education. So anyway, in this piece, Biese is kind of arguing that teachers need to feel emancipated, that they need to separate themselves from the traditional means of education, where students are taking tests, they're teaching lectures. Teachers absolutely have the ability to remove themselves from a school curriculum, or sometimes they don't have the ability to do that. But he's arguing that they need to be encouraged to do this. There's a lot of benefits that come from emancipatory education. I've seen some of it myself. When I was in high school, I took an engineering course, and I had free periods during class where I was kind of supposed to be somewhere, but my teacher kind of helped me arrange some stuff with the office so that during my free periods, I could come into one of her senior classes instead of going to my assigned area. And, you know, that really helped me. In this class, I was learning computer-aided design. So instead of going to this free period, I could improve my skills in computer-aided design because, I mean, what we did in class was great, but it wasn't enough for me, I felt. So being able to have this free period definitely helped me. Because I had this free period to now work on CAD instead of just showing a room where I wasn't doing anything, I mean, that was all the effort of my teacher. And, you know, she encouraged me to try and get this free period. And it's helped me a ton now because of that extra time I was able to have in engineering. Computer-aided design is the first skill I tell anybody I have. And so it really shows that because of this teacher's encouragement and her working with me to get some of this extra time in her class and her adjustment, it just, it really improved my learning experience. So teachers, when they apply themselves to the student, they kind of help them get this better education. Yes, in his work, he mentions, or actually he forwards it from somebody else, forwards this term teacher as fellow inquirer. And so I see that in this teacher. So she was very emancipatory, but she also, she followed this model of teacher as fellow inquirer where the teacher removes her authority of being above you and kind of works with you to work towards your goal. Yeah. To me, one of my favorite teachers I had was my anatomy teacher. He was always kind of making like an active environment, but he would also talk to you like you were a friend of his. Like if you would walk in the room, he would greet you by saying like, what up, bro? Or like, what's up? Something like that. And it was just, it was nice how you could just kind of walk in and then it had like a nice laid back feeling when you got in. And then you would, you could really talk to him about anything. I would just talk to him about like what I was doing like later that week, something like that, what he was up to. And I kind of just feel like you're having a conversation with a friend. I think it's just really, it's really nice for like teachers to just like kind of try to, try to relate more to the students and try to like engage them in something outside of the classroom to get them to not feel as much stress. Yeah, absolutely. And I've, I've experienced a few teachers like that myself. They're always the greatest guys ever. One of the people I interviewed, actually, she said something similar to this. Her teacher was kind of a friend. She could go to her and talk to the teacher about anything. He was, I think it was her golf coach, actually. So she spent a lot of time with him outside of the class, but also in the class. And it was just so much easier to learn from him because she was just totally comfortable walking into the class. So teachers just, it seems like they really need to remove this kind of authority figure from themselves. They got to be kind of working as a colleague with you, not necessarily as a friend, but even as a friend, they've got to work alongside you rather than above you. Like they're sort of expected to, seemingly. Yeah, a similar point to make about this is that there's a lack of personalized instruction to students' learning. And I've seen that for the majority of my courses, they use the one-size-fits-all approach, which typically looks like students sitting at a desk all day, listening to a teacher lecture, and taking notes to prepare for an exam or a quiz. And this doesn't cater to the needs of other students who may learn content in different ways. And I know, like Max, you mentioned that this one-size-fits-all approach didn't really benefit your learning. And so you took education in your own hands. And I read an article published by Whitby School, and they wrote that when we take into consideration that not all students learn effectively with this method, it becomes clear that we really need in more classrooms across the United States is student-centered or differentiated learning. And this article goes on to explain that curriculum should be differentiated to suit the individual needs of each unique student. And only then can students receive the best possible education and be prepared for their future success, which I completely agree with. Yeah, no, and I agree with that as well. And yeah, this definitely relates to my teacher before. You know, she helped kind of personalize my experience by just spending a lot of time with me in that free period again. So it's absolutely more important for teachers to kind of apply themselves to separate students. Not everybody is going to learn the same way. And some of the best teachers out there are just the people that go out of their way and figure out the way individual students learn, and they want to help them learn. So the normal way of teaching, of just learning in front of a class, it causes disengagement and frustration. The students feel like they're not grasping the material, even if other students are. You know, not everybody is at the same pace. So if you can make an individualized experience for the students, they won't feel confused. They won't feel behind in the class like they normally would if everybody was being taught the same way. Yeah, I've definitely had something happen to me where the work and what the teacher was doing was just not aligning with how I can do my work. And it definitely made me really frustrated. And it was just hard to work around their expectations, which kind of ultimately caused me to hate the class. And then I was just putting less effort in, not wanting to do the work, just because it was already hard to do it when I was trying. So why try and get a bad grade for me to just not try and get the same thing? The problem with the education system is that traditional schooling often falls short in preparing students for life outside the classroom. I think it's very good at aiding academic knowledge, but it really neglects essential skills. Students rarely learn practical skills like personal finance management, interpersonal communication, problem solving, or even emotional intelligence. And then moving back to standard testing a little bit, I think just studying for the test, it really neglects creativity and critical thinking, which is really essential for problem solving. And that just the overall structure of schooling doesn't really foster or help resilience or adaptability, entrepreneurship. And then as a result of this, many graduate students find themselves unprepared to handle the challenges of their adult life outside the classroom. I think we can all agree that like almost all things, education is not perfect. Students are stressed, not learning in a way that will help them grow, bored from their teachers. It's not that education is terrible, but rather that there's room for improvement. And as discussed, there are absolutely effective solutions to these problems. Educators who might be listening, we hope we've given you a unique perspective on the way students like us feel about education. Our hope is that you're inspired to help the students you work for. We hope that you're inspired to give them a better experience and to kind of also just take in consideration some of the solutions that we've drafted within speaking about the problems in education. So here's the improvement of the way students learn.