Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All

Students.
Jennifer Baker
Western Oregon University

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

Abstract

For as long as public education has existed, there have been those who
want to fix it. Education has been a widely studied and discussed part of our
society since the creation of the first schoolhouses back in the 1600s, and
almost as fast as they were created came those who felt like their ideas were
better. Over the centuries and decades there have been those who have
researched how children and students learn best, working at creating
educational systems that support their development. At the same time, there
have been others who have looked to find the easier way to teach students
and to find ways to streamline and capitalize on public education. The
research has shown that there is no one-size-fits-all approach that provides
a comprehensive and well-balanced education.

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All

Students.

When I was an undergraduate at Western Oregon State College, I

remember that during my Developmental Psychology class we were told that
children are not just small adults. We were cautioned about applying
psychological principles meant for adults on children. An idea or treatment
that is effective with an adult, or even a teenager will not work as well on a
toddler or grade-schooler due to the differences in mental maturity. This
advice is still meaningful to me, and I find it can easily be applied to
education. When an educator at any level is working to create lesson plans,
curricula, and student and school development plans, then the driving force
behind the planning and decision-making process should be to create
developmentally supportive educational experiences for all students. An
effective education plan will take into consideration the varied needs of
student populations that include children of all abilities, developmental
stages, economic and cultural backgrounds, etc. Educators who keep the
students needs front and foremost in their development and planning will
succeed in connecting with their students and creating meaningful learning
experiences.

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

The reality of education in America is that its not so easy to
maintain student-centered learning programs. There is a constant pressure
to make sure education produces desired results, the performance of
teachers and students can be measured, and public funding is justified.
Politicians, federal and state education planners must produce budgets and
fiscal reports to justify the expense of offering free public school which in
turn has led to government funding being elevated to a kind of prize that
smaller schools must fight each other in order to get their share.
Educational fads that have been considered and implemented
throughout the years have all started the same way. Those who tout
themselves as education experts present their ideas as the invention that
will revolutionize education and make America great again. They solicit
donations and political support and convince administrators to implement
their strategies within their school. As with the innovators and smooth talkers
that pitched their groundbreaking inventions before, based on whatever
popular fad was popular at the time, they impress the buyer, make their
pitch, receive payment and then slink off to their new venture.
The history of public schools in America shows a system that has
never fully been without controversy. The first schools were generally for the
upper class or religious communities and provided an extensive and specific
education. Schools continued to be opened by local towns and civic areas in
order to provide children with the skills needed for their community. The
small local schools varied in their educational focus and funding and teacher

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

requirements and compensation varied widely. Perhaps, this is the reason
that the first ideas of reform began. By the early 1900s and around the time
of World War 1, efforts started to improve graduation rates and make schools
more relevant to teenagers. Questions about teachers abilities and
loyalties became commonplace, and questions about efficiencies were noted.
(Goldstein, 2014).
In the book A Critical Thinkers Guide To Educational Fads, Dr.
Richard Paul and Dr. Linda Elder (2007) review the fads that have come and
gone, and they discuss the ideas, use and potential misuses of the various
ideas. Each fad appears to be initially based in solid educational principle,
but then they generally hone in on one abstract idea that tends to be inline
with current fears and anxieties of the parents. On the surface many of the
fads appear to hold promise and the potential to revolutionize the education
process. Most educational trends of fads originate in reasonable ideas. All
reasonable ideas about education enhance instruction when integrated into a
substantive concept of education. They fail when imposed upon instruction
through a no-substantive, fragmented conception of education, which is
unfortunately typically the case in schooling today (p. 5). Education reform
comes from multiple sources, some examples are: Administrators attempting
to balance the needs of the school board, teachers, parents, and students.
Teachers believing they have found an answer to how to improve education.
There are parents and parent activists who want the best for their children.
And, the last group is the government officials and politicians who are

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

looking to create policies to gain support from their constituents. In
reviewing many of the fads that have been implemented over the years, it
appears that they were all created with a key concept or idea that on the
surface seems reasonable, and potentially these ideas could be helpful and
useful for education. For example, Didactic Teaching, or lecture-based
learning, is a common idea that is also a key component of many other fads.
The idea is that the best measure of a students learning is measured by the
amount of content they retain at the end of the lesson. Students listen to a
short lecture, write out and elaborate on what they understand, and then
provide examples of the concept. While this may work in the short-term, this
style of learning doesnt always include proper application and retention.
(Paul and Elder, 2007)
The current trends for education are focused around school
choice (Charter Schools, Magnet Schools, Etc.), Common Core standards, and
national standardized assessments. These ideas have been promoted by
politicians and funded by corporations with the arguments that we have to
establish nationwide standards that will make education transparent.
Politicians have passed measures focusing on assessing scores and ratings
for schools, which they explain will help parents to see how their schools
rank with others. The theory is that low performing schools will be motivated
to do better by the fear of being shut down or reorganized. By running
schools like their corporations, teachers like employees, and by creating
standards that will ensure the creation of scores of good corporate workers,

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

then America will reach greatness and our children will be the best and the
smartest. The hope is that by establishing a minimum set of standards in
order to prepare students for college and corporate jobs, and maintaining
them by regular testing, then our nations schools will become more
competitive on a global scale. (Ravitch, 2013) These standards on the
surface seem reasonable and national assessments but what is missing is
any discussion about children having varying levels of abilities and
differences in development and learning styles. In regards to StandardsBased education, the standards themselves are generally not the concern
and if implemented correctly can help to establish meaningful learning goals.
Standards created with long-term tools meant to provide tools necessary for
growth and development of critical thinking skills. Conversely, Standards
created with the intention to show all students are achieving at the same
level are not going to produce the desired effect. (Paul and Elder, 2007)
The classes that Ive taken as part of my Masters Degree program
have taught me how to create learning experiences that are based on
modern tools, established psychological principles, along with the need to
keep the students needs at the forefront of any education plan. In his book,
Brain Rules, John Medina provides a detailed explanation of the brains
development and processes. He points that that children learn from
watching and doing, and that most children are born with a natural curiosity.
Children are born curious and curiosity is a trait that can continue to grow
and expand throughout our whole lives. If motivated to keep learning then

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

we will, and for many self-driven people, they remain curious throughout
their whole lives. (Medina, 2014).
Frank Smith discusses developmental stages and differences in
students learning at length in his book The Book of Learning and
Forgetting (1998). He describes two views of learning that summarize the
differences between educational fads and well developed learning
experiences. The Official Theory says that learning requires hard work and
high amounts of effort, should include rewards and punishment, and values
testing. In stark contrast, the Classic View shows us that learning is
effortless, boundless, vicarious, and can actually be inhibited by improper
testing techniques. According to Smith, learning is a constant process that
relies on observation and is influenced by our environments. We learn from
people around us with whom we identify. We cant help learning from them
and we learn without knowing that we are learning (p. 3). The observation
of teachers, parents, and their classmates provides a student with an idea of
who they are and how they fit into their community. (Smith, 1998)
The principles of Instructional Design are based on the Classic view
of learning and we have been taught to consider our learners/audiences
needs. Effective design includes considering multiple theories of learning and
determining which work best with the specific students. Teachers and
instructors are advised to periodically check in with their students to make
sure that they are learning what they are intended to learn, and that they are
engaged with the content. Assessing learning should be integrated carefully

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

and with a variety of techniques, from quizzes to practical application. These
techniques are meant to help guide the educator but not get in the way of
the education itself. (Larson and Lockee, 2014)
James Paul Gee presents a non-typical view of modern education in
his book What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy.
He points out that students who may be disengaged and bored in a
classroom setting are spending time outside of class playing complex video
games that require higher-level skills. If a child who is able to contemplate
multi-player strategy and scenarios that require critical thinking skills to
navigate, then their lack of connection in school cannot be blamed on
intelligence. Our education system should be utilizing the technology that
our students are using outside of school in order to create comprehensive
educational experiences. (Gee, 2007) Unfortunately, the use of technology in
education is still considered a fad itself, and many educators are still
resistant to incorporating technology into their lesson plans. While some
technology-based learning programs and curricula can be considered fads,
and not all technology-based learning is as effective as traditional classroom
instruction, I do feel that its a mistake to dismiss the whole idea as a shortlived fad.
It is important to take into consideration what students are doing
outside of school, and what tools they are using for learning on their own
time. In my own personal observations, my children and their friends, and all
school aged children that I know, use multiple forms of technology in their

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

day-to-day routines, and are quite proficient in the use of technological
devices. If the students are using technology, shouldnt their education use
similar devices to connect with them? Palloff and Pratt (2007) describe the
importance of considering the gap that occurs between the students use of
technology at home and the lack of technology in the classroom: Recent
theories in educational circles that attempt to bridge that gap, such as
constuctivism and active learning, posit that learners actively create
knowledge and meaning through experimentation, exploration, and the
manipulation and testing of ideas in reality. Interaction and feedback from
others assist in determining the accuracy and application of ideas.
Collaboration, shared goals, and teamwork are powerful forces in the
learning process. (p.16) I think that paragraph describes how using
technology includes the positive elements of education and encourages
active, connected learning. Incorporating technology in a way that connects
with a students, allows them to use skills that theyve been developing
outside of class, and allowing for shared goals and exploration are the types
of learning opportunities that weve learned are effective and more likely to
be long-lasting. These characteristics are what should be considered when
trying to determine if the use of technology is a fad or a sound educational
principle.
It is my opinion that there is no one-size-fits-all program for education
and that our use of fads and programs meant to standardize our processes
are damaging to the students, teachers, and schools as a whole. Effective

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

educational practices are not based on whims or the popular concern of the
day. They should be based on the developmental needs of the students and
on practices that have been shown to support the well being of the student
and the long-range educational goals. There needs to be an understanding
that students learn differently, at different times, and that their emotional
and physical development directly affects their educational development.
The argument for a comprehensive development based educational
system has been made by psychologists and learning experts for years.
When one studies the theories of learning and reviews the experiments that
were done to explore how humans learn. Centuries of research have been
done based on countless experiments and disciplines. The seeming endless
psychological exploration of how we learn has created an entire body of
research and work that provides a strong framework for the building of an
education system. When educators respect the work of professionals who
dedicated their lives to the pursuit of improving education then we get
schools that provide a balanced and stable curriculum, and a system that
supports the variable abilities and levels of development that the student
population presents.
Using technology in education, to create interactive and collaborative
projects, to connect students to their learning by giving them tools that they
relate to. Using computer-based education materials that grab a students
attention, connect them to the lesson, allow them to learn and explore, is
what we should be wanting to create. Using computers or other mediums to

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

administer a one-size-fits-all curriculum that treats all students the same is
not a good plan, and like all fads will eventually be discarded for another new
idea.

Resources

Gee, J. P(2007). What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and
Literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Goldstein, D. (2014) The Teacher Wars: A History Of Americas Most
Embattled Profession. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
Larson, M. B. & Lockee, B. B. (2014) Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide To
Instructional Design. New York, NY: Routledge.
Palloff, R. & Pratt, K. (2007) Building Online Learning Communities: Effective
Strategies For The Virtual Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Paul, R & Elder L.(2007) A Critical Thinkers Guide To Educational Fads. Dillon
Beach, CA: The Foundation for Critical Thinking Press.
Ravitch, D. (2013) Reign of Error: The Hoax Of The Privatization Movement
And The
Danger To Americas Public Schools. New York, NY: Vintage
Books.

Beyond Education Fads: Creating Learning Systems For All Students.

Smith, F. (1998). The Book Of Learning and Forgetting New York, NY: Teachers
College Press.