{"id":44518,"date":"2024-10-07T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T12:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/?p=44518"},"modified":"2024-10-07T09:21:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T13:21:52","slug":"opinion-are-we-teaching-the-wrong-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/opinion\/2024\/10\/07\/opinion-are-we-teaching-the-wrong-things\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: Are we teaching the wrong things?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From birth, children are taught two things. Right and wrong. If right, you get rewarded. If wrong, you get punished. Although this is beneficial for creating habits in young minds, is there a point where it becomes counterproductive?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many students, especially under the judging eyes of their peers, veer away from answering questions due to the embarrassment they feel when they are wrong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFrom what I&#8217;ve seen in many students, school has trained them to simply seek the correct answer for everything. This has a lot of causes and massive effects,\u201d North Penn High School Science Teacher Jereme Boucher stated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/kids.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frym.2020.00080#:~:text=Many%20scientific%20studies%20have%20found,making%20the%20same%20mistake%20again.\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frontiers for Young Minds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making errors causes the brain to slow down. By slowing down, \u201cthe brain is trying to give itself more time, to avoid making the same mistake again,\u201d which helps a person learn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a young age, many teachers deter their students from \u201cguessing\u201d. While they may be trying to avoid thoughtless answers, this is not always what goes through a young mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRight from elementary school when teachers tell students things like, &#8220;don&#8217;t just guess&#8221;.\u00a0 That&#8217;s a great way to kill creativity, destroy critical thinking, and let the student know anything they say that is not the correct answer is simply not okay,\u201d Boucher explained. \u201cA much better approach would be to take that same student who is clearly just guessing and ask them why they think that might be the answer.\u00a0 All of a sudden, the student has to think about and justify their answer.\u00a0 They are now engaging in critical thinking as opposed to looking for only one set answer.\u00a0 The validation now comes from them having a deeper thought process as opposed to them having a correct answer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even though it is frowned upon, guessing can allow for more learning to take place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><aside>\n    <div class='pullquote sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 sno-animate pullquote-shadow'>\n                <div class=\"quotebody\">\n                        <div class='largequote'>&ldquo;<\/div>\n                                    <p class='pullquotetext'>\u201cInstead of telling students not to guess, why don&#8217;t we simply teach them what it means to make an inference?\u00a0 Most students aren&#8217;t guessing.\u00a0 They are inferring based on their experience and the reading of the situation.\u00a0 This is a strong tool in all of life.\u00a0 It is massively used in the science world and a skill that should be developed as opposed to a simple yes-no, right wrong,\u201d Boucher added.<\/p>\n                            <p class='quotespeaker'>&mdash; Jeremy Boucher, NPHS Science Teacher<\/p>\n                        <div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<style>\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 {\n    display: flex;\n    float: left;\n    margin: 30px 30px 30px 0;\n    width: 50%;\n    border-color: #17489e;\n    border-top-width: 5px;\n    border-right-width: 5px;\n    border-bottom-width: 5px;\n    border-left-width: 5px;\n    background-color: #a2d3ef;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 p.pullquotetext,\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 p.quotespeaker {\n    color: #000000 !important;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 .pullquotepic {\n    width: 33%;\n    margin-left: 25px;\n}\n.sno-story-body .sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 p.pullquotetext {\n    font-size: 22px;\n    line-height: 1.4em;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 .quotebar {\n    background: #dddddd;\n    flex: 0 0 90px;\n    margin-top: -15px;\n    margin-left: -15px;\n    padding-left: 15px;\n    padding-top: 15px;\n    margin-right: 15px;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 .largequote {\n\tcolor: #888888;\n}\n.sno-pullquote-6a605ef9c6b06 .quotebody {\n    width: unset;\n}\n<\/style>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although rigid yes and no answers are necessary when children are younger or even on tests, it can be detrimental in the long run to a child\u2019s imagination and even self-confidence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere are emotional and social benefits to encouraging inference as well.\u00a0 When a student gets shot down for just guessing that is the end of their learning experience (for that moment or activity).\u00a0 This can be very detrimental to young students and their self-confidence,\u201d Boucher explained. \u201cBy explaining to a student they weren&#8217;t guessing but inferring and by encouraging it and helping them understand what they were using to make their inference you can validate a student.\u00a0 Instead of shutting down a learning experience, you are engaging it.\u00a0 Also, the student is not developing a fear or social stigma around not knowing the right answer but is encouraged to actually participate and actively use their brains more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Guessing is not the only disruption in the learning process. Some students also encounter an issue with the lack of opportunities for their creativity to shine through.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSome teachers do allow [allow] students to be free and offer creative project options while others just teach straight from the textbook. I think these opportunities should be offered more [as I feel] I learned better with authentic assessments that happen once a marketing period than I do with any classic chapter test,\u201d North Penn Junior Sarah Salem explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the way our education system is organized, right and wrong seems like the only way, but there are some potential loopholes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t think teaching right and wrong is a good way of approaching anything. I feel that there is always room for debate, especially in subjects like history and science,\u201d Salem concluded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From birth, children are taught two things. Right and wrong. If right, you get rewarded. If wrong, you get punished. Although this is beneficial for creating habits in young minds, is there a point where it becomes counterproductive? Many students, especially under the judging eyes of their peers, veer away from answering questions due to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11],"tags":[],"staff_name":[1341],"class_list":["post-44518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-top-stories","staff_name-maddie-cimino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44521,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44518\/revisions\/44521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44518"},{"taxonomy":"staff_name","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knightcrier.org\/app-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_name?post=44518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}