Cool opinion piece (or series of pieces I guess) in the NY Times yesterday on how to teach to students at range of levels. Should they all be in the same class, or should the smart students have a separate class? There are a couple of well stated opinions, some with interesting statistics to support them.
This question asks it all. Interesting article
ReplyDeleteBy trying to teach children of varying abilities in one classroom, is American society underdeveloping some of its brightest young people?
Certainly a variety of viewpoints: tracking exists, it doesn't exist, differentiated instruction works, it doesn't work. I think many of the debaters hit the nail on the head- when teachers have to "teach to the (standardized) test," they don't have the time or the resources to accommodate the needs of all students. That means sometimes they need to spend more resources on the struggling students to get them up to speed, and tracking might be easier in some cases rather than working with such a broad range of abilities in one class.
ReplyDeleteBut I was thinking, what if classes were more learner-centered? I would bet that advanced and remedial kids would thrive in such an environment where they are active participants in learning together, regardless of initial ability. Didn't we talk about how greater retention occurs when students are given the opportunity to teach/learn from their peers? I was surprised that the debaters really didn't comment on the opportunity to change the teaching style/delivery method to facilitate learning and meet students' needs.
Good point, Amy. I also suspect that student-centered instruction would allow both the advanced and remeidal students to succeed.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am in favor of tracking because I think it lets the educator focus and match teaching strategies more appropriately to student ability.