Introduction
One of the most challenging jobs existing, being a teacher requires a nearly impossible task of complying with the existing standards for teaching and adopting a unique approach towards every student, therefore, increasing the chances for the learners to evolve and become engaged with the subject taught.
In his book, Spectacular things happen along the way – lessons from urban classrooms, Brian D. Schultz explores the significance of addressing unique teaching strategies for reaching every single student in the classroom, as well as the strategies that allow a teacher be flexible enough to find an approach towards any student, including student with special needs, ESL students, etc.
Despite the undeniable attractiveness of the idea of teaching students what they can use in real life instead of the “teaching to the test” (Schultz, 2008) approach, the importance of following the established curriculum is also undeniable, since students need to not only train their skills in unusual settings and adopt them in creative scenarios, but also develop the required motor skills, which can only be attained through consistent drilling without the regard for the students’ background.
Therefore, a combined approach seems a legitimate solution to the specified dilemma.
Schultz’s Key Arguments: Informed Instructions
Schultz’s argument is, in fact, quite simple – according to the researcher, it is imperative that the teacher should view the learners’ individual needs, wants and aspirations as the top priorities, which the educator must satisfy. Consequently, Schultz makes it obvious that a teacher must design the strategies for introducing the learners to a specific topic based solely on the needs and wants of the students.
However, it would be wrong to limit Schultz’s argument to the concept of introducing modern schools to a comparatively looser system of education – instead, the approach coined by the researcher should be viewed through the prism of the students’ vision of education.
According to the author, even young learners already have a rather well defined idea of what they need and what they should strive for, whereas the role of the teacher can be identified as that one of a mediator between the students and their goals.
What Speaks in Favor of Schultz’s Concept of Learning
Much to Schultz’s credit, though, he has a range of important points to make, and he delivers them in a very convincing manner. For example, the fact that Schultz focuses on the quality of the students’ skills and the amount of information that they have learned in the course of the studying process instead of shifting the emphasis onto their performance during the test is very rare.
As a rule, tests are the major focus of teachers’ concern; therefore, a number of students spend an impressive amount of time getting ready for answering to a particular set of questions instead of solving complex tasks in a new and creative way by applying the knowledge acquired during the learning process.
Schultz, in his turn, has reinvented the current system of education by suggesting that the teachers should convey the key information to the students based on the informed instructions received in the course of the lesson.
Indeed, it will be absurd to expect that all students make their progress at an equal pace and with the same success – instead, the degree, to which a student handles the assignments and grasps the topic, often depends on their unique characteristics, including the skills, the background knowledge, interests, etc.
In other words, expecting that the structure of the class is going to be absolutely homogenous means failing as a teacher and an instructor.
A Different Way of Looking at the Problem
While Schultz’s argument has a lot of valid points, it still should be taken with a grain of salt.
Claiming that students are aware of their needs to a greater degree that educators are of what learners actually require can be true on some level, yet, in the scope of education as the process of acquiring information, it would be fair to say that students are incapable of embracing the plethora of opportunities that the school education has to offer them.
Therefore, it would be wrong to demand from students that they should pick the subjects and the information that they consider the most relevant for their further studying process. True, it is impossible to deny some students certain intuition when it comes to their academic progress – a range of learners display an intuitive understanding of certain subjects and topics, such as the principle of commutative multiplication.
However, in their defining the links between specific subjects, as well as identifying the issues that are of the greatest significance to them as learners, students’ judgments may contain serious mistakes and be based on major misconceptions, especially as long as the learners have comparatively little experience of academic life.
Therefore, the concept of adopting the vision of the students as the method of locating the correct strategy for delivering the material may not be the right thing to do for a teacher.
Naturally, it could be argued that Schultz could have a different idea in mind when giving his piece of advice to academic instructors. Indeed, in order to understand what blocks a student’s way towards learning a specific rule or theory, it is essential to be able to view the problem through the lens of the student in question.
However, Schultz should have emphasized the necessity for a teacher to be able to use the skill of envisioning the learning process as a student in order to help the learner develop the correct way of looking at the subject matter.
Making a Connection: Drawing Parallels Between the Book and the Real Life Experience
I must admit that a lot of issues raised in Schultz’s work ring a bell for me. First and most obvious, the issue regarding addressing each student’s needs must be brought up.
After working part time as a teacher’s assistant, I realized that increased diversity rates in the U.S. schools not only make the process of conjuring a lesson plan more difficult, but also requires that a teacher should address the needs of students based on their social, cultural and general background.
For example, among the students that were to be coached, there were two Chinese American girls, who had problems with code-switching when communicating their ideas. As a result, the teacher and I were obliged to assist the student in developing her English speaking skills, at the same time providing her with the basics of the mathematics.
Problems emerged as soon as the teacher or I started explaining to her what the rest of the class had already understood – the students got bored very fast, and it was very hard to keep them focused with so much attention paid to this particular learner.
If I had read Schultz’s book at the time, I would have designed a series of exercises as an additional home assignment for the student in question so that she could train her English speaking skills and, thus, keep up with the class; however, with a considerable emphasis on the on-coming tests, neither I, nor the teacher actually had any time for helping the student learn to think analytically.
Instead, the learner simply memorized the pattern for solving the mathematical problems in question. As a result, when complex tasks were introduced to the students, she could not handle them, as she could not understand the logics behind the solution pattern.
Conclusion
It would be wrong to deny the efficacy of teacher’s flexibility as the key to the student’s successful acquisition of the corresponding knowledge or skills.
Nevertheless, it would be absurd to deny the fact that the traditional approach of teaching, which creates the settings for equity among students and at the same time sets the environment for efficient drilling and the subsequent acquisition of the necessary motor skills, is an unnecessary element of the curriculum – quite on the contrary, such tasks help students not only keep up with the standards set for their age group, but also to evolve as learners.
Hence, a teacher must both design the strategies, which are appropriate for the students with specific needs, and at the same time develop the methods for helping such students integrate into the class and be able to keep in pace with the rest of the learners.
Reference List
Schultz, B. S. (2008). Spectacular things happen along the way – lessons from urban classrooms. New York, NY: Teachers’ College Press.