Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Empowering Education by Ira Shor (Argument)

In Shor’s article, he argues that having students memorize things is not an effective way for them to learn. He thinks that the methods, like the three R’s, are not good methods for students, they should be able to learn, think and question for themselves instead of being told how to learn and what to think. Shor says, “If the student’s task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted.” Shor thinks that students need to participate in class in order to do well and that they should be given the opportunity to do that. He argues that students need to develop social skills and by sitting in a classroom getting lectured or talked at then this will not be able to happen. Social skills are important for life and being successful. Classes are set up with one curriculum and do not give students much room to think on their own.  Students are told exactly what they have to learn and are told that there is only one correct answer; Shor wants us to be able stray away from this. Unfortunately, this idea is hard to drift from and many things influence what we are exactly taught in school. Certain topics are chosen to be taught in schools, while many others that are equally as important are forgotten about.

In class, I would like to talk about empowering educating and if there is even a possible way to do what Shor argues.

3 comments:

  1. I enjoy the points you make and agree that we should empower students.

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  2. I i don't know if empowering education, in the way Shor describes, can be reached completely, It's a really amazing concept but i think the culture of power is too strong for it to happen.

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  3. I really loved what you said at the end, "Certain topics are chosen to be taught in schools, while many others that are equally as important are forgotten about." Great point.

    I used the same website in my post!!

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