Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Oakes

Premise
Tracking/Not Tracking
Grouping Students
Learning Capabilities
Privledge
Neglect
Teaching Style

Arguement
Oakes argues that the teaching style to toa needs to change to benefit all students, as opposed to those students who may have an easier time learning than others. Studies show that students who have an easier time in class become more privledged as time goes on because they are able to receive more help from their teachers compared to those of which who need more help, and are simply not getting it. Teacher need to stop "Tracking" and profiling students, and make universal rule or techniques that can apply to all students, rather than just some.

...This finding helps e xplain, at least in part, why it is that tracking sometimes seems to "work" for high ability students and not for others..."
"...Students with high abilities or with handicaps had the effect of making students in the middle "unspecial" and guaranteeing that they were taught in "unspecial" ways."
"It's ironic that when other, less able students are offered simliar advantages, they also seem to benefit."

I would have to agree with Oake's arguement. I think that the society that we live in today is a very complex one. I think that as time goes on, it is going to be almost impossible to get ahead in the world. Students who are able to go enroll in high class private schools are going to have a much better chance of getting into a high standard college or institute. Students attending public schools on the other hand may not have the same advantages. So I think that this notion of "tracking" happens not only in the classroom, but in the entire schooling stystem as well.

1 comment:

Dr. Lesley Bogad said...

I love how you connect this to the larger issues it represents. It is so true that we track across districts just as we do across classrooms.