A primary goal of President Obama’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization proposal is college and career readiness for all students. Increasing high school graduation rates and preparing students for post-secondary education success is necessary to prepare students for 21st century skilled jobs.
Most students who do not go beyond a high school diploma will be doomed to mediocre, low paying and back breaking jobs for the rest of their lives. This is one reason why Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education spoke to the House Committee on Education on March 3, 2010 about the administration’s proposal. He said college pathways and accelerated learning programs are needed to prepare students for post-secondary education and career success.
Many colleges already offer college success courses to increase retention, grades and graduation rates. Similar courses and strategies are needed in high schools to teach students how to learn better and to maximize their performance. Several colleges have conducted studies to demonstrate that a wide variety of study skills and interventions help students to get positive results.
Research on how the brain learns has provided educators with information for developing strategies which can increase college readiness and success. Here are just a few:
1. Creating a positive emotional climate enhances learning and retention. Educators need to build rapport, trust and a feeling of safety so students will take risks, ask important questions and develop positive mind sets.
2. Content and teaching methods need to stimulate positive emotions in the students for better understanding, retention and recall of material. Stories, stimulating questions, visual imagery and music can be used effectively. For example, some DVDs can be used that contain visual imagery, music and a powerful message related to the topic. This can be followed by group discussions and cooperative learning activities.
3. Information needs to make sense to students. Students can be taught to come up with real life examples from their own lives or the lives of others to make sense out of the new material.
4. Information needs to be relevant to the students. They need to be taught how new information relates to them. For example, a teacher recently told me that a student thought learning to write well would be a waste of his time. He asked, “Why should I bother with learning to write well?” She replied, “Because if I was an employer I wouldn’t hire you unless you could write well. You would not even be able to do well filling out the job application and that would be a turnoff.” This gave the student a reason that not only made sense, but he could relate to it and the teacher definitely got his attention. He wanted to eventually find a good job and now he had a reason to improve his writing skills.
5. Positive self-concept aids learning. Brain research has demonstrated that learning is enhanced by a positive self-concept or self-image. Conversely, a negative self-concept makes learning more difficult. If a student thinks of himself as a poor student he will probably perform accordingly. There are many ways educators can help students to improve their self-concept. Here is one example: Teach students to set a series of very small goals and encourage them to accomplish them. Every time students achieve a small goal it will improve their self-confidence, self-esteem and create more of a success mindset.
In conclusion, providing students with emotionally impactful content and teaching methods, presenting information that makes sense and is relevant, and improving their self-concept are a few strategies that will increase learning and prepare them for college and career success.
Copyright 2010. Raymond Gerson
Best regards,
Raymond Gerson
