R5

Passage: Skinner discusses a solution to the problem of education when he states that “We could solve our major problems in education if students learned more during each day in school. That does not mean a longer day or year or more homework. It simply means using time more efficiently” (p. 950).
Question: Why are so many people pushing toward more school days and longer school days, instead of pushing for more effective school days?

Connection: In the article, “The Shame of American Education,” I connected to the passage where Skinner talked about the solution to the current problem within education. He argues that it is more important to be efficient with the time you are given, as opposed to be given more time during a school day. My personal connection to this is how I work on homework. On a typical Monday afternoon, I have four hours where I do not have class or do not have to be at work. I frequently use this time to work on my reports for practicum, but I am typically multi-tasking while working on these reports. For example, I will be texting, watching television, and writing a report. Instead of increasing the amount of time that I spend working on reports, I should simply be more effective during my time that I am working on the reports. I should eliminate the distractions, so that way I only have to work on my report writing for 2 hours and can use the remaining hours being productive in other areas.

The outside connection to this reminds me of proper studying techniques. So many students that I work with at practicum do not exert any effort to studying. They think that they have to spend their entire night studying for an exam. When I ask students how they study, the most common response that I get is that the material is just read over and over, for multiple hours. Instead of studying for an extremely long time, I am trying to stress to students that they do not have to study all evening long. If they set aside an hour or two to study and are efficient during that time, then they do not have to spend all night studying like they think they need to. This is where implementing an evidenced based practice for studying can be extremely helpful. The Fold-in method allows students to be reinforced for learning new material (Shapiro, 2004). It enables students to also check for their own mastery before studying further facts. If students use an actual evidence based practice to study, it can be so much more beneficial that simply looking over class notes for 6 hours. It is not a matter of how long you study, but how you study. (Quality, not quantity of hours)

Shapiro, E.S. (2004). Academic skills problems workbook (rev. ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.