Mind the Gap session 2

1. "One need not know anything about children or education." page 11

It is pretty ridiculous that you can have an educational reform when the change is being created by people who do not know children or education. That is like having someone run a business with no business knowledge or experience. In order to have an effective reform, I think it should be done by people who are in the classroom, people who were in the classroom, and college/ university professors collaborating on what students are expected to know, and then find a way to reach the goal.

"I concluded that curriculum and instruction were far more important than choice and accountability." page 12

I agree with her statement here because as teachers, we know that instruction is one of the most important things. If you are not prepared, have knowledge in your content, and know your students, your class will not run well and will not be very effective. The curriculum is key, without a well thought out curriculum, what are your students going to know? or what are they supposed to know by the end of the class? Accountability is important, but it is not more important than instruction or curriculum. If schools are going to be held accountable, it should not be based on standardized multiple choice tests. I do not believe that multiple choice tests show what students know or do not know. Reading and English skills always play a large role in multiple choice tests which makes it hard for ELLs to even understand the question or answers during these tests. Students, teachers, and schools should be held accountable for their work, but it should not be from test scores alone.


2. A well-educated person should be able to problem solve, think for themselves, and be able to explain their ideas and views in words or writing. They also need to be able to act properly in public and speak to others with respect. I do not think they necessarily need to be educated in all fields of study such as history, science, math, literature, art, politics, etc. but I do think they should have some experience and exposure to each subject area, and have one or two areas that they are fairly strong in. A well-educated person in today's society also needs to have some sort of computer skills. Everything has to do with computers whether it is email, internet, or other computer related skills. Without these skills, a very well educated person can seem very uneducated.


3. Something that stood out to me during our Ravitch discussion was about the school length and homework. I heard someone say that homework doesn't need to be given in elementary school, and should just be in the higher grades. I respectively disagree with this. I think that homework should be given to all levels. I do agree that homework may not be as effective with the content gaining in elementary school, but even if it does not help very much with learning content, it still teaches responsibility and gives them the idea that homework is given and you are supposed to do it. If students do not receive homework until sixth or seventh grade, when they do get homework, it will be more responsibility on them to manage their time to get the homework finished, put back in their backpack, and turn it in the next day. I am currently employed at an elementary school, and homework is mandatory for all students. It might not be very difficult, but it might be something like handwriting practice, practice math problems, or something else.

Someone also said that having a longer school day would be beneficial. I do think that more school hours would be beneficial, but I do not think a longer school day would be the best way for that. I think that at the end of the school day, students and teachers are exhausted and need to rest a little bit. A longer school day would make students and probably teachers even more tired and probably less productive. I think more days in the school year would be a great way to give students more school hours without extending the school day.


4. One gap of my content knowledge is remembering and understanding the synthesis of ATP. A great website I found was http://telstar.ote.cmu.edu/biology/animation/ATPSynthesis/ATPSynthesis_bc.html
It has a video showing the loading of ADP and the release of the ATP and the processes taking place.

An article that helps with understanding of the ATP synthesis is Increasing Conceptual Understanding of Glycolysis & the Krebs Cycle Using Role-Play written by Ross, Tronson, and Ritchie, published in the American Biology Teacher.

A book that helps is Biology written by Neil Campbell and Jane Reece. In this book, there are diagrams showing the movement of molecules needed to produce the ATP. It also includes a written description about what is happening and why it is happening. This is the biology text book that I used in college and it was helpful during the class. But since I do not use this information regularly, the content gets lost.


5. Moore, R., Brooks, D., & Cotner, S. (2011). The Relation of High School Biology Courses & Students' Religious Beliefs to College Students' Knowledge of Evolution. American Biology Teacher, 73(4), 222-226.

This is the second article written by Moore that I have read. A study is conducted to examine how evolution content relates to religious beliefs and the evolutionary content taught in their public high school biology courses. This is an article that is almost exactly the kind of information I am looking for. Conclusions of the research show that there is a close relationship between religious views and lack evolutionary content knowledge and that their high school instruction did not play a major factor in this lack of knowledge. Students who had liberal religious beliefs scored significantly higher on the test. Students who had no religious beliefs passed the exam 150-200% more than their classmates. Since these were all students from a public high school, I wonder what a similar study might show from students who attended a Catholic High School or another religiously based private high school.

Mackenzie, J. (2010). How Biology Teachers Can Respond to Intelligent Design. Cambridge Journal Of Education, 40(1), 53-67.

This article suggests ways that biology teachers can try to protect their views about evolution when confronted by students or parents who believe intelligent design should be taught as part of the science program.  He feels strongly that intelligent design is not a science, and should not be taught.  But he does think that all theories should not be excluded, but they might not be a lesson that relates to science.  I feel that Mackenzie is pretty convincing in his opinion because he is not disregarding intelligent design or other theories, but if there is not scientific evidence to support them, they should not be taught in a science class.  This makes sense and seems to be an easy way to avoid this argument.


6. Hi Meg,

My question is about experiential sources for my focus. So far my focus has been about the religious impact it has on science knowledge/ acceptance. I'm going to do an interview, but I was wondering what you thought might be a good experience to visit, listen, watch or anything else like that. Thanks, have a great weekend!


I responded to
Marcy Place  MarcyPlace1.blogspot.com
Christina Mignano  mat-smc-mignano.blogspot.com
Alana Scott  mademoisellescott.blogspot.com