The purpose of education is to teach students to fully understand the core concepts of each subject area to maintain an independent life. Often more emphasis is placed on "good grades" than true understanding. There is a monumental difference between understanding and memorizing. Just because a student receives an A on a test or quiz, it does not mean that he or she has truly understood the true objectives. To truly understand, one must be able to teach the concepts to another. The Schooling by Design (SBD) text, offers six facets of understanding: - explanation, interpretation, application, perspective, empathy, and self-knowledge.
Each student has different background knowledge that arrived from a variety of experiences. In order for a student to truly understand, they must connect their background knowledge with the new information to draw connections and interpretations. In physical education, often a lesson is taught through some type of modeling; in result, the students must demonstrate the skill to the best of their ability. If done properly, students can help one another by teaching different physical activity movements and concepts. Physical education by nature allows students to be teachers and demonstrators. Students who are lacking the skills can observe other classmates in hopes of correcting their own mistakes.
Students need to connect subject material to one another. For example, students in physics class learn equations that require mathematics. Often a student can not use what they learned in math class and use it in physics class. In order for true understanding, teachers need to cross curriculum teach from previous knowledge.
I believe that in education, students are not truly understanding on hole. Critical questions need to be asked to connect it to real life situations. A good question emphasizes requires the student to interoperate the new information and draw their connections and conclusions.
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I agree that students aren't learning about the connections between the different subjects and how to connect it to real life. If we can start it in elementary school and continue it through the different grade levels, then we can get students to come to school and take a more participatory role rather than being paid by the state to attend school.
Finally! I completely agree with what you wrote and it feels great to read my thoughts. What disturbs me the most are the students who are in an Honors class and freak out if they do not earn the perfect A. It does not matter to them if they earn the A but really did not "learn" or "understand" the material. However, my students who are in basic skills are so proud of themselves if they earn a passing grade and feel as though they "understood" the material. Thus, this brings me to my question of "What are we indirectly teaching our students by placing them in homogeneous groups?"
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