Riverton Abroad: Finnish Lessons

As the former Coordinator of Middle School Initiatives for the City of New York, much of my work revolved around addressing the low 4 year graduation rates of our H.S. students by strategically targeting the quality of “middle level schooling”. Today in NYC “achievement/access gap data” continues to reflect low level as well as disproportionate outcomes relative to student achievement.

 The PISA report of 2006 concluded that the success of Finish education occurs largely due to “effective teacher education” and a systemic model of design that employs the following:

     Flexibility and Diversity relative to school-based curriculum development informed and supported by relevant data (quantitative and qualitative).

     Emphasis on Broad Knowledge placing an equal degree of emphasis across developmental pathways considerate of the acquisition of knowledge, skills, creativity, personality, morality, etc.

     Trust through Professionalism creating and maintaining a practice of belief that teachers and administrators are professional practitioners with requisite skills and a clear sense of mission to effectively teach/lead.

If invited to participate in this year’s study, my objective would be to explore and record the emphasis Finland places on the facilitation of “Broad Knowledge Learning” and how the country’s policies, practices and protocols facilitate a holistic approach to student development to support higher levels of literacy and numeracy across the k-12 continuum.  Although time will be limited, I also intend to forge a focus within my focus by looking at multiculturalism and the manner in which Finland’s educational practices explicitly/ implicitly addresses diversity (considering teaching and learning implications). The question to which I would want to find answers would be; what strategies/approaches can we as educators educating in system of significant diversity employ to more effectively facilitate learning across racial, socio-economic, gender and special learner lines?

Officially, my contribution to this study will offer insight into broad based and school level curricular and instructional practices within the context of the country’s rapidly increasing multicultural population of learners.  On a more personal note, I am interested in chronicling curricular and pedagogical practice throughout middle level grades. It has always been my contention that much of our focus on learning in the middle grades should be informed by deeper understandings of and curricular designs focused on early adolescent developmental needs. Finland’s emphasis on “Broad Knowledge” offers a promising ideology to forge (in some cases revisit) “a learner centered conversation”.

Chapter 6: The Need for Discipline

The need for effective classroom management requires students being able to overcome obstacles to self-control and promotion of good self-discipline.

There are 2 basic causes of poor student behavior:

1.       Internal – within the school

2.      External – family, peers and cultural factors

INTERNAL CAUSES

Students are most likely to be disruptive and undisciplined when they feel:

·         Unwelcome

·         Feel inferior

·         Hopeless

·         Feeling victimized

·         Bad behavior is expected

·         A need to succeed at something

School personnel can minimize student anger and disruptive behavior by:

·         Treating students with dignity and respect

o   Don’t ridicule, belittle in from of others

·         Teaching students to behave responsibly

o   Have to be taught appropriate social behavior

·         Understanding and responding appropriately to habitual behavior, i.e. sucking finger, twitching

o   Stay calm, don’t embarrass or demean

·         Giving students more of what they need

o   When students feel that their teachers care about them, they are less likely to misbehave.  Show appreciation of improved student behavior and effort

·         Modeling the behavior you expect

o   Teachers have to model self-control in order to facilitate self-control in their students

EXTERNAL CAUSES

·         Family and home influences – parents

·         Cultural influences – rap artists, music, movies, TV stars

·         Peer pressure – us vs. them mentality

PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES FOR DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS

·         Take time to discuss lifelong goals

·         Remember all children have a special gift, let them shine

·         Success is a process, not just a destination – assign projects

·         Give students responsibility by assigning roles in classroom

o   “Adults who stress obedience and conformity in order to develop polite and manageable children inadvertently lower their students’ motivation to achieve.”

·         Make students a part of the rule – enforcement process

o   Social contract – give a feeling of ownership and responsibility

·         Show students you respect them, i.e. eat lunch, acknowledge when absent, take time to talk

WHAT TO DO WHEN STUDENTS CONTINUE TO MISBEHAVE?

·         Punish the behavior, not the person

·         Discipline students with a firm but loving touch

Create alternatives to suspension and detention

Chps. 2, 3, & 8 - mjc - Part III

Chapter 8 – Strengthening the Home-School Bond

“In spite of the difficulties that family-school partnerships may entail, working together is critically important for students.” –

·         Good teachers and administrators must assume a greater professional responsibility by actively enlisting parental involvement at every grade level by….

·         Maintaining a positive attitude

·         Making the first contact positive

·         Be consistently positive

·         Advocate for more parent education classes in your school or district

·         Plan a family fun night at your school

·         Involving the community, role models, and mentors

Chps. 2, 3, & 8 - mjc - Part II

Chapter 3 – Institutional Barriers to Student Achievement

“Unfortunately, many…teachers…share the general belief of educators and the public that racial differences in intelligence were innate, real, and fixed.” – Diane Ravitch

·          Examples of Institutional Barriers – institutional racism, socially unacceptable norms, and reflect on Table 3.1 – page 55

From Rage to Hope

Strategies for Reclaiming Black & Hispanic Students

Author – Crystal Kuykendall

Chapter 1: Dealing with Differences

·         An historical overview of many of the polarization and racial animus that existed in America targeting Blacks, Hispanics, Mexican, and Japanese people. The atrocities continue to plague this country because of ineffective practices that lead to injustice, inequality, and sometime death.

·         Despite the rapid increase of cultural diversity, many Americans still refuse to accept and embrace people that are different from themselves. The author suggests that people have been conditioned which often causes them to draw conclusions about others based on limited cultural perspective.

·         Dealing with differences in a school or classroom can be dangerous, especially when educators may not have a cultural awareness of their students. Therefore, the author challenges all

“Merchants of Hope- anyone who enriches the life of another” to step outside of their own cultural orientation and develop an appreciation for people of diverse cultures.

·         Teachers must embrace and use a variety of strategies that celebrate and show appreciation for cultural diversity and learning style differences.

·         Inequality in the classroom is a result of ineffective instructional practices and teacher behavior, especially for Black and Hispanic students. They receive the message that they must adopt the mainstream cultural standards and behaviors to succeed in school.

·         Many educators negatively respond to students that are different by:

o   Isolating them

o   Expelling them

o   Ignoring them

o   Failing to love them

Unfortunately, this type of relationship negatively impacts student attitudes about their teachers and students’ classroom performance in school.

Teacher attitudes are affected by the following student differences:

o   Prior achievement

o   Prior behavior

o   Prior placement

o   Socioeconomic status

o   Language ability

o   Physical attributes

o   Gender

o   Race/ethnicity

o  

Dealing With Differences- Provide supportive feedback to ALL students

·         Make direct, sincere, loving and encouraging eye contact

·         Provide adjusting feedback on a specific behavior in private

·         Provide descriptive rather than evaluative feedback

·         Provide feedback that reflect care and concern for a student’s needs

·         Provide feedback in a timely manner

·         Develop relational capacity with ALL students (check in with students to better understand their comments and feelings

Promote Lifelong Success in Students:

·         Self-assess how you’re dealing with student differences (answer 8 questions on page 28-29)

·         If you answer “yes” to these questions, you have the capacity to augment, strengthen, motivate

and enhance the self-image of all students.

Chapter 4: School-Related Obstacles to Student Achievement

Black & Hispanic Students

·         Lack of pluralistic curricula – deficiencies exist in knowledge of their history and literature, curriculum must be inclusive and emphasize positive aspects of their life experiences, lifestyles and social and behavioral norms ,students’ cognitive development. shapes a

o   What is taught?

o   Why is it being taught?

o   Who is educating our Black and Hispanic children:

o   How is instruction being provided?

·         Incongruent teaching and learning styles

o   Black and Hispanic students become less motivated and begin to question their self-worth. Culture plays a crucial role in shaping student learning styles, cognitive development and approach to academic achievement. Therefore, teachers must become eclectic; expand their repertoire of instructional strategies that include a variety of approaches that children use to learn.

o   Research indicates many of our Black and Hispanic children ad field-dependent learners (f-d learners attend to the social and personal relevance of learning experiences). They prefer more personal environments which are student-centered, and they prefer small-group activities, think-pair-share, where they can have opportunities to exchange information with peers. (accountable talk)

·         Academic tracking and ability grouping

·         Test bias

·         Negative labeling

Chapter 7: Creating a Positive School and Classroom Climate

·         Generates enthusiasm, clarifies values, builds self-confidence and strengthens relationships

·         Students who are pleased with the physical structure of a school are more comfortable about being in school.

·         Students should feel pride in the physical condition of the school

·         Use student artwork to enhance the school’s appearance, and give students ownership of the beautification of the school

Internal Climate of the School

·         Safe and orderly

·         Appropriate standards of behavior

·         Recognition of diverse gifts & talents in students

·         Positive commitment of all staff to student achievement (food service staff, custodians, engineers, secretaries, bus drivers, nurses, crossing guards and other support staff)

·         Display of student work on bulletin boards, murals, walls of fame, school slogan, school song and other school-spirit activities

Recognition of Diverse Gifts and Talents in Students

·         Create clubs and programs that reflect appreciation of diverse gifts and talents in all students

o   Rappers Forum

o   Artists’ Alley

o   Music Makers

o   Leaders Forum

o   Current –Issues Debate Team

o   Comedy Club

Classroom Climate- To enhance the academic self-image of all students.

·         Physical Setting

·         Teacher Behavior

Foster a Climate of Acceptance and Understanding

Chps. 2, 3, & 8 - mjc

From Rage to Hope: Strategies for Reclaiming Black and Hispanic Students

By Dr. Crystal Kuykendall

Chapter 2 – The Impact of Self-Image on Achievement and Motivation

“We cannot possibly bring out the best in our children unless we’re willing to give the best of ourselves.” – C. Kuykendall

·         Some believe self-image is enhanced by increasing student achievement.

·         Evidence to show that there is a correlation between student performance and how the student sees him/herself in comparison to others.

·         For many minority students, self-image not only affects academic performance, but also affects how they respond in social settings.

·         Social self-image is developed through home/family connection, peer groups, and other social systems.

·         Low Academic Self-Image and High Social Self-Image comparison table (page 41)

Motivating the Unmotivated

I begin this chapter overview with a question and three choices.  Why do you feel many students lack motivation when it comes to formal learning?

a. They do not see their strength as valid strengths.
b. At times they fear failing.
c. They do not benefit from strong home school relationships.

In chapter 5 of "From Rage to Hope", the author Crystal Kuykendall offers 10 explicit strategies we as educators can use to rekindle student motivation and achievement.

Lets talk about the imperative:  Why is it important to motivate and inspire learners?  What can and often happens when we fail to do so?

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/video_derrion_albert

Jim Collins the author of Good to Great and Built to Last expressed a thought that we in education have come to accept as an operational truth.  He said "When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of the situation, the right decisions often become self-evident . . .  you absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts.

Kuykendall opens the chapter by laying out the "cold hard facts".  She shares:

"Since 1999, one out of every four U.S. High School students dropped out of school before graduation.
-this data however does not include the huge number of students who are "pushed out of school when they turn 16.

According to the Schott Foundation for Public education the states of Georgia and New York represent 2 of the 10 lowest graduation rates for Black males in the country.  With Georgia Black males at 43% (White Males 62%) and New York State Males at 25% (White Males 68%).

Kuykendall asserts that students have become alienaited from the learning process.
Actionable Suggestion:  As educators we shou target strengthening our student's desire to be in school and to work to "turn them on to learning".
Actionable Suggestion: We must do more to teach children how to "learn" and "research".  We must successfully prepare them for the "real world".

Evertthing begins for us (relative to meeting our goals) with the setting of Expectations
Kuykendall shares: "Some teachers may be unable to give hope to children of color because they do not really believe these children can succeed academically".

What do you believe and does your rhetoric match/align with the reality of your practices? Let's see!

Task: Below are for ideological descriptions shared by Eaker and DuFour in their publication of "Whatever It Takes".  Your task is to review the four, reflect on your practice and select the one that closest aligns with your actions (not what you say you believe).

1.  The Charles Darwin School: "I believe all kkids can learn based on their ability".
2.  The Pontius Pilate School:  "I believe all kids can learn if they take advantage of the opportunity we give them to learn".
3.  The Chicago Cub Fan School: " We believe all kids can learn something, and we will help all students experience academic growth in a warm and nurturing environment".
4.  The Henry Higgins School" "We believe all kids can learn and we will work to help all students achieve high standards of learning.

Kuykendall then goes on to share her 10 strategies for rekindling and or establishing higher levels of student motivation/achievement.

1. Develop strong bonds with diverse students
2. Identify and build on the strengths of all students.
3. Help students overcome their fear of failure
4. Help students overcome their rejection of success
5. Set short and long-term goals with and for your students
6. Develop appropriate teaching styles that are more congruent with the learning style preferences of Black and Hispanic students.
7. Use homework and television to your advantage
8. Communicate to ensure your real intentions are understood.
9. Establish a good school and classroom climate where children receive the ongoing support and encouragement they need to succeed.
10. Strengthen relations between the home and school.