Take a brief look at this article - I think you can get the gist of the article quickly - (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3994/is_200501/ai_n9483894).
Respond to the following with your thougths: If we use educational practices that do not have a research base, are we engaging in educational malpractice? Explain your response. What implications does the idea of educational malpractice have for our classrooms and student learning?
I ask this not to indict anyone, but because federal legislation is moving us in that direction.
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32 comments:
I think we have to ask where the parent and student accountability comes into play? And, the issue of student ability is always in the equation. Not every child is on grade-level in a classroom, and their abilities may never allow them to reach levels expected to be met by the state. There are so many things to consider here. Accountability, and by whom, is the main question!!!
I think that there are many research based methods of teaching, even in one area or skill. For example, the debate between the whole language approach and direct instruction of a grammar/spelling/writing skill. Both methods have been proven to be successful at times with varying types of situations and students. Teachers should be able to think for themselves, evaluate their students' learning styles and do their own research as to what methods are beneficial. Just because it is an adopted method by all, doesn't mean it is a best practice for your group of students at that time. Be able to go out on your own and see what works and what doesn't.
So what should we do? Be concerned about the posibility of malpractice or go on research that states retention is not beneficial for the child.
5th grade - I agree with your thoughts on accountability. But I think that is important, pragmatically, to remember that there are some things we cannot control. Since it is futile to dwell on that, what are things we can do to make the 6 or so hours a day students are with us most meaningful?
Third Grade Learning Team:
"Children must obtain an education and it is up to those people who take on the responsibility of teaching the children to make sure the children are learning or being kept in an environment conducive to their level of learning."
We believe that teachers are responsible for teaching students....parents are responsible for supporting what is taught in the classroom....and students are responsible for putting forth their best effort. YES - we should do ALL we can as teachers to move the students forward....but the students and parents must also help by taking responsibility for students' learning. After reading the article, we realize that we must have evidence of student learning to back up our teaching practices.
Scarlet - I like your comments. Since the NC accountability system started, teacher have been allowed less flexibility in how they teach. I have always told my staffs, teach the curriculum and engage the kids (and come under some fire from those who wanted to see students working Buckle Down or Test Prep materials).
Can we balance the two - using practices that are research based and still engaging to students and moves them to higher levels of learning (not to mention, giving teachers the ability be flexible in their teaching)? Jas
Kindergarten - I don't want folks to "worry" about malpractice. I want the idea to help teachers think about everything they do in the classroom and think about a single question, "Is this the best use of time and best practice I can use to help students achieve higher levels of learning?"
If the research on retention indicated it was effective, I would say do it. It does not, therefore it is not a "best practice".
The beauty of teaching and learning is that it is highly individual. There is no one right way. That is why teachers are so important. Developing the skills to become a master at this imprecise science and highly researched art form is tricky. Remember, not everyone can do what you do. Don't all kids deserve the best teacher possible?
The contract between student, parent, and teacher is legally implied by teacher employment. The courts would have to equally validate the implied contract from the teacher's perspective; therefore, teachers could also take action against students and parents for violation of this implied contract when students fail to perform to classroom and homework challenges. Fellow teachers, also, would lend legal credence to the action as informed friends of the court. It could be a tremendous avenue for educators that Ms. Watts does not address.
7th grade - I don't won't folks to get too hung up on going to court. More so, the idea of, are we using the best practices possible to help students learn? Have we consciously thought about our teaching practices to evaluate their effectiveness, and if so, what did we learn. This is more a self-evaluation process. It's not so much about me telling you how to get better, but your looking at yourself and saying, I want to do a better job with this (This is going to be helpful as we move to a new teacher evaluation instrument that is based on your ability to self evaluate - reminds me of Student Led Conferences). Jas
We posted our comments to make sure our colleagues focused on best practices in the classroom and not on litigation in the courtroom. We are on the same page.
What concerns us in this article is the seeming inability of either parent, teacher, or student to accept the ultimate responsibility for learning.
law & order: Educational unit
crime that are so educatonally hanious(sp) have to given to this unit. Courts do have authority and using the courts to make policy regarding schools is taking control away from people who specialize in education. Involving the courts would make school polices more widespread in the US taking some control away from each individual state. The state would be the object of the sourt rather than individual teachers, the state isssues guidelines that decide weither or not the student goes to the next grade. Is this a good idea to retain students that do not meet grade quialifications like in years past? I think it has good qualities. I think the article is saying put some common sense in school polices and use the courts if you have to. Saw the Eagles sat what a concert!!!!!!!!
You can find research on everything. Just because you find research it may not be deemed as best practice. This is how new ideas are created. What do the words gamble, experiment, take a chance, try new things, and BELIEVE IN YOURSELF mean in the educational setting? If we do not do any of the above, then aren't we just teaching to the test?
We feel that the quote listed in a comment earlier "environment conducive to their level of learning" plays an important part in deciding whether or not student learning is a success.
How do you know until you try?
The ECPLC is deeply disturbed that someone would consider a lawsuit for educational malpractice. We feel that most teachers take their duties seriously, putting in many extra hours -without pay- to help their students learn. STudents do not come to us created equally. There are various environmental ,intellectual and inherited factors that affect their ability to learn. Not all children can play basketball - does that give them the right to sue the coach because they didn't make the team? Is a doctor held accountable when the patient doesn't take the medicine he prescribed? Are lawyers held accountable when their clients continue to commit the same crimes? Are accountants held accountable when clients fail to bring necessary information? Where is the parent's responsibility? When do we get to hold parents accountable for their educational neglect?
We feel that teachers are already held accountable for their teaching efforts through observations, testing, IEPs and documentation. However, we should not be expected to take the full responsibility for a student's achievement when so many other factors are involved.
Research based instructional practices are preferred, but I think there are many strategies, techniques, and activities that are not research-based (or someone has not taken the initiative to do a research study on a particular technique) that are just as effective as well. One must look at the individual abilities and achievement of the individual student to evaluate their present levels of performance, strengths, needs, and areas for targeted instruction. I do believe it is important for a teacher to document student progress and monitor his/her acquisition/lack of acquisition of skills on a regular basis. I also believe that students and parents should be held accountable as well. As you can see, I do not believe it is educational malpractice if a teacher selects a non-researched based instructional method. However, I do believe teachers should continually keep up-to-date with current trends and proven methods.
I agree with Scarlet. As educators we have to be researchers and find out which researched-based methods are useful for which students, and which ones are not. We need to implement the best practices that work best for our students, and that will probably change year after year. I feel that teachers need to be held accountable for educating our students. However, I do not feel malpractice is the type of accountability that we need. One’s education involves more than just their teacher and the school system. Parents, families, etc. play huge parts in educating young people. If teachers are faced with malpractice parents and families should be included in that as well. My question is where do students with disabilities fall into this article? I don’t think they were even thought of when writing this article. I believe all students can learn, but students learn at different rates and they learn different things. We can’t have a 10 year old student in the second grade. We have to look at the progress that our students make and not always at the standard achievement scores.
I do not believe in educaational malpractice if a teacher selects non-researched based instruction. I feel that parents and students also need to be held accountable. Maria, Stephanie, and Scarlet did an excellent job summarizing my views.
I agree with Jenn5teacher. Where is student accountability in this equation? I realize that we are, indeed, responsible for educating our students, but I also realize that student/parent attitudes and priorities and innate ability play a major role. That is one reason that we have several high school career tracks to follow. As to using only research based practices in deference to malpractice suits, I think that a research based practice is certainly a good starting point, but we have an obligation to our students to determine the learning style that works best for them, individually. That may be a style that we have developed for them, which has no research background. We keep data collection sheets on each of our speech students, which clearly indicate what is working and what is not working. By looking over our data collection, we can adjust each student’s program accordingly – and that may not necessarily be by using a clear, research based program.
6th grade team
We agree with our fellow teachers. We are held accountable through many avenues. Where is the student/parent accountablilty? Do parents not have a responsibility to ensure that their child is receiveing the best education possible and at what point in the child's life are the parents held acoountable?
I understand your view on more parent/student accountability. The question is how to you achieve this? Is this achievable? Would the time and effort put into such an endeavor be a good use of time?
If I assume there is nothing that I can do about parent/students accountability, where do we go then? What do we do, since we are still accountable for what we were hired to do - teach all students.
Fourth Grade: Accountability? We are mainly concerned about the "malpractice" part of this article. We are concerned that we may be held accountable for children that may not ever reach a specific grade level. We know that we should not dwell on the malpractice part but isn't this the main part of the article? (This is depressing!!!)
Our feelings are that if the children are learning and growing, then we don't necessarily have to have researched-based interventions. However, it would be best to utilize these given today's student/parent community and the fact that there are more law suits coming up. Teachers and assistants should be doing more documentation about student learning, use more hands-on activities, provide students with rubrics and self-evaluations in regard to learning, use exit questions at the end of the day in order to know if students really grasped important concepts. Yes, we should be held accountable for student learning. Passing students on that don't have a grasp of the curriculum should not continue. That has been a problem. However, the student's ability level, parent participation, secondary language needs, etc should also be taken into consideration when working with students and determining just how much accountability should be given to the school and how much on the family.
Please don't get too hung up on educational malpractice. I use that article to make the point - if we are not using the best educational practices possible, and we are not continually review what we are using in our classrooms, we are doing students a disservice.
One of the tenants of the PLC model is to STOP doing some things. While we learn new strategies and practices, we need to eliminate things that have little to no effect on student achievement and/or not consistent with the NCSCS. Jas
Research based techniques are often a good tool to use, but I think teachers should be allowed to try any methods they can find that they think would be successful. That's what makes good teaching- being responsive and trying varied strategies to resolve any deficits, when possible- not being given a 'one size fits all' method to use. And I agree with Maria and Jenn5 that holding students and parents accountable is neccesary too, if teachers are being held accountable.
Sorry for the deletes, but I left out the word NOT, which was HUGE!
Wow! Many thought-provoking comments... There are so many reasons to keep our courts from being buried with educational lawsuits (too many to list).
Teachers do NOT have 100% discretion of whether a student moves to the next grade level. Until or unless they do we cannot hold a teacher solely responsible for a child's lack of learning. There are laws in place (local, state, and/or federal) that help govern a child's promotion to the next grade (based upon language, disablility, prior retention, etc.)
These are factors of which most the public are unaware and make them question our ability to properly educate our communities.
A love for your students, execution of best practices, and of course, documentation should help keep us safe from frivolous lawsuits and ensure our students the best we have to offer.
I really liked Kim's last comment about the love for your students, using best educational practices, and keeping documentation; if those things are carried out teachers are doing their part to ensure a positive educational outcome.
I do feel strongly that if teachers have the students best interest then things will work out for the students and teachers. Part of our jobs as teachers is to find what works for "your" students. By saying that; you, the teacher, has to take some responsibility to decide what works in your classroom. As we are the professionals that work with the students. Througout all the trainings that we attend we are given numerous "research based ideas." I do beleive that parents are responsible too. They need to be educated on how they can help their children at home. That is where communicating with parents is really vital. It is also the students responsibilty to try their hardest each day to do their part in their education. So in all, responsibility is a part of everyone's job. Hopefully that will keep us from a educational malpractice.
I agree with many of the comments that have been posted. There are many methods of teaching (research-based or not). We must make sure that what we, as teachers, are doing is in the best interests of the students to ensure learning. Every child is different and learns in different ways and at different rates. Teachers must find what works best for his/her students. Stephanie made a good point - we need to look at the progress of our students and not at standard achievement scores all the time. There are factors such as language, age, and disabilities that affect a students growth. It takes students and parents along with the teacher to be responsible for learning.
Wow! There are certainly a lot of comments and feelings posted on this topic. I have enjoyed reading all of the views that you have expressed. It is obvious that each teacher has a set of individual, unique students. What works for one student may not be successful for another. Research based practices are a wonderful tool to use. However, we must evaluate strategies according to the student. If one technique or program is not working, it is our job to try and find something that does work. Is this easy? (especially with large class sizes!) No, it is not easy. But that is part of our job... to try and help each child find a way to be successful.
School attendance is mandatory, but learning is optional. We require students to attend school, but do we require them to learn while there? Can we make learning mandatory? We can by engaging in explicit, direct teaching that is research-based. I am pretty hard-headed, just ask Rob, but I will not argue with research that shows that many teaching practices do increase student achievement. There are numerous research-based exemplary practices to choose from to meet the needs of our students. I have never felt limited as a teacher by choosing from them to meet student individual needs.
School attendance is mandatory, but learning is optional. We require students to attend school, but do we require them to learn while there? Can we make learning mandatory? We can by engaging in explicit, direct teaching that is research-based. I am pretty hard-headed, just ask Rob, but I will not argue with research that shows that many teaching practices do increase student achievement. There are numerous research-based exemplary practices to choose from to meet the needs of our students. I have never felt limited as a teacher by choosing from them to meet student individual needs.
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