Educators have spent ages arguing about whether the traditional classroom structure, with students all working on the same lesson, is really suited to different learning styles.
Twelve-year-old Yuval Kagan looks like he’s ready to work at a call center. He’s among 10 students sitting at a long table covered with laptop computers, talking into their headphones. ”Yes,” he says, looking at his computer screen. Yural is talking to a math teacher. If he has a question, he hits a button called “raise your hand” and the teacher speaks to him.
Yuval says he enjoys this form of teaching. “In a lesson with a class, the teacher always has to tell other students to stop talking, but here you can have one-on-one teaching.”
That personalized approach is what makes School of One different. It’s an after-school math program taking place here at I.S. 228 and two other middle schools. Kids spend part of their time working with online teachers. But teachers can also set instruction in small groups, where a teacher explains a special math problem. And sometimes they work together, as demonstrated by two boys using colorful blocks to figure out a geometry problem.
School of One was first piloted last summer with middle scholars in Chinatown. Assessment tests showed so much progress that the Department of Education expanded the program. Dominick D’Angelo, the principal of I.S. 228, says he wanted his sixth graders to take part because the traditional classroom doesn’t serve every child. But School of One is what its name suggests.
“A student is working at his or her own pace,” says D’Angelo. “Not with a group of 30 other students. If they don’t get it today, they have to work on it again tomorrow. They’re not left behind because they can’t catch up with the class. It’s at their own pace.”
Chancellor Joel Klein says “This kind of approach---students centered, not classroom centered---is going to be a part of the future of Education.”
But Daniel Willingham, a professor of Psychology says “Studies have been done trying to prove that some people learn best visually, however, other people learn best aurally (聽覺上). They have shown that there’s no benefit in meeting the needs of those learning styles.” He adds, “It’s not clear whether considering different styles of learning makes a real difference.”
The city has raised money from private donors to keep the program going next fall. And though officials say they didn’t deliberately launch it this spring in time for the state exams, they’ll be very curious to see the performance of those 240 sixth graders at the three schools now using the School of One.
Title: Arguments about classroom structures and learning styles
A comparison of two
小題1: approaches
| 小題2: classroom
| ●Classroom centered: all the students work on the 小題3: lesson.
●Teachers have to tell students to keep 小題4: in class.
|
School of One
| ●小題5: centered: students spend part of their time working with online teachers and talking to them separately.
●Teachers can also organize the kids in small groups to explain special problems. Sometimes they can 小題6: .
|
Experts’ opinions
| ●The new approach will be part of the future of Education.
●Some people learn best visually, while other people learn best by 小題7: .
●It is not 小題8: to meet the needs of those learning styles.
●We are not 小題9: about whether considering different styles of learning makes a real difference.
|
Officials’ expectations
| ● How the three schools’ sixth graders 小題10: in the coming state exams.
|
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