HEAD OF THE CLASS
Honors Mentorship Program 2016 & 2017
Information on Education & Student Statistics
Carianne Whitlow
Annotated Bibliographies & Works Sited
Adebayo, Arinola O., et al. "The Impact Of Student Learning Styles On
Scholastic Performance." Journal Of The Academy Of Business
Education 16.(2015): 276-291. Business Source Complete. Web. 6
Nov. 2016.
The first article I chose is a research study on students learning styles and the affect it has on educational performance. It is also a description and comparison of the different learning styles and different methods of teaching. It interprets the styles of both learning and teaching in the classroom. The writers demonstrate how the evolving teaching styles [from traditional methods to online methods] are affecting the student's scholastic achievement. The results of the study are shocking, traditional teaching methods are not a sufficient way of learning for the majority of the students in the classroom. Now that the problem is addressed, they are looking for a way to close the learning gap with universal teaching methods that can reach all student’s educational needs.
I chose this article as one of my sources because my essential question revolves around changes educators can make in closing the learning gap in students K-12. This article focuses on an unorthodox style of teaching. A few years ago, Teachers in England decided they actually wanted to teach students how to learn instead of just teaching to the test, or standard. They got rid of their current educational methods (which are similar to ours) and came up with a new approach. They called it L2L, or learning to learn. Ultimately, this made the student’s ability to grasp information and learn on his own a higher priority than what he scored on a standardized test. As a result, the test scores were higher and less students failed, the learning gap was closing. I thought the article was important to my research because I have witnessed as a student, and as a mentor in the classroom, the struggle of having to meet state standards. To be clear, I’m not using this article to say that schools should completely nullify their standards. I’m using this article to show that there are other, more efficient, ways of educating students than following strict standards. This article is proof that reforms in school systems and more lenient standards can be good!
​Mannion, James, and Neil Mercer. "Learning To Learn: Improving Attainment, Closing The Gap At Key Stage 3." Curriculum Journal 27.2 (2016): 246-271. ERIC. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.
Weltsek, Gustave J., et al. "The Local and Global State of
Theater Education Research and Policy." Arts Education
Policy Review, vol. 115, no. 3, July 2014, p. 63.
Our national education system is a complex and ever changing machine, at the turn of every year there is always a new standard or curriculum being introduced in our schools. The following article skims along the surface of the visible problems that government interference has had on the learning environment for public school systems. The article is broken into 3 main parts: our current education policies, the effects of the STEM program, and what those current policies and programs are doing for the system. The article explains how these “good intentions” policies actually have negative outcomes due to unpredicted consequences. For example, the No Child Left Behind Act and the STEM program. Both were designed to help a specific group of children flourish in different areas, but they both ended up draining funds and rearranging standards and curricula for teachers to follow. “...they [legislators] place themselves in the highest position of authority only to make a fool of themselves when their ironic policies fail to do what was promised.” Weltsek p.12. I also know that this reliable because it was written from 3 formal teachers, it was also peer reviewed by a board of professors who specialize in educational statistics, meaning that the information in this article is legitimate.
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