Reading and Discussion #6

"Research shows that when teachers use question in the classroom, they often use closed questions, which have only one right answer. Teachers often go fishing by asking questions that can only be answered in one way - the right answer" (pg 54).

This quote represents on of the greater challenges I faced during my previous graduate work in Experiential Education.  There is challenge in properly guiding a lesson with questions: how to you design a question that is open enough to allow for interpretation, while keeping it contained enough to keep the answers in line with the lesson?
I think in education there is often a goal to create a lesson that is linear in nature; from start to finish, the learning progression is intentionally designed for students.  The benefit of this is that it makes it very easy to structure daily lessons and to create goals. The problem is that learning is not always linear in nature; creating an ambiguous situation that forces students to ascertain a situation, ask questions, and seek answers, if done properly, can create a sequence of learning that is not entirely linear in nature. Rather, moments of unpredictability create teachable moments especially when the outcome is uncertain.
I think that, as an educator, it is important to remind myself that it is okay for me to learn alongside my students. Even when I was a student, I learned best by discussing uncertainties with classmates and teachers, and it is my belief that everyone involved with the discussion received a benefit from the interaction, regardless of being right or wrong.  Teachers don't always need "the answer," but rather just need to be in command of the teachable moments.

I chose to deconstruct the main college search page on "The Princeton Review" website. This is important to me, as an admissions counselor, because every day I see an incredibly inefficient, flawed college selection process in the United States. A lot of this goes back to ranking sites such as the Princeton Review, which tend to be somewhat unreliable and questionable in their ranking process.

1. The author's, in this case, are the college marketing departments and the Princeton Review. The purpose is to provide incentive for students to explore either one certain school, or a small group of schools prior to doing any sort of real investigative work.
2. Internships are the buzzword in college recruiting these days, and I found that same word used in 3 of the 5 ads on the main page. Many of the images used in college recruiting will have a student sitting in one of the more picturesque buildings on campus, typically pointing at a book or piece of paper with either another student or a professor. Florida Southern College uses this method, and you will likely find it on a significant portion of other ads as you explore the website.
3. College recruiting material often tries to send a dual message; to the students that want large colleges, most material will attempt to display a large group of students at some event. At the same time, there will be an image showing a student sitting under a tree in a college quad, or working one-on-one with a professor to show the individual learning capacity.  Based on my experience, students tend to use college material to confirm what they have already decided, whether it is that the campus is just right for them, it is the best college for their personality, etc. I always tell students to visit campus and to not make decisions based on recruiting material bullshit. Of course the campus looks amazing in the brochure, they chose that photograph out of 2000 images for the material!
4. An interesting contrast to make here is the difference between Florida Southern and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Florida Southern depicts a student in shirt and tie working with professors. Perhaps this means that they offer a very professional education environment? At the same time, the Fashion Institute ad shows a collection of young, casually dressed people talking about the institution.  I believe that it is to make it seem more relatable for students, to make the art institute seems as though a sound decision for college. These students are there and happy, so it can't be too bad.
5. I always find it hilarious that a few very important details are often left from recruiting brochures and material: admission requirements, cost, graduation rates, etc.  Material urges students to make decisions based on their emotions, not on what is actually right for them. I see hundreds of students crowd the University of Maryland College Park table when I attend college fairs, because many of the students don't realize they would typically need around a 28 ACT composite to be admitted. I watch students flock to large state schools because they love their sports teams, and they haven't even realized that they will be paying $20,000 more per year than if they stayed in-state.
Facts are omitted. Emotions and imagery is displayed.

I often briefly discuss this topic when giving presentations to large college prep groups. I tell them to look at the facts, and visit the schools. When you start to break down recruiting material and compare it all together, you start to see several trends: it is always fall in campus pictures, there are always a few stock photos of very particular situations, and the facts that are REALLY necessary are often left out.