I'm not sure I have ever said this about a school year before, but junior year has flown by.
I feel as though only a couple months ago I was getting on a plane to Spain, yet ten months later I am here preparing for finals. Weird.
For my AP English class we don't have a final, but instead we had to complete a final project. For my final project I created a presentation on whether imagination or knowledge is more important to America's society today. I began my presentation with a quote from Albert Einstein, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Einstein was more than just a physicist. He was also a genius when it came to ethics of education.
Since 2005, American schooling has been using standardized testing as their primary unit of measurement of achievement when we should be using tests such as the Torrance task. Torrance tasks, if you have not yet heard of them, are tests that psychologists have put together in order to measure the creativity of children. Children are given different tasks and riddles and problems to complete, and then are judged/scored on their fluency, originality, flexibility and their elaboration. These 4 factors are supporting the creative process and judging students on what will really benefit them in the future.
I also researched the Problem Based Learning Approach method, where students and instructors alternate roles to promote collaboration and further motivating students to take initiative and learn things for themselves and not for the grade. One way that the PBLA curriculum does this is by using real world problems and global issues to interest their students. Through this curriculum, teachers are allowing students to be creative when it comes to their education.
Education is definitely one of the most important issues in American society today. We would be silly to not pay as much attention as possible to making schooling better.
