Rewired Learning Blog

Teaching with the inverted bell curve (well curve) pt.1

             Most classes have a grade arrangement where upon examination the scores fall into a bell curve or some pattern that looks similar to one. What happens if the reverse is true? There is no bell curve but instead you see a “well curve” where it looks like the bell curve turned upside down.

            I can think of two reasons for this occurrence. First is jus a bad spate of randomness. If you go to a casino and visit the roulette table, you might see a digital chart of the last 10 numbers rolled for that game. Look around at enough tables you are bound to see a section of 6 numbers in a row that all come up red. Having red come up 6 times in a row is a worse than a 1-to-64 chance (because there are two green spots as well) yet is does happen. Taking 4 people from the middle scoring group of a class and replacing them with 2 above average students and two below average students can severely alter the class makeup, grade breakdown, and the manner in which the class is taught.

            The second reason is because of some barrier in place. If I pour a cup of sand on the ground, it piles up in a pyramid or conical shape. If I pour the sand on my closed fist then let it go to the ground, there will be two smaller mounds on either side of my hand. This creates the double bell curve or a well curve.

            For schools, specifically high schools, this blockage would be another course. Often it would be a course offered in a limited manner such as an AP course where only one section exists and must be placed at a specific spot in the schedule. Because of this one class will probably exhibit the normal distribution, but the other class (receiving the fallout from the blockage) will be sure to suffer. Two large groups of distinct abilities will prevent the teacher from using specific techniques to enhance either side to their full extent if it does not coalesce with the opposing group.

            While probably needed to fulfill certain school or class requirements, it must be weighed and given regard the differences in classroom abilities that are then constructed.

Stress removal and learning: Learning better by not feeling helpless

I have my homepage set to CNN and often go through some of the headline stories to get a gist of what is currently happening in the world. Maybe not the most important events out there, but at least some recent events are reported. Today, sadly, under the “What if” section was a story on dogs helping kids learn. The dog will sit there and just listen as a child reads to them:

 “The philosophy is simple. Children who are just learning to read often feel judged or intimidated by classmates and adults. But reading to a dog isn't so scary. It won't judge, it won't get impatient, it won't laugh or correct if the child makes a mistake. In a nutshell, dogs are simply excellent listeners. And for shy kids or slow readers, that can make all the difference.”

The child has the “power” of teaching the dog and telling them a story. This provides two things to the child; an environment with little outside stress, and they get to be the teacher who knows the most in the relationship. I recalled a book I recently read, Brain Rules, by John Medina, about the brain and its learning processes. I actually ordered this book for my AP Psychology class because it highlighted many principles we learn about through the course. There is a chapter about stress and learning. One specific part defined stress as being helpless, or having a loss of power. The group using dogs to assist in reading conquered these aspects by eliminating the judgment of others (Stress) and allowing them to have control.

This stress of not knowing does not disappear through time. If you are with a group of people that are all talking about football and you have no interest or knowledge of football, do you chime in? No, since you know you cannot add anything to the conversation or at the worst you will say something that will be wrong and be “admonished”.

One school technique is to put people of differing abilities in groups and let them work on a project or activity. What if you are the student that knows or comprehends the least of the group is with high achievers? It is the same thing as the football example above. Even if it is all brand new material, we know that some kids are always the “smart ones” and the intimidation and judgment is still an issue. The teacher has to use specific techniques to solve this or this method is actually furthering the stress and frustration of the slower learner.

What I would like to do, but I have yet to figure out excatally how, is to eliminate all the grades of some students half way through a semester. The ones who cannot do the material will still fail, but there are certain students that give up at that point because they realize that they cannot improve and the stress is one of learned helplessness. Unfortunately there are issues of fairness to other students and the student who worked hard all semester earns the same grade as one who had half their grade eliminated. Those issues are unfortunate since school is for learning and if one learned better with that second chance, teachers would actually be doing their job better by promoting learning not grades.