When I look at the biology standards for high school students I see some main areas that need to be covered: cell structure and metabolism; photosynthesis and cellular respiration; diseases; evolution and genetics. Now, of course a lot of things can fit within those topics but, when I look at how much I teach, I am definitely teaching more than the state standards are asking to be taught.
I think that the standards are somewhat effective because they help to guide a teacher in what they teach. Standards can be a good resource for teachers to make sure that all biology students are learning the same general ideas that way when they move on to either AP sciences or college that they are all coming out of the course with at least the same general principles and ideas. However, I think that most biology teachers are teaching more than is listed in the state standards. For instance, there is no life science standard that involves Gene Technology however it is something that I teach every year. And I teach it because students can relate to it, they see these techniques being used on shows like: "Law and Order" and "CSI." And it also ties together a lot of information about DNA. Of course I can probably find a standard to fit it in however, there is no standard that says that I need to cover it.
I think that it is a good thing that we have state standards, as I said it helps us to at least make sure that our students in NJ are leaving a particular subject knowing the same general ideas. Some will always know more, however, no student should know less. It is important to have some type of standards otherwise we would just have teachers teaching whatever it is that they think is interesting and although that is not always bad students still need to leave at the end of the year knowing the same general principles as a student somewhere else.
National standards can help us to make sure that students are learning the same general principles in their classes. think that it a school or district wants to have their own standards that is fine but they should make sure that they are at least abiding by the state standards. However, no standards I think would lead to problems.
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4 comments:
Even with standards, teachers still "do their own thing" as we discussed in class. How do we reconcile the two?
I can see your students will be ready for success in college.
Even if teachers do their own thing, they still need to do their own thing within the standards or outside of the standards as long as all the standards have been met.
I agree with your idea that the standards are important but an effective teacher will go beyond what is required for their students to be successful. The standards are a guide to what material needs to be taught. It is the teachers responsibility to deliver the lesson and stress the most important details.
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