Binder Checks Stifle Individualized Learning
When it comes to binder checks, there are generally two types of students: those for whom it is no trouble and those for whom it is an impossible task. While some students thrive on their teacher’s method of tabs, sections and order, there are many who hurriedly spend time before class trying to make it look as though they’ve kept their binder up to the teacher’s standards. Although there are students capable of keeping things in a teacher approved arrangement, there are others who will naturally diverge in order to accommodate their own needs. By enforcing a narrow definition of organization, teachers who grade on binder checks disadvantage students who learn in a different style.
Every student learns best in their own specific way. By the time you’re in high school, it’s important to be fully engaged in the process of discovering the way in which you function best, as it is crucial knowledge for the rest of your academic life. Many students are still exploring their learning styles, but plenty have already discovered them. For those who have already made the discovery, their learning styles are no longer malleable to the teacher’s touch. By grading students on one rigid style of organization, teachers are creating an unfair disadvantage to all the learners who have already discovered that the teacher’s way is not the way they learn best.
It is illogical to mark students down for not learning in one particular way. If a student is doing well in a class, it’s clear that whatever system they are utilizing works for them. Grading them down for their organization simply means grading them down for not conforming to the teacher’s preferred method, which has nothing to do with content. While a teacher can grade the final product (a paper, a worksheet, etc.), they have no right to grade the process. By giving points to students for conforming into the narrow definition of what successful learning looks like, teachers are potentially making academic success harder for those who think and learn in a different style. Not every student writes the A plus paper by outlining with bullet points in the instructed section of their binder. It is the student’s right to determine the way they will complete their work.
Some may say that teacher–enforced organization encourages positive study skills, particularly in low achieving students. However, low achieving students are likely to be that way because the system already doesn’t work in favor of their learning style. Trying to force them to cooperate with a system that they have already realized doesn’t help them probably won’t garner better results. These students should be encouraged to exercise creativity and maturity through developing their own system that will help them succeed. While some students may thrive on the teacher–recommended system, in the case of study habits, one size does not fit all. Teachers should recommend a style of organization to students, but then allow them the freedom of choice as well.
Besides being potentially harmful to a grade, forcing students to organize in a certain way has serious effects on their futures. Prescribed binder organization forces a student to rely on external approval for something that should be crafted to suit personal needs.
Students gain maturity and valuable self–understanding when left to create a system that encourages their unique learning processes. By gaining a clear understanding of how they best operate, students can feel confident in making accomplishments in life without external approval. When they get older, instead of struggling to conform to systems that society believes they should fit, they will recognize that they operate on a different level and will understand the best way to create and organize that lifestyle. Instead of being dependent on their bosses or society to organize and reward them, these students will be capable of true independence, binder or no binder.
Comments
Post new comment