A recent Gallup poll found that in the last 14 years, around half of black college students graduated with student loan debt exceeding $25,000. Only 35 percent of white students had loan debt that high.
Often the only way for black students to afford a college education is by taking on these loans. Four out of five black students take student loans to attend college and typically have nearly $4,000 more student loan debt compared to white students, according to a 2013 report by The Center for American Progress.
There is deep inequality here in the U.S. In 2013, the median income for black households was $34,600, and the poverty rate is 27%, nearly three times that of white Americans.
Michelle Obama visited Booker T. Washington high school in Atlanta in September. She had an important message to deliver: Do not drop out of school. Go to college. Get out of poverty. Giving up on education is not an option.
President Obama admits that loans helped finance his and the First Lady’s education, and the President tried to convey to America’s youth that he sympathizes with the burden of student loans – they just paid off their student loans ten years ago. He also shares that he and Michelle are saving money for their daughters’ tuition.
Higher education has long been considered the key to escaping poverty, but it doesn’t come without a price tag attached. For black students, the cost is often higher than their white classmates. It is unfortunate that the burden of loan debt often follows students for decades after their graduation. This cycle only reinforces the income and racial inequalities so prevalent today in our country.
Online learning is more than a fad. The facts are staggering: According to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, there are nearly 1.9 million K-12 enrollments in online courses every school year, up from under 50,000 in 2000. The current number does not even include students enrolled in primarily online schools. Thirty-one states have full-time online schools that serve on a statewide basis.
The top reason that districts give for offering online options is for credit recovery, with 81 percent of urban schools citing this reason. Are online courses really equal to ones in the classroom though? It really depends who you ask. Recent news reports out of California show that high school graduation rates are at an all-time high of 78 percent, with even higher numbers in areas like San Francisco and San Jose. While some educators use these numbers to point to student success, critics say the rise in graduation numbers does not necessarily mean that students are college ready. The rise of online courses as a means to “make up” failed or incomplete classes are part of the reason more kids graduate – but do they know what they should?
It is of course impossible to answer that vague of a question but the debate rages on just the same. Just how rigorous is an online high school course? This is likely a cloudy area for those of us who grew up before the Internet forever changed the face of distance education. On a basic level, if a student reads the material, and is able to give correct answers on a test, that means he or she has “learned” the content. When an educator takes into account other influential factors like learning style, intelligence and work ethic, that basic definition becomes murky. The general consensus in the education community seems to be that even though online courses have merit, they are less rigorous than classroom settings.
Then there is the issue of online learning as an overarching ideology. Embracing the inevitability that online learning is a very real part of the average college education, the state of Florida began requiring in 2011 that high school students in the 24-credit graduation option to take at least one online course. The public, Internet-based Florida Virtual School leads the way in this innovation and is considered a national leader in the e-Learning model. So in this example, Florida is not simply offering online courses as a backup; the state mandates that students on a college prep path get early exposure to the type of learning they are likely to see in college.
This point really accents the two very different ways to look at online courses in K-12 education. On one hand, there is educational merit, though that education is debatable as to the actual extent of its effectiveness. On the other hand, there is the practicality aspect of exposing students to online learning long before the college years. The second point paints online learning as a life skill of sorts – something for kids to understand before entering the real world as adults, much like balancing a bank account or learning how to create a resume. Without a solid understanding of online learning before graduation, students are less prepared for what they will face academically following high school.
The K-12 online course dissenters are just wasting their breath, in my opinion. The momentum of online learning is gaining speed.
Educating the whole child and developing character goes beyond the core subjects being taught each day. Many school districts recognize this and have instituted programs encouraging or requiring students to give time in service to their community and peers. Organizations like the National Honor Societyhave incentivized service, giving recognition for student efforts outside of school. And, when these students apply to colleges and universities, their service record usually improves their chance at being accepted.
Given how much we as a culture value community service and the well-rounded individual, more U.S. high schools need to offer institutionalized and systemized service opportunities for their students. In the vast majority of public schools, service is a club activity. In private schools, service is so important that it is graded. But in most public schools, students must find their own charitable organization and arrange to work there of their own initiative. There may be an advisor to help in this process or they have established relationships with nonprofits thereby making it is easier to connect, but a student’s service has no bearing on their formal school record.
The National Honor Society does fill in the gap where organized, school-mandated service is not available. Through the NHS, students give hours and track that data by school sponsors who are responsible for verifying, tracking and reporting student hours given to service. This legitimizes the student’s efforts and for college applications, is a critical validation in a hyper-competitive landscape.
Yet, turning service into more than simply checking-off-the-box-so-I-can-get-into-college scenario, requires a bit more effort. In the over 10 million service hours that students have logged and tracked for schools through our company, the overwhelming majority of school leaders tell us that students need to think about their service and its impact. They need to make a personal connection between their lives and those whom they have helped. Schools call this reflection. Service, they say, is more significant and meaningful when students are required to write down their thoughts after they’ve completed their service.
Teachers and student advisors recognize this connection between action and mind. Guilford County Schools in North Carolina has a very active service-learning program with over 1.4 million service hours logged to date, and is nationally recognized as a District of Character by Character.org. Yvonne Eason is the coordinator for character development and service-learning at the district. Guilford, like many schools we work with, requires students to write down their thoughts about their service. “The reflections piece is huge for us. We’re looking for our students to reflect on the experience of service-learning. This goes well beyond just recording the number of learning hours served. It gives students a chance to share what impact each experience had on them personally as learners and individuals, as well as what type of impact they’re having on the community, or organization they’re serving,” says Ms. Eason.
Reflection is at the very base of building a well-rounded individual who has skills and experiences beyond classroom instruction. This simple action–writing down our thoughts of helping others—takes our regimented, subject-heavy learning environment beyond the “how” and answers the question, “Why?”
About the Author
Michele Pitman, creator of x2VOL developed the platform in partnership with high schools to give them an easier, more accurate way to manage, track, verify and report service hours students give in the community. x2VOL is the most widely used service tracking and reporting platform in K12 education with over 10 million approved service hours.
Academic dishonesty is nothing new. As long as there have been homework assignments and tests, there have been cheaters. The way that cheating looks has changed over time though, particularly now that technology has made it easier than ever. Perhaps the most interesting caveat of modern-day cheating in U.S. classrooms is that students often do not think that what they are doing is wrong.
A study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics interviewed 23,000 high school students and asked them a variety of questions about academic ethics. Of the teens surveyed, 51 percent said that they had knowingly cheated at some point on an exam but that they had no qualms about the behavior. A Common Sense Media survey found that 35 percent of students had cheated via cell phone, though the parents surveyed in that particular study did not believe their kids had ever cheated. In many cases, students did not realize that tactics like looking up answers on a smartphone were actually cheating at all.
In today’s K-12 classrooms, students who cheat are rarely caught. There are no formulas written on in the insides of hands or students looking across the aisle, or whispering answers to their classmates. Today’s students use smartphones, tablets or even in-class computers to aid their cheating endeavors and leave no trace of their crimes. Since cheating through technology is not listed specifically as being against the rules in many school policies, students do not view the actions an unethical.
Consider the following ways that technology aids in modern-day academic dishonesty:
• Storing notes on a cell phone.
• Purchasing prewritten papers online, or ordering them to be customized.
• Writing a paper that is basically the same as something else found online, but changed enough to look original.
• Students text messaging each other answers.
• Using a smartphone camera to take a picture of a test or exam.
• Using voice recorders or virtual assistance programs to record or ask for answers.
Most of the tactics on this list were non-existent 10 years ago, or at least the technology was not in common use by young people. A Pew Internet survey found that 78 percent of teenagers have mobile phones, up from just 23 percent in 2011. The technology is being adopted so quickly that school districts cannot adequately keep up with cheating policies, or even awareness campaigns that alert students to the problem with using technology to find answers in a certain way.
From a young age, students learn that answers exist at their fingertips through search engines and expert websites. It is more efficient to just look up the answers through the hard work someone else has already done than to find the answers on their own. K-12 students are not the only culprits though. When was the last time you went to the library or dug through physical records or documentation to find the answer to something? Adults take advantage of the convenience of technology all the time – even in the workplace. The difference, of course, is that most adults grew up at least partially technology-free. Today’s students will not have that life experience and instead will have learned the quickest ways to find answers – not necessarily the right ones.
Schools must develop anti-cheating policies that include technology and those policies must be updated consistently. Teachers must stay vigilant when it comes to what their students are doing in classrooms and how technology could be playing a negative role in the learning process. Parents must also talk to their kids about the appropriate ways to find academic answers and alert them to unethical behaviors that may seem innocent in their own eyes.
What do you think can fix the technology/cheating issue?
In a post to its blog, LearnLaunch has released research recognizing the Top 20 education technology opportunities for investment and to improve student outcomes.. LearnLaunch is Boston’s leading startup incubator of edtech companies devoted to pedagogical improvement.
LearnLaunch partner, Jean Hammond, and MIT Sloan graduate and co-founder of Smile and Learn, Blanca Rodriguez, conducted the study, focusing on why education has often been gradual to adapt to technological innovations. The summation of their research led Hammond and Rodriguez to illuminate both the pressing concerns of educators and the opportunities for entrepreneurs, which enabled them to identify the crucial overlap of the two.
In explaining the strategy of their conclusions, Jean Hammond remarked, “We applied a framework of overlaying market vulnerabilities in the education market with specific areas of technology disruption.” The 20 companies attributed in this list represent the most promising areas for edtech ventures such as data analytics, gamification, and machine learning
Hammond and Rodriguez identified, to their dismay, the reality that there is a mounting breach between schools that can adopt new technologies and those that cannot. Even with this disparity in mind, the study noted that the academic realm as a whole has been lagging behind other industries in their sluggish embrace of emerging technologies.
However, a trend toward investing in startups revolving around disruptive technologies has arisen over the past decade—the height of which was seen in the last quarter 2015. One major roadblock to new disruptive startups flourishing is the hesitance of investors funding early-stage companies.
One result of this reluctance to embrace innovation is stagnant returns in student performance—despite the hefty increase institutions have invested in their students. The integration of disruptive technologies is exactly what the educational sector needs to begin to thrive. In analyzing the discrete market forces within the industry, Hammond and Rodriquez identified exactly what types of innovation will be most conducive to success within the current state of education. They divided the most influential forces affecting the market into two categories: market vulnerabilities and tech and science disruptions. The former encapsulates government regulations, transition success, and special populations and narrow markets, while the latter represents virtual reality and other emerging user experiences and interfaces, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and brain science.
In order to successfully navigate and tackle these forces, Hammond and Rodriquez applied a framework that provided actionable data. At the intersection of the market vulnerabilities and tech and science disruptions is where Hammond and Rodriquez believe immense opportunity lies. These are the 20 opportunities identified within their analysis: peer2peer learning, neuroscience, virtual training, students-creators, rethinking schools, mobile, flipped classroom, blended learning, machine learning, open educational resourced, project-based learning, automated speech recognition, gamification, adaptive learning, data analytics, competency-based learning, machine learning, non-cognitive or affective learning, and global education.
For many of us, there’s no better feeling than having a positive impact on a kid. Growing up can be tough, and school and what lies beyond can feel like a maze. You’ve been through it yourself, and if you were lucky, you had a school counselor who helped set you on the right path.
If you’ve been teaching and want to switch gears, or if working with elementary, middle school, or high school students feels right and you know you have a lot to offer, a career in school counseling may be a perfect fit for you. You can even keep your current job while you get a Masters of Education in School Counseling at one of the country’s best colleges for counseling.
With a bachelor’s degree (in any field) from an accredited university, and taking only two classes per semester, most online degree programs can be completed in eight semesters and will qualify you for Licensed Professional Counseling Certification. Go to this website to find out the exact requirements and curriculum involved. There’s usually even financial aid available.
Being a school counselor means becoming personally involved with young students of all ages and helping them along the way to becoming productive and successful adults. School counselors work as a team with administrators and families to meet challenges students might be facing at school or at home, and serve as mentors on the journey to high school graduation and beyond.
At every level, what makes a great counselor is compassion and the ability to understand a student’s needs, interests, talents, and desires, and relate them to real-world options. Maybe above all is skill at listening to both what the student says and doesn’t say, and knowing how to channel his or her strengths and overcome his or her weaknesses.
The specific scope of the work varies with the age of the children:
Elementary School
Working with young children in elementary school, counselors are often involved with students who have behavioral issues or learning disorders. Their work can involve assessing those problems and conferring with parents and teachers as to recommended ways to resolve them, sometimes bringing in other professionals like psychologists and therapists. The earlier these kinds of difficulties are dealt with, the smoother the road a child has to academic success.
Middle School
It’s in middle school that students who may have had childhood dreams about being ballerinas or cowboys begin thinking in earnest about what they want to be when they grow up. A school counselor at this point can be an invaluable aid in guiding middle-school students toward other opportunities they may not even have known existed.
Working with students at both ends of the academic spectrum — from those with learning disorders to those in advanced placement classes — a counselor is called upon to adapt thoughtfully to each child’s needs and be a sounding board for their concerns.
High School
In high school, students begin wrestling with the very real choices that lie before them. College is a goal for many, but which college and why? Technical training instead of a traditional university is another option, and students who might be inclined in that direction need help in evaluating those choices and the careers they may lead to.
High school counselors are often involved in helping students select classes and electives that will bolster their chances of acceptance, and assist them in applying to schools and finding financial aid. At the same time, high school counselors are sometimes called upon to help kids through difficulties in the social realm that can derail even the best students. Often a student finds a counselor easier to take a problem to than a parent, and it’s a fortunate teenager who has a counselor he or she can really talk to.
College-Level
Counselors at the college level work with students to plan courses of study and maximize the benefits of their degrees. They may help direct them to graduate studies that fit their career goals, and counsel them on available internships and entry-level jobs. Some may even offer assistance with writing resumes and learning how to interview. It’s a great counselor who sends a new graduate off into the working world with the confidence and skills to succeed.
As a teacher you may find it very difficult to work with your principal. Therefore this article provides tips for surviving the work place as you continue to invest in the lives of students.
Being a teacher was hands down one of the most difficult things that I have ever done in my life. It was also, however, the most rewarding. I had excellent relationships with my colleagues and my building principals, who served as a support system during times of uncertainty and difficulty. I hope that you will have a similar experience, but I also want you to be prepared if you do not.
Your school principal serves as an immediate supervisor and has direct authority over the day-to-day management of the school. A principal can be an invaluable ally in your pursuit to educate students or can be a nuisance and make your life a living hell. Here are some strategies that you can use to deal with a difficult principal.
Take steps to open the lines of communication, and build a healthy reciprocal relationship with your principal. There is nothing wrong with appeasing your principal, and even “kissing up.” Your objective is to coexist with him or her and be the best teacher that you can be. Document every interaction between you and your building principal. If there is a problem down the line, you will have a detailed record of your interactions. Also, if your colleagues witnessed important interactions between you and your principal, be sure to record their names and other pertinent information.
If you feel as though your principal is bullying or persecuting you, try to stay calm and remain professional. Give the principal the benefit of the doubt at first, but if he or she crosses the line, it may be time to seek help. This is especially true if you feel that you have done all that you can to solve the problem.
If you do decide to seek outside help or advice, your union representative will be your first line of defense. The representative will inform you of your rights and help you devise a plan for dealing with the situation. If your principal is exhibiting bullying behaviors toward you, odds are that he or she has also bullied others. There is a possibility that your union representative has fielded complaints about this principal in the past.
If the problem does not subside with time, I would either transfer to another school in the district or simply leave. If you are not satisfied with this course of action, perhaps you should report the principal’s actions to someone further up the chain of command, but make sure you have done your part by having a heart-to-heart with your principal. Remember, it’s not your fault, and everyone, even principals, must face the consequences of their actions.
We would like to think that principals are all altruistic people who treat everyone fairly and have our best interests at heart, but in the end they are human just like us. I have seen strong relationships between teachers and principals devolve into toxic ones within the blink of an eye. The funny thing is that it was usually over some petty matter or a product of miscommunication.
There may come a time when you have to deal with a difficult principal, and I just want you to be prepared. If you implement these strategies, you should have no problem standing up for yourself. Remember why you love to teach and use these tips to deal with your principal.
It is important for educators and parents/guardians to understand the funding conditions of their local school district(s) because each condition impacts the amount and continual financial support provided to each school. In this blog the details of local funding conditions will be observed in order to bring awareness for the type of education your students may be receiving within their school.
Many states label schools under their jurisdiction and allot either descriptors or grades to them. Thus, schools can be characterized as “Excellent,” “Above Average,” “Fair,” “Poor,” or “Unacceptable,” receive a letter grade such as “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” or “F,” or be labeled using other types of systems. To meet its responsibility for openness and transparency, the state has an obligation to publish all such designations, whether in local or statewide news sources.
Schools that consistently receive poor or failing grades can be taken over by the state department of education. In some instances, state control of schools results in dismissal or reassignment of both administrators and teachers. Clearly, teachers are being held directly accountable for the achievement (or nonachievement) of the students in their charge. Student performance is looked at as a reflection of both the teacher’s and the school’s effectiveness. When choosing a school for their child, parents can use the schools’ designation (e.g., “Excellent” or “Fair”) as part of their decision. The potential enrollment of schools is impacted by the publication of the schools’ grade, and school funding can also be affected because enrollment is one of the measures used to determine the funds a school can receive.
Differences in the amount of money for education gained through property taxes mean the difference between getting a good education that enables students to become productive members of society and failing to do so. For parents and teachers alike, this can be a source of frustration. Teachers sometimes can’t obtain required materials, have to teach in buildings where the environmental conditions are not conducive to learning, and have to deal with social issues that are more prevalent in less-affluent areas, such as crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and the presence of gangs.
On the other hand, it can be very difficult to redistribute and reallocate funds for education, because wealthier areas may not be happy with their funds being taken away from their schools to finance schools in poorer districts. This approach has been termed the Robin Hood effect, where money is taken from wealthier areas and reallocated for spending in poorer areas of the state. The objective is to allow all students to receive the same access to education, thereby bringing about equity in the education received by all students in the state. This does not, however, always have the desired effect.
Redistribution of funds from wealthier areas may, for various reasons, cause a decline in the quality of education, teaching, or access to resources in the wealthier areas without bringing about a similar increase in the same factors at the recipient school in the poorer area. This creates an overall decrease in the quality of education offered to all students in the district. Several states, including Arizona and New Mexico, have a system in which all taxes go into a central fund and are then reallocated according to a complex “equalization formula.”
Some groups argue that instead of focusing on educational equity, districts and local administration should be focusing on educational adequacy. Unfortunately, adequacy is a term that is ill-defined because there are no prescribed criteria to define how you determine whether or not education is adequate. It could mean that you expect that all high school graduates are capable of attending university-level instruction, whether they choose to or not.
It could also mean that you expect that high school graduates are competent in handling life outside of the school environment, which may not focus on higher education at all. Alternatively, it could simply mean that all students are required to pass all standardized, state-level testing requirements, without placing any focus on future objectives. It is unlikely that, without a clear definition of educational adequacy, any further remediation of funding disparities between wealthy and poorer areas will lead to a solution that is beneficial to all.
It’s essential that schools adapt within a fast-changing economy, but our system still arranges funding in an inequitable manner. Those realities severely limit our educational system’s ability to effectively and accountably use resources in planned ways. Critics of increased spending on education routinely highlight nationwide cases of misspending of major increases in funding that provided little or no positive outcomes for student learning. Without adjustments in the distribution of resources, their use, and accountability, Americans may end up with a more expensive, though not necessarily more efficient, public education system.
Our children require and deserve a proper education, and we must strive to provide them with the type of education that they deserve. The money available for schools must be used in the most effective manner possible. And most important, we must understand the deficiencies in our educational funding system and strictly forbid placing blame—which rarely serves to encourage cooperation. Rather, we must demonstrate accountability for our situation and fulfill our responsibility to our children.
Funding is crucial for the support, survival, and overall level of success for school districts. Therefore take time to review your jurisdiction and the functionality of funding.
Each year online learning initiatives becomes less of a fringe movement and more of an incorporated, and accepted, form of education. More than 6.7 million people took at least one online class in the fall of 2011 and 32 percent of college students now take at least one online course during their matriculation. It is even becoming commonplace for high schools to require all students to take an online class before graduation as a way to prep them for the “real world” of secondary education.
The flexibility and convenience of online learning is well known but what is not as readily talked about is the way distance education promotes diversity of the college population. With less red tape than the traditional college format, online students are able to earn credits while still working full time, maintaining families and dealing with illnesses. Whether students take just one course remotely, or obtain an entire degree, they are able to take on the demands of college life more readily – leading to student population with more variety.
The Babson Survey Research Group recently revealed that while online college student enrollment is on the rise, traditional colleges and universities saw their first drop in enrollment in the ten years the survey has been conducted. This drop is small – less than a tenth of one percent – but its significance is big. A trend toward the educational equality of online curriculum is being realized by students, institutions and employers across the board. The benefits of a college education through quality online initiatives are now becoming more accessible to students that simply cannot commit to the constraints of a traditional campus setting.
A controversial experiment that could lead the way to even more college credit accessibility is MOOCs, or massive open online courses. As the name implies, these classes are offered to the general public at a low cost, or no cost, in the hopes of earning their students college credit. California-based online course provider Coursera recently had five of its offerings evaluated by the American Council on Education for college credit validity. Four of the courses were recommended for college credit by ACE, and one was endorsed for vocational credit, providing student work verification through a strict proctoring process.
These credits are not earned through community colleges or online-institutions; Duke University, the University of California at Irvine and the University of Pennsylvania are on Coursera’s list of places the courses will earn credit for students that pay a nominal fee. Students that obtain these credits through Coursera can approach any higher education institution and seek their inclusion in a degree program, but the final discretion is up to the particular school.
MOCCs are certainly in an infancy stage and do not provide a “sure thing” yet for students that participate. In the Babson survey mentioned earlier, only 2.6 percent of schools offer a MOOC, but an additional 9.4 percent are building a MOCC plan. The potential for further diversity and equality in education through MOCCs is certainly on the horizon. This form of online learning means that students do not have to commit to an entire course of study to obtain credits or even commit to a particular institution upfront.
MOOCs will further eliminate the socio-economic barriers that keep promising students from seeking out college credits. Students are given more flexibility in scheduling at an affordable price. Though the MOOC trend has its dissenters, I believe it will win over even the most skeptical and increase accessibility for all people that seek higher education. After all, at one time the mention of online courses raised a few eyebrows in the educational community and look how far the concept has come. Further development of online initiatives, specifically in the area of MOOCs, represents the next big step for enriching the diversity of the college student population in America.
Recently, at a child’s birthday party, I overheard a conversation between parents discussing their concern about “screen time.”
Phones, computers, iPads and the good old television are all around us. And this can be a source of anxiety for parents, caregivers and teachers. A recent report from the American Academy of Pediatricssuggests the amount of time young children spend viewing television and movies and playing on handheld devices is increasing.
As an early childhood media researcher, an early childhood teacher educator and a parent, I understand these concerns. But, I believe, it is equally important that we consider how children are learning from the time spent in front of the screen.
My research shows that children are creating complex oral stories through the characters they see on screen.
Educational opportunities in “screen time”
A number ofstudies show how viewing television and other media can contribute to children’s learning. Children have been known to improve their math and literacy skills from watching “educational” shows such as Sesame Street.
When children watch educational programs and interact with apps that promote learning, they make gains in literacy, numeracy and vocabulary. A recent articlein Young Children, a publication of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)(a nonprofit organization that works to promote early learning), shows how children can gain several skills through experience with computers and handheld devices.
These devices can facilitate better language and literacy outcomes, such as letter recognition, listening, comprehension and vocabulary. When children play games that link letter sounds to written letters, it can increase their ability to hear and identify individual sounds – skills children need in order to read.
Researchers showthat children learn from both print and digital picture books. Digital storybooks (e-books) that pair spoken word with pictures and print text can enhance vocabulary.
Apps that allow a “read-along” experience, for example, can help children develop a better understandingof concepts about stories and print, especially if they have printed text that children can see. E-books that highlight words as they are read, help young children learn that print is read from left to right in English.
Children learn from superheroes as well
But it is important to realize that it is not just “educational” television and media from which children learn. Children pick up ideas from television (even television not considered “educational”) and use them to enhance literacy.
Children can learn from superheroes, too. Researcher on early childhood learning Anne Haas Dyson found that seven- to nine-year-old children] took the superheroes they watched on cartoons and brought them into their fiction writing and dramatic play.
Her research shows children, like adults, often use media and media characters as tools. With the help of their teacher, children brought their home life and interests into school to make their writing come to life.
Dyson’s research demonstrates that when allowed, children use media – songs, characters from their favorite shows and movies – as a way to enhance their “school learning.”
My own researchdemonstrates how preschool children take unlikely characters in popular television shows and movies and blend them together to create complex oral stories.
Children bring what they learn from superheroes into fiction writing and dramatic play. Stephen Train, CC BY-NC
I spent nearly a year in a preschool to observe how three- to five-year-old preschool children talked and thought about television, movies and handheld devices. These preschool children often talked about characters from a wide range of television shows and movies.
For example, one preschooler, I observed, “borrowed” Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, a tween rockstar, as the protagonist in her tale. After introducing Hannah Montana, she brought Boots (the monkey from Dora the Explorer, a preschool cartoon) into her story. She spun a story in which Hannah Montana and Boots battled and ultimately defeated a villainous monster from a movie.
Preschoolers took ideas from shows such as Sesame Street, Mickey mouse Clubhouse, cartoons featuring Spiderman, Tinkerbell and Spongebob. Some combined these with shows that older siblings and family members watched such as action movies, professional wrestling and even monster movies.
Rather than repeating what they saw on television, they brought ideas from their own community to make new stories.
The stories children saw and the characters they knew from television also allowed them to relate to other children. Superheroes, characters from Frozen and other popular culture characters can give children from diverse backgrounds a common (and exciting) topic in which to create play scenarios.
And this play involves negotiating and talking with other children about characters and plot, which in turn enhances oral language. Oral language is a crucial aspect of literacy for young children.
How should adults monitor screen-time?
Although research shows the way in which children learn from media, there are also legitimate concerns about what children see on these screens.
Media is created from viewpoints and stances that may not always be acceptable to parents and teachers. Media can show people in inaccurate and stereotypical lights.
So what should adults do with all of the media content coming into their children’s lives?
Research with preschoolers has shown that conversations allow a child to examine who is being shown in media and the way they are being shown. And it is important to note that children’s view of these stereotypes often depends on their home lives and environments. These conversations are important for children.
Adults also need to recognize that screen time is one way for children to learn. It is certainly not the only way. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that children should engage with entertainment media for no more than one or two hours per day.
As they note, it is important for kids to spend time on outdoor play, reading, hobbies and using their imaginations in free play. Children need rich experiences in their lives and interactions with other people. Screens cannot make up for this.
Children need a healthy balance. While we should be careful in flinging open the gates of media, we should be equally concerned about chaining them shut.
Allison S Henward, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Hawaii
