Thursday, October 15, 2009
Education
As part of our accreditation work, we are developing a Quality Enhancement Plan at Shaw University -- designed to select one area of student learning (such as reading, math, public speaking, global understanding, technology, etc.) that needs improvement and coming up with a strategy to make it better. IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT AREA OF STUDENT LEARNING THAT WE SHOULD FOCUS ON TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE PREPARED FOR THE "REAL WORLD" OUT THERE AND WHY?
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I think the biggest area Shaw needs to focus on is global understanding. We live in a world that is truly global because of technology, transportation, and communication. What happens in one country effects many others. There should be an added focus on the Asian Continent. I am an International Relations major and was surprised to see that Shaw doesn't offer classes on the Asian economy, culture and politics. Asia is the fastest area growing in all international arenas.
ReplyDeleteI believe that all areas are important and should be focused on to make sure that we are prepared for the real world. A person can be a genius when it comes to math, but if he or she can not read or write, or have some sense of vocabulary, then he or she will struggle in the real world. I have been looking up different medical schools that I would like to attend. My first choice is Harvard Medical School. After researching a little bit about the requirements to get in, a prospective student must take Calculus and English to even be considered. I never understood why I had to take math or English, I want to be a doctor. I thought I only had to focus on the sciences. But then I thought about it; medical schools want their students to be well rounded. A doctor has to write prescriptions (doses deal with numbers and math) and they have to communicate to their patients so a doctor should take a public speaking class in order to understand how to effectively communicate. I was also wondering why I have to take so many ethics classes, I know right from wrong, but professional ethics classes go deeper into just right from wrong. So I believe that in order to make it in the real world, a person has to be well rounded. It is okay to know one subject better than another but a person should have some knowledge about other subjects as well. We are working toward the same goal...SUCCESS! I look at school as a competition. And that's how the real world is, it is nothing but a group of people competing for the same thing. A person who has knowledge on a little bit of everything is a person who may make it very far in the real world.
ReplyDeleteAs the speaker spoke today....i think that the school should be more of being balanced and getting prepared for the real world. Teaching students how to manage their lifestyles and different things that go in life all at one. Being organized and ready for what comes after college and the situations that they may face in the real world after college,after finding a job and moving foward with life.
ReplyDeleteI believe reading is most important because it is the foundation of learning. While I do realize that we can all read if we've made it to the college level, I've also noticed that many struggle with reading comprehension. I feel a lot of students have difficulty processing and truly understanding what they read. If we don't have this basic foundation, we can't interpret classwork or study properly.
ReplyDeleteI believe that english is the main component for a students education. As a Mass Communication major speaking and writing the correct way is a must, speaking or writing any kind of way is not appropriate for a professional setting. English goes with every field that is offered because people feel more comfortable around people that sound like they know what there talking about.
ReplyDeletei beleive that all areas need to be worked on to make Shaw better, but the one that relly needs to be worked on more is reading.the reason why I say that is becuase alot of peole that I come up against do not know how to read. I think that is sad. I dont understand how they even made it here! reading is fundemental and very important. If you cant read then when it comes to all the other areas you cant do any of them becuse you dont underztand what you are reading or looking at.knowledge is power if you use it!
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to what area that need to be focuse; on I woud say all of them. Lets take English, if we don't learn english we won't write corretly and speak correctly so it can make sense to others and ourselves. Math; we need to defintly know math today due to our bill and how to budget. Science; why is the weather the way it is how would we know that we are in danger when we can look at the sky and see a tornado is coming or that a thunderstorm is around the corner. Reading; how can we communicate with one another if we don't even know what we're saying and using words out of context. In our modern world today we need to be versitle and learn every aspect that we can to become more aware of things around us. The area we should focus on is the children.
ReplyDeleteWe all live in a society with different culturals so I feel that Shaw needs to improve in all areas of Education. Balancing and being diverse is very important because it is a way to help us in everyday life. So if Shaw improves in all of the areas you become well rounded. I read an essat called "The Mother's Tongue" and it was about a Chinese daughter who
ReplyDeletewas very Americanized but her mother did not speak English very well. This is how the daughter grew up but she taught herself because her mother did not speak English well. In her story she talked about how English was her passion along with writing but her teachers would always say to her"you would be better in engineering something dealing with math" but that's not what she wanted to do. I say that to say this......we all can do what we put our minds to and let's not get stuck in a comfort zone and never let someone sterotype you because of a culture. If Shaw improves in all all this areas it gives us as scholars a better chance to broadenour horizons. The Chinese lady I was talking about she is a writer today and has written several books.
I feel that the most critical aspect of learning that we should focus on is social relations. Once we learn how to understand and cooperate with other who we view as different from ourselves, we will evolve into a better society. Everybody is significant to anybody and we need to realize that. So I feel that we should place more emphasis on our social science and psychology classes.
ReplyDeletePhoenix 09 I agree with you that the biggest part of learning is globaliztion. We need to learn to relate with our brothers and sisters in other nations. to understand them is to mature in ourselves.
ReplyDeletei think that the biggest thing shaw need to focus on is the technology. ain't no need to focus on technology and that other stuff if the teacher that is teaching it is not doing a good job with technology they self... but technology is growing everyday so we need to try to keep up with it...
ReplyDeletei agree with tkeller1990 reading is like the top thing we need. with out it how can we be successful. im not the best reader but it can be better...
ReplyDeletefrom what Trinette said im going to agree with that one too. improve in all areas is a good thing to try to do, but it my be to much to do and thats alot to learn. but if its a way shaw can make it happen with out making us go crazy then ok thats cool...
ReplyDeleteTrinette,
ReplyDeleteI know that is a story by Amy Tan, but I can't find the essay on the internet. Do you know where I could find it? i am interested in reading it. I like what you wrote about it. We should never let someone tell us we can not do something, we should let ourselves be the judge of our abilities!
Now this is a good one! umm all of these are needed skills to develop yourself in society but I think that reading is the most important. you find out so much about the world just by pickng up the newspaper and reading and its a great way to stay ahead of your on your game. you find out how the things going on in the world affect you whether it may be good or bad. Reading is a great way to expand your knowledge too no matter what your reading you can learn something from whatever you decide to read.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of the subject on enhancing students learning in certain areas of being prepared for the real world is that public speaking and reading are two major subjects that needs to be worked on. In life being apart of the corpporate world is that you have to be able to articulate, converse intellectually amongst a group of individuals and knowing how to read with understanding because if not then u will be left behind. Those two subjects are the main things thats being acknowledged when doing interviews and more. With public spaeking nd reading instilled in you it makes life a little more easier.
ReplyDeletei think that shaw university should focus shouldnt be on either of those items because my honest oppinion is that if you are in college they should be teaching you about life and how to survive and get a job out side of school and how to be successful i feel like we should have learned all we need to know on how to read write and speak in grammer and high school!!! and as far as technology these days kids are more advance than teachers are with technology so how can they teach us on that subject!! all in all i think that shaw main focus should be on getting us prepared for the real world!!
ReplyDeletedominique i agree with what you said to an extent. ok i can agree that public speaking should be a main focus because shaw can teach us how to speak in front of a audience in case we have to do a presentation at work for a higher postion or something but as far as reading i totally disagree because i feel you should learn that in grammer school if you get to college and dont know how to read than thats a problem...
ReplyDeleteM.r D.A i agree with what you are saying because that was one of my main focuses on my blog! these days and ages students know more than the teacher know so how can a teacher teach us something they are not that aware of and expect the students to learn!
ReplyDeleteMR. D.A I understand where you are coming from. you are absolutely right, why should we focus on something that the teacher doesnt even understand and really doesn't know how to teach it to us? But that is the real world. For example the household. Our parents teach us everything that they think we may need to know about life but it may be some things they leave out. When we get of age to get out on our own, eventually we have to learn to survive on our own. So in a way we teach ourselves everyday. We shouldn't be dependent on other people, teachers, preachers, or whoever to teach us EVERYTHING !
ReplyDeletedominiquedenney... I agree that public speaking is an important area that we need to focus on in the real world. If someone knows how to communicate effectively they are able to get ahead in life. I hear many students complain about how they will get a job if they earn their degree from Shaw but its not where you earn your degree from its how you use what you know (communicating effectively) to get that job. Most people think that employers hire on the basis of what information is on the application. I learned that to a certain extent they do, but they focus more on the way a person speaks. So I agree with you 100%.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many of the responses. I do think that we should focus on technology, reading, writing, and public speaking. However wen we add that all together we get more of an actual education than just one specific part of a diverse system. You see the world works any many different ways and if we focus on one fuction we would never truely know how the machine operates. When we know more we earn more. Financally we earn more, knowledge we earn more, Respect we earn more because we are able to anything we want like Trinette had said.
ReplyDeleteI honestly believe that the area of learning we should focus more on is public speaking. This is because after going to the Student Center and hearing the speaker talk it really made me look at life differently. There were so many wonderful strategies that he stated that help me with balancing my life in college. I really enjoyed him and I believe that when speakers like that that come to our school, and explain to us how to better ourselves in the future it really makes a difference. I believe that public speaking can be a major impact in other people's lives.
ReplyDeleteI think all of these are valid points. In light of the economic crisis maybe there should be more of a focus on personal finance. People lived beyond there means and banks let them. We should learn how to budget, estate planning, what insurance we need, even last will and testaments
ReplyDeleteI honestly believe that public speaking should be worked on because that is very important for interviews, and presentations. if your not good at doing these things then it could cost you a job, just because you dont know how to hold a conversation with someone.
ReplyDeleteI believe that public speaking should be the area that should be worked on the most. How you present yourself and the way you speak to people lets them know who you are as a person. It also helps you sound more professional and educated and gives off a good first impression.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Phoenix in which we should focus on finances. We all know that as of now the economy is bad and also we as the united states is in debt and has been for quite sometime now.If we had known early in advance, if someone had taught us something, if we had listened and learned from our past we would not make the same mistakes over and over again about budgeting and how to control and take care of our finances. We all know that other than yourself motovation money can break you. So lets start learning.
ReplyDeletePhoenix09(Walls) When I started reading the essay I couldn't put it down! I have the book that the essay is in and i will let you read it.People often let others tell them what they can and can't do but it's a mind over matter situation. We all are equipped to do well if we put our best foot forward!`
ReplyDeleteThank you Trinette!
ReplyDeleteI believe the focus should be placed mainly on reading and public speaking. English is very important in society. It is important for a student to know how to speak correctly and to be able to hold an intelligent conversation.
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