Annotated sources Documents

11.       Hellewell, Marianne, The Development of Mexican Schools

Hellewell argues that the education system in Mexico has developed in several stages such as: socialist education reforms, education issues of quality versus quantity, and twenty-first century challenges To prove the Socialist reforms he stated how the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States made attendance to elementary and lower secondary school mandatory. For his quality verse quantity clam he quoted an American researcher who said that the teachers complained how hard it was to keep their students in school because of the low quality education caused by the quantity of students. He didn’t provide any evidence for his last argument about how new technology advances are shaping their educational system. His arguments flowed in order and marked a clear organization.

        It helped me understand what past challenges Mexico has faced that could still be evident today.  This has caused me to expect crowded classrooms and a higher dropout rate

22.       Guichar, Stephanie, The Education Challenge in Mexico

The article tries to prove that the main problem in the performance in the education system in Mexico is not a lack of resources but rather inefficiencies in their spending and weak incentives for teachers to improve their teaching methods. Guichar used results from standard test to prove that the Mexican schools are very much below the global standard. It also provides facts on how much of the system’s spending goes to teacher’s salaries and very little to improve the resources and learning environment of the student.

This paper provided great facts that show the poverty of Mexico and the low performance of their education system.  It provided great resources to look for facts and data to understand a bit better the weaknesses and differences in their education system for ours. It also gives a list of existing programs to improve their education system; ex, Oportunidades and Telesecundaria.

33.       Powell, Kendall, Science education: Spare me the lecture

Powell aims to prove that the lecture technique for teaching science is not effective and give alternative ideas for better teaching methods. He backs up his argument with results from test scores and according to his study, the more interactive methods raid student understanding significantly.

I found this article effective because in my observation, especially in the science classrooms I will want to focus on the style of the teaching. In Mexico is it all lecture or do they have some experimental time.

44.       Hancock, LynNell, Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

The goal of the article says that the Finnish education system is effective and is a model for the rest of the world. The biggest factors that contribute to their success it that teachers have equal status with doctors and lawyers and thus many apply. This results in one teacher or assistant teacher for every seven students. Struggling students receive extra help from in tutor sessions. The Finish government also equalized the education system and resources of all the schools.

Learning about the Finnish system and its successes provides good ideas to know what works and what doesn’t when making my observations in the Mexico schools. For example I will pay more attention to number ratio of teachers to students.

55.       MacIsaac, Dan & Falconer, Kathlee, Reforming Physics Instruction Via RTOP

The article shows how the New Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) helps teachers focus on student so they understand physics better. It is a rating system that can be used universally. It increases classroom participation, retention of material and on task behavior. It discusses the importance for Students to discuss, negotiate, reflect upon, and evaluate one another’s words and ideas in small groups. The RTOP  might be exactly what I need to compare the teaching styles in Mexico to the local teaching styles here in Provo. Learning how to use the RTOP will give me quantitative data I can incorporate into my qualitative observations to better assess the need of lower class Latin education.

66.        Stern, Joyce, The Condition of Education in Rural Schools

Stern compares student education in rural schools with urban schools. Her results show that Rural schools do not provide any less quality of education but that rural student do tent to believe less in their potential. They tend to focus more on work than their education. The article seemed to prove that the culture of the rural communities was a greater detriment to the students than the limitation within the school system itself.  If I already know the difficulties of American rural communities, I can specialize in unique rural Mexican difficulties. It also provided great insight to the source for lack of achievement, vision and motivation.

77.       Gálve, Ruth Carolina, LATINO YOUTH FINDING SELF-ACTUALIZATION

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This article was more informative to provide information of a curriculum designed to help motivate Latinos succeed in their education in American schools. The program is called Latinos in action. It helps the students find a greater self-worth as it focuses on what makes them different and special from their peers. For example it capitalizes on their bilingual skills to teach and to tutor. It build up their vision of their potential. This article is an example of what is working so I can focus my research on improving existing research and programs rather than rediscovering proven tactics.

18.     Gopnik, Alison, How We Learn

She aims to show that learning is not just a one step process but that it can be broken down into two specific fundamentals: The process of discovery and of mastering what one discovers. She uses a few examples to show the learning process. 1. Very young Hispanic toddlers were able to master the art of tortilla making through observation, practice and correction. 2. Basketball coaches teach by example and correction, but English teachers rarely demonstrate the process of writing and essay. 

With her example she makes two main points. A. That the teachers need to do less lecturing and more exemplifying and practicing with the students. B. That schools are a lot about preparing to play with little playing actually occurring. She thinks that students should feel like scientist in their science classrooms.

 This article helped me realize not to look at learning as one even, but a compilation of steps. Maybe Mexico does one step very well but are lacking on the others. For example, they could be great at practicing but lack understanding.

·        9) Nancy E. Hill and Kathryn Torres, Negotiating the American Dream

This article talks about the unique challenges between teachers and the parents of Latino students. Hill and Torres claim that Latino students are not reaching their potential because of the language barrios and cultural differences between teachers and parents.  For example the Hispanic culture values communalism and interdependence, while in American schools they promote emphasize individual achievement, self-expression and competition.  The American education style of parents and teachers as equal partners is foreign to Latino parents. The Latino motivation for higher education is to support a family while the American dream promotes personal achievement.

This article helped me understand some of the greatest cultural differences that are causing problems for Hispanic student to achieve. Parents are not always being the best supports for their children not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t understand our education system and their role in it. Whatever help is implemented in American public schools to aid the Latino students must also include the participation of parents and be very easily understood. 

·     10) Perkins, David Teaching for understanding,

David Perkins seeks to define understanding and how to effectively teach so it is achieved. He argues that much of the common learning form teachers is learning for the sake of regurgitating processes for test questions.  He states with cited sources that students are learning knowledge and skills, but when it comes to the application of their knowledge to diverse circumstances they fail to capture the idea.  He explains understanding using the words: engage, teach one another, comprehension, make connections, and think through concepts and to carry out a variety of performances related to a topic.  He claims that without understanding, knowledge and skills are almost useless. He ends explaining the best ways to teach to understanding.

This article added to my further comprehension of what is required to motivate learning.  The more I understand how learning occurs, the better I will be able to judge the quality of it as I observe in the Mexican schools.  This article focused much more on the application to real world phenomenon and circumstances.  That just being able to solve book problems does not necessarily mean you understand the principle being taught.