Critical and Creative vs. "Drill and Kill"

The “drill and kill” method of teaching seems to be most effective when it comes to preparing for standardized tests. But there is a lot more to education than just being able to pass national tests. So, when people say that “drill and kill” is the best method of teaching, I have to disagree. “Drill and kill” is all about being able to absorb information long enough to be able to pass a test on it then move on to new information. Its memorization, memorization, memorization. Then once the test is over, the information is forgotten and it’s time to memorize the next set of information. If administration and teachers allow students to have the chance to exercise their ability to think creatively and critically, it would only enhance the child’s ability to truly understand and expand on the information they are being taught.

There have been many studies that have encouraged people to allow children to explore creative thinking. Critical and creative thinking have many proven positive elements. Some of those elements include improving “learning skills, health, personality development, making new friends and new interests” (The Importance of Creative Expression for Children, 2015). Some argue that an education is more important than having a creative mind because an education leads to success, but it seems as though the previously mentioned would be extremely important to life and happiness. Yes, public school education teaches people things that people need to know to get into college but being able to think creatively and critically allows them to take that knowledge to the next level.

Reference:

Moore, G. (2015, June 17). The importance of creative expression for children). Retrieved from https://newmelodies.com/the-importance-of-creative-expression-for-children/

Little Scientists

Moving away from the teaching methods of today and giving the youth a diverse, applicable education would be very beneficial. Anyone can memorize facts or theories, but it takes a true understanding of what’s being taught to be able to use that information effectively. Children are born with an incredible ability to explore the world around them by learning how everything works through their senses. This promotes critical and creative thinking. Once a child is of age to attend school, that explorative nature is taken away. Instead, their learning takes place through videos, presentations and books—which are great resources—but the education system needs to keep the exploration a child does alive throughout their education. Rather than solely using the “drill and kill” method, I think our education system should use a more “hand’s on” approach when teaching kids and apply what is taught to real-life scenarios. I believe this will not only teach children, but help them to securely obtain the information as well.

New World Balance

With technological advancements doubling annually, implementing certain forms of education will become imperative while others will fall by the wayside (1). Sitting solitarily at a desk and plugging away at handwriting may not have a place in the near future... with spellcheck, videos, emojis, and shorthand, texting, video chat, and email are quickly becomming the norm for communication. While analytical, spatial, and environmantal thinking should remain constant (think problem solving, math, and science), other types of education will become even more essential for simple human survival and advancement. Since there will be more time relying on and utilyzing technology, less physical activity, and more anxiety, depression, and attention issues are sure to rise (2). Through small group learning activites, the benefits of gardening, earthing or grounding, process focused art, and Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes should be taught to educators, parents, and children. These methods may be fostered on a regular basis to avoid the direct negative effects of too much technology (3, 4, 5, 6). Fortunately, with a little creativity, drive, and a small budget, a balance could likely be met.




1. https://ourworldindata.org/technological-progress

2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335518301827

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077/

5. https://cloudfront.escholarship.org/dist/prd/content/qt0786x6tw/qt0786x6tw.pdf

6. https://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/resources/active-learning/group-work-in-class/benefits-of-group-work/

Discussion Week 14

Different aspects of education including the “drill and kill” mentality have their time and place. As someone who was raised with strict parents and a catholic school education, I think that a large portion of that particular mentality is helpful in creating children that grow up to have a good work ethic. However, I also think that it can attribute to rebellious and divergent teens. Simply memorizing and repeating things until you learn them cannot prepare you for the future and all that you will need to make it in the real world. I think that the “drill and kill” mentality is much more prominent in high schools than in college education, but it is still quite an injustice to the children of the United States of all ages. Not to mention the students that are more “hands on learners” are set back by this way of teaching. The idea of “little scientists and critics” is great. It gives us hope for a new era. I think that inspiring more children to take their own thoughts to a new level by introducing critical thinking and creative thinking into their education is one step closer to having college graduates that are prepared to take the world by storm and inspire.

Critical and Creative Thinking

The "drill and kill" teaching style is not the most effective way for students to learn. In this this method, teachers pound as much information into students as possible so they will perform well on standardized tests. However, this method of teaching is not effective or beneficial to students. The disadvantage of drilling information into students is that they will only remember the information long enough to be tested on it, then they will forget it. I agree that education systems need to move away from this teaching method and towards more creative and critical thinking. Critical thinking allows students analyze concepts instead of just accepting them. This leads to a better understanding and retention of information (Hickerson, 2013). Using critical thinking helps students develop skills to analyze information and think like a scientist. Promoting creativity in schools also has many benefits to children. The "drill and kill" method can become exhausting to children and they will associate school with negative feelings. However, creative outlets in schools can give students a break from academics while they gain valuable skills. Creativity can teach children to consider different points of view or lead them to creative problem solving. Allowing children to have breaks will also encourage them to learn.

Hickerson, B. (2013). Critical and creative thinking: The joy of learning. Tempo Magazine, 34(2).

Divergent Curriculum

The "drill & kill" teaching technique works for some students, but others struggle with it. Education in the United States has been a topic of debate for several years. One of the most significant issues is statistics/data collected from standardized tests of U.S. Students continues to drop in rank with other Western Countries. While this occurs, lawmakers have neglected the issue, parents haven't advocated enough for change, and educators (especially public school) are blatantly ignored. In order to steer away from the drill & kill style; teachers need adequate resources/funding (ex. smaller class counts & new materials such as textbooks), incentives for current teachers, make appealing as a career choice for those pursuing higher education after high school.

Drill & kill is a teaching style that emphasizes repetition for memorization (Edublox, 2016). This method, convergent thinking, give one correct answer to a problem, which isn't always realistic in life.  This type of learning often makes it difficult for "hands-on" learners to comprehend the material.

According to Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence, people are grouped/classified into three categories of thinking types. The types are analytical, creative, and practical. Analytical are most likely to comprehend and retain the information they are taught through utilizing evaluation and comparisons. Creative are most likely to struggle or fail with the drill and kill because they're more "hands-on" learners needing to make connections through the action for comprehension. Lastly, practical thinkers utilize common sense to apply knowledge to new material learned. Thus practical thinkers may also have difficulty learning under convergent thinking.

Ideally, teachers should assess pupils to gauge better how to effectively and efficiently identify the best approach for each to comprehend the material. Unfortunately, it would be a daunting task for teachers to do this under current circumstances with large classroom sizes and little resources available to assist with a possible massive restructuring of material/lectures.

Adding divergent thinking to studies would be a good idea to make the curriculum more engaging for all students, while also leveling the playing field for pupils who struggle with mundane, repetitive material they struggle to comprehend.  Adding critical thinking structured classes with open-ended solutions to lectures and class interactions would benefit all students forcing more temporal thinking instead of a recital. This also would be easier for the instructor to implement/integrate into daily classes than restructuring the dynamic of the classroom. One should identify that it would help kids build social skills by interacting and conversing ideas as a class. Socializing is critical for developing children and using it in the classroom would greater increase chances of peers building relationships with one another. For example, Azmitia and Montgomery analyzed child peer interactions in a  controlled experiment; the dependent variable was children grouped with friends or children grouped with random peers. They observed better communication and better problem solving occurred in the friend group due to familiarity and less hesitance to engage with the group (Azmita & Montgomery, 1993).
Critical thinking is a great everyday tool adults use in everyday life, shouldn't we introduce it to people at younger ages to better exercise the skill as they develop?

References

• Azmitia, M.; Montgomery, R. (1993). Friendship, Transactive Dialogues, and the Development of Scientific Reasoning. Social Development, 2, Pg. 202-221. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227902146_Friendship_Transactive_Dialogues_and_the_Development_of_Scientific_Reasoning

• Edublox. (2016, July 08). "Drill and Kill" - Is Learning by Rote an Outdated Technique? Retrieved from https://www.edubloxsa.co.za/learning-rote-outdated-technique/

Drill and kill parenting

The "drill and kill" technique I'm my opinion does not do children justice. A way that we could tell parents and schools why critical thinking, creative  thinking and scientific thinking is so important is to explain that their child would potentially be learning more. With creative thinking, kids are thinking outside of the box and thinking for themselves and coming up with things that make sense to them. When your thinking out of the box, you come up with new ideas and can find ways to solve a problem yourself. Creative thinking allows a child to go into something with a deep perspective  and they aren't just focusing about what is on the surface. They can dig deeper to get new information or more information about what they want to learn about. Scientific thinking would allow a child to view something more hands on and that might be the way that helps them learn. Being hands on with dragging the child could physically view what is going on and what they are learning about.

Week of April 8th

I personally believe that there should be more to education than what they call "drill and kill."  Allowing children to learn more than what is required allows them to become more creative and think deeper about things.  Education would be made easier for children because they would be participating in activities that they enjoy, rather than learning something that they have no interest in learning about.

Prompt for the week of April 8th

There have been many arguments for adding more creative and critical thinking to education, and moving away from "drill and kill." If you were making an argument for more "little scientists & critics," how would you convince parents, teachers, and administrators? What support and evidence would you use to argue for critical, creative, and scientific thinking?