Student+Poll+Jenna+06

Student Poll
Curriculum is primarily planned //for// students.

What do //**they**// think they should be learning about in schools?

Post the responses you received to the student poll you conducted.

Please use a subheading (including your name) as part of your contribution

Student Poll (Adam Crowe)
As we’re currently on summer holidays I found it hard to find students to interview, I was only able to get three friends children. The first was a four year old boy who said “I think we should be taught reading. I want to be able to read and use the computer and I think boys and girls should be taught to play nice together”. He is the principal’s child who gets read to a lot and enjoys rules. The second child was a six year old boy. He said “ I think we should have more P.E at school, because I love P.E and I want to be a football star and play in the world cup. I also like computers and would like to be better at that and science because I want to be an inventor.” The last was a seven year old girl, “ I’m a pretty good reader, but I’d like to be able to read the big books like Harry Potter, so I think they need to teach us how to read even better. I want to be a neater writer and be a better speller. I think we should be taught about the environment more, how to look after animals and keep the oceans from rising.”

Student Poll (Jodie Watson) I interviewed children between 5 and 13 and found that there was a difference between the younger and older ones, which was too surprising. The younger ones wanted more play, art and music – more hands on things. They enjoyed working on the computers and found that “Reading Eggs” was very enjoyable and they learnt things as well. The older children responses were (8y.o.) more focus on information and skills and less time on preparing for NAPLAN test, (8y.o.) English, Maths and Science (11y.o.) English with more focus on Shakespeare & (13y.o.) comments were “At school I think that kids should be taught social skills and discipline. Many kids lack these basic skills to get on in a society. Discipline also is needed for a proper education otherwise others working around them can be distracted, disrupting their working. Without social skills it will be hard for kids to find a job or get on with others. Overall these two things are the most important at school.” It was interesting that the eldest child reflect more on the behavior and the future of where learning would take him where the younger one where more focus on subjects and learning. Younger children are looking at the here and now and focusing on what they need now where as we get older our view changes and as adults it changes even more. As adults (media included) look back and see what is important and we can reflect on what our needs are and what would have been good to learn at schools to help fulfill them. We can also see how children are and what their attitudes and knowledge are as they leave school.

__What do students think? (Ursula Marley)__ The Students I interviewed were aged between 15 and 18. Most of them enjoyed the subjects they were doing, but not all of the subjects. A lot of them were excited about learning at school, but only when they had interesting and engaging teachers. The kids thought that the basic school subjects (English, science, etc.) were important to learn, even if they weren’t always that interested in learning them. Another point that came up was learning ‘fun’ subjects (i.e. art, music, etc.), along with the ‘boring’ ones, making being at school more interesting for them. Several of the students I interviewed believed that the topics they were being taught weren’t relevant, whether to them, as learners, or to the subjects they were learning about. They wanted topics that were more relevant to them as students in a modern world. Several students mentioned that they wished to be told //why// they were learning these topics,not just be told that they //have// to learn them. One student mentioned that the multi-media aspects of his English class were uninteresting, which is different from the media article I looked at, which suggested that multimodal teaching strategies were a good idea. Another student mentioned that they’d like to learn different books rather than the traditional ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘Hamlet’ that often permeates English classes. This point contradicts the media’s idea about a traditional and conservative learning approach. I think this contradiction occurs because younger students want to be learning about things that are relevant to them today, and the traditional novels don’t always seem to have any relevance in a modern world. This comes back to students being told //why// they’re learning about these topics . The differences between the article and the students’ views exist because of conflicting ideals. Donnelly, along with the government, believes that teaching a conservative and traditional curriculum is the best way to go. However, a lot of the students thought that, although some traditional aspects were good, a more modern approach to these traditional subjects would be good. These differences occur mostly, I think, because of age differences. Older generations don’t always know what children want to be learning about.. Media and government authorities believe that they know what’s best for the students, without asking the students what they think.

__What do students think? (Kim Braslin)__ My surveyed group of 7 students included 2 girls and 5 boys, aged between 5 & 12. Each students response was very unique however it was interesting to note that a few of them said that Reading, Spelling, Maths and English were their favourite subjects. There was a common theme of more Sport, Art and Computers and one little boy even said he thinks it would be a good idea to learn how houses and buildings were built in the 'olden days' so I guess that more History would be good for him. Learning about animals was something they were also quite interested in. The enthusiasm levels were different for each individual. The younger ones were really enthusiastic and excited about learning and the 12 year old had a bit more of a 'whatever' type of attitude. Each student was pleased to provide their opinion and feel like their opinion was valued. What I learnt from them was that each individual has their own wants and needs and this is reflected in their learning requirements. There are vast differences in the students views and the views expressed in the media and that reflects a difference in perspective and agenda. Each student really wants to do their best and have a fun, yet interesting and challenging learning environment. Their idealistic view on the world outside of school and the government/media's view on the world are of course very different.

WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN SCHOOLS- For my student poll I interviewed 6 students from primary school and high school. The primary school students were in year 5 and the high schoolers were in year 9. The results I received were very similar. In fact ALL the primary school students had the same answers just worded differently. When asked what they felt were important subjects there replies were: The Year 9 students responses were again very similar, but in a more "mature" context. These were all very interesting but not unexpected responses. Of note, I was alarmed that no students had selected history or SOSE. I as a student in the 70s and 80s felt it was important to understand our nations history and also our World history. ​Bruce Woodcock WHAT SHOULD WE TEACH? (Sharon Jones) <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The responses to my survey of 8 indigenous students at a remote aboriginal school in north-western WA were predictable. They were a little taken aback at the question but came up with the basics of literacy and numeracy plus sports, arts, music and culture. It seemed like a hard question and needed much encouragement and discussion to draw out some responses.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">PE- because on the Be Active website we had to watch it told us that we had to do 60 minutes of PE a day.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Spelling, English, Grammer and Reading- If you can't do these things then when you get old you may never get a job and especially reading because if you can't read you can't do any schoolwork.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Maths- You need to know how to count your money and if you can't count then you can't buy things.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">English helps us with our day to day social and grammer skills.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Maths helps us to learn for our future jobs.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0000; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Home Economics helps us to learn how to prepare for our futures as a parent by teaching us to cook and sew.

What should we teach? I surveyed 10 inidigenous students at the schools that I work at. Their responses wre very smiliar to sharon's students. They said they believed that Accelerated Literacy was the most important thing for them at school because it helps them to learn to read, write and spell. Also, they said taht matsh was important to help them understand numbers. Other subjects that they said were: integrated studies, sound way (phonics progarm), spelling, health,bible,sport,ag studies,science,financial literacy,Art and reading. Bethany Armstrong

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">﻿What should we teach? (Nicola Conroy)

<span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;">I surveyed 6 students. 3 girls (5, 10, 13) and 3 boys (7, 10, 12). I asked them what they currently enjoyed at school and what they would like to learn at school. I found that only one of the children (10 year old boy) said that their favourite subject at school was Maths. The rest of the students seemed to think P.E or Art was the top subject. When I posed the question “What do you think you SHOULD be learning in school” I got a mixed bag of answers. The 5 year old girl thought that she should be learning how to look after people more, like her mum (whom is a nurse). I was surprised that a 5 year old already had a thought about what she needed to learn now in order to work like her mum does. All of the children thought they should be learning how to read, count and do simple mathematics. The 13 year old girl thought that some of the Maths she was learning in her year 8 classroom wasn’t “relevant” to real life and would have liked to learn more about maths that she could actually use. The 7 year old boy was quite confident that each student should be given the opportunity to learn to drive Monster Trucks, I’m not sure that this will ever be included in the curriculum J. Both the 12 and 13 year old gave responses that involved getting into the appropriate University course. When looking at answers that the students gave me it does make me wonder how Chris Berg’s theory of the curriculum being in the schools hands would work. Given that in a sample of just 6 students there was a range of answers. <span style="color: #800080; display: block; font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> Survey - what should be taught? Laura Jacobs

Well i didnt have a chance to find some students to take a poll. I work in child care and most of my children are under 4! i did ask some of my pre kinders what they enjoy to learn about as they undertake term projects. I was actually suprised by their responses! 2 children aged 4 and 5 said they enjoy learning the ABC's, counting and learning how to write their names. Its funny that even at a young age they already like the idea of learning what adults can do aka reading and writing! Most of my other pre kinders stated they enjoyed the "fun stuff" like dancing, excursions, singing, painting etc.

I also asked some of my friends and family what they thought should be included and most of them all said english and maths. A couple of my friends said they wished they would of being given more opportunity to do artistic things which i found really interesting!!!