by David Castillo and Peter McIntosh, Getting Smart
Through close observation and student interviews, we found that students failed to engage in the coursework and spent little to no time studying. Students were disengaged from their learning responsibilities and the derailing of their studying began as early as elementary school. Early on, students struggled and faced constant frustration on a series of topics: long division, fractions, negative numbers, and word problems. This discouraged students and led to a decreased interest in engaging in the classroom or completing homework. Yet the bar of expectation and demonstration of competency was low. Students still continued on to the next grade in a one-size-fits-all educational approach despite their lack of knowledge and understanding around basic algebraic concepts. We concluded that the real problem was making those poor habits an excuse for the wrong initiatives. Instead, we should make those bad habits the target of better initiatives. We then looked to Khan Academy as a popular solution worth testing.
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