Educ 200 Combined Word Document For Smartest Kids in The World Task 4

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EDUC 200 - The Smartest Kids In The World Journal
Task 1. Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1
Question #1 (from chp 1) - Write down 3 things (points/topics/ideas) that the author is trying to get across
in this chapter.
There are many points In this chapter the author is trying to get across. Ripley started First with PISA test,
which generates scores that are most often used to compare countries, and discusses how the author came to
design the test by thinking the world needed a smarter test. She also shares the results of the first test and
how the countries responded and blamed the test for some of the poor results as well as even began to blame
there systems and income as well. Ripley was able to speak to one of the creators of the test, Andreas
Schleicher, who knew the test was not perfect but it was better other options and continues to improve.
Ripley was skeptical of the test and even took it herself and saw that PISA tests your ability to do something
with facts rather than just memorize them. She became much more convinced especially on the test’s ability
to measuring critical thinking. After taking the test the results resulted in what Ripley called a “treasure map of
the world” that would help her figure out which counties were and were not teaching their children to think.
Ripley still doesn’t know how the countries that scored so well got to be smart and decides to go to those
places that are succeeding.
Question #2 (from chp 1) - Write down one thing that you personally connected with in this chapter.
One thing I personally connected within this chapter was when Ripley stated “spending on education did not
make kids smarter. Everything-everything- depended on what teachers, parents, and students did with those
investments.” I connected with this because I work in a school and understand how what you do with
investments can do a lot for a school. It’s things like investing in professional development for staff, finding
quality educators, and much more that by investing in these things it’s improving the teacher’s ability to teach
and support their students needs to help them learn to their best ability.
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Question #3 (from chp 1) Write down one thing that you need clarification on. In other words, what are you
now curious about? What else would you like to know?
There is a lot to be curious about when it comes to this chapter and I am with the author on this one. What
makes those high scoring countries so smart, and is life like there in comparison to America? What is it in the
way they are doing things that there scores are reflecting so well? I am curious to see what the author finds
when visiting some of the other countries, what she will learn and share from the kids that live their, and what
their system looks like in comparison to America. I want to know what the education in those areas are like
and see if In America we can implement what they are doing to achieve the same results.
Chapter 2
in this chapter.
In Chapter two the author tells the story of how Kim, who is from a rural town in Oklahoma, was able to
become an exchange student in Finland. The author first points out some of the statistics of Sallisaw, the town
in Oklahoma, and explains how about half the kids in Sallisaw had Indian Cards. She also states that about a
quarter of the kids in the Sallisaw school district were officially classified as poor.(Ripley,p.27) The PSSA scores
that came out of Oklahoma were not that great in fact if it were a country the state itself would be near the
bottom with other countries and the school that Kim ,in particular, attends, unfortunately, was not a stand out
in the state. Kim was curious about the world and as the author points out that she actually spent quite a bit
of time complaining about school and Sallisaw, however, she is very smart. The author also shares the topic of
how Oklahoma has been trying to fix its schools. She explained how it spent more on its students, how
lawmakers were even trying to create incentives, but shares also how the lawmakers didn’t want to take on
tests because they were worried about students failing them. Another point the author makes is how one
principle of the school thought that parents didn’t care and it was what they needed to work on. The author
often hears this from other U.S. schools too that parents are AWOL in our schools. The other Principle said
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expectations were too high. Lastly, the author discusses how Kim wanted to be an exchange student, but how
in that area it was more of a “rich people do that, we don’t do”(p.38) that sort of thing. Kim was overall
determined to raise the money needed, and did, and decided she wanted to go to Finland for many reasons
one being they are the “smartest country in the world” and is now ready to be on her way.
One thing I personally connected within this chapter was when Kim came home one day with a C and
explained it was because she was too afraid to ask the teacher questions because the teacher got angry when
students didn’t understand. I can relate to this because when I was in 7 th grade I had a teacher that would say
“save your questions until the end of class” the end of class would come and you would go ask her your
question and she would say something like, “ I answered that already” “you should have listened more” or “I
will talk to you about it tomorrow” and you would never have time to get really a direct answer. It also made
me not want to ask questions because I felt as if my question had no value to her even though they would to
me.
One thing I am curious about and would like to know more about is what is Kim’s school like today. I want to
know are they making changes needed and making students more college-ready, or, is there still some of the
attitude “I’ve done what I can do that’s good enough” attitude going around. I would also like to know why
Martin and Farmer, had very different opinions on the dropout rate why they didn’t really communicate those
differences to try and find a way to improve the rate.
Summary of Task 1
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Task 2. Chapters 3 and 4
Chapter 3
in this chapter.
The first topic Ripley introduced In chapter three was introducing Eric and how he is leaving Minnesota to go
to Busan in South Korea. She explains to her audience how Minnesota was one of the very few states that
ranked among the top twenty nations in the world in education and tells how Eric had read that Korean
students performed at the top of the world on international tests like Finns, and how they had a high
graduation rate (p.49). Ripley then shares Eric’s first day of school and brought up his point on technology. Eric
had noticed that the desks were in rows and there was a faded chalkboard and mentioned how at his high
school back home every classroom had an interactive electronic board that cost them tons of money. When
the lecture began in class however Eric was surprised to see how many students were sleeping as class went
on. He didn’t understand how their test scores could be so good if a large portion of students were sleeping
during class. As it turns out the reason so many students are sleeping so often is because many of the students
start the day early and continue additional after school programs in the evening. These programs were called
hogwans and they were private tutoring. So while Korea might not be spending as much money in the schools
families were paying out of pocket for these hogwans and therefore, school never stopped for these students
making them tired. Ripley also makes a point on testing in Korea in comparison to America. Before leaving the
U.S Eric felt the states testing put to much pressure on testing for the kids, but now he realizes in comparison
to Korea, the tests were really not as high stakes for students, like they are in Korea, because for most kids the
tests were really irrelevant to their lives whereas in Korea their future depended on it. Ripley also makes it a
point to share that Korea is actually not happy with this “Iron child competition” (p.58) going on within their
system, and how their high PISA scores were from the students timeless efforts. A man named Lee stepped in
to try and change this system and has succeed in small ways, simply because this way the people have gotten
into is habit and hard to change, but admits that he thinks Finland has the better, less harsh, system.
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One thing that I felt I personally connected with in this chapter was the statement “standardized tests were
frequent, unsophisticated, and utterly irrelevant to their lives.” (p.57) This statement was how I felt taking
tests growing up. For example the SAT I chose not to study for it, barely knew what it was, and it really just
seemed like another test I HAD to take that would probably never get looked at, and so far I am right. No one
has EVER asked about my SAT score, not even colleges. To me just like Ripley says it was “irrelevant” to my
life.
Something I am now very curious about is the people who lead the hogwans. Are they just normal people? Are
they some of those that were able to attend the top three schools in Korea? The Korean’s are willing to pay a
lot of money for these services along with paying for their children to attend school, so it would make sense
that they would be some of those they consider “success” stories, but really who are they?
Chapter 4
in this chapter.
In Chapter four Ripley introduces us to Tom. Tom is from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and ends up in Wroclaw,
Poland. Tom chose Poland because he wanted to go to Eastern Europe and thought it would be romantic to
live somewhere where people knew the names of Dostoyevsky and Nabokov. (p. 69) Ripley makes a point that
like many American students Tom is not that good at math. Tom began to lose his way in middle school as it
seems many other students do. He was embarrassed to ask for help. Ripley points out that Math eluded
American teenagers more than any other subject. Tom actually points out that in Poland calculators are not
allowed, where as in Pennsylvania students were allowed to use them. The students in Poland had learned
tricks that had become automatic and it was like being fluent in a whole other language. Ripley then goes on
to the topic of America’s education being “muddled”(p.74). The focus here was how kids are falling a year or
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so behind from other countries, as well as we spend far too long covering and repeating way too many topics
and go into very little depth. A more Clear set of standards, Common Core, is helping to repair this damage but
still not to the point of other countries, and is something still being attacked by critics. Ripley points out that
the language of math seems to be introduced when students start school but it seems to be a mistake. At ages
two and three a Childs brain can integrate a second or third language and so she asks why hadn’t we realized
that they could do the same thing with the language of math? (p. 78)
In Chapter four something I personally connected with was Tom and how he was afraid to ask for help. I like
tom was not good at math for a while, but in third grade, I got the help I needed and am actually rather strong
in math now and it is one of my favorite subjects. While I am strong in math now, I have always struggled with
language skills such as writing, when and what punctuation do I use, spelling, comprehension with reading,
and so on. I was also embarrassed about not being good at these things and hated to ask for help. To this day I
still hate to ask for help and have actually made it a personal goal of mine to improve on it. I regret not asking
for more help in school. I believe I would be stronger in my language skills if it would have asked questions
than I am now and that it would have benefited me now being in college.
One thing I am curious about is how math in Korea and Poland math moves so fluently like being a language. I
am curious to know what else are they doing to make it run so smooth, and what training there teachers
maybe get on the language side to help them become so fluid. I also would like to know what some of their
tricks look like for students, and how we can even incorporate them here or if we already are.
Summary of Task 2
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Task 3. Chapters 5, 6 and 7
Chapter 5
in this chapter.
One of the first topics Ripley introduced in this Chapter was the differences Kim noticed when entering her
Finnish school. The first thing Kim noticed was the lack of high tech whiteboards and police in the hallway. She
noticed there were still “stoner” kids but they were different than back home where they did not work, but
instead they were actually still model students. Ripley also points out that something in the air seemed to
make everyone more serious about learning. Ripley shares how Kim’s Finnish teacher went throughout
school. As it turns out, In Finland becoming an educator is actually much harder than it is in the united states,
in fact only 20% of applicants are accepted into teacher education programs. Ripley points out that in the US,
many teacher education programs have no admission standards at all, and the tests teachers have to pass are
not challenging. In Finland, hardship for teachers is found in college. Next door in Norway where they aren’t
choosey about who gets to teach, PISA results are a lot lower. Ripley mentions how in Finnish universities a
Master's degree is required and they actually do a whole year of student teaching compared to the 12 weeks
in the U.S. and mentions how with our teacher education programs we actually produce more teachers than
we even need. Ripley also makes a point of how life after school is much different in Finland. It seems that
Finnish had more time on their hands. Kids were less likely to participate in sports as schools don’t run sports
programs and teachers almost never were a coach. They are also less like to hold down other jobs unlike a lot
of students in the U.S. In the US a lot of money is used on sports even though only a minority of kids make a
team in most schools.
Something I personally connected with in this chapter was when the author said there is no better way to
prepare for teaching than to actually teach and get meaningful feedback. I was extremely lucky coming in to
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work at a school. I was hired as a Paraprofessional and got promoted to teach my own extended Kindergarten
class with about 10-14 students depending on the class. I made my own lesson plans and lead a room just like
a teacher but because I was re-teaching what the teachers had already taught I did not need a degree. The
program is now no longer needed, but having this experience made me want to got to school and learn more
on how to improve my teaching. I am a Para now and I have an amazing principle that has me still sub for
classes if needed so can still practice teaching, and she is always willing to provide me with feedback on what I
am doing and how to improve.
Something I am now curious about is Norway. It mentioned Norway being right next door to Finland and yet
they have much lower scores as well as they are not as rigorous on education. I wonder why they have not
done what Finland is doing to try and mimic and see if this practice can be done there and make a difference.
It makes me curious to see if maybe the standards to becoming a teacher might change quite a bit to get us
close to them as well.
Chapter 6
in this chapter.
One of the first points Ripley discusses in this chapter is the power of reading. Parents simply reading to their
kids means many things and actually leaves a great impact on development. Another topic Ripley mentions is
the self-esteem movement. American exchange students and Korean students alike agree that Korean high
school is objectively terrible. Korean students have such high expectations yet they have no self-esteem.
Ripley shares how Korean parents see themselves as coaches while American parents act more like
cheerleaders which resulted from the self-esteem movement when dolling out praise and giving every kid a
trophy became a statement. Ripley mentions how praise tends to be vague, insincere, or excessive and tends
to discourage kids from working hard or trying new things. One of the last Ideas Ripley shares is how diligence
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and persistence seemed to be rather large factors in scoring. It seemed that the kids who showed this
diligence and who’s school maybe influenced persistence more worked hard finishing things and were the
ones that were overall doing well. Ripley said that know one knows for sure but its seems promising.
One Thing I personally connected within this Chapter was when Ridley mentioned how reading to your kids
CAN make a huge difference and how It means sending a signal to kids about the importance of not just
reading but of learning about all kinds of new things. The reason I can personally relate to this is my grandma
has always loved to read and was even a librarian for most of her life. She would constantly read to me
growing up and I would always see her with a book in her hand and it made me want to read to. She still is
constantly reading and that is one thing we share that the rest of my family does not share. We both love to
read and get lost in these places, especially non-fiction books, and learn what its like there. To us reading is an
exploration in itself and something I will have forever.
One thing I am now curious about is Jenny. Jenny grew up in the states for a while and then ended back over
in Korea and saw some of the same things as Eric. She also thought things were strange, like sleeping on the
desks, however during that time she has now adapted to. Jenny was going to go back to the U.S. If she so did I
would be curious as to if she was advanced here after returning from Korea and if her parents continued to
push her here. I would also like to know more about the self esteem movement and will for sure be doing
some of my own research to learn more about it.
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Chapter 7
in this chapter.
Chapter 7 had many topics that were discussed. One of the first topics discussed was Poland and how it had a
tough time during and after World War II. This was the city that Tom chose to live in despite the rough start it
had. The government had the ability and the vision to create reforms for the education system The reforms
featured four efforts. First was a new rigorous core curriculum. It laid out fundamental goals and left the
details to the schools. Next was accountability, in which stated nation-wide testing to see how the schools
were doing. This helped identify which students and teachers needed more help. The third reform was to raise
expectations for what kids could accomplish. This involved adding one full year being added to middle school
and it delayed tracking until the age of 16. Finally, autonomy, teachers were given more freedom to choose
textbooks and their own specific curriculum. They also were given bonuses for professional development they
did. Another point made in this chapter was Poland joined PISA in 2000 shortly after the reforms were made.
The timing was perfect on there part because the students taking the test would be a snapshot of before the
reforms and those that came after would be with the reforms in place. Ripley points out how shocked they
were just three years later in 2003 where they ranked higher in areas than previously and even ranked higher
than the U.S. in some subjects. Ripley also makes a point on how Polish schools have no sports, unlike the U.S.
and teachers don’t coach. You are also not likely to find cafeterias, whiteboards, or laptops. When asked what
is most important, the architect of Poland’s reforms stated: “everything is based on the teacher – well-
prepared, well-chosen.”
Something I personally connected within this chapter was tom’s story of how he began to be tracked in the 3 rd
grade. I also was tracked in the 3rd grade and did well on testing but seemed to be struggling in other places.
This was the year I figured out my vision was not all that great. I caught back up quickly and was even slightly
advanced, however, there was actually no such thing as a gifted and talented program at my elementary
school. It wasn’t until high school that I really began taking the more advanced classes and I also, like tom,
began to notice that I didn’t get to see anyone other than those people.
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One thing I am now curious about is why we, the United States, are one of the four countries that where the
poorer students are we have fewer teachers and more teachers in our higher-income family schools? Why
don’t we reverse it and actually put more staff members in those schools filled will poorer students. Those
students are truly the ones that usually need the most support and the ones I feel we can make the biggest
difference with when it comes to their future.
Summary of Task 3
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Task 4. Chapters 8, 9 and 10
Chapter 8
in this chapter.
In Chapter 8 Ripley addresses a few topics in Finland Education. One of the first topics addressed however was
about Kim. Kim’s host mother thought Kim needed help and sent her to a therapist. As it turns out there is
nothing wrong with Kim, she , like most exchange students is just getting rather homesick, and the
environment that she has been in with her host mom wasn’t the greatest so they moved her to a new family.
She does stay in touch still with her other host family, it just wasn’t the best environment for Kim. The next
topic we see addressed in this chapter was on testing. In the United States there are a lot of tests that don’t
necessarily mean much to students. In Finland, it’s pointed out that that they really only have one big test, but
it is high-stakes for students as it determines if they go to college. Ripley also points out that this test isn’t just
your average multiple choice test but rather an essay format and she described it as quite comprehensive and
how rigor was strongly used. Another topic Ripley addresses is how in comparison to the U.S Finland teachers
are more or less just teachers and students don’t really know much about them, whereas in the U.S. teachers
are considered to be more friendly and focus on creating a bond with students. Ripley also discusses diversity.
In the U.S. it seems we have a lot of diversity in schools and that diversity is more or less determined by race
and our system encourages segregation. We also tend to treat students differently because of where they
come from and what they are going through. She points out that in Singapore, while they are equally if not
more diverse than they U.S, does not have this segregation because policy makers forbid it from happening.
Something I personally connected with in this chapter was with Vuorinen. Vuorinen said that he found his
University experience not as helpful as his subbing, but didn’t resent his experience either. I currently work at
a school and go to college. I get to sub for teachers often and watch them teach. It really does help me learn
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working in a school, and often I find myself relating something a teacher does to what I have been learning in
class and am able to connect the two and really see its importance.
Something I am curious about and noticed is that here In the U.S. we are constantly having trainings to help us
understand our students and where they come. We are told we should think about where they come from
more often than we already do and should know more not less. In Finland It seem, and Vuorinen even said,
the opposite of this happens. I would like to know how they do this? How are they able to not consider the
background of some of these students and make it work? Where is the happy medium where we can do both
to some extent?
Chapter 9
in this chapter.
In Chapter 9 Ripley discusses a teacher who makes roughly four million dollars and hagwons and their effects
on families. Ripley's first topic was a “Rock star teacher” who had been teaching for over twenty years in
which all had been in Koreas afterschool hagwons. He really is a hot commodity and he makes a lot of his
money from the lectures he posts online that students end up buying. Ripley met with an outsider to find out
how Hagwons worked and its essentially students are being the consumers and the teachers that are known
to be the best of the best are the product wanted. Being that the “Rock Star teacher” made the amount of
money he was a teacher everyone wanted and was willing to pay for. Ripley also points out how with hagwons
parents being engaged was important. If a parent was not engaged in their student's hagwon it was
considered a failure of the hagwon not the family itself, so hagwons went to all lengths to make sure their
parents were involved. The parents got text messages when they arrived and got at least two monthly updates
of how they were doing. Ripley also addresses how the thought of these hagwons and how most of the
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students learned more here and in a sense it put normal public school to shame. Parents essentially thought
public school was inadequate as to why they were willing to spend so much on these after school sessions.
One of the last topics Ripley discusses on hagwons was how some hagwons got into trouble. If they were
caught operating after ten PM they were given three warnings and then shut down for at least a week.
Hagwons were always being watched to make sure they abide by the rules. Self-study Hagwons were the only
kind that could be open past ten and in some cases like mentioned by Ripley, they are teaching, which is not
aloud in a self-study, and also end up getting shut down. Ripley shared more details of hagwons in this chapter
and really showed how intense they are.
Something that I personally connected within this chapter was when Ripley said that Korean students really
wanted the best teachers for their hagwons and picked them out. I can relate to this because growing up you
always heard from older friends, hey pick this teacher they are awesome, or pick this teacher because of…,
and so on and so forth. I remember hearing from my older friends which teachers they felt helped them learn
the most and I remember going to the counselor and saying which teachers I wanted based on what I heard
from others. Even working in a school now parents are constantly requesting teachers, especially those that
siblings may have had, and for the most part they get those teachers but sometimes it’s out of there control.
Something I am now curious about is the suicide rate for adults in Korea. Why are they so high in the world? Is
it because of the pressure of putting their child in a top of the line hagwon? Why is it not the student's rate
that’s high? It's all crazy how the adults are one of the highest as far ad suicide in the world and very sad. If it
is because of the stress of paying for their kids to attend a good hagwon it should never be to the amount of
pressure to where someone feels the need to take their own life.
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Chapter 10
in this chapter.
In Chapter 10 Ripley gives us an idea of where all of these students discussed throughout the book are after
attending school in some of the smartest places in the world. Ripley first discusses Kim. Kim wanted nothing to
do with a normal in-person high school and decided to go online. She joined a book club and joined an Irish
dance class to stay social. She knew online school wasn’t for everyone but she enjoyed the freedom it gave her
that gave her motivation. While Kim got more freedom Ripley points out that once returning to America Tom,
who once had freedom, missed it. Tom did however, get to go to college at Vassar and found that he was not
as prepared as most of the other students in his class. Most of the students went to elite school prior too
which left him looking unprepared. He was, however, able to adapt and improve. Ripley then points out how
while Tom was unprepared Eric found himself in the exact opposite position at DePaul University where he
was getting bored from being over-prepared. Ripley then addresses the topic of how Eric and Tom
experienced what this book was really about, all the variation of education among schools in the U.S. and how
rigor is not consistently used. In the end, Ripley shares her overall takeaway on the topic of Rigor and how it
was clear that to give the kids the kind of education they deserved we need to agree that rigor mattered most
of all and that it existed to help kids learn to think, work and that failure is possible. Ripley wants people to
know that by creating a serious intellectual culture in schools they will be able to thrive in the real world
compared to thinking the real world is full of chances like in school now.
In chapter 10 something I personally connected with was Jenny and how she knew that meeting high
expectations meant hard work. I can relate to this well because a lot of things really do require hard work. I
once had a teacher who looking back now I could tell rigor was important to and so was having high
expectations. It was a computer class in 7th grade when we learned to type. We walked in the first thing I
noticed was the keyboard was covered and you could not see the letters. She put it straight out there that we
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were to never uncover our keyboard or we would not pass her class. None of us knew a keyboard well and she
knew that but she also knew that we would have to work hard in order to meet her high expectations. It was
surprisingly a really hard class that I had to work extremely hard in to improve my ability to type. Today I am
thankful for her high expectations because it made typing things out from there on out much easier. I look at
my dad, who does one finger at a time, and he never had a class like that and wished he would have and am
grateful for the experience.
Question #3 (from chp 10) Write down one thing that you need clarification on. In other words, what are
you now curious about? What else would you like to know?
I have a lot of answers to past things I was curious about after reading the last few chapters, but one thing I
am now curious about more is why hasn’t rigor been successfully used around the U.S. on a consistent basis.
In this chapter I know Ripley shared how President George W. Bush under President Barack Obama, had tried
to impose rigor on the U.S. system. I know we have Common Core now, but it still seems that rigor still needs
to get bigger. What I am curious about now is what are they doing today to try and show how important rigor
is to education. Its not something we seem to hear about, especially today, but is something that should be
talked about so that people understand its importance.
Summary of Task 4

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EDUC 200 - The Smartest Kids In The World Journal

Task 1. Chapters 1 and 2

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