Open-Ended Learning: Spaghetti Bridges
For this project it was suggested that we choose something that is meaningful to us. For me, one of my major concerns is that students have lost the ability to think critically or apply information outside of the exact context that they’ve learned from. When they ask for “help,” what they’re really asking for is the answer; they don’t actually want to understand why it is the answer. They’re obsessed with the percentage at the top of the test paper, not the ability to understand the topic and use the knowledge again in the future. Zhao et al. (2016) talks about the idea of Boomerang Kids who need to return home to live with their parents because they do not have the skills to be financially independent. In just one generation, the percentage of youth that fall into this category has increased from 10% to 60%. Honestly, I am not surprised by this statistic at all. I teach in a middle school and many students come to class empty handed; they “can’t be bothered” to br