Reflection of “The Three Curricula”

There are three spots that I stopped during the reading. I was not surprised that students lose their motivation if they no longer get external reward as they used to get. However, I am curious about the reason behind this phenomenon. This research result also remind me of some content in the other class, which is about way to motivate students. Although external rewards could encourage students to be activate in their learning in a short term, when students get used to the reward, this method no longer motivate them. I know that it is better to motivate them by internal self-reward (for example, sense of achievement), but I am not sure about how could we do that. Also, I am concerned about how to get students back to be engaged with learning after telling that no external reward will be given - that is, teaching students that had teacher giving them “prize” before.

Another point that made me stop is the paragraph about competitions. As a person who is not “aggressive”, I usually doubt about the fact that when one succeed, there must be another person who failed. “Do schools have to encourage students to compete” is always a question in my mind. I wish there can be a way that everyone could get what their hard work deserves and there could be more win-win situation. When I was in middle school, teachers told us that others are rivals so that students start to mistreat each other - some students who get good grades were bullied and have their textbook “stolen” every week. This is not a competition, but the chance to put anger to each other and hurt other people.

One thing I am sorry about is that elementary and secondary schools neglect arts courses. Before reading this article, I thought this phenomenon only occurs in Asian countries. I heard from many friends from Asia said that their music and art class were always “occupied” by math or science teachers. One reason is that Asian people may regard science as important subjects, but they also underdetermined the importance of arts at the same time. As a result, many students hate math and science teachers and hence hate math. I think art class is a good chance for students to relax and know about math is also art at the same time. It is important for teachers to tell students that math is not always difficult and boring, it can be beautiful, fun and relaxing.

I kind of like the idea of teaching “brain-consuming” class in the morning and have more relaxing class in the afternoon so that students can have a rest. Another point is that schools need to put more time in art, music and physical education class as same importance as science. It can not only let students have a rest but also give them some time to connect what they learnt in science class with arts and daily life.