A research and expository notebook by Orest Kinasevych
“For students not motivated by grades, the grade-driven economy of schools has caused them to withdraw from learning, frequently becoming behaviour problems and/or dropping out.” (p 39)
“There are powerful arguments that exist in advocating for educators’ involvement in anti-racist and social justice undertakings, yet at the core of these exists how responsibility is understood and enacted in face-to-face interactions.” (p 46)
“We would submit that any activity that draws upon resources of time and money that could be better directed to evidence-based practices is costly and should be exposed and rejected.” (¶5)
“When instruction is stripped of children’s cultural legacies, then they are forced to believe that the world and all the good things in it were created by others. This leaves students further alienated from the school and its instructional goals, and more likely to view themselves as inadequate.” (p 41)
“I would argue that how individual students respond to a diversity course or experience depends primarily on a number of personal variables completely independent of the course/experience itself.” (p 275)
The assessment of learning was merged with time limits, “a compromise for the sake of administrative efficiency” (Wesman, 1949, p. 51). Deadline performance became a proxy for actual learning, thereby diminishing learner autonomy, motivation, and creativity (Deci & Ryan, 2012).