Factors that Influence Student Learning and Achievement
Case Assignment
After viewing “An Education in Equality,” “Learning Begins at Home,” “A Military Education,” and “an Education,” write an organized and well-supported essay in which you make three observations about education and what impacts (and enhances) student learning. Consider impacts and influences such as parenting, home life, society, race, technology, ethnicity, socioeconomics, etc.
A well-organized essay has a beginning, middle, and an end. The beginning, or introduction, should include an opening sentence to grab your reader’s attention. Follow the opening sentence with a brief background on the topic or situation. In this case, it might be the state of education today.The last sentence of the introduction is the thesis statement. The thesis states the main point of the essay, which in this case, would be what impacts/influences student learning.
A well-supported essay includes supporting points, details, and examples. For this essay, you must decide the best way to organize the body of the paper. Will you have a paragraph for each impact or enhancement? Will you divide the body of your paper into three paragraphs, one for each impact? In any case, each body paragraph must support (explain) your reasoning (rationale) using specific details. Each body paragraph must begin with a topic sentence that states the main point of the paragraph.
The conclusion typically summarizes the main points of the essay and/or closes with a lasting impression that connects the reader to their world. You may wish to offer suggestions to reader about what makes for exceptional student learning.
Be sure to proofread your essay and edit for proper grammar, punctuation, diction (word choice), and spelling, as errors in sentence skills will lower a final grade. A grade will be determined based on the Module 1 Case expectations and the Trident University General Education rubric for English found in the course syllabus.
Papers must be double-spaced in Times or Times New Roman font (12 cpi) with standard one-inch margins.
The first person "I" is not used in a formal essay, nor is the passive "you." In place of "you," "one" may be used.
No secondary sources are to be used in the process of writing this first paper; it is to be entirely written based on one's point of view and supported with body points and details. If referring to any of the videos, be sure to provide the source in the first instance.
Assignment Expectations
- Write an essay (no less than three pages in length) that states an original thesis statement on what impacts/influences student learning.
- Demonstrate the ability to write clearly and cohesively when expressing one’s ideas and/or intended purpose.
- Demonstrate the ability to clearly state and support a thesis in an organized and cohesive essay.
Factors that Influence Student Learning and Achievement
Name
Institution
Factors that Influence Student Learning and Achievement
Education is universally acknowledged as a key factor for economic growth and development. It empowers individuals economically and socially by exposing them to career opportunities. In the long term, education plays an important role in facilitating social mobility. Accordingly, it is reasonable to assume that education levels the playing ground by providing equal economic opportunities for children from poor and rich backgrounds. However, the commercialization of education creates inequalities in terms of the quality of education accessible to children from poor backgrounds. Although there is supposed to be a kind of uniformity in a country's education system, socio-economic inequalities have led to an “apartheid-like†system where education services are segregated to cater for the needs of poor and rich families. Through the commercialization of education, rich parents are able to send their children to elite private institutions, while poor families have to rely on government-funded public education. The lack of resources, overcrowding, and absence of one-on-one teacher-learner interaction lowers student engagement in learning and contributes to poor performance. This situation has the effect of giving children from rich families a competitive advantage over their poor counterparts in the job market. This is because employers are easily persuaded to recruit graduates from elite institutes, placing children from poor families at a disadvantage when it comes to competition for jobs. This essay argues that one of the major problems affecting the education system and student achievement include socio-economic inequalities, the commercialization/privatization of education, and parental influence.
The commercialization and privatization of education affects student learning by creating inequalities in the quality of private and public education. Private institutions offer better education than public institutions by providing student –enhancement programs such as mentoring, guidance and counseling, and other motivational programs that improves student engagement. For instance, the utilization of technology in private schools (e.g. online libraries and learning resources as well as online teacher-student interactions) allows students to access knowledge and assistance more easily than those in public institutions. The commercialization of education also has the impact of encouraging low government funding of public education (Center on Education Policy, 2007). This is because the private sector caters for the educational needs of rich families, who could otherwise influence government spending in education by demanding better education for their children. This negligence promotes overcrowding and high teacher-student ratios in public institutions, which results in low levels of mentoring and guidance, and learner-centered learning. In this regard, low government funding of public education negatively affects children from poor families by denying them sufficient learning resources.
Socio-economic inequali...