Education

The Most Common Education Problems and How to Fix Them

education

Here are a few problems that exist in the world of education at the moment. These problems are not exclusive for America, in-fact, a lot of countries have these problems to a far more severe extent. This article offers some ideas for possible fixes for these problems by giving a guide as to what direction should be taken. As you can imagine, there is no single right answer. These are problems that are unlike math, in that a simple answer will not solve them.

Students copying the work of other students

This problem occurs when one student gains access to another student’s work, and steals it. The work may be stolen in full or simply copied. Stolen work is worse than purchased work because the person who was stolen from is at a massive loss. At least when a student buys from an essay writing service, then the service is paid. But, with work is stolen/copied from a student, then the hard working student suffers a loss with no remuneration.

How to fix this problem

Many students are now asked to submit their work over the Internet onto a college or school website. This is often used as a way of allowing students to submit their work electronically. Students should be encouraged to save their drafts to this platform too. The student may then show how his or her work was created, and will help the victim student to prove his/her case if some or all of his/her work is stolen.

Students threatening other students to do their homework

This is still common in America; where one student uses intimidation, bullying or violence to convince another student to do his/her work. This technique often employs a veil of secrecy, and some students spend most of their school life doing the work of other students. This happens just as much amongst female students, as it does in male students.

How to fix this problem

A teacher needs to take more time to identify the writing styles (hand and electronic) of each student. Previous efforts should be saved on file for comparison. Many students involved in the problem will be unwilling to tell teachers, but friends of the victim may be more willing. A box where a student may leave an anonymous note may help. The teachers could then examine past efforts and claim that their system pointed out the problem, so that the bully does not seek vengeance from the students.

Students paying other students to do their essays for them

This happens when the right combination of poor intelligent students and richer lazier students collide. It is a very easy way to cheat because both sides have an incentive to keep the secret and both sides have a reason to stay true to their word.

How to fix this problem

As with most problems involving money, it is incredibly hard to fix. Scaring the students into not doing it may help, and information parents of the problem may make them aware of it too. The only other option is to have students show how much they have completed routinely, so that if one student suddenly has a finished essay then it will look suspicious. However, this technique has obvious exploitable flaws.

Students relying on essay writing services

The problem does not arise from one or two uses; the problem arises from students learning to rely on essay writing services. They never learn any essay writing skills and never gain the benefit of creating the essay for themselves. This will leave them at a greater disadvantage later.
Professor Richard Gunderman from Indiana University in his article for The Atlantic magazine said that services such as College-paper.org, Essayontime.com.auand Bestessays.com:

“… claim that “70% of Students use Essay Writing service at least once [sic]” and boasts that all their writers have M.A. and Ph.D. degrees”.

But the ethical side of the issue will be completely lie on students.

How to fix this problem

One way may be to have the students start their essay in school, and possibly even work on it during lessons. Their efforts should be saved to a school server to see if the end result resembles what the student wrote in class and in school. The student submitting a completely different essay to that which was partially constructed in class may indicate that the essay was purchased.

Apathetic teachers who are under motivated to teach

This sort of thing happens in all sorts of jobs, where apathy sets in and the teacher becomes under motivated. This is sometimes a temporary situation (which is bad enough), but can be a long-term ethos, which is not going to help the students to learn.

How to fix this problem

One cannot simply increase a teacher’s wages, so the only real solution may be for senior managers to spot under-motivation and put a stop to it. The teacher must be told the find the source of the problem and leave, or be suspended until he or she is back to being highly charged and dynamic again.

A system that does not cater for all types of learners

Some learn through doing, others through hearing, and others through seeing. Modern schools are still highly tipped in favor of visual learners. This results in other types of learners not doing very well in school.

How to fix this problem

Finding a way to appeal to all three types of learning. This may include a mixed lesson of doing, visual and audio lessons. A mix of all at the same time may come through some form of technological advancement.

A lack of student motivation

This may occur for a wide variety of reasons and one teacher cannot hope to get to the bottom of why each student is or is not motivated.

How to fix this problem

Students are currently forced to work instead of motivated to. A system for finding new ways to motivate people in the classroom may be a far better teaching aid than trying to find ways of disciplining students.

This article was written by Korah Morrison and published on her behalf at LeraBlog. She is a student in UCLA and owns Blogoloola Blog. Korah enjoys blogging on a variety of topics and loves sharing her knowledge with others.

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