Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

The education system in the United States may be regarded as one of the best in the world, but it is far from perfect. There is a plethora of shortcomings in the country’s elementary and secondary education. These shortcomings include, but are not limited to, inadequate education, low quality teachers, and mediocre teaching methods. Until these issues are addressed and resolved, there will always be deficiencies in the United States education system.

Disparities in education exist among different areas of the United States. In societies of middle and higher income families, there is generally a sufficient amount of schools with high quality teachers. However, in lower income societies with minority ethnic groups, there is a lack of funding for public schools, which leads to inadequate education for children. As a result, the quality of teachers is low and the education itself is below standards. Elementary school students do not receive the proper education to help them succeed in their future.

Although there are inequalities in education throughout the United States, the teaching methods in each school are usually similar. In a standard classroom, a teacher sits at a desk or stands at a blackboard that faces the children who sit in parallel rows facing front. This classroom format allows teachers to engage in instructional discourse in which students gain information about the curriculum and receive feedback from teachers on their efforts to learn the information. Instructional discourse is most commonly performed using the initiation-reply-feedback sequence, in which a teacher asks a question that elicits a reply from a student and is followed by the teacher’s feedback. Even though this form of teaching is used in most, if not all, elementary schools, many believe that it is not the best way of learning because it places children in a passive role as recipients of information.

To improve education in the United States, teachers should utilize reciprocal teaching and limit, or abandon, the use of the recitation script. Reciprocal teaching is a method of teaching reading in which teachers and children take turns reading text in a manner that integrates decoding and comprehension skills. For example, a student is called upon to lead a discussion about a reading by presenting his or her own opinion of its meaning. If other students disagree with the meaning, they propose their opinions of the reading’s message. By allowing children to express their own opinions and agree or disagree with others’ opinions, reciprocal teaching helps children think abstractly and learn productively. As a result, this form of teaching increases the overall knowledge of elementary school students and improves their reading skills at the same time. With the development of reciprocal teaching and other forms of classroom instruction, education is starting to improve throughout the country.