Analysis of Educational Change: Course Name, Semester Details

This essay analyzes the changing landscape of education, focusing on key aspects such as diversity, creativity, and the impact of grading systems. It begins by referencing Michael Gilbert's views on the pitfalls of traditional education, particularly concerning bias, racism, and the underestimation of creativity. The essay then explores the importance of incorporating diversity in education, including blended learning, inclusive environments, and diverse assessment methods, while also addressing the issue of racism in admissions. Furthermore, it emphasizes the significance of fostering creativity through innovative teaching techniques, learner engagement, and adapting classroom environments. The essay critiques the limitations of traditional grading systems and advocates for a more holistic approach to student evaluation. Finally, the essay concludes by reiterating the need for diversity and creativity in shaping a more effective and equitable educational framework.

Running head:UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
(ASSESSMENT 2)
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

1UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
Introduction
The paper agrees with opinions of Michael Gilbert which he presented in his research
paper “A plea for systematic change in education” regarding the pitfalls of traditional
approach of education (Gilbert, 2013). The two crucial points of discussion where Gilbert
stresses the fact of a biased educational system favoring the students based on high merit and
that intelligence is not the only measure within the closed doors of classroom to educate a
child. We saw that how racism and the students coming from low income classes face
inadequacy in education. The creativity is also less nurtured. Thus, the important
recommendations to these issues should be enhancement of creativity through more informal
learning structure prioritizing not only the grading system to measure a student’s intelligence.
The other recommendation should be to follow a rubric system and implementing diversity in
the admission criteria of students in schools and universities.
Discussion
The inclusion of diversity in education
As per the article “The design of blended learning in response to student diversity in
higher education: Instructors’ views and use of differentiated instruction in blended
learning”, it can be seen that the student’s needs should be considered and a blended learning
structure can be deigned to adapt to the increased current environment of knowledge
(Boelens, Voet & De Wever, 2018). There should be flexibility of time through digital
education and personal feedback provided to students keeping an open communication
channel. Another article, “Student diversity representation and reporting in universal
school-based social and emotional learning programs: Implications for generalizability”
states that an inclusive learning environment where the teachers can collaborate with the
views of the students and take the opinions of them to frame the instructional materials and
create a two-way learning benefit relationship (Rowe & Trickett, 2018). The encouragement
of diverse thinking and the use of different learning delivery methods to reach the level of
intelligence of all students can be mentioned from the input of diversity in learning. Coming
across this article, “Assessing student competency in diversity and social justice”, there
should also be diversity of competencies to evaluate a student’s performance over the year
through an evaluation structure based on different metrics to assess (Collins, Putnam &
Doherty, 2019). The diversity should not only be restricted to the assessment of students but

2UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
also considering the other communication parties to decision-making like the principal,
teachers, parents, the student coordinator in designing the curriculum. The curriculum should
not be only rested on the top management consisting the principal and vice-principal. Racism
is a huge component in the admission process of American education system restricting the
educational opportunities of the under-privileged races in high prestigious universities. This
should be taken legal action, because this type of discriminatory practices are morally illegal
acts. It is supported from the evidence found in this research article “The Legal Limitations
on college admission standards when does the pursuit of diversity become illegal
discrimination?” where Harvard University has faced legal charges of practicing racism
towards the Asian communities in the admission process (Haller, 2019). This kind of biasness
is not only ethically wrong in humanitarian grounds but also create a distorted educational
infrastructure in the economy.
Creativity in education
The creativity should be given very much importance to the student’s module in terms
of critical learning of concepts. This can be interpreted from the article “Development Of
Submitting Module Handware And Handmade Maintenance Competency To Increase
Creativity And Student Learning Results In Vocational High School”. Creativity itself is
determined to predict the success of divergent thinkers in the classroom. The improvement in
education can be only brought through innovative techniques of learning and encouragement
of creativity among students to freely express themselves. The various problem based
learning module in the teaching to make students perform decision-making on their own and
solve the problems as an activity can prepare these students to be flexible and adapt to the
external environment. This is supported by another article “Fostering student creativity
through teacher behaviors. Thinking Skills and Creativity” where it states that the
classroom environment should be created in such a way that students learn through
reinforcements, social modelling and various inter-personal skills rather than the traditional
approaches of only lecture method consuming information in pen and paper (Soh, 2017). The
teachers should be personally responsible to extend their delivery mode of learning to make
them more productive and perceive the environment in different dimensions rather than a
fixed module structured to score marks in the exam and just get a degree from the school. The
creativity in a learning environment can be best implemented through three key areas- learner
engagement in the classroom with the teachers, the design of the physical environment with
gaming technologies and activities and learning climate of the classroom (Richardson &

3UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
Mishra, 2018). The physical environment of the classroom should motivate the students to
gain not only the daily task and homework completion, but also learn something extra. The
aesthetics of the classroom should make the students come and learn from the teachers to
gain their knowledge. The students should be encouraged to give their opinions and problems
in specific areas where they cannot understand and not keep silent because of fear of teachers
in the thought of losing marks in the exam. This can be supported from the article “Learning
environments that support student creativity: Developing the SCALE”.
Grading should not be the only criteria to assess student’s intelligence
Majority of the students who perform poor in their educational curriculum face
demotivation due to the grading system based on certain benchmarks of performance to
assess the student. These type of demotivation make the students go through frustration and
question their abilities. The GPA score system putting the intelligence bar at first and
favoring the high scorers in the classroom invoke perceptual biasness in teachers which can
be evident from the article “How not to do a mindset intervention: Learning from a mindset
intervention among students with good grades” (Orosz, et.al, 2017). The academic
performance is correlated with the motivation of learners. The teachers are required to
motivate the students through creating adaptive learning strategies and assessing their
performance based on their situation coping strategies rather using traditional grading report
cards to measure their intelligence (Park et.al, 2016). This is stated in the article “Young
children’s motivational frameworks and math achievement: Relation to teacher-reported
instructional practices, but not teacher theory of intelligence” where it is implied that
challenging tasks with creative solutions should be provided to students, and disruptive
behaviors in academic success through adopting cheating methods to excel should be
restricted.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that diversity and the creativity being the two most
important aspects should be given most consideration in framing the learning environment for
the children. We have seen how Gilbert mentioned that racial biasness and the suffering of
minority groups of students to attain educational degree in prestigious universities. The
education framework should impose legal actions on such practices with penalty. Besides, the
paper also discusses how creativity can be installed in the education system through learner
engagement with professors and incorporation of an innovation physical environment for

4UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
learning with reduced importance to grading only in student evaluation criteria as the
intelligence through grading system as a practice demotivate the learners.
References
Boelens, R., Voet, M., & De Wever, B. (2018). The design of blended learning in response to
student diversity in higher education: Instructors’ views and use of differentiated
instruction in blended learning. Computers & Education, 120, 197-212.
Collins, M. E., Putnam, D., & Doherty, J. (2019). Assessing student competency in diversity
and social justice. Social Work Education, 1-11.
Gilbert, M. (2013). A plea for systemic change in education. On the Horizon.
Haller, B. (2019). The Legal Limitations on College Admission Standards: When Does the
Pursuit of Diversity become Illegal Discrimination?
Orosz, G., Péter-Szarka, S., Bőthe, B., Tóth-Király, I., & Berger, R. (2017). How not to do a
mindset intervention: Learning from a mindset intervention among students with good
grades. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 311.
Park, D., Gunderson, E. A., Tsukayama, E., Levine, S. C., & Beilock, S. L. (2016). Young
children’s motivational frameworks and math achievement: Relation to teacher-
reported instructional practices, but not teacher theory of intelligence. Journal of
Educational Psychology, 108(3), 300.
Pradani, R. Y., Nurlaela, L., & Widodo, W. (2017, September). Development Of Submitting
Module Handware And Handmade Maintenance Competency To Increase Creativity
And Student Learning Results In Vocational High School. In 1st International
Conference on Social, Applied Science and Technology in Home Economics
(ICONHOMECS 2017). Atlantis Press.
Richardson, C., & Mishra, P. (2018). Learning environments that support student creativity:
Developing the SCALE. Thinking skills and creativity, 27, 45-54.
Rowe, H. L., & Trickett, E. J. (2018). Student diversity representation and reporting in
universal school-based social and emotional learning programs: Implications for
generalizability. Educational Psychology Review, 30(2), 559-583.

5UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGE IN EDUCATION
Soh, K. (2017). Fostering student creativity through teacher behaviors. Thinking Skills and
Creativity, 23, 58-66.