TN State Board of Education - Executive Director

NASBE Grant Enhancing Peer Communication for Student Leaders
The Tennessee State Board of Education has received a grant from the National Association of State Boards of Education to Enhance Peer Communication for Students in Tennessee. The materials below have been produced in part through the assistance provided by that grant.

In the Spring of 2007, the State Board held a student leadership essay competition in which all middle and high school students in Tennessee were encouraged to submit a 300 to 750 word essay outlining how they would help improve education in Tennessee .

Within the upcoming month, Board staff will interview this student, creating the first of what will be periodically updated podcasts of students sharing their ideas related to improving education in Tennessee .

Essay Topic: If you could pick a single action to improve education in Tennessee what would it be? Who would you collaborate with to help achieve this single objective?

If I could pick a single action to improve education in Tennessee , I would like to implement critical thinking into our schools so our students would become more familiar with that kind of deeper thinking process. Not many students have been introduced to critical thinking, and others just haven't used it very often. For that reason, not many know what critical thinking is. Critical thinking is basically taking a complex problem and breaking it down into smaller, more understandable parts. I would expect that if critical thinking had been brought into our schools and taught more heavily than it is now, then students would improve in their school work and receive better grades.

So many students struggle in school, and so I really do believe that if critical thinking was a process that they learned about and understood, those students wouldn't have to struggle so hard to do well. Overall, it can be a fun learning process and will keep students drawn into their class work and projects. And so my first reason for wanting to implement critical thinking into our school systems is because I believe that it will help students to better understand their school subjects. It will also help students actually remember what they learn. Finally, I believe that critical thinking will help students gain potential in their school work.

Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to understand the point of a lecture or the key parts of a new lesson. I feel that there are other students who are the same way. Just taking whatever I'm trying to learn and breaking it down into simple and easy parts that I can understand is usually all I need if I'm having trouble. In my opinion, it's so much easier to understand something if you put a little fun into it, too. For example, if you're working on a group project, it helps to discuss the topic with the other students in your group and discuss each others opinions and beliefs about the subject. In some cases when a student is working alone, you might even like to find a way to compare something that may have happened in your life or someone else's to the subject depending on what you're learning.

Put yourself in the place of a student who has to sit in class for minutes upon minutes with the burden of having to listen to a long and tiresome lecture that would put you to sleep faster than a lullaby. Keeping students drawn in and interested is an important part of teaching something new and educational because, in fact, it's not very educational for a student that has fallen asleep during one of their teacher's classes. Critical thinking can be made into a fun learning process given the right attitude and determination to really learn. In my opinion, it's always better and easier to stay focused when I get to learn things, for the most part, without having to memorize and force myself to stay awake in a boring class that could actually be fun.

I believe that if students apply critical thinking to their school work more often, they would understand every aspect that they needed to move on to the next level. Some students just don't understand what they're learning in class and are either shy or too afraid to simply ask a teacher for help. Most of the time, students just need to dig deeper into their subjects to really understand and feel confident whenever testing time comes around. The more students get used to understanding the key points that their teacher is trying to teach, the more potential they gain in school. Keeping great grades on report cards would most likely be easier, and always being behind in school would be a thing of the past.

These are the reasons why I would like to bring critical thinking into our schools. First, I said that critical thinking would help students understand their lessons better than what they did before. Next, I believe that students will be able to remember what they learned for a longer period of time. Finally, critical thinking would help students gain potential in their work and grade capabilities. I hope that one day students will be able to take this learning process in order to understand everything they need to know for the future that lies ahead of them that could perhaps make a difference in this world.