Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The Trouble With Outliers, Pt. 1

Haley Scholar Reading Groups

In his “Trouble with Geniuses, Part I” chapter, Malcolm Gladwell begins to clarify his argument that we continually have trouble understanding outliers. Researchers and an array of commentators often rely too heavily on conventional measures of aptitude to predict the ingredients of those who become extraordinary successes. For example, we label those who perform exceptionally well on IQ tests “geniuses,” and that designation falsely presumes that they will become highly successful.

According to Gladwell, individuals hardly need to be exceptionally intelligent or super smart to do really well. Instead, they merely need to be “smart enough.” And those who are smart enough do not need to attend the very best schools to gain the knowledge and training to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine, for example. They just have to attend a school that is “good enough.”

What two things should we be thinking about if we want to ensure that our local learning environments are “good enough”? Why should we be thinking about those things right now?

22 comments:

lance13 said...

We should be thinking about curriculum and preparing students for life outside of school if we want to make sure our learning environments are good enough. Focusing on these two things will cause students to struggle less when they get out of school. They will be more ready to live life on their own and they won't need somebody around always to tell them what to do.

Nicholas M said...

We should incorporate real-life applications to the curriculum and encourage students not only to do well in class but to understand the information as well. Most students are only concerned about a grade. There is nothing wrong with that. I just feel that there should be more emphasis put on the lessons taught than the grade itself. If you understand the lesson or lecture, the grades will come. Students will be more prepared for life, if they practice these suggested ideas. There will be fewer struggles and more success. These suggestions will also make our learning environments good enough.

Sean Pettiford said...

Our local learning environments should be thinking about setting up situations in the classroom that demand students to think outside the box. To expand their knowledge beyond the traditional one answer to a question theory. Also, they should take into account that not every student's talent or intelligence can be measured by test scores, and some way local learning environments need to find students' strengths and build on them giving them a true oppurtunity to pursue their highest aspirations. We should be focusing on these things because the sooner they are explored the better the chances are at success. Becoming an Outlier means that a different path has been taken. Having these experiences early or even later in life will, in my opinion, strengthen ones ability to succeed.

Candace P. said...

To ensure that our local learning environments are considered to be good enough, we should be thinking about preparing students for real world situations in addition to focusing on academics. By focusing on these two aspects, we are helping prepare students not only academically but socially also. It is true that focusing on academics can provide certain opportunities, however being able to effectively network can provide additional opportunities. Thus, in a sense academics and having the characteristics need to succeed now or even in the future are correlated.

Jac`quelene G. said...

I believe we should concentrate on developing creativity at an early age. Divergence tests could perhaps help with this process. We should also concentrate on developing reasoning skills used in every day life.
Developing good reasoning skills early will expand one's thinking. Being able to strategize is important when you have real life problems.
We should concentrate on these things now, so that no child is left behind. If everyone is at least in the good enough category, they will have an equal chance of being successful later in life.

Jacquelene G.

Yasmyn Knight said...

We should be express more enthusiasm about learning and being the best person we could be academically, physically, and mentally. Everything in the classroom should be related to actual real life situations. Teaching students to never give up and keep trying will also promote future success. Not many people succeeded in life by trying for the first time; but they made corrections to their mistakes and turned their mistakes into successes. If the learning environment possessed more enthusiasm about learning and pushed to the students to keep trying then I believe that would help students succeed in life.

Cornisha Buchanan said...

In my opinion we should spend time focusing our attention on the relevance in curriculum to the student's everyday life. I feel this should be focused on now because many students quickly lose interest even if they have the intelligence to learn the subject. Another factor that should be addressed is the attitude of the educators, it is very hard to learn from someone who seems like they do not want to be teaching them. The learning environment is a combination of the academic curriculum and the educators who teaches it. The are the two most important factors that should be looked at when trying to ensure the learning environment is "good enough".

Jamila M. said...

I believe we should be focusing on curriculum first to ensure that those who are "smart enough" have the knowledge needed to be successful. Second i feel we should focus on lifestyle management so that a person will know how to utilize their success to maintain their desired lifestyle. These things are important now because many of tomorrows greats are young and deserve others to help them as they do their best to help themselves.

Nathan Sierra said...

I think that it's imperative for us to know what "good enough" is first. what resources do other schools offer that make them "better?" If it's mostly do to the tuition costs, or longevity of a school, then we're sort of on the lower spectrum. If I were to think of ways to better the school, I'd say that we should make it easier to see councilors. I feel as though more visits with people who are well-trained with setting these students who are "good enough" on a path that will lead them to utilize their potential easier would be a great thing. The information is definitely present, however I think that more visits would make the university even better than what it is.

Anonymous said...

Justin Jones

I believe we should focus on the curriculum first. The curriculum sets the standars,boundaries, and guidelines for sucess. Secondly, They should definetly make the learning enviroment a focus for their studies. Outside of the school, the enviroment should be a good and clear one for students to succesfully finish work without distrcations. IF these two things are met then I beleive things will go as planned like outliers stated.

shanon stofer said...

Our local community environments should consider thinking about preparing students for the real world and different situations in life and focusing on academics at the same time. If people focus more on these two important aspects it will help prepare students socially and academically. Focusing on academics can provide you with an education that can take you far in life, allow you to think outside the box and open up better opportunities. In addition, experiencing the real world can provide even more opportunities. Taking these suggestions into consideration can help make the learning environments better for all students.
Shanon Stofer

Justin Smith said...

In order to have a positive learning environment, the focus should be put on real-life experiences. Teaching students how to operate in the professional world can greatly increase their chances for success. A positive learning environment can also be created simply through friendly relationships of faculty and students.

Jessica L.W. said...

Before answering the question about making sure local learning environments are "good enough", we first must create a description of what "good enough" is. First and foremost, everyone has their own explanation of "good enough". How do we find a middle ground for all of these varying definitions? Finding a middle ground of "good enough" is unrealistic because there is a wide spectrum of opinions. The first duty of the local learning environments is to ensure that the environment prepares students for real life situations. The second duty of the local environments is design a creative curriculum that allows students to think outside of the box, while keeping them closely related to the real world. Focusing on these two duties will keep students motivated to reach their desired goals. Students will have an enhanced sense of their interests by a younger age. Students will explore their interests sooner and will increase their chance of success.

mburchett said...

What we need to ensure that our learning envorinment include is real world curiculum that gets students ready for ready life. This curiculum should be taught very thoroughly, but more importantly it should be taught in a intresting way. This way the students won't be just going through the motions to get a certain grade, but will actually be thinking about this now because the children are the future, and if they aren't being educated properly we won't have a bright one.

Ashley B. said...

I think for our local learning enviorment to be good enough, the goal should be to make it so that it pertains more to real-life situations. Some schools shelter their students, and "hold the studenst hand" so when they are thrown out into the real world they are just not ready. The mistake happens in the high schools, then when the student advances to college the damage is already done.

Zachary Kadiri said...

The two things should we be thinking about if we want to ensure that our local learning environments are “good enough” are the curriculum/thinking outside of the norm and aiding students to express themselves to be the best.
The curriculm sets boundaries and standards which is good but it helps if one can think outside the box to futher one's thinking. This will allow a student to become more of a better critical thinker. Aiding students to express themselves to be the best gives students confidence which is a mental aspect students need to have in order to excel.

Anonymous said...

I think that it is important for educators to encourage students to think about what they are learning, not just remembering facts and dates. This will help them to not only learn about things, but to understand them and think deeply about the subjects.
They should also have class discussions so students can express their thoughts and feelings, and have them challenged. This will be a useful skill for later in life when they will have to state their opinions and argue for their beliefs.
Both of these will challenge students and make them think about themselves, beliefs, government, and the world.
Marta A.

Sable said...

I believe the two things we should be thinking about to enhance learning environments is preparation and evaluation. This book is not just about people with measurable knowledge, but incredible creative skills as well. Elementary and middle schools should be able to provide all children with a set of skills to at least be able to influence a child to discover their abilities and aptitudes. I also believe we should change the way we evaluate individuals because realize how often schools judge students based on the results of a standardized test. Those with exceptional aptitude for learning may earn a high score on the ACT, but does the lack of a 36 automatically disregard them from the 'truly genius' category? I believe we need to begin building an environment catered to helping students learn how to learn and realize different capacities people have to learning different subject matter. By sorting individuals based on abilities, we can see those who shine in their own area instead of having them become a face in a crowd where everyone is expected to be able to understand generalized subjects.

Camille D said...

We should be thinking about the material that is being taught in our learning system because without knowledge we will not survive in the outside world. We need to have knowledge in what we are specializing in in life. We also need to be thinking about preparing students for what is going to happen when we actually jump into the real world and have to survive by ourselves. We need to learn life lessons to be successful.

Corinthian Holts said...

The two things we should be thinking about are if students are really critically thinking about the things they are being taught or are they just remembering what they see expressed. This will assess whether learning is occurring or just parroting. Another thing to think about is if the students as a whole are challenged by the rigor of the curriculum, if not, they might as well say they are wasting time, the a challenge helps a student dig deep in themselves to solve a problem or figure something out and actually learn. The earlier we think about these things, they higher grade of students and thinkers we put into the world to succeed.

Ariana Harris said...

In order to ensure that our local learning environments are good enough, I believe we should have those that are willing to teach others what they have to offer and also an environment where it is possible to learn at an efficient rate. I figure if a community at least start there, the learning environment would be well rounded.

Shauntay C said...

We should be thinking about peparing students for real life perdicaments, that they are not normally required to think about. The reason as to why we should be thinking about this now is so that students can get a jump start on thinking out side the box and therfor will be able to have more practice with thinking outside of the box.