Throughout the course of this year long endeavor, numerous observations came up in regards to the implementation of the psychology curriculum in the Florence North Unit. Major challenges have already been discussed, but it is critical to note that many of the challenges came not from the subject matter, the students, or those working within corrections themselves, but from the prison system as a whole. While students were able to take college level courses from the Prison Education Project interns, they were unable to gain course credit from the semester long classes, which I suspect may have been a reason for low enrollment and high dropout rates from the class.
In addition to high drop-out rates, one of the more frustrating aspects of this year long class was the fact that, when the second semester classes began, less than 9 of our original group of 25 were still in the Florence North Unit to continue the class. The class size stayed consistent because new students enrolled in the class, but this created an issue in and of itself. Much of
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This was largely due to that fact that I carried a communication’s radio that would allow me to alert the corrections officer in the event of an incident. However, the students were distinctly aware of the educational environment and how it was a privilege for them to receive it—as a result, they never acted out or behaved inappropriately. This was a great relief for me as an educator because on multiple occasions, contentious, controversial topics were brought up as part of the curriculum. Rather than causing a disruption when opinions were quite obviously different, the students behaved in a calm and respectful manner of the thoughts of not only the instructors but of their peers. This demonstrated a level of maturity some would not expect in a Psychology 101 class, much less in the prison
Correctional program writing nowadays is at a level of efficiency that surpasses earlier outlooks. In territories all over the United States, there are several curriculums that use research-based curriculums to teach, instruct, and inspire inmates. Disappeared are the days of hit-or-miss execution of curriculums that seemed good, but over and over again just occupied time for the inmates. The previous evolution happened for several reasons (Corrections Today, 2010). The largest wake-up demands was the claim composed around thirty years ago. The statement made was not anything works in corrections systems, mainly rehabilitation. Even though this commonly revealed report was taken from its context, it did in detail carry some notice to the mystery that several penitentiaries were not operational as change
Overcrowding in prisons may cause prisoners to not receive the rehabilitative curriculums that they want in order to be reintegrated into society. This is the case in California, with individuals serving their prison sentences in jails, where they do not have the space to incorporate areas to hold the programs necessary for prisoners to assimilate back into society (KQED and Center for Investigative
Esperian, John H. "The Effect of Prison Education Programs on Recidivism." Journal of Correctional Education 61.4 (2010): 316-334. ProQuest. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.
It is to no surprise that America has a large amount of its people incarcerated for a variety of reasons. One must ask themselves how we can help these individuals get back on track. The answer is America’s most powerful weapon known to man; an education. This is an annotated bibliography for research on the effects of education in the prison system and if these effects are worth taxpayer’s money.
One aspect of the documentary that relates to class material was the inmate’s description of being trapped in their cells like animals in a cage. This description of imprisonment can be associated to the article written by Sykes entitled, “The Pains of Imprisonment”. In this article, the author elaborates about how an inmate’s liberty is restricted to a specific building but then reduced further to a specific routine where they are told where to go and what to do. “In short, the prisoner’s loss of liberty is a double one — first, by confinement to the institution and second, by confinement within the institution.” (Sykes, 65). This is similar to how the prisoners in segregation are confined to the prison, and additionally to their cell. Another feature of the film that reflected class material was the campus style design of the prison. The inmates were allowed to roam around cell area and interact with other prisoners. Furthermore, different styles of adaptation to the segregation unit can be linked to class material. For instance, one member of the isolation unit is focused on completing his GED, an adaptation called gleaning. This is when an inmate takes advantage of offered programs because they do not want to return to prison. Prisoners who have served longer sentence times in isolation, for instance over a year, reflected a “doing time” adaption. They were simply focused on
Studies have shown that in-prison education curriculums decrease recidivism while refining the eminence of life. However, majority of extra-curricular classes in prison have been eradicated, additional customs of job preparation have reduced, and access to exercise equipment and educational resources such as books is progressively limited. In the past five years the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has increased the federal budget by 40 per cent to $2.6 billion, majority bei...
Dodd, Vikram. "Why Prison Education?." . Prison Studies Project, Teaching Research Outreach, 16 Jan. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .
According to experts and inmates, education is a key to successful reentry into society that most inmates are lacking. Over the past twenty years, the need for education within jails and prisons has risen to an all-time high...
HISD (Houston Independent School District) has a total of 283 schools and 213,000 students, making it the largest district in Texas. While doing my observation hours at Crespo Elementary, I was able to find out that the elementary occupies 958 students, being that elementary schools usually have around 516 students so it seemed a lot for an elementary. In total, I observed 5 students, In the PSI classroom there seemed to be a higher percentage of boys being that there were only 2 girls out of the 6 children. The 6 children all have cerebral palsy and one child deals with being deaf and another child being partially blind, one of the children had Down syndrome. The classroom occupied of two English speaking children and the rest were Spanish,
Class size makes a huge impact on how the student learns. Along with many other things, there is more to the amount of kids in class than most people think. The quality one on one time is affected. Along with that, important questions that the students needs clarity on from the teacher might not be able to be answered because so many other students are in the room asking their own question. Students learn in their own ways. Teachers have to be flexible to how their students learn and in order to do that they need to know their students on a personal level. When class sizes are large, it effects students in negative ways in their learning.
The school that I visited was new. It was the first year of the school opening. The school board had combined two schools into one, so the students had to adjust to their new environments and new individuals. They seemed to be getting along well with each other. Since the school is new the teacher has to adjust to new problems that araise. Times for the subjects and times for using the computer labs change. So the teacher must always be fixable for anything. In this observation of this classroom I learned about the enjoyment of teaching. How you have to adapt to each of the students.
Correctional Education for Inmates As the daughter of a teacher, a high school valedictorian, and a now college undergraduate student, I understand the value and importance of a decent education. Unlike many college students, I did not attend a mainstream high school, take Advance Placement (AP) courses, or enroll in any college night classes. I attended a vocational-technical high school to obtain career skills that were deemed necessary for future health care careers. To me, this was more important than taking AP Literature or AP Calculus.
One of the more popular areas of psychology is Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology can be explained several ways. The idea is to study theories and concepts from different parts of psychology and apply them in educational settings. These educational settings may occur in different school settings such as preschool. The goal of educational psychology is to create a positive student-teacher relationship. Educational psychology uses five different types of psychology, behavioral, cognitive, developmental, and social cognitive, and constructivist in this research paper I will be briefly discussing each type of psychology listed above.
The students that I observed in the classroom were of middle to high school. I went to see 8th, freshman, 10th , and seniors classes, they seemed excited and very curious to why I was there. The middle school was more alive and rambunctious while I observed them. The High school kids were more relaxed, more comical. Some were paying attention while others seemed tuned out to the lecture or involved in socialization with friends within the class. By the end of the class Mr. Hasgil had restored the attention of everyone by using tactics such as history jeopardy with candy as the prize with the high school kids. In both he middle school and high school the kids were mostly Caucasian with a mixture of black, Asian , and Hispanic in the classes.
For my observation experience I went to Southern High School in Harwood, MD. Southern High School has a special education department for the students with disabilities. The teacher that I met with for this classroom observation was Ms. West. In the classroom there were at least four assistant teachers that helped Ms. West throughout the school day. The assistant teachers helped Ms. West co- teach the class and were there to help the students if they needed extra help. The school also has a couple of student aides that come in to help the teachers and the students in the classroom. There were at least twelve students in the classroom. The students in the class had many different exceptionalities such as learning disabilities, Down syndrome,