Revolutionizing Education
I started doing some videos to suggest the possibility that the (Australian) government should be doing more to encourage "thinking" as part of the curriculum.
But the more I thought about it, and explored the issue, and looked at what people were doing already, the more futile it seemed.
Maybe it could be done, I know that EdB often cites the example of Venezuela, but it seems unrealistic to expect politicians in Western democracies to foist something unfamiliar onto a self-righteous public.
The problem with education is its "customers".
There are at least three specific problems:
1. The customers who make the decision (ie the parents) are not the same people who use the service (the students). Who has ever heard of parents calling for the sacking of a teacher just because he is excruciatingly boring?
2. There is little agreement among customers (parents) as to what service should be provided (ie. what should be taught). The only clear point of agreement is that the kids should be protected from harm - so school ends up being a kind of babysitting service.
3. It is a long time (years) before results are known - as opposed to most defective products or services where the problems usually surface quickly (then complained about and fixed - or some other provider sought).
It seems to me that education delivered online can easily overcome all three problems.
Some have already made a start (usually teaching maths online), often successfully. I haven't found any, however, that completely transform education in the way that I imagine is possible.
I am working hard to make this happen.
But the more I thought about it, and explored the issue, and looked at what people were doing already, the more futile it seemed.
Maybe it could be done, I know that EdB often cites the example of Venezuela, but it seems unrealistic to expect politicians in Western democracies to foist something unfamiliar onto a self-righteous public.
The problem with education is its "customers".
There are at least three specific problems:
1. The customers who make the decision (ie the parents) are not the same people who use the service (the students). Who has ever heard of parents calling for the sacking of a teacher just because he is excruciatingly boring?
2. There is little agreement among customers (parents) as to what service should be provided (ie. what should be taught). The only clear point of agreement is that the kids should be protected from harm - so school ends up being a kind of babysitting service.
3. It is a long time (years) before results are known - as opposed to most defective products or services where the problems usually surface quickly (then complained about and fixed - or some other provider sought).
It seems to me that education delivered online can easily overcome all three problems.
Some have already made a start (usually teaching maths online), often successfully. I haven't found any, however, that completely transform education in the way that I imagine is possible.
I am working hard to make this happen.
Add a Comment
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Comment by Phil Bachmann on November 22, 2010 at 10:47 -
Hi Cal,
Interesting the idea that students should be paid for good results. It may work because some students grow up in families that do not care about school scores - so they don't try until money is offered.
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Comment by Phil Bachmann on November 22, 2010 at 10:43
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Hello Bhuvaneshwar,
I couldn't find the web address you referred to.
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Comment by Cal on November 21, 2010 at 17:40 -
Add-on to below post: Maybe could offer some of those things to Phil's "self-righteous public"?
Maybe even give them a rationalle that might make sense to them. Eg.: If your kids do better in school, more likely they won't be moving back home. :)
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Comment by Cal on November 21, 2010 at 17:35
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On this part of Phil's opening post:
I started doing some videos to suggest the possibility that the (Australian) government should be doing more to encourage "thinking" as part of the curriculum.
But the more I thought about it, and explored the issue, and looked at what people were doing already, the more futile it seemed.
Maybe it could be done, I know that EdB often cites the example of Venezuela, but it seems unrealistic to expect politicians in Western democracies to foist something unfamiliar onto a self-righteous public.
The problem with education is its "customers".
An article I came across today, that I thought had an interesting concept - 'marks for money' - that seems to be working in places here in Canada: http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/NationalNewsArticle.htm?&s...
I wonder if such a reward system could work as well or better by offering other things.
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Comment by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on October 26, 2010 at 6:57 -
My sympathies are with you as I and even EDB in early days had to face similar stumbling blocks.Education is an abscract multi-desciplinary science that is undergoing rapid changes in its content.A visit to RelfectionCafe in the web on top ten tips for good education will convince you of the need to look at the subject from Cybernetics poiny of view.
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Comment by Bhuvaneshwar Joshi on October 14, 2010 at 7:53
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There has benn good interaction among members on this very important issue.Though I am no expert on the subject of Education,yet I am expressing my views. Firstly, the focus of objectives would differ while dealing with School edu,College edu. and Higher education. For children, along with CORTs emphasis should be on nursery rhymes & limmericks rather than dry and hard grammer that only kills creative thinking motivation. At college level creative thinking would have to be balanced with critical thinking ability.And at apex level,particularly for M.Phil students there is need to introduce courses on Systems thinking, Perceptional & design thinking.
As for whether the change should begin from within or without the system,it has to be both.One important requirement is that the teachers of creative thinking should truly be creative communicating it creatively and not mechanically. Human brain is very sensitive to this and if not moulded properly could result in more damage than otherwise as far as creative thinking is concern.To illustrate this point Dr EDB not only has made us all aware about shortcomming in our education as regards creative thinking skills but his creative thinking skills as manifested in the diverse range of books is very inspiring.Teachers must practice what they preach. Easier said than done.
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Comment by Phil Bachmann on September 24, 2010 at 4:45
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Dobilas/Franis,
I'm hearing you, but won't comment until I understand it better.
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Comment by Franis on September 23, 2010 at 9:12 -
"Autofocus" is also the name of a priority-making listing system. It has been working well for me. Essentially, you make a CAF sort of list of the things you'd like to get done. (This wouldn't include things that need to be done at a certain time, but things that need to get done at some point.) Whenever you have time to do things, you read the list to see what is there, then you read it again to see what "pops out" at you. You'd work on it for as long as you like, then if it's not finished, you put it again at the end of the list. The clincher is, if you read over a page and nothing comes forward that you want to do, you cross off the whole page. You do not put any task on the list again that was crossed off in this fashion.
It's an interesting experience using Autofocus. Realizing that the whole page is at risk to be cancelled, you become quite motivated to find something to do to prevent every task on that page to being eliminated. It's an interesting and intuitive way to motivate yourself to get things done that you've been putting off doing.
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Comment by Franis on September 20, 2010 at 5:05
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Yes, I have always opted to "work outside the system" rather than change it from within... except for my work in Alexander Technique. But that micro-culture has a built-in flexibility, almost a tradition of innovation that was encouraged by its founder.
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Comment by Phil Bachmann on September 19, 2010 at 17:26
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I have the greatest admiration for those people who have reformed the system from within.
I don't feel that I am able to do that: I get too cross, too quickly. (Also the risk of failure is too high.)
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