Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. In this talk, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools’ dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers.
This video points out many very current issues with our lack of evolution in the education system. The section on community learning and self teaching reminds me of the ted talks by Sugata Mitra. He portrays self learning as individuals teaching themselves, but also by students teaching students with the direction of a teacher. His studies show that students learn the material faster and retain it for a longer duration when they are actively teaching each other in a communal environment. Here is a link if you are interested. http://www.ted.com/speakers/sugata_mitra.html
If we adapt to be more discriminating, within the existing sea of media, it might help us learn to master our attention spans.
Are children learning how to be discriminating on levels adults (with their ‘comprehensive education’) don’t appreciate or are children truly all at sea?
I know I can’t bear to watch “Horizon” anymore due to its repetitive nature (dumbing-down), but perhaps more information sinks in over the length of a modern “Horizon” in comparison to how much we really took in watching an old-style 1970s version. After all, if we only watch the first and final three minutes of a programme, we probably know the same as we would from watching the full show.
There may be two main functions of an educational system. One is about having a certain set of skills: the ability to multiply or list uses for a paper clip.
The other function is about developing members of a society, teaching people how to get on and interact with each other. This way people know how to use their skills to be successful. So we share stories with the next generation. We transmit culture.
I think this is a useful way to frame the decision-making process: what skills do students need now that the current system doesn’t teach well? And what social values should we be sharing with students that we aren’t now?
Students probably do need to learn more “divergent thinking” skills (problem identification, solution generation, decision-making) and implementation skills. In UK they call these “Enterprise” skills.
As far as the society side of things, I think the system is… continued here: http://www.timwoods.org/2010/12/28/the-innovation-gap-in-public-schools
