1.Where do we stand
Who writes the textbooks that are taught in schools? What are the criteria, exams and scholarly techniques that teachers must have in order to be eligible to teach? What is the desired level of literacy at a given period?
I feel increasingly disillusioned seeing back how many things we were taugh in school were rather disorienting in terms of discerning the important from the less important, the connection of knowledge we were presented, and its utility in real life.
My sister is in 2nd year high school now and I see a major paradigm shift in public education that will cause it to RUN and run FAST.
She regularly finds more comprehensible and updated information on Wikipedia than in her textbooks. Which causes one to ponder. Shouldn't it be the other way around? After all, textbooks are written by a handful of qualified academics while a Wiki by dozens, or hundreds of laymen with expectances of inaccuracies and the occasional vandalism.
And that leads me to my situation. Business school student. I concern myself as having the basic critical thinking tools. Sadly, for a significant portion of students this does not hold true. And one wonders if critical thinking should be given more emphasis in lower education. That would be beneficial among vast applications, as well as in the important choice of the Faculty afterwards, if compensation is not your sole pursuit.
So public education is outdated in its practices, at least in Greece. Don't they take notice of the Flynn effect? Or even from empirical data from relationships with students as to how generations are progressively more able to grasp knowledge and be more critical, partly because of the great stimuli of technology and the web? I personally am amazed whenever I have a conversation with a kid; they are so aware and grasp new things like it's nothing. And I am left in disbelief saying "That little devil!".
The infrastructure of education is fundamentally unsound. Good will is not good enough to reverse this, changes should be made in understanding the student and opening a dialog with him. With scholars having the responsibility of the outcome. I believe the reason the reforms are not being done is because there are limited resources provided by governments, because apparently the returns are not immediate and sadly administrations do not see very far ahead of their service time. Education can not remain a CASTLE OF SAND.
Which leads me to some observations/proposals of learning paths that can cause education to progress and be more effective combining keeping students interested in conjuction with producing intellectually superior citizens.
2.Affirmative action
#1. Mechanisms are more important than information - Critical thinking.
Devote a portion of learning hours to tutorials about critical thinking. Not only that would lead to more effective reading but also increase the interest of reading because it provides tools that affirm or challenge what is being written. The student becomes an active and independent reader. His reading, comprehending and absorbing skills increase manifold.
#2. You can not be interested in details without knowing the goal.
A pivotal subject in which education many times fails, how can you expect students to be interested in details when you don't inform them of the goal of the learning matterial. Even briefly providing the consensus. Unless you don't know the goal. Which poses an even greater problem upon academia. Give students the context, the historical progress, the forces which led to the development and expect them to naturally be curious about the details. They will go after the details. And afterwards even as the details fade, the gist remains.
#3. Have a small mouth and a big ear.
The teaching process must be dynamic and interactive. The teacher should create a friendly atmosphere within the class and foster questioning and conversation. Coming unprepared to class should be inexcusable for the teacher. Participation of the students should not be compulsory but at the same time incentives should be given for it. Excellence should be very difficult to be attained with exams and coursework alone, without participation. School should be a social forum.
#4. Education is ultimately a personal endeavour.
If the student himself does not recognize this, none of the above will have any impact. It starts from the family, which should put a priority on education and help as much as it can with its child's progress. Especially at small ages don't scare the child and emphasize the benefits of learning by igniting, and keeping lit, the curious spirit natural to kids. If learning can be as enjoyable as playing at small ages, it will most likely be for life.
Having a negative attitude towards education is deceiving yourself. Going against one's self is the biggest crime.
Please critique my views on education and add your diagnosis of your home country and your reccomendations for correcting measures.
Who writes the textbooks that are taught in schools? What are the criteria, exams and scholarly techniques that teachers must have in order to be eligible to teach? What is the desired level of literacy at a given period?
I feel increasingly disillusioned seeing back how many things we were taugh in school were rather disorienting in terms of discerning the important from the less important, the connection of knowledge we were presented, and its utility in real life.
My sister is in 2nd year high school now and I see a major paradigm shift in public education that will cause it to RUN and run FAST.
She regularly finds more comprehensible and updated information on Wikipedia than in her textbooks. Which causes one to ponder. Shouldn't it be the other way around? After all, textbooks are written by a handful of qualified academics while a Wiki by dozens, or hundreds of laymen with expectances of inaccuracies and the occasional vandalism.
And that leads me to my situation. Business school student. I concern myself as having the basic critical thinking tools. Sadly, for a significant portion of students this does not hold true. And one wonders if critical thinking should be given more emphasis in lower education. That would be beneficial among vast applications, as well as in the important choice of the Faculty afterwards, if compensation is not your sole pursuit.
So public education is outdated in its practices, at least in Greece. Don't they take notice of the Flynn effect? Or even from empirical data from relationships with students as to how generations are progressively more able to grasp knowledge and be more critical, partly because of the great stimuli of technology and the web? I personally am amazed whenever I have a conversation with a kid; they are so aware and grasp new things like it's nothing. And I am left in disbelief saying "That little devil!".
The infrastructure of education is fundamentally unsound. Good will is not good enough to reverse this, changes should be made in understanding the student and opening a dialog with him. With scholars having the responsibility of the outcome. I believe the reason the reforms are not being done is because there are limited resources provided by governments, because apparently the returns are not immediate and sadly administrations do not see very far ahead of their service time. Education can not remain a CASTLE OF SAND.
Which leads me to some observations/proposals of learning paths that can cause education to progress and be more effective combining keeping students interested in conjuction with producing intellectually superior citizens.
2.Affirmative action
#1. Mechanisms are more important than information - Critical thinking.
Devote a portion of learning hours to tutorials about critical thinking. Not only that would lead to more effective reading but also increase the interest of reading because it provides tools that affirm or challenge what is being written. The student becomes an active and independent reader. His reading, comprehending and absorbing skills increase manifold.
#2. You can not be interested in details without knowing the goal.
A pivotal subject in which education many times fails, how can you expect students to be interested in details when you don't inform them of the goal of the learning matterial. Even briefly providing the consensus. Unless you don't know the goal. Which poses an even greater problem upon academia. Give students the context, the historical progress, the forces which led to the development and expect them to naturally be curious about the details. They will go after the details. And afterwards even as the details fade, the gist remains.
#3. Have a small mouth and a big ear.
The teaching process must be dynamic and interactive. The teacher should create a friendly atmosphere within the class and foster questioning and conversation. Coming unprepared to class should be inexcusable for the teacher. Participation of the students should not be compulsory but at the same time incentives should be given for it. Excellence should be very difficult to be attained with exams and coursework alone, without participation. School should be a social forum.
#4. Education is ultimately a personal endeavour.
If the student himself does not recognize this, none of the above will have any impact. It starts from the family, which should put a priority on education and help as much as it can with its child's progress. Especially at small ages don't scare the child and emphasize the benefits of learning by igniting, and keeping lit, the curious spirit natural to kids. If learning can be as enjoyable as playing at small ages, it will most likely be for life.
Having a negative attitude towards education is deceiving yourself. Going against one's self is the biggest crime.
Please critique my views on education and add your diagnosis of your home country and your reccomendations for correcting measures.
