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Designing a new Education System
This is basically the idea from the comments of another thread here:
http://www.ted.com/conversations/12932/how_do_we_get_students_to_adop.html
What are the pros/cons of current public education?
What are things that should be kept/improved?
In that previous topic, I stated my opinions and ideas. Here's a refresh on my points.
Different people learn differently. There are introverts/extroverts, close-minded/open-minded, optimistic/pessimistic, messy/OCD, booksmart/streetsmart, etc.
Online education is rapidly empowering anyone to learn on their own individually. However, fundamentally it cannot teach people to communicate effectively to others when talking or in a seminar discussion. In other words, school should teach 75% collaboration and teamwork and communication, not 75% individualism.
Learning should be a fun thing, not a chore. Learning should also be useful to the real world.
Everyone is curious at heart. Everyone is an artist at heart.
Effective communication can be established not only when we respect our selves' and each other's strengths and weaknesses, but also when we respect our similarities.
Bullies suck, no one likes bullies. Not even the bullies like their bullies lol
santhosh mathew varkey
James Zhang 30+
David Hamilton 50+
Wouldn't a member of almost any other professional community, be better suited for teaching cooperation, than the "public" sector?
James Zhang 30+
Mats Kaarbö 10+
James Zhang 30+
James Zhang 30+
The idea is indeed there, we just need to figure out a way to execute on a grand scale somehow...
Matthew Stephenson
from then on it should be baised on what the individual would like to do what they like
look at the olympics some of those people have been training sense they were really young they found a passion and they were helped threw it by the people around them shouldn't school be just like that
sure not every one knows what they want to to at that age but that should be the time when they experiment with different things rather then when they graduate high school and they had time to do other things that might interfere with their education.
James Zhang 30+
How about having a class assignment where there is a really hard problem to solve. A problem that is so hard to solve, that it actually requires many different skillsets.
Or perhaps have a problem that can be solved in many different ways, using art, logic, etc.
Give kids the option to work alone or work together.
Altaf Zaki
James Zhang 30+
So perhaps I can offer a question with many different solutions. Have everyone give a solution anonymously and put them in a basket. Then I would go through each solution 1 by 1 to the class and analyze them.
But then it would create a mystery, like some kids would be like "who came up with that solution? It's totally stupid." This is something I want to avoid... I want to educate everyone that no idea is a bad idea, in the grander scheme of things...
Altaf Zaki
James Zhang 30+
As for the whole "mystery" I was talking about, I don't want people to demean others' ideas as well. I need to find some way to communicate to them that there are no "stupid" ideas.
Altaf Zaki
1- Focus all different ideas you have collected in the basket, just makes simple and different questions for each idea, and give these questions to kids, to find their own answers, let them to help by themselves using books or internet else resource.
2- They will come with different answeres or may be similar, because you asked same thing in 3 or 5 different question. The right answer you already know, but what will be the wrong answer to you, may not be necessarily wrong for the kid, perhaps they may have those reasons which make them to answer uniquely.
3- The wrong and different answer which you normally don't expect, will be the most interesting and creative when you ask the reason behind their idea.
That thinking process takes time, you have to apply it for at least 6 months to a group of kids ... then you will find out how their mental skills are developed. You will also need a lot of patience without losing your sweet smile.
James Zhang 30+
There may be reason to your madness in this new idea of patience and go-with-the-flow idea... lol
You're right, I should never forget that my focus is trying to let them learn for themselves and less on my imposings. The teacher should be a helping guide, like showing them some resources to look at.
And you're right, patience is definitely a very important key to making this work...
Steven Hsieh
James Zhang 30+
Why don't we just have a class where everyone in the class does nothing but watch Youtube videos. Make it like a show and tell, or something. Like today, this kid will present us a video, etc. Or make a weekly theme. Like for this week, we'll start watching a video about animals, and then go on from there. You can even bring lunch or snacks with you. Even cooler, one kid can volunteer to bring snacks for everyone in class or something. Or maybe have one week, where you can ONLY click on related videos, you can only use the search bar for the first video.
Altaf Zaki
It may of your interest.
I agree and appreciate your idea Designing New Education System. I think such system will be for educating the minds how to think and what to think, how to use knowledge smartly to make the dreams comes true soonest possible, how to solve problems for the next 2 generation, how to use and plan resources wisely, what is growth? how the concept of growth can be expended? how everyone can achieve growth, how we can make our world a better place to Live ... and so on.
Memorize and follow the rules to achieve the graduation, is outdated and expired theory, it sucks now...
Language is just a tool of communication, but not the actual communication. I think "communication" is all thinking stuff which runs inside the minds, we called them the 'Ideas'. New Education System should enable minds to expand their communication capabilities to create real unique ideas which makes our world more better.
James Zhang 30+
And you're right, language is just the form. The message itself is the content. Language is basically the same thing as asking, how do we communicate this message?
Steven Hsieh
Every curiosity and imagination is CRUSHED
Because We are forced to learn facts and figures and memorial ism
We are also graded what is right or what is wrong.
If you don't do it right Bob, you will receive a poor grade.
The facts we are learning are discovered by scientist that they discovered. Not us that discovers it.
We need let people discover things, not memorize facts.
James Zhang 30+
Rhona Pavis 50+
James Zhang 30+
You're right, recess was really fun... Maybe make recess become 30 minutes for a kid to do anything he/she wants. Like read book in library, play outside, work on computers, internet time, draw, or chill with other kids on tables, etc.
Rhona Pavis 50+
James Zhang 30+
So it's basically sandbox free-for-all then?
It sounds pretty awesome, but I think it may lack too much direction or focus. While we want the school environment to be as open as possible, we still need some kind of system of focus.
Also, if we basically make recess-dominant become the new format, then how would we be able to grade each children for their worthiness to adulthood?
The other thing is we also want to guide them to as much exposure as possible. While seeing them fascinated about one thing is great, we also don't want to limit their minds.
Hmm, ok I got it.
How about, during senior year of high school, the kids do whatever the heck they want. There will be no teacher there to do anything, other than to offer guidance and regulation. They have complete freedom to explore all these fields for themselves, or work with a friend on a cool project. Maybe they should keep some kind of blog or something. That blog will be graded by participation. Then when finals come, each teacher who is in charge of a group of student will simply read the blogs and mark yay/nay.
So basically turn the school into a gigantic playground. Hmm, but that sounds really expensive. Ok so how about each high schooler can go to college and help/check out what other students are doing there?
Rhona Pavis 50+
Even from the beginning, one can offer a huge array of subject matter. Just think of what is available on the internet! The teachers can be there as resource people. For example, when a child wants to express something, the teacher can teach them or guide them to learning materials that will teach them various forms of expression, e.g., writing, mathematics, music, art.
James Zhang 30+
James Zhang 30+
- English
- - English should become all about communication.
- - Should learn story-telling and story elements
- - More contemporary? Learn about languages in general. Internet Language lol
- - Memes
- - Writing Essays: more creative writing, less structure. Only one thing you really need: Your thesis statement. Rest of essay should support thesis. Conclusion: can be non-existent or can suggest new things based on thesis. Only need and
- - English shouldn't be limited to reading, writing, poetry, etc. It should be movies, tv shows, debates, speech, etc. ANYTHING English related
- - Should also be comprehensive. Curriculum is pretty good way it is, but can improve.
- Foreign Language
- - Start earlier, or else it'll be useless
- Physical Education
- - Fuse with Health, anatomy, good healthy practices and diet, etc.
- - Learn conditioning basically
James Zhang 30+
Cool Classes
- General
- - Make things more contemporary
- - Make things more collaboratively required
- Music
- - Only 1 year requirement to take band, orchestra, choir, or Music Studies.
- - A class on just listening to music and appreciating other genres more.
- Art
- - Basic Art class:
- - - Art is the language of ideas and emotion.
- - - An outlet of self-expression. Music is art. Visual stuff is art. Speech is art. Etc.
- Cooking class
- - Most people should know this. And most should know the art to this.
- Information Searching
- - Google, Wikipedia, etc.
- Keyboarding
- - This is already pretty good the way it is
- Social Studies
- - Should be a class on games and game theory. Should be study on how people interact with each other. Body Language, Speech, Music, fights, revolutions, etc.
- - Current Events
- - - Debates and Controversial Issues
- Physics
- - It should be 75% conceptual, 25% computational, not other way around
- Math
- - Curriculum-wise, this is good the way it is… maybe… Should have more focus on conceptual, not computational.
- Computer Science
- - Make a core subject
- - - Learn basic programming concepts like algorithms, recursion, conditions, etc. VERY basic concepts
- - Script Languages vs Compile
- History
- - Pretty good the way it is imo. Maybe they should do stuff like reenactments of war, have class debates on old historical issues. Look at the BIGGER picture of things
James Zhang 30+
Use Minecraft/Legos. Basically a year-long class assignment could be, the entire class just simply plays Minecraft on one server. Everyone's graded on participation.
For those who don't know Minecraft is a very popular game, even among kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn2-d5a3r94.
The idea is, there are kids who work alone on their things and there are kids who work want to work together. Other than that, there shouldn't be much restrictions to anything.
douglas macrae smith
Learning is a game - the child learns at play - nature made it so, and she usually chooses the best systems.
Let the child grow into the best thing he can be, by encouraging him to do what he finds the most interesting.
James Zhang 30+