Watch this video about education paradigms currently in force. These are explained and called into question by the lecturer. In turn, he puts forth other teaching models which, in his opinion, should take over from old ones.
Having watched it, try to answer the following questions:
How do you feel about the arguments made in the video? Do you agree or disagree? What strong claims are made that you think are right? Wrong? Write about your experience as a student (primary, secondary and tertiary education)
Here are the reviews we wrote
Marta Osorio
In my opinion, this video explains in a very comprehensible and realistic way, the present situation of the educational system. Mr Robinson points out the major problems we find in schools and the reasons why children are not motivated to study.
Nowadays, having a degree does not guarantee getting a better job. That’s why we hear very often among students: Why should I study? It’s not worth it. The problem is that they do not want to work either. It has been recently coined the term “Nini” for this generation who does not study nor work, they live on their parents.
I think that the educational system should change in order to stimulate children so as they become more active and more critical. Although the situation is beginning to change, up to now students sat and listened to the teacher without questioning anything he/she was saying. The problem is how to change this system. Children receive stimuli constantly and it will be difficult to find something that catches their attention. The solution that we are trying to introduce is the use of technologies in schools. The problem is that many times the students know more about the computers than the teachers themselves.
Another point I would like to comment is the course organization by ages. It may be the simplest way to group children but it is not the most efficient at all. Kids do not develop the same way and therefore they do not learn in the same time or following the same steps. I do not think that a 30-student class will be the ideal situation to learn. Classes are overcrowded and the teacher does not know what his/her students need. I believe smaller groups with collaborative work would be more desirable. I totally agree when he says: “Collaboration is the stuff of growth”.
José Mira
I think that the lecturer makes very interesting and convincing statements about the public education system. However, there are some which should be refined.
It is true that the current system was created to meet the needs of a different age, but, in my opinion, certain characteristics of this system can still be in force because they remain to be of use for children. Even if learning must allow for divergent learning and let us open up to a more comprehensive consideration of the issues dealt with in a classroom, I believe that some basic and undebatable basis of knowledge in which memory and hard work play a fundamental role have to be included in any study plan.
For instance, to learn the prepositions, the rivers of a country or who historically relevant people such as Plato, Napoleon or Columbus were, pupils need to activate their memory and study skills as it has been done since the Enlightenment, because only if they possess a firm, broad cultural background will they be able to reason things out consistently and think differently about, question or compare traditionally assumed views or opinions to their own ones.
Besides, implementing this attitude of responsibility and effort to fulfil the objectives of a given course or activity imposed from outside is useful to prepare students for the challenges they are going to encounter in real life.
I agree in that is there must be a change in teaching methods. Today’s society provides children with an immense amount of interacting tools and materials that are diametrically different from those available to earlier generations, thus their interests and behaviours are radically different as well.
Whereas our elder might have felt curious about, for example, the fall of the Roman Empire, because they did not have any possibility of knowing it by themselves and the means to access culture were scant, most of our children do not care about things that get them bored, because globalisation permits them to go into any information they might need at a particular moment and prefer to keep on playing with the electronic, technologically more advanced devices that they are used to play with.
Taking this into consideration, we ought to try to find ways of combining knowledge, critical thinking and other skills that may be more useful than mere memorisation nowadays with the kind of resources that they are more familiar with.
Another topic with which I quite agree is that the distribution of students once they have reached a reasonable age should be done not according to age, but to what capacities and needs they display. This would let those who are ahead foster their knowledge and talent and, conversely, let those who are behind catch up with the level they are able to acquire. Notwithstanding, this is a very chimeric project. Learners do not display uniform capacities but their performance is highly unstable depending on the area, the teacher, the environment, the specific topic, and even the time of the day or the mood they are in. If real wishes to change it exist, there is a need for the whole to be revolutionised and for all the concepts connected with the way students are treated and grouped to come under careful review.
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