SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Access to a world of infinite information has changed how we communicate, process information, and think. Decentralized systems have proven to be more productive and agile than rigid, top-down ones. Innovation, creativity, and independent thinking are increasingly crucial to the global economy.
And yet the dominant model of public education is still fundamentally rooted in the industrial revolution that spawned it, when workplaces valued punctuality, regularity, attention, and silence above all else. (In 1899, William T. Harris, the US commissioner of education, celebrated the fact that US schools had developed the "appearance of a machine," one that teaches the student "to behave in an orderly manner, to stay in his own place, and not get in the way of others.") We don't openly profess those values nowadays, but our educational system—which routinely tests kids on their ability to recall information and demonstrate mastery of a narrow set of skills—doubles down on the view that students are material to be processed, programmed, and quality-tested. School administrators prepare curriculum standards and "pacing guides" that tell teachers what to teach each day. Legions of managers supervise everything that happens in the classroom; in 2010 only 50 percent of public school staff members in the US were teachers.
...
That's why a new breed of educators, inspired by everything from the Internet to evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and AI, are inventing radical new ways for children to learn, grow, and thrive. To them, knowledge isn't a commodity that's delivered from teacher to student but something that emerges from the students' own curiosity-fueled exploration. Teachers provide prompts, not answers, and then they step aside so students can teach themselves and one another. They are creating ways for children to discover their passion—and uncovering a generation of geniuses in the process.
Good, long article on how education could be reinvented for the 21st century.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday August 24 2015, @04:50PM
And you don't see the problem there?
Here's a hint, you can't compare people across cultures using the same testing. That's the main reason why you see Black people doing so poorly on IQ tests, they're normed for something that's closer to the dominant culture and so you see the people in the dominant culture doing well and everybody else performing poorly.
That's not to say that there aren't changes that are badly needed, but trying to compare different countries like that is asinine. The reference you linked to is just a ranking, it doesn't show how far apart the results are. You're talking about a relatively narrow difference between the top and the bottom contenders. Most of those cases are separated by a relatively small percentage. These are human students and the difference at the top end is going to be fairly small.
As far as economic participation goes, that has little to do with educational quality. That's a matter of access to jobs. People that pick up bottles on the side of the road or wash cars are participating in the economy, but I don't think that anybody would claim that requires any education. Those are both activities that you can do with literally no education of any sort other than being able to speak the language. You don't even have to read the bottles if the boss tells you which ones to read.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 24 2015, @05:14PM
"Here's a hint, you can't compare people across cultures using the same testing."
Maybe, maybe not. I wonder though - would it bother you to know that Asian students know Western history as well as, or even better, than western students? While western students are far to arrogant to even bother with Asian history.
The various disciplines aren't culture-centric, either. Geology is geology. Physics are going to be the same in any language. Biology, and the human body, simply does not change from one continent to the next. And, the US is failing to produce top notch scholars at the same rate that half the other countries in the list.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2015, @08:27PM
They don't. The Chinese barely know there own history and think of Hitler as that nice man with a mustache. I'm sure they've memorized a long list of events and dates, but that's hardly the same thing as knowing history.
As far as producing top notch scholars, 2/3 of the top universities in the world are in the US, seems to me that we're doing something right.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24 2015, @08:34PM
Yes, the *top* universities. The majority of colleges and universities are still quite bad in the US and other countries, however. If they were more like the top universities, the situation would be much better.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday August 25 2015, @07:50AM
The only way that would work is if we went down the road that most other countries did and told most of the students that they're not allowed to go to college at all. Or have to take years of remedial courses in order to get a second chance.
I've met people from various parts of the world and they really and truly aren't any smarter than Americans over all. They just happen to have a different set of incompetencies.
Most people just don't have the ambition and work ethic necessary to go to a top school. I went to one of the top schools in the US and they have an acceptance rate of about 96%, just because they have a reputation for being hard on students that aren't willing to do the work and think for themselves. For students that are willing to do their fair share of the work, the education is amazing, but for students that are just looking for a degree with as little thinking and effort as possible, it wouldn't work.
It's hardly the only school like that in the country, it's just that you sometimes have to do a little bit of digging to find them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2015, @08:45AM
The only way that would work is if we went down the road that most other countries did and told most of the students that they're not allowed to go to college at all.
Education is important, so it would be worth it. Instead, most colleges are just half-assed trade schools in disguise, which doesn't provide real education and perpetuates the myth that colleges and universities are there mainly so people can make money and get good jobs.
But I don't see things like you do. I think if we had an all-around better education system, people would be far more prepared for good-quality colleges and universities.
For students that are willing to do their fair share of the work, the education is amazing, but for students that are just looking for a degree with as little thinking and effort as possible, it wouldn't work.
I'm thinking those sorts of people really shouldn't be in formal education.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday August 25 2015, @12:19AM
Well, I've lived in japan as a teacher and china as a grad student and have travelled extensively in korea and southeast asia. My wife and inlaws are korean. Based on that experience I observe that the number of dumbasses is more or less constant across all places. From the perspective of many in north america it might seem like "asians are smarter than americans," but that's often because you're comparing the creme de la creme de la creme of those societies to bubba the redneck who scratches his crotch in the piggly wiggly.
Washington DC delenda est.