Here is some talk on a TED conference about some important flaws in educational systems around the world.
What I can agree is that universities are very good at preparing students to be a future academic teachers (just look at me, it's temporary, for my PhD only, but still - I'm doin' it). It was a nice observation, anyway, I didn't think of it before. Also, most students fear doing an error or get a bad mark and it really leads to many abnormal situations. For example - during my studies we had usually some coding projects. I was well known of inventing very weird and risky topics and my friends usually were afraid of cooperating with me. They were usually choosing something safe, something on a teacher list, something well-known for them, they were good at, something that will give them a best mark. And as you see, there is a contradiction here! You should go to school to learn something new, right? And they were simply avoiding exploring new, interesting topics this way. Educational system was not rewarding learning new things, not mentioning, exploring new, innovative topics. Students just had to pick the best strategy to... survive and get a degree. That leads to many compromises.
Educational system rewards good marks and loyalty to teachers. If you have a good marks, you also have more freedom to choose your speciality and get scholarship. So you better don't tell your teacher he is wrong or try to dispute with him. It will be not good for you. Also don't try to think on your own - you will just confuse yourself during an exam and find out that solving those exam takes you too much time, since you will be "wasting" your time for thinking, instead of using automatically well-trained skills of solving well-known problems.
In my personal opinion it is all turned around. Ideally teachers should only assist students in learning, provide bibliography, expertise, hints. Students should be aware why they want to learn and improve themselves at university by asking for assistance. To motivate students there should be some obligations - student, individually, should decide after consultation with teacher about his topics he will learn (by studying, practicing, making a project etc..). After the obligation is filled, the work could be measured by several factors (how much knowledge/skills the student gained after the assignment, how creative he was, etc..). And what is also important - while making decision upon next obligation, all previous should be carefully checked, so the next one will be something new to student. At a first glance it complicates educational system a bit, but I believe with a proper management it could be quite efficient - an extension to existing computer databases could be made. There should be not much problem to manage a list of obligations/topics for every student, additionally to standard list of courses/assignments.
I really think universities should be more flexible (individual course program is not enough!) and concentrate much more on an individual teaching.
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6 comments:
Hi Tom! (Yes, I actually am alive.)
What you are writing reminds me of a similar experience I had when I when I was in grade 9. When we were given the choice of a topic, most students would choose something mundane, something they are very well acquainted with. I (and a friend of mine) always chose the most crazy topic we could think of.
This actually has benefits: the other students are confident they won't make an error, but if the topic you pick is esoteric enough, then even the teacher giving the class won't really know if you are exactly right. All you have to do then is sound confident about your information. Like when I wrote about collapsing waveforms in quantum mechanics for my English essay, my friend an I were the only ones with full marks for it.
I also pick something I have never tried for a programming project. But the difference is that I am not getting assessed on it! Perhaps originality should receive a greater reward in school.
Hi Tom. I hope you recall me (Riddlemaster from IGK conference).
I believe you're right and I like your idea in general. However, it will probably require building everything from scratch (I mean our whole educational system) to make it really work. For me studies are something what just stops me from working full hours, i.e. I'm wasting time listening to guys talking about well-known subjects. Unfortunately.
Hi, I surely remember you! Thanks for comments. Anyway - I'm a teacher right now (not fully-featured, it is just a part of my PhD, but I have teaching influence over roughly 1 hundred different students or more), and I want to put some of those ideas into life ;)
As for studies and wasting time - I believe it shouldn't be this way. If you were treaten individually, a teacher could help you understand some topics, explain to you some important theoretical background etc... Now, even if he is able to do that, he must waste his time (yes! teachers also waste their time at university!) to explain the basics and take care of students that are not so self-motivated as individuals like you.
So, I think that students should be rather motivated to discover things on their own and be assisted by some helpful professor to not get lost in this information mess (i.e. be motivated to think deeper, make things with higher quality, be able to separate bullshit from knowledge, understand fundamental concepts behind some topics etc..)
Yup, very right. That's why I believe not everyone should go to university. They could do more interesting things instead. For me it's kinda funny people (and it's probably majority of students) believe that without their own effort they will become great IT specialists/programmers.
Hey Tom,
I must admit that I once was in this situation and decided to do some loosy project for a better mark. Well it brought me a 0.3 on a scale from 1.0 (very good) to 5.0 (very bad). I got better than 1.0 because the prof used some scale factor in order to put more weight into the marks. Actually the prof didn't really give any expectations into our projects so it was just something that had to be done. At least this way I had time to do own projects that were much more innovative :P Unfortunately you are then on your own.
Riddlemaster: as I finished my studies few years ago and now look what my friends are doing - some of them in fact didn't put too much effort and they do really well now ! Why? I guess because they are good at doing "what you tell them and nothing more", and in some jobs it can nicely pay off... extra skills are required only from technical leaders and creative employees - and those are minority!
The sad thing is - society do quite well without innovation and creativity, it's just... it's only good in a short time perspective... "we" know that and takes responsibility for educating society - against all critique... it's unthankful task (!) and sometimes doesn't pay off that well - but it's "our" mission, so better get used to it friends (nice brainwashing - huh ? :) ).
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