JamesEd.com » teachers http://jamesed.com Education from everyday experiences. Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:32:59 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 The Problem With Education… people@All http://jamesed.com/2009/02/the-problem-with-education-peopleall/ http://jamesed.com/2009/02/the-problem-with-education-peopleall/#comments Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:44:40 +0000 James http://jamesed.com/?p=323 I am preparing for another week of classes and giving more thought to how I will teach than what I will teach.

After a week and change of the current semester it is clear to me that the teaching exercise is a pretty easy mix of show and tell.

Think about the best part of your primary school education! Show and tell was always a hit and if you have any doubt go and find a grade 1 class tomorrow!

The problem of course is that we have moved so far away from the teacher /student coeducation relationship (what show and tell is all about), to the dump it on me from above approach, that the idea of anything coming from the ground up is unthinkable!

So this week I am going to institute a show and tell aspect to my university class where 3 students, they will decide who, have a chance to show/teach/initiate the ideas that build on or pull in another direction the flow of the lesson I am preparing.

Talk about walking the wire.

Why not pull the class from the ground up?

Fear, hard, risky, odd, unusual, less control… you pick the reasons.

If the educator and those who are being educated are given more power, responsibility and ability the whole mix of learning moments might translate in to a far more meaningful education.

Maybe!

]]> http://jamesed.com/2009/02/the-problem-with-education-peopleall/feed/ 0 Education re-boot UK! http://jamesed.com/2008/10/education-re-boot-uk/ http://jamesed.com/2008/10/education-re-boot-uk/#comments Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:05:33 +0000 James http://jamesed.com/?p=84 The UK government has taken the bold step of telling the education establishment that it is no longer viable to test the energy, creativity and innovation out of education.  But what are two generations of teachers going to do now?

I am worried that they, the teachers have been caught in the teach to test treadmill and won’t be able to get off fast enough!

I am more worried that schools outside of the UK, like in Dubai, that try to be more British than the schools in the motherland will not get off the treadmill at all!

The education system in the UK has been so heavily based on the end goal of SATs that what happens when they are removed?

Teachers have known what they are working for, a good test score. Forever!

Can the old guard actually retool, overnight, to move from the teach to test to the evaluate for meeting standards and objectives through demonstrable work product?

Can the old guard use creativity, leadership, innovation and design priniples to make education relevent for the years to come and not the years that have passed?

Sure kids will be able to read, write and do math… maybe even a bit of design technology. But are the students who are being pulled out of the SAT trap going to be able to think? Are the teachers going to be able to think?

I am worried that thinking has been absent from the mix for so long that new learning curve is going to be rally steep. But one heck of a ride!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4943354.ece