Most Classroom Learning Sucks

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/01/most_classroom_.html

by jmtame • 19 years ago

9 20 19 years ago

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palish6• 19 years ago

One way to improve the learning environment for public schools is to centralize the process using technology, then nudge the process in a different direction.

But we must test to make sure that the new direction is a better one.

notabel6• 19 years ago

I have to disagree with you, and vehemently. Centralization is exactly the problem.

I was lucky enough to be educated in an International Baccalaureate program that stressed interaction between students and teachers, convivial debate rather than lecture, and analytic essays instead of rote recall. The strength of the program came from its decentralization, relying on good teachers rather than central planning. The teachers and students worked together, as collaborators.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but in education, it generally gets in the way of the greatest teacher: intellectual discourse. A teacher and 10-20 students talking with each other[1] is an optimal model for learning. Educational technology generally takes the personal interaction out of things, and certainly makes the process less engaging.[2]

[1] Very different from a teacher talking to, or at, students.

[2] I'm talking about secondary education. For primary ed, technology can be very useful. But that is a very different environment.

palish6• 19 years ago

Well, I see now that there are two kinds of centralization.

1) The system is top-heavy, and administrators pick out what teachers teach. This is centralized planning.

2) The content that teachers generate (assignments, quizzes) is put into a centralized pool, which other teachers can browse through to come up with new ideas for their teaching. This is centralized content.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear, but I didn't mean centralized planning, I meant centralized content. If there is some way to know what a teacher taught and how well it worked which other teachers could use as a reference, then it becomes a memory. Teachers can improve upon other teachers' previous works.

Right now, each public school teacher is almost universally independent. My idea is that as each assignment is completed online, the assignment goes into the memory pool. Teachers can browse all content. Students and teachers can rate and comment on the assignments. This seems like it would encourage good collaboration and interaction.

daliso• 19 years ago

I agree entirely with this article. From my own experience, I did a lot of abstract maths in undergrad and really hated it because I couldn't figure out what all these Groups, Topologies, Normed Vector Spaces, etc were all about. What was the use of learning all these things without some practical application? It was only later on when I started to learn more about the people behind these theories, and the challenges that motivated them, that it became more interesting. The founders of all this knowledge were trying to get one thing or the other done, and this is what motivated them to construct these mind bending abstractions.

I think it is a lot more effective to give students challenges rather than knowledge. When they get stuck (and they will get stuck eventually), then give them the knowledge they need to overcome their obstacles. Of course, you never know, without having some pre-determined way of solving something, the students might end up discovering a smarter ways of solving the same problems!

brlewis2• 19 years ago

The "Manhattan Academy" mentioned in this article is a Montessori school. Expensive Montessori private school for my own children is my startup motivator. My day job would be enough otherwise.

You can see some example Montessori materials here:

http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2006-01

palish6• 19 years ago

I'm only one data point, so you should probably take this with a grain of salt. I went to a Montessori school from kindergarten through third grade, and I can't stress enough how badly that specific Montessori school failed. Teachers were distant, more like babysitters than having any kind of structure. Any project we wanted to work on was fine, but most of us didn't do anything (the equivalent of pretending to work at work). We'd have to keep track of what we did in journals and get them signed by a teacher, so most of us made up stuff and forged the teacher's signature. I don't remember learning any mathematics at all back then. In fact, I'm positive that it wasn't until fourth grade that I got into basic math. I don't know if that's normal, but my father had been teaching me math outside of school from a very early age, so I was still strong in it. It's a very strange school system.

My final observation is that my Montessori school was so small! I was a shy kid, and going to a small school from K-3rd grade, then another small school from 4th-8th grade, did not help me to become a social person one bit. If you do something against the group, everyone will hate you, resulting in more shyness. Even at third grade.

You probably should evaluate your child. Is s/he shy? If so, it may be a benefit to send them to a larger school. I'm not saying that it will cure them of shyness, but it may help.

I'll totally respect any decision you make though :)

brlewis2• 19 years ago

My kids are not shy, and math-wise they're ahead of where I was at the same age. I went on to get a math degree from MIT. Your story is the first time I've heard of a Montessori school being so unstructured. Do you know if it was accredited?

fruscica3• 19 years ago

Enter my "open source" biz plan for leveraging media -- and situation comedy in particular -- to establish the most popular online market for customized education.

See OpportuniTV.com for details. Two (de facto) reviews of earlier versions of the site's content:

"I just spent about an hour surfing around with a bit of amazement."

Josh Peterson Co-Founder/CEO 43Things.com (an Amazon.com company) December 12, 2004

"Frank, you are a good man. Have you thought about joining this team? Your only alternative, of course, is venture capital. But their usual models require getting rid of the 'originator' within the first eighteen months. With Netscape it took a little longer, but you get the idea."

Randy Hinrichs Manager, Learning Sciences and Technology Group Microsoft Research December 1998

Enjoy!

Frank Ruscica

fruscica3• 19 years ago

What is objectionable about this comment?

notabel6• 19 years ago

It's only tangentially relevant and reads like spam.

Most Classroom Learning Sucks

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