Education initiatives

[Gaze]

Hi there,

i am an educator, but real interest is less in being an educator than in supporting educational iniatives, especially those which improve literacy. Thing is, i've always been more of a theory rather than a put things in practice person. So, i guess this is my way into practice. Now, to be honest, i haven't done anything yet to pursue these interests but one thing i've always wanted to do, if i had the gold, is to start a scholarship fund for students who want to study a much needed but underfunded academic program. Unfortunately, passion and interest in subject matter is fast leaving our schools. Everyone, educators and students seem to suffering the pressures of a very challenged system.

So, i'm curious about what kinds of education initiatives have interested you, and similar projects you would like to pursue?


This is not a "this is the problem with education today" thread. It's more about discussing what are possible initiatives which may be put in place not necessarily in the education system, but in any area, which could improve educational experiences for future generations.

 

[NeverAmI]

I was actually thinking about this about 30 minutes ago just as a train of thought.

I wondered how practical it would be to start a sort of community completely based around education and learning. When I think of that, I think of the school Pythagoras had, how it enforced a certain way of living. I don't agree with many of the oddities specifically enforced by that particular school, but I like the idea itself. The problem arises with specialty. There are so many different paths to take and so many different things to cater to. But I think it would be really neat to create a self-contained system where participants are involved in many aspects of living and learning.

Perhaps something based around a general education would work. But one of the biggest concerns is resources. The traditional model gets money from payments either by the government or by the attending family. If a successful model could be sourced through internal services or goods, then something like this could stand.

What levels of technology would be needed for such an endeavor and what are the costs associated with maintenance?

Seems like a pretty lofty undertaking, but it is fun to think about.

 

[NaeturVindur]

[mods]thread moved from Save the World Subforum as per OP's request.[/mods]

 

[That Girl]

When I was in high school I was extremely rigid in my outlook on learning. If my teacher wasn't up to par then I wasn't going to try. Studying and evaluating were not in my repertoire. Remembering things for one day is a simple thing so I would merely read the book once, take notes, and then take the test. This is especially true of the majority of classes because all the tests were always multiple choice. This is high school that I'm speaking of, although it seems to be a common theme in college as well. Anyways, the real problem was that I wasn't learning anything. I needed to become a flexible learner and the first step was to break the habit of refusing to participate if it required the use of something other than my limited tool box provided.

There is this man named Weaver who says that there are six steps to becoming a flexible learner. You must anticipate, asses, evaluate, select, apply, and reassess/reevaluate in order to reach this goal.

First, “people need to think about potential situations and the needs and requirements likely to arise from them” and then create a plan to tackle those possible situations.

The second step is to take “stock of the factors, elements, and conditions of the situation in which you find yourself. The key to assessment are patience and alertness”

Next, you have to evaluate. You must determine the worth of what was assessed and how it compares to your own abilities. An important part of evaluation is the accuracy in which you collect your information. Is it fact based or realistic?

Selection and application are the fourth and fifth step to this paradigm, respectively. With selection, you select from your “repertoire of skills and behaviors those mostly likely to have the greatest impact on the current situation” while application is the use of that selected method.

The sixth step is to reassess and reevaluate. This combination will allow you to see what your chosen behaviors have accomplished and show whether you need to change that behavior, continue with it, or add additional behavior to it.In combination with engagement, competence, and flexibility a student is given the tools needed to take steps toward becoming a self-regulated learner.

The instructional method that most closely follows what worked for me during my senior year is problem-based learning with the addition of the paradigm proposed by Weaver to help facilitate student flexibility. Problem-based learning is also seen as the method of teaching that requires students to “learn to learn.” The idea is to set students on track to becoming life-long learns who can solve real-life problems. Different skill sets are practiced under the problem-based learning method. These include “using processing skills, group skills, critical thinking skills, and self-directed learning."

This process would not only create a sense of community within the classroom (grouping students) it would also facilitate teacher-student interaction which could create a place where students feel comfortable asking questions. This method also requires that students not only teach themselves but teach each other as well. It is common knowledge that what one teaches others one remembers the most.

There are three basic instructional principles on which cognitive theorists generally agree on. These are that the learning environment should be an active and innovative environment, there needs to be emphasis on peer and social learning and negotiation, and that instructional strategies that make learners aware of conflicts and inconsistencies in their thinking promote cognitive development.

Guided by a facilitator, problem-based learning does just that. The learning environment is active because students are given open-ended questions with more than one right answer. It requires critical thinking as opposed to looking up the answer in the glossary of a book. This engages them in the learning experience because it asks for input from the class in contrast to a lecture setup. It is peer based because students are grouped together and must learn to negotiate with each other on how best to tackle the problem they are given. This encourages competence because students must know their subject matter to effectively discuss it and trains communication competence as well. Students are learning to work together instead of seeing each other as just another grade they need to beat.

Finally, since the instruction involves real life problems that are reflected upon it shows learners where they have inconsistencies in their thinking. This creates a situation where students are taught flexibility because they are shown what it is they are doing incorrectly. If the paradigm Weaver proposes is added to this flexibility piece then students not only see where their thinking is inconsistent but what step those inconsistencies may have come from.

To properly teach students how to be engaged in the class, competent in their learning and learning strategies, and flexible in their approach to knowledge it is obvious that one should use the problem-based theory approach as well as the Weaver paradigm. In conjunction these two ideas create a learning environment that touch on the three basic needs for creating cognitively capable learners. I believe that this will also assist in metacognitive thinking processes. You are requiring students to examine how they learn which brings attention to how they think. If a person knows how they think they are more capable of knowing how to learn. That is the goal of teaching anyway, teaching students how to learn so that they can find out about and experience this world.

 

[Prometheus]

Oh man, oh man. *rubs his hands together* Do I have NOVELS for this thread...

I'll stick to one.

One of my most favored brainchilds is a database system designed to be implemented at any range, whether one school or all schools anywhere. It was operate similar to the medical system, which allows doctors anywhere to see their patients' entire medical histories, regardless of where they were, to aid in diagnosis. Why not for education?

How often have you transferred schools or got a new student who either had no idea what they were coming in to or had done most of the things the class was working on? How often have teachers wondered about these things? I know I have. I'd love to be able to peer into my students' educational histories and see where they've been, what they've learned, and try to craft my teaching to that.

That's part of the database. An international storage system for a student's educational life. Major assignments, units learned, maybe disciplinary history. Whatever works! But it's so much more.

This also allows what I call retrograde education (the name needs work, but there are more important kinks to work out). Let's say the teacher has a test put together, right? Well, all they need to do is filter it through the system to get the test personalized, with a few questions targeted at the student's history (Not horrific things, but things like "What is an adjective? What was the name of the Count of Monte Cristo? How does ___ from ___ compare to this character from what we're reading?" You know, meaningful connections!).

Most importantly, I think this could facilitate communication between teachers from all over the country. Shared insights on X and Y topics, suggestions, lesson plans, whatever. The system could even be hardwired to make up quizzes and things for less...creative teachers. The possibilities are endless!

Instead, you could just move from one city to the next and practically have a tabula rasa.

This system is being developed and will be one of many initiatives I implement in my dream-school. The other two ideas mentioned are also somewhat incorporated. I immediately love this thread.

 

[myself]

I'd like to see schools teach real skills.

Give kids responsibility. Let the students do the job of the faculty.

Kids should be communicated with, not talked at.

Let the kids cook. Let them play sports. Reward them for asking questions.

Raise the bar. Let's expect more from ourselves.

School is such a drag. A terrible waste of energy and potential.

Let the kids be inspired.

ENFORCE UNIFORMS

Seriously. School should not be a place where we show off our fashion sense.

Our current education system is teaching us to cram info in our heads, and promptly forget it all.

We are creating a culture of slaves.

 

[Wyote]

We are a culture of slaves.

 

[bamf]

Let the kids be inspired.

ENFORCE UNIFORMS

I agree with pretty much everything you said, except this. I find it contradictory. Self expression is highly important, in my opinion, to finding ones inspiration and some people use clothing to do this.

About raising the bar; I think we should change the bar. Rather than setting expectations for kids and making them the same across the board, we should be spending time lighting the fire under kids to help them self-discover their own bars. Help them achieve basic levels in subjects so that they can adequately interact with society. Our job as educators is to prepare them for the 'real world (which seems to not exist in school?) Outside of that, let them define their own success.

Of course, for any real progress to be made across the board we need to change the way schools are funded. Standardized testing leads to teaching to the test. If you want to be a difference in student's lives you have to stay in the classroom, to stay in the classroom you have to do what is required to keep your job and get paid, which is teaching to the test and getting good test scores. It's sad, but even the best teachers realize they have to teach somewhat towards the standardized tests in order to keep making a difference for students. If we want real reform with real results, funding is the first step.

 

[DrShephard]

As far as the donation thing goes... I've always thought that the most proactive way of donating to a charity was to donate time or supplies. Things aside from money. Money only goes so far, and gets wasted on stupid things that aren't of use. That and, with personal time, you can personally influence the style of the system. That's me though, and I don't condemn anyone who does think donating money is better because it's more versatile.

I've always toyed with the idea of volunteering with children. However, most of them are little pukes... and the ones who aren't awful try to conform the norm, the norm being pukes! If I were to, I'd want to push them to think - to read interesting books with different viewpoints to keep things in perspective. Probably aloud, because reading is a drag a lot of the time... and especially for kids. I had a teacher who read aloud to us in middle school and I just loved it. Not feelgood stories that reinforce everything we believe in, either. Things that challenge our lives and our traditional modes of thinking, whether wrong or right.

Misanthropy time! It would be cut short though. Branching off of from the norm is a heinous act in society. Heaven forbid children hear anything contrary to comfortable culture. Things that can spur different ways of thinking, confusion, and doubt in the commonplace education like Anthem, The Prince, Thus Spake Zarathustra, The Stranger, A Clockwork Orange, or anything Kurt Vonnegut. There's a company that just removed the word "nigger" from copies of Huckleberry Finn to keep people (namely kids) comfortable with it, replacing it with "slave" instead. When Spielberg proudly edited the re-release of ET: The Extra Terrestrial, digitally replacing the guns in the police officers' hands with radios to make it more friendly. Just silly - but that's the world we live in.

 

[Nixie]

I think the best initiative would be to make education a priority. I think the innovative and workable ideas will follow naturally.