My boss shared this video with me today. I found it to be insightful as well as thought provoking, yet it does not provide any concrete solutions.
What does everyone else think about Sir Ken Robinson's thoughts on Changing Education Paradigms?
It's nice to see it put all into one place. So many of the ideas we know to be true, yet because they are spread out among everything else in life, the complexity becomes overwhelming. Where do we start to deal with all the information and ideas?
We know the educational paradigm needs to shift. We are not an industrial society any more. We also know we need not throw everything out, since there are some good educational practices that are valuable and work well. As well as some standard knowledge that all students need to acquire.
Teachers are not generally leaders. They are not educated to be, they are not expected to be and they are not rewarded for going outside the box. I'm not being judgmental here. After taking several instructional technology courses, I see that even in higher education we are still being educated to do educational exercises in a prescribed, standardized way, for the most part, even though we are doing it with newer technologies. I don't feel that I am being prepared to guide students to think divergently, become their best selves, or to be creative problem solvers (by my definitions of those terms). But I haven't fully been indoctrinated by my educational experiences. Call me stubborn (and people often do), but I am still bulking at having to do webquests, websites, and lesson planning in prescribed, regimented fashion, although I am grateful to be permitted to choose my own topics. Being creative and artistic, I have struggled with this my entire life. I do not want to give up my inner child.
Eventually, I will give in and do the exercises that I don't believe are useful in my career path, in order to get a good grade. I will talk myself into it and reward myself in some way. (A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...)The reward will most likely involve money in that I generally need to pay myself to do things I find unpleasant, although sometimes, I am able to change my attitude and do the things I don't want to do in a "professional, adult" manner. But to be honest, the motivation to change my mindset still involves financial attainment.
Educators have so much to loose if they don't go along with the flow...look at HB5. Administrators have much to loose as well as school boards and school districts. Whenever any group is targeted financially, panic sets in, the wagons form a circle, and the weapons appear. Until we get past the financial targeting of groups, I don't see how the educational paradigm can shift, since all the stakeholders are (necessarily) protective of their financial survival. We can pretend that this is all about higher ordered thinking and values, but the bottom line is the bottom line, which is money. Until the educational stakeholders are rewarded monetarily for the paradigm to shift, I don't think it will.
This is really insightful. Thanks for sharing it. I was just thinking this morning, as I sat waiting for my daughter at her guitar lesson, how different she is now opposed to just 5 years ago.
And I've said for years that grouping students by age is absolutely ridiculous. You might have a 10 year old that can do algebra, but needs help in reading comprehension. Kids are all over the place at any given time in social and skill development.
Again...thank you. I was disappointed that this cut off so soon. I'm interested to hear the entire lecture.
Nice post, Matthew.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see it put all into one place. So many of the ideas we know to be true, yet because they are spread out among everything else in life, the complexity becomes overwhelming. Where do we start to deal with all the information and ideas?
We know the educational paradigm needs to shift. We are not an industrial society any more. We also know we need not throw everything out, since there are some good educational practices that are valuable and work well. As well as some standard knowledge that all students need to acquire.
Teachers are not generally leaders. They are not educated to be, they are not expected to be and they are not rewarded for going outside the box. I'm not being judgmental here. After taking several instructional technology courses, I see that even in higher education we are still being educated to do educational exercises in a prescribed, standardized way, for the most part, even though we are doing it with newer technologies. I don't feel that I am being prepared to guide students to think divergently, become their best selves, or to be creative problem solvers (by my definitions of those terms). But I haven't fully been indoctrinated by my educational experiences. Call me stubborn (and people often do), but I am still bulking at having to do webquests, websites, and lesson planning in prescribed, regimented fashion, although I am grateful to be permitted to choose my own topics. Being creative and artistic, I have struggled with this my entire life. I do not want to give up my inner child.
Eventually, I will give in and do the exercises that I don't believe are useful in my career path, in order to get a good grade. I will talk myself into it and reward myself in some way. (A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...)The reward will most likely involve money in that I generally need to pay myself to do things I find unpleasant, although sometimes, I am able to change my attitude and do the things I don't want to do in a "professional, adult" manner. But to be honest, the motivation to change my mindset still involves financial attainment.
Educators have so much to loose if they don't go along with the flow...look at HB5. Administrators have much to loose as well as school boards and school districts. Whenever any group is targeted financially, panic sets in, the wagons form a circle, and the weapons appear. Until we get past the financial targeting of groups, I don't see how the educational paradigm can shift, since all the stakeholders are (necessarily) protective of their financial survival. We can pretend that this is all about higher ordered thinking and values, but the bottom line is the bottom line, which is money. Until the educational stakeholders are rewarded monetarily for the paradigm to shift, I don't think it will.
This is really insightful. Thanks for sharing it. I was just thinking this morning, as I sat waiting for my daughter at her guitar lesson, how different she is now opposed to just 5 years ago.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've said for years that grouping students by age is absolutely ridiculous. You might have a 10 year old that can do algebra, but needs help in reading comprehension. Kids are all over the place at any given time in social and skill development.
Again...thank you. I was disappointed that this cut off so soon. I'm interested to hear the entire lecture.