

15-Year-Old Student's Ed Reform Plan - aroojahmad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/13/a-15-year-old-students-ed-reform-plan-self-directed-learning/

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logn
Personally, I went to a very traditional private high school and received a
great education. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with education. I think
the three current problems are 1) education is expensive, 2) people are too
poor, and 3) people of average or below average intelligence probably aren't
served very well by the high school curriculum.

We should close all corporate tax loopholes and send the money to schools and
require that school funding is not proportional to property tax.

We should institute a minimum wage of ~$12/hr tied to inflation to fight
poverty.

The high school curriculum should have alternate vocational and tech skills
tracks.

~~~
kiba
_There's nothing fundamentally wrong with education. I think the three current
problems are 1) education is expensive, 2) people are too poor, and 3) people
of average or below average intelligence probably aren't served very well by
the high school curriculum._

Yes, it is, and it have nothing to do with our funding. The way we teach is
extraordinary inefficient and outdated.

For example, spaced repetition is a learning technique that takes advantage of
the spacing effect phenomenon that is present in all humans. You know why your
teachers told you to study everyday instead of cramming? Well, cramming
doesn't help you retain information in the long run! Computers can be used to
track every answers and problem, what our weakness are, and to schedule when
to review, allowing us to take spaced repetition to its logical conclusion.
The computer can generate problems on demand, give out recorded lectures by
the very best teacher, and so on.

Spacing effects also implies summer vacation is harmful to knowledge
acquisition process unless we continuously practice. When we finish high
school and college, decays begin to set in because we stop practicing. The
result is that countless generation learned mathematics, history, language
art, literature, only to forget upon exiting formal education.

That's why khanacademy is so powerful. They really do leverage computers to
generate problems, explain stuff, track your every mistakes, and schedule
practices problem using spaced repetition. Right now, long run khanacademy
users like me knows more and is the most refreshed on mathematics than the
vast majority of high school students and working adults. We practice math
problems everyday, thus ensuring that we never forget and be prepared to build
a new knowledge as soon as Khan Academy adds new exercises or revise old one.

That's in contrast to going to a very inefficient traditional institutions and
receiving a "great education" and then immediately forgetting most of what
you're taught. That's a very inefficient way to learn.

~~~
EnderMB
> Yes, it is, and it have nothing to do with our funding. The way we teach is
> extraordinary inefficient and outdated.

I don't disagree, but do you have anything to back this up?

I ask because my girlfriend is a teacher, and teaching is a lot harder than
most people seem to believe.

~~~
kiba
_I don't disagree, but do you have anything to back this up?_

Like what? Numbers and studies? Khan Academy said that they have very
promising results in which students perform significantly better on
standardized tests.

That being said, I already wrote in my post how we can improve efficiency and
effectiveness by leveraging computers for all they're worth. I think this is
sufficient to show how dated the teaching is done in schools, if not exactly
proves how inefficient our school teach. I think it's quite obvious that it's
better to watch a recorded lecture than to see the teacher perform the same
lecture years after year.

 _I ask because my girlfriend is a teacher, and teaching is a lot harder than
most people seem to believe._

All I am advocating is giving the teachers and students better tools based on
cognitive science that we discovered a long time ago. Making sure students get
the practice they need on summer vacations and scheduling practice problems to
reduce unnecessary studying isn't rocket science.

~~~
jrmg
_Like what? Numbers and studies? Khan Academy said that they have very
promising results in which students perform significantly better on
standardized tests._

Without numbers and studies, this sounds like self-selection to me - people
doing Khan Academy courses are surely more self-motivated than people
attending colleges and universities, a substantial percentage of whom probably
don't really enjoy being there.

 _I think it's quite obvious that it's better to watch a recorded lecture than
to see the teacher perform the same lecture years after year._

Do you mean obvious from some study you've heard of, or obvious to you?
Because that's not _at all_ obvious to me personally - in fact, the opposite
is true. I think I learn much better from in-person lecturers (providing the
lecturer is good, which would have to be true in a video lecture too). I think
there are two forces at play that make this true - first, the lecturer can
gauge the response of the audience and tailor his presentation - timing, level
of explanation etc. Second, the atmosphere makes me pay attention more - in
much the same way as going to the cinema or to see a play in a theater is more
engaging that watching the same thing on TV or YouTube.

I know that basically everything I've said is all anecdote and presumption,
but my presumption seem just as valid (to me, more valid :-P) than yours in
the absence of hard data.

On your point that we should _[give] the teachers and students better tools
based on cognitive science that we discovered a long time ago_ , I
wholeheartedly agree, but it needs to be done based on scientific conclusions,
not anecdata (yours or mine).

~~~
kiba
_Without numbers and studies, this sounds like self-selection to me - people
doing Khan Academy courses are surely more self-motivated than people
attending colleges and universities, a substantial percentage of whom probably
don't really enjoy being there._

Spaced repetition and spacing effect is well known science and it works. For
everything else I said, there should be more studies and experiments.

------
alid
For anyone who's interested, I recommend watching the film 'Race to Nowhere' -
it documents the current education system's focus on standardized tests and
questions what 'success' looks like.

Personally I think we should be gearing curriculums towards what are being
defined as the 21st Century Set of Literacies: how well we can find
information, validate it, synthesize it, leverage it, communicate it,
collaborate with it and problem solve with it.

What's education really for? I'd like to see the focus move from a focus on
test scores towards producing future generations who are creative, empathetic,
resilient, driven and entrepreneurial.

~~~
yummyfajitas
_I'd like to see the focus move from a focus on test scores towards producing
future generations who are creative, empathetic, resilient, driven and
entrepreneurial._

Without testing, how will we know if we succeeded?

~~~
alid
I don't think testing as a way of tracking progress should be stopped
completely (what gets measured gets done, right?) But the focus on testing is
too strong.

In systems geared around testing, it creates a culture of scarcity in which
teachers and schools are competing against each other. This compares with a
system such as Finland, where they have no standardized tests (and hence have
a more collaborative approach to education) and yet they rate among the
world's best for educational outcomes.

~~~
yummyfajitas
How do you know Finland rates among the world's best for educational outcomes?

~~~
alid
The 'Program for International Student Assessment' is an international testing
system of 15-year-old students undertaken every three years by the OECD -
Finland repeatedly ranks amongst the top of these international rankings based
on science, mathematics and literacy.

Education's a random passion of mine so I've read a lot about it - the Finnish
system is just so cool as it focuses on non-cognitive skills more than most
systems - growing emotional intelligence and resilience - so it's pretty cool
that despite no national testing program (apart from the OECD) they come out
really well :)

~~~
yummyfajitas
You know because of standardized testing. My point is made.

~~~
alid
I don't disagree, but Finnish students are subject to one OECD test at age 15,
as opposed to going through a system geared around very regular, standardized
tests. There's a big difference. Personally I think the Finnish system sounds
more fun.

------
Comkid
A significant portion of this reminds me of Sir Ken Robinson's TED talks.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY>
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LelXa3U_I>

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jacques_chester
I hate being mean to 15 year olds.

But this was just platitudes and motherhood statements.

Did you win an essay contest or something?

~~~
Tichy
I suppose anything you already know could be described as a platitude. Doesn't
mean everybody else knows it already. Apparently the people currently
responsible for education don't know it yet.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _I suppose anything you already know could be described as a platitude._

It's platitudes because of the vagueness. Students should want to learn, stuff
should be relevant, etc etc. These are unmeasurable, untestable and thus
irrefutable statements.

Given that education has as an inputs billions of dollars and amongst its
outputs the future of civilisation, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for
a little analytical rigour.

------
gfagd
Please see the Editor's Note attached to this article: Arooj Ahmad plagiarized
excessively.

