Weigel, M., James, C., & Gardner, H. (2009) Learning: Peering backward and looking forward in the digital era. International Journal of Learning and Media, (1)1 MIT Press. Framing Question:Should educational policymakers focus on reforming (evolutionary) or transforming (revolutionary) changes in education to meet the needs of 21st century learners?
Please post a short response (approx. 500 words) to this question in the comments section below. In formulating your response, draw on the Weigel et al. reading assigned, the Changing Education Paradigms talk by Sir Robinson we viewed in class, as well as your own experiences. DUE: Thursday (3/17) one hour before class.
Marti
3/16/2016 22:13:55
Test comment entry
Natalya Buchwald
3/16/2016 22:43:42
I believe that the educational system has to go through a severe reformation. The reason I do not go as far to say a transformation is because of practicality. I do believe that teacher-centric classrooms are required to maintain a certain level of order. The current structure of grouping learners by age also should somewhat be kept with modifications. STEM focus should be balanced with the arts and humanities. However, I do acknowledge that each thing I've mentioned previously is in deep need of reformation.
Madeline Duque
3/16/2016 23:04:12
I feel like educational policy makers should focus on reforming education rather than transforming it. As both the reading and the talk mentioned, once upon a time people learned a specific craft through mimicry and observation. The person observing this craft would most likely go on to do it for the rest of their lives, and that’s all that was needed. This was back when human beings could predict what sort of jobs were going to be needed for human society to move forward. However, Sir Robinson mentioned in his talk that in today’s modern society, this is no longer feasible. We can no longer anticipate what careers or crafts are going to be performed in the future because our economic and technological growth moves so fast. Ergo, both conclude, we should have a public school system that prepares the youth for jobs that don’t exist yet. As the Weigel reading stated, “Education is increasingly universal. Except in the undeveloped world, almost all boys and most girls get an education at least to the secondary level.” Despite the obvious need for the development of critical thinking skills, a lot of critics towards the modern public education system correctly point out that classroom curriculums tend to focus on mastering content present in standardized testing. When I was in school, one major chunk of our English class went towards how to write an essay. Specifically, how to write an SAT format essay. The SAT scores you based on how well you can stick to the “hamburger format essay”. The format involves being asked an ambiguous question, writing an intro paragraph where you say “yes” or “no” (grey or ambiguous answers are discouraged), write three support paragraphs referencing a piece of history or literature where the situation is applicable, then writing a conclusion paragraph summarizing your paper. There is a list of pre-approved works that varied from year to year. Hamlet is always acceptable to reference, but sometimes works like “All’s Quiet on the Western Front” will come and go. And that’s the problem. You’re not allowed to have thoughts that are outside of things that are traditionally considered “academic” or on the pre-approved list. Despite this, I don’t believe that a complete reform is necessary. Some testing is fine, America’s cultural values encourage us to afford some sort of metric to progress, and you can’t measure feelings. In addition, Robinson’s video implied that a traditional classroom setting is bad because it never suits the preferences of an individual student: some people work better at night, some do not, etc. I feel like it may not be practical to try and categorize a student by anything other than grade because I don’t believe that the school system is capable of conducting that in an organized fashion. Instead, I will advocate that the content being taught in schooling be changed instead. Why can’t a student write an essay on a book they’re interested in? It’s time to move on.
LeRoy Gary
3/17/2016 01:11:31
I believe in reformation and evolutionary progress in all context - integrating advanced technologies, modern subjects, and individual curriculum curation. Using new technology in a public school classroom setting often requires much trial and error and proper training lest the result end up as a gimmicky experience. As to the actual subject matter, America does try to keep up with the changes in the world. This has manifested itself in an unhealthy obsession with STEM and leaving stereotypes against everything else. Styling curriculum to individual students, while is almost impossible to argue against clinically, has associated costs.
Cory Bird
3/17/2016 02:19:04
I believe that reformation of the educational system is needed to accommodate to meet the needs of 21st century learners. While the idea of a complete transformation may sound tempting, I believe that our current educational system is simply too fragile to support any drastic changes in a short period of time.
Christine Kwon
3/17/2016 02:48:40
Very broadly summarizing Weigel – this piece walks the audience through the past and how learning evolved throughout the centuries and the challenges society faces today in the digital era. The evolution started from “bush schools” where kids learned from copying experts to the first schools of strict and harsh drills to “uniform schooling” in the modern era to finally the digital age. The neomillenial characteristics are more active on their senses, adaptive to diverse sources, etc. and most of these new characteristics are not supported by the current education system.
Anne Kim
3/17/2016 02:51:59
It’s difficult to choose between whether policymakers should focus on reforming or transforming education to meet the needs to students today. Like the Weigel, et al. article discusses, current systems of education are modified versions of traditional learning and the early “uniform schooling” model. Although I want to say it would be more feasible to focus on reforming education in its current state, as education itself has been rapidly changing at least over the past several years, the constant bombardment of information and new technologies may necessitate policy transformation.
Samiha Dawalbhakta
3/17/2016 04:05:17
With the introduction of social media into our daily lives, the effectiveness of current educational teaching methods comes into question. I believe current education needs to go through reformation in order to be effective. There is no substitute for actually listening to a teacher and learning through stories and memories in a classroom. Additionally, technology cannot replace the collaboration of group projects, or learning how to give presentations in front of a crowd. After school, collaboration is essential to learn and work with people who do not always have the same backgrounds in order to complete a task successfully.
Amy Lin
3/17/2016 04:39:46
The paper discusses several perspectives on where the main education problem is. In the different sections and explanations, the reader can see varying ideas of how to improve the education system. One point is that education reform needs to address the “growing ‘relevance gap’”. “Relevance gap” refers to how much the knowledge being taught is related to what a person needs to know once they have left the education system. The paper claims that the current education system is designed to teach things that may become irrelevant once the student finishes their education. It also seems that the emphasis for many other proposals of education reform does not address the relevance gap. The purpose of education is to prepare a child for their adulthood. Therefore acknowledging the changes that will come in the community is essential in reaching that goal.
Aliya Blackwood
3/17/2016 05:18:47
I personally feel that transformation is necessary, by reformation is more plausible. Both Weigal et al. and Sir Robinson bring up the point that despite the changes going on in the modern era, the time of the Industrial Revolution, education changed significantly, with education slowly becoming less and less accessible only to the wealthy and less focused primarily on the teachings from the theocracy at the time. Yet both researchers remark on how little policy change there has been since then. The US and the rest of the industrialized world has changed their priorities, and I don't believe that our system has found a proper balance for these demands and the interests of students. Public Schools are caught on a tight rope with trying to balance funding and standardized testing with leaving no child behind. We have yet to perfect this balance, but I believe that if there was a general agreement to repave the methods used in these schools for more effective, constructivist teaching, and if there were no risks to changing over, a reformation would be preferred.
Yvonne Chen
3/17/2016 09:58:55
Weigel's article examines the different stages of education over the past few centuries, and how it's evolved to where it is today. It also looks at the varying problems that are current education system faces, whether it be due to a lack of distinct policy change to adapt to technology and a more globalized world, or just favoritism for learning certain types of things.
Kimberly Jinxia Lim
3/17/2016 14:53:11
I feel educational policymakers should focus on reforming and evolving the current education system by introducing small, revolutionary changes in the system as to meet the needs of 21st century learners. Weigel’s article, “Learning: Peering backward and looking forward in the digital era” talks about how learning and schools has evolved over the generations to try to meet the needs of the time; from “bush schools” to “uniform schools”, education is constantly changing and we are currently in the transition into a new era – the digital era. As such, we need to recognize that although the current education system does serve its purpose, there are flaws that exist in it that we should address and one way of solving those issues is through the use of technology. Comments are closed.
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