How to escape education’s death valley

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Education on 17 May 2013.

Sir Ken Robinson does it again in the latest TED Talks.  Here is the inimitable author, speaker, educationalist, professor, creativity expert, etc., etc., challenging our views about education and the way schools teach our children. In this brilliant talk he highlights 3 principles that contribute towards human flourishing and how current education models contradict them:

1. Human beings are naturally different and diverse
2. Curiosity is the engine of achievement
3. Human life is inherently creative

Watch and learn.

Wolsey Hall Oxford: Home study courses for IGCSE and A-level

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: College/University; Curriculum on 14 May 2013.

WOLSEY HALL OXFORD: LEADERS IN HOMESCHOOLING

Wolsey Hall Oxford is a home study college based in Oxford, England. We’ve been helping students in Malaysia and worldwide gain qualifications since 1894, and well over 750,000 have done so. Many have gone on to higher education or improved their career prospects as a result.Today we offer homeschooling courses for children of 11- 18 years,for the Cambridge International GCSE (IGCSE)and A Levels.

Our aims are:

• to provide caring support forour students throughout their home study courses,
• to equip our students with the skills necessary not just to gain good exam results but to succeed in school, work, and life.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

The Wolsey Hall system of learning has been developed over many years. It is a carefully balanced mix of course textbooks and online learning. Our state-of-the-art learning platform contains a range of resources which complement the course books, and serves as the primary means of communication between student and tutor.

We invite parents to become online observers of their child’s course. This means they’re linked to their child’s course via the online system.They have full access to the resources there,and to the feedback their child is getting from his/her tutors.

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN A WOLSEY HALL COURSE?

Our courses include:

• Cambridge-endorsed course books,
• Access to our online learning platform, including web links and videos,
• Full support from tutors, with assignments returned within 5 days,
• Access to tutors via email and Skype,
• A Course Manager who will monitor your child’s progress continuously,
• Advice from our Directors of Studies within 24 hours.

WHAT CAN MY CHILD STUDY?

Wolsey Hall offers courses for families wanting their children to complete the Cambridge International GCSE (IGCSE) or A-level qualifications. We also offer courses for children aged 11-14 which prepare them to start on their IGCSE courses.

HAVE QUESTIONS?

Visit http://wolseyhalloxford.org.uk/, or email our Director of Studies, Peter Newell (peter@wolseyhalloxford.org.uk).

Digital Education Show 2013 (KL)

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement on 9 May 2013.

TODAY’S STUDENTS ARE GROWING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY, so how can educators engage students with learning technologies? What works and what doesn’t? If you’re looking for more effective ways to incorporate technology into your teaching, the Digital Education Show Asia is the place to be inspired! The Digital Education Show Asia is the only event of its kind in Malaysia. It brings together an unequalled level of excellence and abundance of decision makers from ministries and schools.

• A 2 day conference with 2 different tracks to cater to different education levels
• 50 seminar sessions on e-learning – free for all educators and teachers
• An exhibition hall featuring 50 world-class solution providers
• A future classroom demonstration by technology giant, Microsoft

Co-organised by Terrapinn and MDeC, and supported by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education Malaysia, it is set to be the most exciting education technology event in Asia. For details, registration and free sessions (limited seats), click The Digital Education Show Asia 2013

The end of education

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: One From The Archives; Values on 17 Apr 2013.

Scouring through the archives of past articles, I noticed this one. Seeing how Ethan himself is close to graduating from university, I must admit to a tinge of nostalgia plus a backward glance at how our own homeschooled kids may or may not have picked up values we taught and prayed they caught. First posted in April 2005, I hope it speaks to you and your effort at homeschooling.

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THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO LOOK AT EDUCATION since it encompasses processes (how we learn) and formal knowledge (what we learn), but what is it all for? The late Neil Postman in his book End of Education said the purpose of education is to provide moral guidance, a sense of continuity, explanations of the past, clarity to the present, and hope for the future. It’s certainly well put but as it is all too clear, more education does not a better world make.

To be fair Postman does give suggestions to actively connect thought and deed, knowledge and service, so that society gains from education. But to do that, he proposed we rescue schools from their deplorable state with a complete overhaul, which is as likely as a goose laying a golden egg.

The 9th century Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi who introduced Medieval Europe to arithmatic and algebra (from the Arabic al-jabru) called the latter ”the science of restoration and balancing.” I’d like to think it’s a definition that clues us in on what’s the point in any education – if I may be allowed to extrapolate from his thought.

Learning is more than acquiring knowledge or mastering a skill. To quote Dewey, it’s not preparation for life, because learning is life itself. And life expresses itself not just passively in our being, but also in our doing, which must include that which brings restoration and balance in a world tainted by the Fall.

Jesus who came not to be served but to serve went about teaching and doing good, so the Gospels tell us. In his letter to the Ephesians Paul said that the Church of God has been amply gifted with teachers,pastors, and prophets to equip His people for works of service . And to Timothy, Paul said that the Bible was given to equip God’s people for good work.

The impulse behind all learning is to know God and His work in creation and history. We glorify Him when our learning finds expression in service to others. It was the great reformer Martin Luther who once wrote that God does not need our good works, but other people do. Life-long learning for a life of service. Makes sense to me. Now can anyone help Ethan make sense of algebra?

School is a bad idea

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education; schooling on 4 Apr 2013.

The EDGE is an informal online gathering of intellectuals that discuss hot-button issues.  In 1996, to the question “what is your dangerous idea?” computer scientist Roger Schank proposes calling the whole idea of schooling off.   Arguable, but what an intriguing  thought!  No surprises then to know that in Malaysia, the MOE maintains that “homeschooling is a privilege and not a right.”   Indeed, the idea of parents educating their own children is a dangerous idea to our bureaucrats .

NO MORE TEACHER’S DIRTY LOOKS
By Roger C. Schank

After a natural disaster, the newscasters eventually excitedly announce that school is finally open so no matter what else is terrible where they live, the kids are going to school. I always feel sorry for the poor kids.

My dangerous idea is one that most people immediately reject without giving it serious thought: school is bad for kids — it makes them unhappy and as tests show — they don’t learn much.

When you listen to children talk about school you easily discover what they are thinking about in school: who likes them, who is being mean to them, how to improve their social ranking, how to get the teacher to treat them well and give them good grades.

Schools are structured today in much the same way as they have been for hundreds of years. And for hundreds of years philosophers and others have pointed out that school is really a bad idea:

We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a belly full of words and do not know a thing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. — Oscar Wilde

Schools should simply cease to exist as we know them. The Government needs to get out of the education business and stop thinking it knows what children should know and then testing them constantly to see if they regurgitate whatever they have just been spoon fed.

The Government is and always has been the problem in education:

If the government would make up its mind to require for every child a good education,
it might save itself the trouble of providing one. It might leave to parents to obtain the education
where and how they pleased, and content itself with helping to pay the school fees of the poorer classes of children, and defraying the entire school expenses of those who have no one else to pay for them. — JS Mill

First, God created idiots. That was just for practice. Then He created school boards. — Mark Twain

Schools need to be replaced by safe places where children can go to learn how to do things that they are interested in learning how to do. Their interests should guide their learning. The government’s role should be to create places that are attractive to children and would cause them to want to go there.

Whence it comes to pass, that for not having chosen the right course, we often take very great pains, and consume a good part of our time in training up children to things, for which, by their natural constitution, they are totally unfit. — Montaigne

To read the rest of the article, click here.

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Roger Schank (Born 1946) is an American artificial intelligence theorist, cognitive psychologist, learning scientist, educational reformer, and entrepreneur. He has been recently named one of the world’s top ten movers and shakers in e-Learning.

More students are being educated at home

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool; Research on 22 Mar 2013.

It appears that homeschooling in the US has seen a rise of a whopping 75% since 1999. EDUCATION NEWS updates readers on the phenomenon and tells us what the latest studies have revealed.
Number of Homeschoolers Growing Nationwide
By Julia Lawrence