Responding to "Changing Education Paradigms"
Write your response here as a comment before class on Wednesday, February 22. See you then!
Here is the link to Sir Ken Robinson's lecture, Changing Education Paradigms
Here is the link for the graphic used in the lecture. (note this is a large Adobe .pdf file and will take time to upload to your computer; save a copy to your own hard drive if you wish)
25 comments:
As a teacher, I am at the centre of this controversy but, as you can see, my bias is towards education reform rather than applying old ideas more forcefully. My children avoided the Grade 10 and 11 standardized tests, but barely. Given my son’s precarious journey through high school and his “poor test taker” nature, I wonder if poor results on the now mandatory tests would have demoralized him enough to quit school entirely. Although said sarcastically, I agree with Robinson about standards: “why would we lower them?” Making tests harder seems to me to result only in fewer qualified for higher education and, since the possession of a degree is no longer a guarantee of anything (besides a big loan to pay), perhaps it is understandable. Make it harder so fewer get in since opportunities are few. This avoids the question of why the opportunities have dried up. Since we need to face the new century together, I have opted to emphasize collaboration and agree wholeheartedly with Robinson’s claim that “great learning happens in groups.” Any culture where the most creative among us are in kindergarten cannot be in good shape! It is surely time to reform our badly outdated educational systems.—203 words
Sir ken Robinson’s ideas were compelling and appealing. His definition of school created to sustain an economic system touched me. As he states “the current system was designed and conceived for a different age,..in the intellectual culture of the enlightenment ..and the industrial revolution”. This is particularly meaningful and insightful when he describes school as being conceived like factories. From that standpoint schools look and appear as a structure designed to produce workers rather than fully accomplished individuals. Somehow, without naming it, ken Robinson underlines an unknown aspect of our school system: totalitarianism. We are not far from the Soviet Union. And in fact, our educational system paradigm greatly undermines two essential liberties: the aesthetic experience and the divergent thinking. The former is transformed into an aesthetic experience while the latter is decreasing after year s of school education. School does not meet its purpose as it should. Therefore it is not surprising seeing so many students not motivated by school. Our school system should be reformed by taking into account Ken Robinson’s conclusion. It should be more inclusive. It is time to change the long standing myth of our educational system.
When Sir Ken Robinson’s mentions his perspective of “how the current system was designed and conceived for a different age “, I highly agree that our system, though it may have changed since I last attended high school, is made for the generation that didn’t have the common entertainment that we have nowadays. In today’s society, with all the new gadgets and doodads, you can easily find any information and knowledge about anything and anyone with a touch of a button. So why should we attend school and listen to the same boring teacher whose mind is still stuck in a century that TV‘s don‘t exist? This way of thinking may have to do with diversity? Having one boring teacher for math vs. exciting new age teacher for science. Is this what the school board wants us to experience? Maybe if the teachers can adopt aesthetic experience that Sir Ken Robinson speaks of, then possibly we can wake up our senses when they are operating at their peak and enjoy the learning process with the teacher.
- 176 words
As an employer of a small firm producing outdoor advertising, I met a lot of problems with the staff, and the worst troubles I had with designers. They were geniuses, people who could find hundreds of ways to use a paperclip. However, they allowed themselves to miss deadlines or to shirk their responsibilities as they were not entertained by a project. Once, for instance, a designer said to a customer that the customer was a total imbecile who could not understand high art. Our material world is rough and heartless, so I fired them, and got designers with a low and average level of creativity. Do we really want to have 98% geniuses in our society? It would be difficult to imagine the worse world than that. Also, as Sir Ken Robinson said, “we have two pillars – economic and intellectual,” and “this model has caused chaos in many people’s lives,” but human existence itself does the same.
- 157 words
We should focus on better preparing kids for the future.
The educational system in the past worked well for most people, because it was a different society then without computers, cell phones, and other devices. Children in school were used to learning from books, and studied at the library more often. Today’s students have laptops for “e-learning” in the class room as well as at home, doing research online, thus, it seems there is almost no need for books today. Yes, I agree that the old system of the academic program vs. the non-academic program is outdated now, partly because we live in a modern society with high technology and this is not going to change now. All the machines are tools that we can use for learning and working, so they are very useful tools to assist students with their research and education, however, this same equipment are causing some problems. I agree with Sir Ken Robinson about the attention deficit problem that young people have today. The main problem is that they are very distracting and many students are addicted to using them, which means they are not focused on their school work. Also, the fact that these machines are on all the time, causes disturbances in their thinking and attention span. I
-215 words
After closely watching the Sir Ken Robison's lecture,i strongly believe that, the public education system had been outdated and need to be reform .As we are in the 21st century, a lot of things has been changed so in meeting the needs of our future generation we don,t have to to stuck with this old system of education .I truly agree with Sir Ken Robison that " the current system was designed and conceived for different age " In those days , our people believe that when you go to school , work hard and have a college degree you will get a good job .Nowadays children don,t believe in that anymore.People think that attending school is nothing but a huge loan to pay.Moreover, in our generation today the high technology has distracted and has change the mentality about leaning.The invention of computers has make it so easy to find out about any thing within a seconds. Therefore people don,t see the important of books and prefer leaning online instead of going to class .
170 words
In the topic of Sir Ken Robinson, where he mentioned about creativity and divergent thinking, I fully agree with Ken Robinson. I support the divergent way of thinking since our brain has so much potential thinking power that we are not even aware of. Creativity is good for a more precise topic such as inventing a particular object often adopted by technical specialist and scientist. Divergent way of thinking has more advantages in terms of exploring the unlimited and the unknown power of our brain.
I don’t agree on the educational system by batches. Since, it is true that some or many young children are much more intelligent than the older students in different subject matters. The educational system should have pre-screening in order to determine where we are good at, and where we can focus, excel and be successful in the field of subjects we are interested in. Therefore, educational system could be a mixed of young and old; but their levels of intelligence are more or less at par with one another. Educating in age batches and standardization will not be attractive to most of the class batch, because every individual has different capacity of thinking and interest on any subject matter.
- 204 Words
Agreeing with Sir Ken Robinson, I would highly recommend this suggestion by Mr. Robinson to our Ministry of Education “change your thinking to divergent, and allow your self to see lots of possible answers to a question” . I’m not saying that the five step paragraph essay or the witch’s hat structure are not beneficial; however, I have to admit repeating the same pattern throughout the whole high school is highly unpleasant and boring.
We have to accept that our society is changing everyday, so should our education system, we don‘t use the two stone method to make fire anymore, thanks to technology, we use lighters now. Moreover, our schools should start changing their form from factories to actual learning centers; therefore, they should start giving-out educated individuals instead of robots.
There is no doubting the fact that the civilization has progressed a lot in the past century, so sticking to the same path of educating doesn't seem very sensible. 161 words
From the time our parents have went to school until now times have definitely changed. Before, the standards that had to be met in order to get a good job were much lower, and I feel were more efficient. I feel the system here is too hard and focuses way too much time into things that we do not need and makes a lot of smart and talented students give up hope. Sir Ken Robinson said in his lecture “if you work hard, and you did well, and you got a college degree, you will have a job.” That’s not the case anymore at all. What is there really for students to have hope for anymore? What normal person thinks it is appealing to go to school for your whole youth? And at the end of it be in debt and not know 100% that you will have a job that you initially studied for to pay it off? Not me! I think this lecture is dead on point to this situation that definitely needs adjustments, and a boost. The educational system needs a different outlook on what’s really important so they can help structure our future, instead of destroying it!
-201 words
According to Sir Ken Robinson children are getting distracted from school through the
influence of computers, smart phones, and 100’s of television channels. I totally agree
with that. Although we know that the distraction is among, parents barely have control
over their children. As Sir Ken Robinson said, children are getting distracted from
“boring stuff at school.” From my point of view, education is a pattern to a successful
future. It doesn’t matter how boring the stuff at school is, or how bad the education
system is, for a better career you need to have a good qualification from school. The new
method of communication and hours spent using them are preventing already sleep-
deprived teens from getting any, which affects memory and behavioral regulation. Why
are children not concentrated at school? The biggest factor and as well the answer on that
question is “sleep disorder.” Last year was found that on average, children ages 8-18
spend 7hours a day using entertainment media. A lot of kids are texting while watching
TV, they are rising almost to 11hours of media usage a day. Alternative to messaging is
social network, which includes bbm, face book, and twitter. You could find out about a
person’s life, privacy and more throughout the internet platform, then by knowing them.
Being obsessed with their electronic devices makes them to forget about the life
surrounding them. Human are getting selfish while on the phone. By letting children to
focus more on social media then on school will make them lose their identity very soon.
258 words
Sir Ken Robinson's ideas are well thought and straight to the point. It was mentioned by Sir Ken Robinson that "we are getting our children through education by anesthetizing them". On the other hand he also mentioned that "we should be waking them from what is inside them". I do agree that we shouldn't be administering medications (such as Ritalin and other medication that are harmful for the young ones). And that waking their senses is much better, than numbing them! Instead of convincing them that they are sick, or somethings wrong with them. We should just encourage the young ones to do what they do best and to keep it up! Which in my opinion, hard for some people to forget because it's practically part of their life cycle. You work hard to get good grades, go to a university to get a degree, and you will be guaranteed to get a job. These days, that is not always the case!
-162 words
The lecture by, Sir Ken Robinson is informative about the state of our current Education system. On the lecture, he refers to several points on the lack of initiatives taken by our school education system to meet the needs of the current student. Sir Ken Robinson says “the current system was designed and conceived for a different age”. He goes on to touch a lot of subjects that the current education system should reform to. One of the subjects that picked my interest is Divergent Thinking. It was a surprising discovery to learn “essential capacity for creativity” of student’s decreases as we grow older. This decline occurs because, as we grow older we become educated, thus our mind set changes in to thinking a certain way. Our Schools teaches us only one path “if you work hard, do well, go to college, you will get a job”. This is certainly true, but not necessary for this generation and so forth. Although it is preferred to have educational background to have a certain employment states it is not a guaranty. Therefore, instead of looking to what has worked in the past, we need to look to the future to where this technological driven world is heading and reform our school education system.
211- words
After watching the lecture of Sir Ken Robinson, I realized how public education needs thorough evaluation and reformation. His ideas were educational and informative by explaining the evolution of education from the past up to the present. With regards to this changes, it is surprising to learn the increasing number of people who are suffering from ADHD. Even though Mr. Robinson knows for a fact that ADHD is “not epidemic,” specialists such as Psychologist and Pediatrician must look for alternative ways to tackle this ordeal; furthermore, to help students rather than pushing them to a dangerous drugs just to get their attention and concentration at school. Living today in this modern era is somewhat distractive, with different gadgets and advance technology which makes learning easier resulting in unmotivated students. Our education system needs improvement: transforming outdated method into a modernized tactic which will benefit both student and teacher. Finally, I truly agree when Mr. Robinson mentioned that “great learning happens in groups” because it is the key to student’s improvement and success.
-171 words
Ken Robinson’s speech about education system was quite impressive. I completely agree with his comment “our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history.” Today’s generation is addicted to technology (TV, iphone, computers) because it provides them with amusement. That is why students don’t pay attention in school, because comparatively the education system seems boring than the other options available (entertainment). For this doctors blame students’, call it Attention Deficit Disorder and prescribe medications. Instead of drugging students for no reason we need to change our boring education system into an interesting one. By integrating these “distractions” into the curriculum, students won’t be as bored. Furthermore, technology is an effective educational tool that can help students learn. I agree with Robinson, “Collaboration is the stuff of growth.” When we work in groups, we can judge ourselves by comparing the ideas of others. In group work we have more chances to increase our knowledge, and in teamwork we will be able to find multi-solutions of a single problem. In short our educational system needs improvement rather than following the old mind-numbing technique.
words-185
After watched Sir Ken Robison’s cartoon, I strongly agree to ken’s mentioning about divergent thinking and creativity. I like to support creativity. Creativity is idea that artists, scientist uses more. But, when I see lot of inventions like smartphones, ipad and itouch that invented by Steve Jobs, even though divergent thinking has advantages in terms of finding out unlimited and what kind of power has in our power.
But, I disagree on how our education system is “works like factory and outdated” as Sir Ken Robison mentioned. This education system should change. By start, kid with different ages with similar career ideas should be in groups to learn differently and understand different point of view. Secondly, some of schools and learning centre have outdated textbooks. I think textbooks should be updated to computers, because if we had computers in our classrooms, we just need to upgrade the softwares to be up to date for every learning source then we don’t have to worry about books getting lost. Now even toddlers, kids are learning how to learn math, English, etc on i pads. Why do we have to stuck in the past?
In world, everything is digitized. So our education system should too.
From the last decades of the 20th century, the reformation of education is one of the popular topics in every country. But up to now, we have not found any remarkable improvement on the education system in any country. Sir Ken Robinson tries to challenge it. In his animate lecture—Changing Education Paradigm, he analyzes the weaknesses of the present education system; and he thinks that characterized students with the dichotomy is the "model has caused chaos" in present education system. In his opinion, "the greatest study is divergent thinking," which is "an essential capacity of creativity?" I agree with his point and I also think that he catches the essence of education in our time. The creativity, which comes from people, represents the national competition in our time. But how can our people have creativity? The ability of divergent thinking or imagination is an essential source of creativity. So, how our education system could culture students' divergent thinking is a goal of reformation of the education system. Of course, the reformation of present education system is complicated and difficult systemic engineering, which needs more detail and practicable solutions. But do we have another choice in this competitive time?
[199 words]
Although, I am not really qualified to comment about how good or bad the American Educational System is, I find myself in a position where I could agree and at the same time disagree with Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas about “Changing Education Paradigms.” On one hand, I tend to agree the part about “divergent thinking” as being “an essential capacity for creativity”, but on the other hand it doesn’t fit all the individuals. It is well known that people react differently in the same environment. Some of them are more creative while others are less creative, so the last mentioned need to be helped by telling them about the answer “at the back.” Another issue is that with this educational system type it takes too much time to finish it and too much money to pay for it. Many, possibly, “brilliant” people are deprived by the chance of success because they can’t afford the expenses for superior education, and so do I. The high taxes applied by the universities or by the colleges, make it almost unbearable for most of us that still dream of embracing the so much desired career. I, as a late student, have to consider very seriously what future career I will embrace and how much will that help me, considering the fact that I will need a loan for my college which sooner or later I have to pay it back.
word 235
In Sir Ken Robinson’s lecture, he shares his opinion about genius thinking. He suggests that “we all have this capacity”, including kindergarten children who may score a 98% mark when tested for same. But with our current educational system, “it mostly deteriorates”. I quite agree with his assertion. For example, many Chinese students study hard and they can get high marks. But high marks are not the same as genius thinking and creativity. In many Chinese elementary schools, students usually have so much homework that parents have to assume the teacher’s role by helping their children to finish their homework. Even if they are grade 5 or grade 6 students, they must often study until midnight. Actually, elementary school is an important period to cultivate students’ genius thinking and creativity. But, unfortunately, the current educational system focuses almost exclusively on high marks and high degrees and people believe that high marks and degrees equal good jobs. In order to change this paradigm, not only do schools need to change, but also our social system needs reform. In other words, our social system and values contribute equally to failures in our educational system. -192 words
After I watched Sir Ken Allen’s clip, I have learned our education system is not enough to meet the expectation of 21st century’s way of leaving. In 19th century, being educated person used to have a better way of leaving. For example, as Mr. Allen said” If you work hard, did well, and go to college; you will get a better job”. However, in 21st century if you do have a degree or not it doesn’t matter. There is a possibility to get a better job or not. Mr. Allen mentioned that we need to teach our children creative thinking. I agree with his idea. If our education system includes teaching our children creative thinking, for those creative students will open more opportunity to accomplish their passion. For example, Steve jobs of “Apple “founder was a dropped out student, but his creativeness made a change in our generation. At last, our education system should include teaching formal education, and creative thinking.
Word count: 161
Changing Education Paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson
Watching Sir Robinson’s presentation, I was most fascinated with the portion in which he discussed “the
modern epidemic” of ADHD; I strongly agree with his perspectives on this matter that “For a fact it’s not
an epidemic, these kids are being medicated… Our children are living in the most intensely stimulated
period in the history of earth.” In our modern society, I find we are too quick to remedy developmental
disorders, with heavy psychiatric pharmaceuticals. Our focus should be finding alternative solutions, in
addressing this matter. Children aren’t all the same; their learning methods, developmental skills, and
strengths differ. It’s up to us as a society to uplift those in need; not to cast them aside, prescribe a
couple pills and forfeit hope of their recovery. Had such psychiatric assessment existed in the more
primitive times, tis almost certain Einstein would have been diagnosed with ADHD; instead he proved to
have one of the most beautiful in-depth minds. Who knows what future talent we’ve inhibited through
such treatment. I believe the power of thought to be a very compelling thing; if we raise our children
with the belief that there’s something wrong with them, from a young age, how much harder will that
label be to remove?
Coming to America by Yiyun Li
(Paragraph Six)
In the early hours of the morning, a call was received. They spotted a man purchasing pharmaceuticals
two nights in a row. The police man rushed to the store in the distant part of town, where he was briefly
accompanied by other officers. The suspect, as informed, was amusing himself with a game inside. Not
long after, he proceeded to exiting the store, with the merchandise he had purchased in-hand. As the
suspect opened his vehicle, the dispatched offices blocked him in.
(85 words)
I do not agree with Sir Ken Robinson's lecture, specifically with the comment that he made about, “education kills creativity." I believe more advanced Education System will provide the foundation that enables students to be successful lifelong learners that thrive in society. The main goal of education is to prepare individuals to be contributing citizens of our society which helping them to reach their true potential goal in life. Thousands of years have been passed since birth of the universe, but the world did not have as much developments as the last 100 years. World has just began it's fast growing developments since 19th century. As we witness now the world's image has totally changed specially in 1900s with the invasion of various technologies, transportations such as automobiles, Airplanes, and fast developments. I believe the Education System has become more advanced which results in fast growing developments. Therefore we should continue to more advanced Education System to prepare for the coming generations to become more productive and contributing member of the society. Therefore the more advanced Education System will bring more success in developments of better universe.
187 words
The video enlighten the issue about "education system" and changing paradigms. There are many things I agree with what Sir Ken Robison has said. Indeed time has changed so should our "education system" we live in 21st century not 19th. Ever since education was born, it was new and exciting to the people and therefore they had the opportunity to put their ideas and creativity into action, invent new things, brought many changes to our world. Now a days things are different, we have become more advanced, unfortunately our "education system" hasn’t. It’s boring and old fashioned. We need to renew our learning techniques, and way of learning should be more fun. Today’s students are pressured from parents, society, school, and their surroundings. They only know things for to get a diploma and get a well-paying job, not to invent new things come up with new ideas or wanting to learn even after they complete their studies. Education is remembered as taking hours of notes, hours of lectures, and hours of homework which are not used in everyday life. For some students the old system doesn't work because they get treated the same ways of those students who are in different levels so this leads to lack of confident, self-esteem, thinking not smart enough and low marks. Passion and creativity leads to excellence. Divergent thinking decrease as the student becomes more educated, no one should be forced to learn according to the system, instead encourage to bring out the real, unique, and gifted part that god has given.
259 words
This video enlightens the issue about “The Education System” and changing paradigms. There
are many things I agree with what Sir Ken Robison has said. Time has changed, so should the education
system. This is the twenty-first century, not nineteenth. Ever since education was born, people were
very curious. It gave them the opportunity to put their ideas and creativity into action. They invented
new devices and objects that brought many changes in the world and has made life much easier.
However, nowadays things are different. Things have advanced, but unfortunately, the education
hasn’t. We need to renew our learning techniques and also learning should be more fun. Todays’
students are pressured by their parents, schools and surroundings. Students only know how to guard
themselves and get a well-paid job, not to invent new things, come up with ideas or wanting to learn
even after they’re done their education. For the some students, the old system doesn’t work anymore.
Nowadays, they compare students with other students who are smarter. This brings down their lack of
confidence. Students should be encouraged to become whatever they want to become in life. Passion
and creativity leads to excellence. Divergent thinking decreases as the as the students become more
educated. No one should be forced to learn according to the system. Therefore, encourage them by
bringing out the unique and gifted side that each individual has.
232 words.
This video enlightens the issue about “The Education System” and changing paradigms. There
are many things I agree with what Sir Ken Robison has said. Time has changed, so should the education
system. This is the twenty-first century, not nineteenth. Ever since education was born, people were
very curious. It gave them the opportunity to put their ideas and creativity into action. They invented
new devices and objects that brought many changes in the world and has made life much easier.
However, nowadays things are different. Things have advanced, but unfortunately, the education
hasn’t. We need to renew our learning techniques and also learning should be more fun. Todays’
students are pressured by their parents, schools and surroundings. Students only know how to guard
themselves and get a well-paid job, not to invent new things, come up with ideas or wanting to learn
even after they’re done their education. For the some students, the old system doesn’t work anymore.
Nowadays, they compare students with other students who are smarter. This brings down their lack of
confidence. Students should be encouraged to become whatever they want to become in life. Passion
and creativity leads to excellence. Divergent thinking decreases as the as the students become more
educated. No one should be forced to learn according to the system. Therefore, encourage them by
bringing out the unique and gifted side that each individual has.
232 words.
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