Mr Howard said the government would continue to press its case for the need for an education system that is “built on traditional orthodox methods of instructions”
I was interested to read this statement on educational policy from our Prime Minister, John Howard, recently. I mean, what are “traditional orthodox methods of instructions”? We were chatting about this at work today… and came up with a few ideas such as the cane, chalk-n-talk, etc., which of-course is not what was intended (I hope!). But for most people, the idea of “traditional orthodox methods of instructions” evokes some picture of teacher-centric method of disseminating knowledge and/or skills, requiring learners to absorb and practise and obey. But is this what John means?
Should learners be empowered to set the direction of their own learning? In what contexts, at what ages? I was incredibly interested today to read about Ricardo Semler on Artichoke‘s blog (thanks Leigh):
“For nearly 25 years, Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazil-based Semco, has let his employees set their own hours, wages, even choose their own IT. The result: increased productivity, long-term loyalty and phenomenal growth. ” April 1, 2004 Ricardo Semler: Set Them Free
… he’s turning his attention to something grander – shaping Brazil’s next generation. Education without compulsion… The man who believes in managing without managers wants to teach without teachers. His Lumiar primary school in Sao Paulo uses tutors and ‘masters’ instead. The masters are architects, astronomers, painters, musicians real experts chosen by the students themselves to come for weeks at a time. It sort of helps if they are not teachers. The thinking is that children want to learn and that ordinary schools stop them.
There’s a lot wrong with traditional education. The real question is why do we think we have anything to add to that field and what we find is that the adults that come to us after being uniformalised and homogenised over the years and calcified in the school system, they come to us ready to follow orders, to understand what it is we want them to do, and we’ve realised that the only way to change this, and it’s very expensive and difficult and long to change it with the company, the only way to really change it is to start working at the moment that society does all the harm to them which is really at two.
Wow. Looks like Brazil is at least going to try different things in education (along side “traditional orthodox” educational options I’m sure). I wonder if we can be so bold in Australia.
(It’s been great to read recently about the 24hr school in Parramatta and to watch a video interview with the director of Catholic education talking about the new learner-centred schools that they are trialling… maybe in Australia it’s the private sector that will need to innovate first?)
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Hi Michael,
I love the article on Ricardo Semler. I think that what he is doing is both challenging and enlightened. I did however have a dejavue flashback to a Starttrek episode. Cheers Sherrie
? LOL… because of his name? Or was the episode the one where everyone runs around on the planet in bliss because they play all day and don’t work? ;)
The initiative of the 24 hour school certainly reminds me of Aristotle’s Lyceum which was told to have had no classrooms and where teaching was done through free discussion between teachers and students rather than lectures.
Funny that Aristotle apparently opened the Lyceum to compete with the existing Plato’s Academy which was teaching through lectures.
I guess the debate rages on to this day: is it a Lyceum or is it the Academy?
In time Lyceums became Colleges (still called lyceums in some countries’ educational systems) and Academies became Universities – go figure.
On the other hand in the quote above one cannot help but notice that “The masters are architects, astronomers, painters, musicians real experts chosen by the students themselves to come for weeks at a time. It sort of helps if they are not teachers. The thinking is that children want to learn and that ordinary schools stop them”.
Reminds one of current day “raw models” theory, the “masters” in the medieval “trade guilds” who came up with the apprenticeship model which is still with us and “mentoring” which is a learning model invented by the prelates. What do these have in common – the central figure who one can aspire to become one day.
When is the last time you heard of a teenager wanting to be like an important statesman, or a famous doctor, or a famous writer, or a chess player?
Don’t they all want to be like a famous chitar player in some band or a cartoon character or a punk rocker?
My point is: beyond the innate natural curiosity in each child, children want to learn so they can be like someone one day.
Could it be that Ricardo’s vision of Brazil’s education might just work because the experts it brings in the company of students are positive, inspiring raw models?
As they say – you are the company you keep…. (besides all that stuff you ate for dinner).
That’s true Florian… who we aspire to be like is a huge motivation for not only what we learn, but how we learn. For me personally, the key is that I aspire to be like many people…
With Ricardo’s model, the kids actually choose and organise the visit of lots of different experts (with the help of their tutors). If it was a music related learning project, then getting a professional guitarist from a band would be great! But the key is, it’s the learners who are choosing who teaches them (and to some degree, what they are taught), not the ‘master’. This has some similarities to the apprenticeship model that you mention, but some major differences too, in that the kids are, at the same time, learning how to direct and manage their own learning.
Florian said:
True too. Guess that’s why Mark Shuttleworth (man behind Ubuntu Linux) and others are running Hip2b2 (Hip to be Square) type projects – encouraging youth that learning is a cool thing! Great idea hey!