Education Reconceived

Jamais Cascio, a compatriot at Institute for the Future, recently gave a Keynote on the Future of Education at Moodle Moot. His talk covered quite a bit of ground, some of which is fairly disconcerting, as the implications in some cases are of "disruption" in its most negative connotation. 

As I listened to his talk, I found myself wondering what the call to action is for educational pedagogy. 

This is the result: if I were in charge, based on the challenges it appears likely that this world will face in the next couple of decades, the following list would be what would be covered over the 13 years of schooling. Imagine the most basic components taught to small children building to the most complex for high school students. But the idea is that these would be the core subject areas, rather than English, History, Math, Science, Language/Culture, and PE.

(1) Learning Skills. (Learning how to learn)

• Personal organization and study skills
• Emotional intelligence
• Project planning
• Conflict management

(2) Science.

• Science
• Experimental Method & Problem Solving
• Technology
• Math
  

(3) Technology Practicum. (A curriculum of the use of whatever technology is of critical use. For example, right now:)

• Typing
• Social media (e.g. myspace, youtube, etc.)
• MS Word, Excel, and Ppt (or equivalent)
• Search skills
• Drivers' training and public transportation
• Home technology (safety, money, financial systems)

(4) Communication.

• Media
• Languages
• Logic

(5) Human Context.

• History
• Geography
• Political science
• Anthropology
• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Appreciation of arts and music

(6) Stress management.

• PE
• Meditation
• Counseling
• Food selection/preparation
• Practice of arts and music

Needless to say, this is rather different from the current pedagogy. If you've never looked into it, but are interested, here are the California Content Standards.  In reality, I realize we're in a period of tightening conformity, so I have little hope that this kind of instruction will transform our disintegrated public schools. However the point of moodle and other software is to provide ad hoc and open lessons available for those who choose to take them.

What I did there was scrunch all the liberal arts "common knowledge" courses into one bucket, but I expanded the bucket. Similarly, I put science and math into the same bucket but added experimental practice and technology.

Then I also took both the sciences and the arts and divided them into two parts: the theory and the practice.  The theory remains relevant because the point of school is to give us this shared context.  However, explicit practice in both technology use and the creation and dissemination of new communication forms is also critical. 

Beyond that I added  the practical topic of learning skills, which includes conflict resolution and emotional intelligence, two things that are absolutely fundamental to maintaining an effective society and so of course we never teach them in school...(!) And equally key is the ability for people to manage their own health. For kids, the biggest issue is usually how to manage their stressors, so instead of Physical Education (and drug/sex education) alone, integrating that into a larger curriculum of (physiology-based) stress management. As the earth undergoes stress it will be even more critical for people to be sophisticated in how they manage their own health.

Comments

[zenpundit]

Cannot say that I agree. I know where you are going with this and it's well-intentioned but the reality of would be counterintuitive.

Much like the terrible decision to start calling history class "Social Studies" in the early 60's, the Ed bureaucracy would use this format to justify hiring even fewer subject matter experts than they do now and more basically ignorant but cheaply available education majors. Or to force personnel to teach out of field ( "English lit major to teach physics II, PE to teach history - no problem) because it is administratively conventient when slotting the master schedule.

Mathematics, science and history instruction are mediocre in this country primarily because half or more of the teachers in those fields are unqualified in the sense that they lack at least an undergraduate degree in those content areas. Some teach with as little as 9 hours or even none at all in violation of federal law and most state school codes.

You cannot very well explain and teach what you yourself do not understand even the fundamentals of.

[Jessica Margolin]

Thank you for your thoughtful commentary!

I absolutely and without reservation agree with you about the subject matter expertise. And I really wouldn't want to go back to the free-for-all of the 60's and 70's.

However, with a child almost through K-12 in public schools, and after many years of non-profit activity in the sector, I personally believe that it really does go far beyond that.

It seems to me that the frames with which education is delivered are askew. There is no formal mechanism by which doing research online is taught, for example. While students whose parents have computers in the home and can guide them in learning such skill do okay, the other students don't.

Multiply this: no spreadsheet or typing, no collaboration or conflict management skills -- in fact social skills developed from observing behaviors of their parents and friends, most of whom were unsuccessful academically. (This is the reason why preschool is of such benefit in low socio-economic groups but not particularly relevant in middle class.)

[zenpundit]

"It seems to me that the frames with which education is delivered are askew."

They are indeed. A 19th century agrarian calendar and Lancastrian room arrangement are fused with an early 20th century Taylorist/industrial mass-production society master schedule are used to prepare kids for an adulthood where today's kindergarten student will not retire until around 2080.

"There is no formal mechanism by which doing research online is taught, for example."

There is not even agreement here at the university level re: online citations, research etc. Won't be until the current generation of senior profs are gone.

"While students whose parents have computers in the home and can guide them in learning such skill do okay, the other students don't."

The digital divide is also intellectual not just socioeconomic. There are many UMC households with multiple computers and broadband where it is the children and not the parents who understand how to navigate the net.