education, the need for change
DESCRIPTION
If we can train mice to surf why is it so difficult to teach graduates from universities or colleges with the fundamental application skills required in industry?TRANSCRIPT
Monday, February 06, 2012
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Education – The Need For Change
Introduction
If we can train mice to surf (this is true, click on www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdbxLk8_C8c) why is it so difficult to teach graduates from universities or colleges with the fundamental application skills required in industry? How often have you sent employees on training courses but got little immediate value in return? How many training courses have you been on, that have provided immediate application outcomes? There is no doubt that most education or training courses provide a lot of food for thought, for a limited period of time, but providing actual immediate application outcomes, very few.
Why is this case? Are we educating a bunch of morons, or are we ineffective in our training methods? The latter is more likely to be the case; however, it is not in any way deliberate or intentional that we get poor outcomes, but more about not understanding the human psyche, human behavior or human insecurities. Many hours of work and effort are applied in most curriculums and almost always with the best intentions.
It is a well known fact that we as humans all have different finger prints and different DNA. As far as we know it is 99% certain that no other human has exactly the same finger print or DNA to ourselves, we are, as individuals, unique. So what is the relevance to education and training? As much as our finger prints and DNA are unique as individuals, so is our electromagnetic signature. Our brain operates on electrical signals which in turn creates and electromagnetic field. Our brain through electric current controls everything about us, our emotions, intellect, agility and naturally our ability to learn. If we all have our own electromagnetic signature, then why do we create such rigid inflexible forms of learning? Lets face it, in modern society the role of face to face teachers, is to compensate for inadequate curriculums, presentation styles and learning environments, just to name a few.
Factors that influence our ability to learn
There are many factors that affect learning, but we will discuss five important ones in this article.
Environment. Classroom or lecture theatre type environments are rarely comfortable places to sit in. They are hardly
a place to enhance long periods of concentration. Far too many teachers and lecturers are not only boring, but are not good teachers. High intellect (or
so called suitably qualified) does not automatically translate into being a good teacher. Distraction plays a role as every group has got at least one joker, or some who think lectures are a
social opportunity, which is all disruptive behavior, hardly a recipe for efficient learning. Online or distance learning can provide a very different environment, although the downside is face to
face interaction with fellow students. Curriculum. Some curriculums may be accredited, but really dish up the very swill, employers and many
practitioners cringe from. They provide very little sustainable educational benefits apart from perhaps discovering that Barry is a three pot screamer!
Accreditation needs some serious overhauls, as far too much emphasis is placed on process, red tape and government departments vying for larger budgets, rather than good learning material. To compound all this irrelevant garbage, companies and institutions are forced to pay a small fortune to
Monday, February 06, 2012
USA
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join these ‘snob clubs’, further adding to the price of education.
Attention span. As discussed in the introduction everyone is uniquely different and we all have attention spans that
are as varied as our electromagnet signatures. All too often, however, the learning timetable demands set times, for example, Math 303 will be held in room 1356a west wing on the northern side, from 8am to 12 noon. Who in their right mind is ready to face a classroom at 8am? Why is it a set time and set location? Because the assumption, albeit arrogant or ignorant (or both) is that we all have the same attention span! Wrong!
Distance learning enables students to work within their own span of attention. It is also true that some people experience more effective learning by self learning than in a regulated, self paced classroom environment.
Interest. Interest enhances our ability to learn. To learn efficiently as individuals, we all have varying levels of interest (that electromagnetic signature
again) from subject to subject and even within subject material. Classroom environments rarely take this into account.
Distance or online learning enables every individual to learn according to their own unique electromagnetic signature by determining their own levels of interest.
Self esteem. Most humans suffer from a lack of confidence in some form, and that confidence varies from one
period of our lives to another as unique individuals. People who are more sensitive or are less self confidant than their colleagues can experience negative
circumstances in a class environment, which will make their learning task more difficult. There are some exceptions where this may well work the other way, however, they are few and far between.
In a distance or online learning environment individuals can relax and encounter their own pace, enhancing self confidence.
Presentation Style
In the modern era presentation styles are definitely improving thanks largely to an abundance of presentation
software available.
Graphics
For many years, the most common learning presentation was that of words and writing. This was not
conducive to learning for people who were dyslexic and still aren’t. There are more and more graphics being
introduced into learning material in the modern day, however, there is still not nearly enough. Everyone has
heard the expression, ‘a picture tells a thousand words’ (the Russian writer, Ivan Turgenev wrote (in Fathers
and Sons in 1862), "A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound."-
taken from Wikipedia), so lets see more of it.
Analogies
Analogies are very powerful tools to help individuals understand relevance. Relevance enhances interest.
Interest enhances learning. A good real life example is that of a 17 year old male, who was failing maths
miserably. His parents arranged for extra maths lessons to help him pass in order for him to graduate from
high school. As a 17 year old, he knew all there was about life and could not understand why he had to learn
Monday, February 06, 2012
USA
P.O. BOX 5239
IRVINE,
CA. 92612
IRVINE, CA.
92612
Creating Great
Relationships –
Coaching – Time
Management
888-416-1088
Please call to
book your
coaching session.
Email:
om
Or
Web:Anatherelat
ionshipexpert.co
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AUSTRALIA
24 Bates Drive
Birkdale
Queensland, 4159
IRVINE, CA. 92612
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maths. As far as his vast experience of life was concerned it was a useless subject and had no place in his life.
This young man was a keen football player, so the teacher then used trigonometry in the analogy of kicking
the football over the posts, to score points for his team. Immediately his interest was piqued. He went on to
pass maths with distinction. This is a classic case of using analogies to pique interest and relevance.
Humor
Wherever one looks education material is dry, lifeless no fun and in fact is boring. How will this form of
education ever produce consistently good education outcomes? Humor goes to the very essence of our being.
It is as quoted by Readers Digest magazine ‘Humor is the best medicine’. There have been education materials
severely criticized by the ‘establishment’ for having cartoons and of being too ‘corny’. Well to you stuffy
miserable lot, go and find another vocation, as you are not welcome in the field of education.
Video
Video is another marvelous tool to education. We are seeing more of it, and will continue to into the future.
There is no longer any excuse not to use video in education today as all the tools are available at a far lower
cost than they were ten years ago.
Interaction and games
There is a lot written about how young kids today don't play like their grandparents did as kids five or six
decades ago. That is partially true in that kids today play computer games for hours, as opposed to playing
outdoors with a ball. We don't get it! If kids love playing games, why do we not use more games and
interactive processes in education? To criticize kids is also unfair, and if one visits any of the social networks,
one will find millions of adults playing online interactive games, including grandma and grandpa!
Conclusion
It is a known fact that the more educated the world population are, the less likely there will be conflict in the world. It
is not to say that there will be no conflict, but many conflict situations in the world today are generated by dictators
who are able to manipulate the uneducated masses, a feat more difficult when countries have a strong middle class.
Education is the most important asset we have as nations to develop strong middle class societies.
What we need in education is to be in the forefront of innovation, flexibility, thinking outside the box and to make it
fun, invigorating and to challenge different thinking patterns.
It is for this reason that we need to lift our game in terms of education. We need to incorporate a wider variety of
flexible curriculums and presentation styles that address individual uniqueness, as that is exactly what we are,
individually unique.
Written by: Michael Burdette - President (Head of Business Education) WeberBurdette February 2012