Argument Statement: Khan argues that it is time for a change in the routines of the education system. The education system as noted by him dates back to the Prussians in the 19th century where it was designed to stunt curiosity and create work force ready personnel who know how to follow routine and structured days. The problem is, that is not the same student or future employee that the world is looking for anymore.
Society watching as the education systems ‘flawed’ vision continues to burn…
Talking Points:
Khan references the book A Brave New World to which I have read and thoroughly enjoyed and how the education system, like the creation of new human beings, is not creating much diversity. As quoted by Khan, “Students are “tracked”...completely ignores the wonderful variety and nuance that distinguish human intelligence, imagination, and talent” (Khan, pg.63-64). For those potentially unfamiliar, the book is a futuristic world where humans are genetically created and placed in a social hierarchy which closely aligns with their work. From birth students are pushed through a system and expected to play nice and do what they are told and work in the department they are assigned. When taking a broad lens, the current state of the education system is similar. Go to school, follow directions, learn what you are taught and hopefully it helps you get to a job you want (this is where it veers slightly from the book). To what degree are we empowering thinkers? Creators?Problem solvers? Students aren’t presented with many abstract tasks that allow for them to be creative thinkers.
My second point looks at Khan’s statements regarding tests. Tests, or what I would call checkpoints on a long journey that do not show much. Khan is very blunt about how he perceives tests, he says “Tests say nothing about how long learning will be retained” (Khan, pg.91). I could not agree more with his statement. Tests only identify what a student knows in the here and now. What about the topics they learned at the beginning of the year? Would they still score an A on the test if they took it now? Did they own their learning and add a new skill to their toolbox, or did they memorize it like a robot to regurgitate it on a test to get a ‘good' grade? If we want thinkers and problem solvers, tests are not supplying that. My school district has shifted our method of instruction for math this year. We are using what is called Building Thinking Classrooms (BTC) which is something of an instructional model. When teaching students we present them with a task. The task can be short or long depending on what the end goal is. Students use their prior knowledge to identify common patterns, solve problems and create working definitions of the arithmetic they are using. As the educator, I become the facilitator and I take the students ideas and work and refocus it towards the specific area of math that we are learning. The students now become their own thinkers and I just tweak what they put forth in practice. It all sounds great, and when it works it is amazing what students come up with. The downfall is that many students do not know how to properly engage with the model. They have been trained through the education system, to sit, listen, memorize, practice, test and move on. What I like to call robots, but robots who care a great deal on their success on tests, but not actually on their learning.
My last talking point is more about who Sal Khan is. Sal Khan is the designer of Khan Academy, the education program that helps students learn new skills or practice new skills that they are struggling with. You or someone you know has probably used Khan Academy at some point in their life. It has been globalized and is a great resource for students. But, I find that it contradicts Khan’s true belief of reforming the education system. Couldn’t I stick a kid in front of a computer with a Khan Academy lesson and the student should learn the skill? Isn’t this routine skill learning and not enabling adaptive thinkers like Khan suggests? Khan has made millions in revenue off of his online resource, but preaches something completely different in his article. Reaping the benefits of a system he doesn’t support is quite interesting. If he truly believed in what he preaches, then maybe he should have helped design a curriculum centered around empowering students to be thinkers. Instead, he created a system that just continues to add fuel to the fire that is already burning.
Sal Khan’s Khanmingo 60 minute video: Khanmingo
Hi Noah, thank you for the background information you provided on the topic this week. I have not read A Brave New World and appreciate you briefly going into detail of what the store entailed. I agree with your second point where students are becoming robots. I work with one very smart STEM student who is in an AP History. I worked with him last year and asked why he doesn't choose a lower level or even EEP class because he is not strong in the area. He has great potential in his other academics but he believes he needs to have APs but struggles because they are flying through units. I met with him one day and they were talking about the Han Dynasty and by the next meeting he was already done with his test (which he did awful on) and already into the 1800s. History is my favorite topic and would be upset that I couldn't learn more in depth knowledge of stories. In my students case he can barely keep up with timely events before moving onto the next unit. Finally, I found your last talking point fascinating. I was confused on your title of this week while reading since you had agreed with the author however, I did not even think he was the creator of Khan Academy. Our students in Upward Bound use it in the summer when they are taking their SAT Prep course but they agree that there is too much time in between the summer and their first PSAT/SAT test that they forget what they learn. Thank you for your insight this week!
ReplyDeleteHi Noah, I appreciate your insight on Khan Academy and its founder. I have used Khan Academy off and on for years in my classes. In fact, I just used it in my class that I teach yesterday evening in the high school evening program that I also teach at. I have always found the video instruction to be Ok, but I usually find it somewhat slow, and Khan's voice can be somewhat monotone. I use it as a supplement. I agree that most students cannot learn from this solely. It is more as a supplement for an experienced teacher in order to be effective.
ReplyDeleteYour last point about Khan Academy is well taken. I haven't really used it before and I would like to read a critique of its format, practices, pedagogy, model to think more about how i fits in with this specific article. Thanks for sharing this.
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