Just
as a forefront, I don't want to make myself out to be an expert in
the educational studies; these are merely my observations and
thoughts of where I believe we should be heading with our public
elementary and high schools.
A
step back from memorization
A
key part in education right now is the preparation for standardized
tests, to reshape a student to be able to answer predictive
questions, selecting students who aren't well rounded, but excel
solely in this category, while leaving their creativity behind. This
method doesn't teach children to ask questions because they soon
realize that there is only one right answer, where in the real world
a person needs to ask themselves questions in order to problem solve,
or to see a problem all together. I can't tell you the number of
times I have heard an arts student say that they didn't like science
because there was only one right answer, and that they preferred to
have an objective look on their topics. But this here, is the beauty
of science; anyone can disprove anything that is considered “true”
with sufficient evidence, creating a paradox in how we test the
subject. If education can step back from the emphasized learning of
knowledge and spend more time exploring the beauty of the scientific
method, people won't be as afraid of science. I'm not necessarily
saying that I think everyone should go into the sciences because of
this, but people who are in other fields shouldn't have a fear of it.
In
line with this, there may also be a problem with this method for the
upcoming generation who are surrounded with more and more electronic
gadgets connected to all human information. With an increasing
dependence on technology, the need of memorizing small details
diminishes proportional to the easiness of accessing the information
[1]. In fact, it has been proven that if the information is easily
accessed, our mind will refrain from storing it in our long term
memory. From this, we may see a change with our next generation in
their ability to hold long term memories of small facts. Because of
this, we need to push for a stronger investment in the creativity and
imagination of students. It was Einstein who stated that "Imagination
is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination
encircles the world”.
Consequences
of the current education system
One
key result of this is the fact that 3rd
year
genetics is considered to be one of the toughest courses for biology
undergraduates, but
for other majors such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry it seems
easier because of their problem solving experience.
Up
to that point in university biology students are
made to only know memorization as the medium of education. They
aren't made to problem solve, create, or learn the scientific method
until later in their degree; all they are doing is building up their
knowledge to be able to problem solve later. As much as this method
has worked for years and years, I believe
that we can do better in educating students so that when they do get
to their first genetics class, they have the problem solving skills
to be able to excel in the course.
As
have just finished my undergrad, i have witnessed a slew of grad
students who eagerly boast in their academic excellence, while in
their T.A. duties saying things such as "Wow, you don't know
that", and refuse to teach an elemental concept. This power trip
blocks the process of education; being in an employee of an academic
institute, they are there to help educate and build the body of
science, but instead think selfishly in looking at their academic
achievements. They are the kind of people who were bred out of this
academic competition that exists in a capitalistic society, a concept
of every man/woman for themselves, only yielding the best of the
best. But these people fail to see what science really is. They fail
to see that it is a body of knowledge that is dependent of everyone
working as a whole.
Ending
Comments
It
will be tough to be subjective through a land of no standardized
tests, creating a lot of issues in how to test the mass number of
students without multiple choice. The recourses to mark thousands of
objective tests at a time are just not here unless we can find a
testing method in the future that both appeases this method along
with the practicality of marking.
I'm
not necessarily saying that we should put all of our teaching into
the creativity process because we will still need to have memorized a
great deal to get anywhere in the scientific world. Our brains rely
on connections to get anywhere, which requires us to have this
knowledge in our memory. We need to see the comparisons that the
computers are unable to see, this also being known as human
intuition.
References
[1]Sparrow,
Betsy, Jenny Liu, and Daniel Wegner. "Google Effects on Memory:
Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our
Fingertips." Science333.6043 (2011): 776-778.
