What future for education. Intelligence

I believe it is so right that our group brainstorming resulted in understanding intelligence as making use of skills and knowledge that one has. Those people who don’t benefit from their knowledge are called “walking encyclopedias” in Russia. Another phrase that came to my mind is “If you are so clever why do you live so bad?” Therefore, we see intelligence as something that helps us moving forward.

I don’t remember myself taking IQ tests seriously – they were taken either for fun or for trying myself (as an entering test for a traineeship that I didn’t plan to participate in). I suppose that might be due to the believe that Prof. Gordon Stobart and Sandra Leaton Gray shared with us this week that IQ tests have little in common with intelligence.

So-called “intelligence” tests that I took seriously were subject tests that influenced people’s judgments about me for sure. The most relevant example in my experience as a pupil was that teachers put me in a “high level” or “gymnasium-like” 6th form basing on my results in the 5th form that was an ordinary one. Later on, I was put into the group taught by a better English teacher according to the same principle, I suppose. So, yes, test results definitely affect future educational opportunities. There is an irony that being at a university I had to pass my English test five (!) times to be allowed to take exams while all of my group mates had already passed several of them. Why my instructor didn’t give me a chance to show my knowledge in any other form except from test then, I still don’t know. Maybe because she didn’t have time as teachers don’t have time to ask meaningful questions, as Prof. Stobart says.

Luckily, regardless of that I didn’t lose my passion to learning and I can consider myself to be a learner. I really love studying and I’m thrilled with discovery. I often think about the way I have been taught and the way I wish my future children be taught. Reading the article “Myth of Ability” I was thinking that I didn’t remember much from Physics, Chemistry or Biology school courses but I love reading popular science articles and watch BBC films covering these topics. Does it mean that my teachers were bad? No, I don’t think so. Does it mean that my brain is now ready to perceive this information? Perhaps. Do I want my children feel enthusiastic about our nature and its laws as I do watching scientific documentaries? For sure.

What future for education. My motivation

Я начала изучать МООК "What future for education?", на этот раз созданный нашими британскими коллегами из University of London & UCL Institute of Education.

Одним из элементов курса является ведение рефлексивных журналов. Собственно это и есть мои записи на тему будущего образования и той информации, что я черпаю из курса.

#wfe1

Week 1 Journal Entry: Based on your experience as a learner, what do you think you will be able to get out of this course? And what ideas do you already have about the future of education?

I have enrolled for this MOOC because of my curiosity for learning and education. Currently I work as an instructional designer and an analyst in Institute of Distance Education at a university. Taking this course, I would like to grasp the idea of the future of education in all of its aspects, its perspectives, risks and challenges for instructors, as well as students. Then I will be able to get prepared and to prepare our university instructors for that.

My ideas about the future of education are about the learning formats, type of knowledge and access to it.

As far as I am concerned, we shift from the model “instructor is a source of information” (back from the 18^th century, according to K. Robinson speech at TED) to the model “instructor is a guide in the world of information” that leads to the “sun fall” of lecturing. Instructors may use their precious time more effectively by conducting the learning process (expert sessions, more practice and case studies) rather that transmitting the information that needs to be taken into students’ notes. That is why the flipped classroom model gets more popular. Self-directed learning and learner-centered education are the trends, too. That is what I mean by learning formats.

Type of knowledge: there is an obvious crisis of Humanities all other the developed countries. People strive to acquire skills. That is what Eleanore Hargreaves in the lecture called "learning to do". STEM are the champions. Philosophy, Literature and Art are not prioritized. May be one day their time will come back. Unfortunately not today. "That is cool that you can tell what Greek myths are about but… what you need for life is data analysis". By the way, this phrase by Eleanore that we don't tend to teach "to be" and "to live together" was really impressive and thought provoking. Thank you, the MOOC authors, for that. 

Modern education requires a huge amount of money for e-learning platforms, apps building personal learning paths and many others. Not all of the schools and universities within one country can cope with that, not to mention the third world economies. That is why the educational gap between wealthy and financially deprived learners as well as rich and poor countries is going to increase. I hope that those students from the low-income families who wish to acquire simple manual professions won’t suffer because of that and will find a school for their purposes.