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> The developing countries could in theory learn from our mistakes and train their educators to use better teaching methods while skipping most of the trial and

by shas3 11y ago

> The developing countries could in theory learn from our mistakes and train their educators to use better teaching methods while skipping most of the trial and error. Are you suggesting that there aren't people in developing countries who know about these mistakes?! It is not a trial-and-error evolution that's going on. There are systemic problems that prevent the implementation of education best practices. It is more a case of steering a huge ship [1] than ignorance about 'best practices.' Some of these systemic problems were never present in the developed world to learn from, in the first place. Honestly, the trivially easiest part is 'learning from the developed world's mistakes'. The real problem is in fixing systemic issues. It is funny to see commenters on online-forums swooping in with simplistic solutions. There are respectable and rigorous, evidence-driven efforts to address problems in education [2]. Guess what? It's a hard problem. [1] J. Dreze, A. Sen, "Putting Growth in its Place," http://www.outlookindia.com/article/putting-growth-in-its-place/278843 http://www.outlookindia.com/article/putting-growth-in-its-pl... [2] Annual State of Education Report: http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/ASER%202014/National%20PPTs/aser2014indiaenglish.pdf http://img.asercentre.org/docs/Publications/ASER%20Reports/A...

vanderZwan 11y ago
> Are you suggesting that there aren't people in developing countries who know about these mistakes?! Given your use of interrobang I guess you are offended by my earlier post, but I think you are reading something between the lines that I did not write. You're citing an article that rails against "growth-mediated development" which has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about, other than "are there economic means available to re-educate our teachers", which is also not something I'm talking about. I'm talking about how teachers teach. Your second source comes closer to this point but is more focused on the goals than the means. I'm probably biased, being an educator myself who spends a lot of time trying to come up with better ways of teaching my classes, but how you are being taught is just as important as how long. And a lot of that depends on the ideas teachers have about how education works. We know a lot more know about how the mind learns than we did a hundred years ago, and what makes a good educator. For example, the need to be unconditionally respectful [0]. I'm not "suggesting that there aren't people in developing countries who know about these mistakes", I'm sharing my own observation that the majority of teachers I met in Ghana follow a model of how to educate children that is a century out of date. So I'll just cite my finishing sentence again, emphasizing the delimiting part that you seem to have missed the first time: > So in that sense I expect them to be able to catch up much quicker. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvgbvtxYRX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvgbvtxYRX4

by shas3 11y ago

vanderZwan 11y ago

> Are you suggesting that there aren't people in developing countries who know about these mistakes?! Given your use of interrobang I guess you are offended by my earlier post, but I think you are reading something between the lines that I did not write. You're citing an article that rails against "growth-mediated development" which has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm talking about, other than "are there economic means available to re-educate our teachers", which is also not something I'm talking about. I'm talking about how teachers teach. Your second source comes closer to this point but is more focused on the goals than the means. I'm probably biased, being an educator myself who spends a lot of time trying to come up with better ways of teaching my classes, but how you are being taught is just as important as how long. And a lot of that depends on the ideas teachers have about how education works. We know a lot more know about how the mind learns than we did a hundred years ago, and what makes a good educator. For example, the need to be unconditionally respectful [0]. I'm not "suggesting that there aren't people in developing countries who know about these mistakes", I'm sharing my own observation that the majority of teachers I met in Ghana follow a model of how to educate children that is a century out of date. So I'll just cite my finishing sentence again, emphasizing the delimiting part that you seem to have missed the first time: > So in that sense I expect them to be able to catch up much quicker. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvgbvtxYRX4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvgbvtxYRX4