Improving the current education system?

byhookorbycrook

RIRI wrote: »

A big improvement would be for the schools to open for the whole of the school term.
Aparently we already have the shortest school year in europe.

http://www.euphrosyna.net/?p=60

"However, the amount of contact hours – i.e. time spent teaching the children – exceeds EU at both primary and secondary level. At primary level, we have 915 contact hours per year. The EU average is 806 hours per year. At secondary level, we have 735 contact hours. The EU average is 672 hours. The issue with Irish education is not a lack of teaching time."

#15

RIRI wrote: »

A big improvement would be for the schools to open for the whole of the school term.
Aparently we already have the shortest school year in europe.

That's a myth. The only European nation with a longer (primary) school year is the Netherlands

implausible

bluecatmorgana wrote: »

I also believe that the internet is a great way to give the student a choice in what topics he/she wants to learn. It could be a great way to encourage independent learning. Just think of it, anytime you want to know about a subject you just google it and up it comes.

bluecatmorgana wrote: »

I think everyone should learn to type from age 5, actually as soon as they can write their name they should be able to type it too.

Also as a student studying in her second year, if we could teach from 12 years how to find references on the internet and how to find new ideas.

Some good ideas here, but you are making the assumption that all students have access to a computer and/or the internet. This is not true. As a teacher in a DEIS school, I cannot give work that requires using a computer unless there's a week to return it. This problem is compounded by the small numbers of computers in schools, access to them and the lack of technicians on site.

Another aside to the use of technology: using new technology has a novelty factor for students, but this can soon wear off. My 15 year old lads are just as bored by the poem I displayed using the data projector as they are by the one printed on the page; their interest may be temporarily piqued by the youtube video and powerpoint slides I use to give background information, but at the end of the day, the content of the curriculum is the same. A few years ago, a colleague recently put all of his work onto powerpoint in order to motivate his business class and for a few classes, they were eager to pay attention. However, they soon realised that the same amount of work had to be done. My colleague stopped using it, when he realised that there was no improvement in the students' retention.

My point is that yes, technology is useful in schools and vital in everyday life, but it's no magic bullet.

Chuchoter

I think the whole data projector thing is way overrated. My biology teacher is always giving us stuff on it. They're fun for like a minute but they are way slower than just reading from the book. Same with all these online resources, they are never hard enough to be useful for the actual exam.

bluecatmorgana

deemark wrote: »

Some good ideas here, but you are making the assumption that all students have access to a computer and/or the internet. This is not true. As a teacher in a DEIS school, I cannot give work that requires using a computer unless there's a week to return it. This problem is compounded by the small numbers of computers in schools, access to them and the lack of technicians on site.

Another aside to the use of technology: using new technology has a novelty factor for students, but this can soon wear off. My 15 year old lads are just as bored by the poem I displayed using the data projector as they are by the one printed on the page; their interest may be temporarily piqued by the youtube video and powerpoint slides I use to give background information, but at the end of the day, the content of the curriculum is the same. A few years ago, a colleague recently put all of his work onto powerpoint in order to motivate his business class and for a few classes, they were eager to pay attention. However, they soon realised that the same amount of work had to be done. My colleague stopped using it, when he realised that there was no improvement in the students' retention.

My point is that yes, technology is useful in schools and vital in everyday life, but it's no magic bullet.

Sorry for the assumption, I'm just so used to everyone around me using the internet all the time.

To be honest I don't believe technology is a magic bullet. When it comes down to it though it can just be that the curriculum sucks. Take poetry for example, learning to dissect a poem's meaning can just kill any love of poetry. I had a teacher who used to say to us imagine someone you are totally into wrote you a love poem, imagine how important that bit of paper would be to you. It has to matter to the student to be important or to connect with them, and certainly when I did my junior/leaving there were very few that did.
One good thing was the use of songs as poems. I seem to remember that an unseen poem on the junior cert was I am a rock by simon and garfunkel. So full of meaning, one of my favourite simon and garfunkel songs. If you were to take Blowing in the wind by bob dylan and use that as poetry it would be so meaningful to lots of students and much easily to learn as it is to music.