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How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

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Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#51
Freedom in learning is so, so important. This case study illuminates that pretty well. It's a great look into an example of allowing children to truly learn at their own pace, with gentle guidance regarding subject areas and provided with the resources they need to discover new knowledge. The story is heartwarming and a great read, and a useful comparison to the modern American style of education.

As others have pointed out, there is no magic bullet. This method would work incredibly well for 90% of subjects taught in elementary school. However, for non-English language learning, additional guidance would be needed - the teachers could nudge them towards Duolingo, various online multilingual dictionaries, etc. I do believe that this system could be used as the core of a new teaching paradigm, but it is not solely sufficient for a complete learning experience to the standards that we have come to expect in America.

For developing countries (which, sadly, Mexico bears much resemblance to), this could be an incredible tool. An internet-connected computer and guidance from involved teachers can easily produce students who are ready to help lift their countries out of economic malaise. In this way, I believe the internet can serve as the Great Equalizer many of us hoped it would someday become. If this method used alone is capable of producing students 70% as capable (by some nonexistent perfect metric) as those in first-world nations, that would still be an enormous leap forward for developing nations. I think these guys are really on to something in this regard.

I find it interesting that as our civilizations mature, we find ourselves oscillating back away from the industrialized American education system paradigms and towards a more holistic, broadly-focused educational strategy using qualitative methods rather than quantitative objectives. Students are not a homogeneous population, and historically we have tried to deal with this issue by ignoring it and cramming them all into the same mold, with minor variations. It makes me glad to see that we are starting to consider that we should instead allow for this variance by designing systems with broader definitions and qualitative goals, to allow the students to grow in the directions they are best suited or disposed to.

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#52

let's have some dissenting opinion here. not all kids are equal. not all kids want to learn. in each and every discussion over this topic people bring up quotes by very smart people, like kubrick, sagan, etc. on how organised learning is not needed, a young mind wants to learn, grows like a flower, all by itself, even better without the shackles of structured education. i call bullshit. this is biased through the peo…

In the Article: "The previous year, 45 percent had essentially failed the math section, and 31 percent had failed Spanish. This time only 7 percent failed math and 3.5 percent failed Spanish. And while none had posted an Excellent score before, 63 percent were now in that category in math.

The language scores were very high. Even the lowest was well above the national average. Then he noticed the math scores. The top score in Juárez Correa’s class was 921. Zavala Hernandez looked over at the top score in the state: It was 921. When he saw the next box over, the hairs on his arms stood up. The top score in the entire country was also 921."

Granted, it's a fairly limited sample, but it's a sample that shows incredible results as well. Based on this classroom of children, that came from circumstances as far away from privilege as possible, the scores shifted from: 45% Math failure -> 7% Math Failure 31% Spanish failure -> 3.5% Spanish Failure

I don't think you're giving the majority of children/humans enough credit for their potential.

To counter argue myself, there clearly wasn't a 0% failure rate. And while 7% is somewhat low, there is a high probability that some of the children in the class were close to failing with others a little better than that and so on.

Why can't we have an education system that does both? Why not have open ended classrooms that let kids learn at their own pace with personal tutor's to help kids that aren't thriving in that situation.

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#53
post #45

let's have some dissenting opinion here. not all kids are equal. not all kids want to learn. in each and every discussion over this topic people bring up quotes by very smart people, like kubrick, sagan, etc. on how organised learning is not needed, a young mind wants to learn, grows like a flower, all by itself, even better without the shackles of structured education. i call bullshit. this is biased through the peo…

In fairness, the article is entitled, "How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses" It doesn't say something like, "How a Radical New Teaching Method Will Make All Children Geniuses". Personally, I think that your dissenting opinion (and its bag of implications) fosters mediocrity in education that hurts the kids on the lower end of the learning curve almost as much as it hurts the kids o…

i am all for identifying outliers (both on the upper and lower end of the spectrum) and getting them out of the regular system.

you're a genius? off to genius school. you're just not capable of keeping up with the progress of the class? off to special ed, where the pace is better for you.

different countries approach these things differently, but identifying high and low potentials is proving to be really hard as the symptoms sometimes overlap (boredom).

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#54
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what YouTube and Netflix documentaries are for. My kids love them and they give you a break from coming up with all the answers. :)

Don't forget PBS. Lacking cable growing up I pretty much watched nothing but PBS and a few Saturday morning cartoons. I think that worked out pretty well :).

We pitched the TV figuring it would remove our temptation to be lazy and disengaged. We generally reserve computer time for supporting foreign language acquisition. (I feel like I'm rapidly turning into one of THOSE parents)

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#55
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. But it is VERY hard to encourage the enthusiasm of a 4 year old who asks "Why?" 600 times a day. :-)

Asking "Why?" 400 times a day is enthusiasm. The problem is getting them to be self-sufficient and find answers by themselves.

It's tough when they're 4. They can read a little, but too young for Google. And I'm afraid of some of the unfiltered answers. :-)

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#56
post #46
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, so nice to see a refreshing attitude here on HN. You nailed the arrogance of SV types. Not everything can be improved with technology, just look at these massive failures in disrupting education : Coursera, Edx, Udacity. I, too, hope that engineers will just step away from education. /s

Khan Academy? "Today, there have been 85 million users to date. Each month, there are 6 million unique users on the Khan Academy site. In total, there have been 260 million lessons delivered and over 1 billion problems answered on the related exercises." http://jpalfrey.andover.edu/2013/05/09/khan-academy-meets-ph...

I guess the sarcasm tag should have been more obvious :D

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#57

let's have some dissenting opinion here. not all kids are equal. not all kids want to learn. in each and every discussion over this topic people bring up quotes by very smart people, like kubrick, sagan, etc. on how organised learning is not needed, a young mind wants to learn, grows like a flower, all by itself, even better without the shackles of structured education. i call bullshit. this is biased through the peo…

In the Article: "The previous year, 45 percent had essentially failed the math section, and 31 percent had failed Spanish. This time only 7 percent failed math and 3.5 percent failed Spanish. And while none had posted an Excellent score before, 63 percent were now in that category in math. The language scores were very high. Even the lowest was well above the national average. Then he noticed the math scores. The top…

> The top score in Juárez Correa’s class was 921. [...] The top score in the entire country was also 921.

> Ten got math scores that placed them in the 99.99th percentile.

These facts are fishy. These standardized tests are usually pretty easy and have a high number of perfect scores.

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#58
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Article: "The previous year, 45 percent had essentially failed the math section, and 31 percent had failed Spanish. This time only 7 percent failed math and 3.5 percent failed Spanish. And while none had posted an Excellent score before, 63 percent were now in that category in math. The language scores were very high. Even the lowest was well above the national average. Then he noticed the math scores. The top…

> The top score in Juárez Correa’s class was 921. [...] The top score in the entire country was also 921. > Ten got math scores that placed them in the 99.99th percentile. These facts are fishy. These standardized tests are usually pretty easy and have a high number of perfect scores.

Before they were failing these easy tests, these numbers show a marked improvement.

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#59

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” ― Stanley Kubrick

Sophomore year of high school, in a Computer Programming course with a math teacher, a set curriculum, and specific grading rubrics mandating building to a specific set of guidelines, we built at best ANSI-blocked windows with titles to prompt the user for their name and maybe a dice roll.

Junior year in an independent study, with access to teachers but without worry for grades or blueprints, I built a robotic plotter/scanner with a PHP-based interface down to a C++ serial library from somewhere in the Linux kernel code.

I didn't get that much smarter in a year. The difference there was between a typical US public school and a progressive (albeit still public) free-thinking magnet school.

It's felt like the presumption was always that you could give the smart kids more freedom and they'd find more ways to grow. But this article has me thinking that's backwards: better to give everyone* that freedom and let them all grow.

*special education and dealing with particular learning disabilities being separate and not dealt with in this wholly unqualified opinion.

Re: How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

#60

let's have some dissenting opinion here. not all kids are equal. not all kids want to learn. in each and every discussion over this topic people bring up quotes by very smart people, like kubrick, sagan, etc. on how organised learning is not needed, a young mind wants to learn, grows like a flower, all by itself, even better without the shackles of structured education. i call bullshit. this is biased through the peo…

Young children that don't ask a boatload of questions seems to be the exception. It seems to be that the youngest children with language-ability are the most curious, curiously so young that they probably haven't started school yet...
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