Previously I wrote about this great science book, which also has a chapter on education, which you can say is kind of my thing. One of the interviews, with prof. dr. Van der Werf, by the same guy who interviewed me, Edo Beerda, should be read by the government, everyone who’s a teacher, goes to school, or is in any other way involved or interested in education.
Prof. dr. Van der Werf is my new idol. She thinks that the ongoing renewals of our education views are the cause of decreasing performances. And in education it indeed seems like every day someone stands up to say they know better. Does this make us dumber? Is what the title of the article asks. I certainly think that could well be the case and I’ve been rebelling against the mainstream thought that “new is good” per definition, since I was a trainee teacher. How wonderful someone smart stood up and formulated the problem in a way I couldn’t back then.
The well accepted current vision on good education is that students (of all ages) should find knowledge on their own. A teacher in front of the classroom teaching important facts is literally ‘old school’. They should guide their class in getting knowledge themselves. It seemed to work in the USA so let’s do it too, is what the government in the Netherlands thought a few years ago.
As a student myself I had trouble finding my way in that system of ‘finding your own way’. Not because I wasn’t motivated or independent enough, on the contrary, but because there was a great lack of clarity on what was expected of me. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe kids should be taught to be proactive and are responsible for their own learning process too. But I think we’ve gone a little too far in it, by not setting some proper standards. You don’t help them by letting them decide what they want to learn solely.
For example, in my first year I, and in fact almost everyone in my class, got to hear our skills to reflect on our own abilities as a teacher were insufficient. Which was true in a way, but not for the reasons they gave us. Their ‘obvious’ conclusion was that we weren’t critical enough. My response to that was asking my mentor what cake she’d like me to bake. Thing is, by never telling me which ingredients would make a good teacher, I couldn’t reflect on if I met the standards. If she had told me whether she wanted a carrot cake or a chocolate one, I would’ve gone and found a recipe myself. She liked the metaphor, but never gave an answer.
Luckily, because I’m critical and inquisitive, I think I’ve become a nice cake, but apparently this is how a lot of pupils generally feel under the lack of structure: left alone in the dark. Van der Werf thinks there should be more research to the effects of the new vision, before we go and try some more new things on our kids. And even though my own experiences already taught me it doesn’t work, in a way I think it’s shocking there never were proper investigations!
Being against the new views means I sometimes get mistaken for being conservative, which is absolutely ridiculous. I’m not being rebellious for the sake of it and I think the worst argument for doing what you do is “because we always did it like this”. That is not ever a reason! You should look critically at a situation and review why you’re still doing what you do and if it’s still working, not walk along with the herd. And (another open door which apparently needs to be kicked at) of course it’s not bad to try new things with the intention to improve, but how can that happen if you never monitor those results too?!
I think that lack of a critical view led us to have a lot of ‘Google-assistants’ instead of proper teachers. I don’t believe that the ‘internet generation’ doesn’t want to listen to a teacher anymore. If it’s an inspiring one, who does his job well. So I’ve copied the article and left it at a few schools, including my own old university. It should be read.
4 Comments
We don’t need no education.
We don’t need no thought-control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
HEY! Teacher! Leaves us kids alone!
I Agree! Kids need structure and guidance, Why don’t they see this when they are 18 years old!
Thanks Thornius & Henny. Also thanks to everyone responding to this article by mail or elsewhere, very nice to hear other people’s opinion on it. I’d also be interested in comments (here) about other countries’ education systems…
a lot of stuff to think about….