Blog Post 14

What can we learn from "Changing Education Paradigms"?

The TEDTalk video I chose I watch was "Changing Education Paradigms" by Sir Ken Robinson. To make this decision, I clicked on each of the videos and read the description for each one. Although there were many interesting TedTalk videos to choose from, I chose this video because it mentioned an intriguing link between drop-out rates, lack of arts in the classroom, and ADHD. I knew relatively nothing about this link so I thought I would be able to learn more from this video.

In the video, Robinson connects three issues currently facing the classroom: 1) lack of student motivation to attend school, 2) less creativity in classroom work, and 3) the scare of rising ADHD percentages. Robinson looks back to the beginnings of modern education during the Enlightenment into the twentieth century and claims that public education hasn't changed much since then. He aligns the "factory atmosphere" of school to Industrialization. Since we are no longer in the Industrialization period, it does not make sense to expect students to like sit still and like school. Animation runs through the entire video to illustrate Robinson's key points.

While the video did not give specific strategies for teachers to use, I was inspired by different ideas in the video. Robinson says we need to turn away from the factory-like school and go in the "opposite" direction. This means that we as teachers need to base our lessons and methods of instruction off of our students' needs and not our expectations. Robinson also says that a school's culture plays an important role. I will try to make my classroom a place where students feel safe and welcome. I will also encourage my students to expand their creativity and will integrate arts into the classroom through Readers Theatre and other resources.

Another discussion that stuck out to me was the idea of divergent thinking Robinson discusses. While 98% of the kindergartners are considered geniuses at divergent thinking, this percentage decreases rapidly as children grow older (and become more "educated"). Obviously, this needs to change and we as teachers should foster this divergent thinking into our classrooms. When I was in elementary school I was able to be a part of a really good gifted education program. We did all kinds of interesting projects and activities (which ranged from detective mysteries to mummifying chickens) and it was often my favorite part of the week. However, I wish to implement these kinds of projects in my classroom to all of my students. If we want to raise our expectations of students, we must be able to encourage and motivate them in the right ways.