Congratulations on the new refocusing.
As you mentioned,the topic is not completely new, but it was a clear undercurrent.
Looking forward to new topics, and thank you for the great effort to bring these topics to the common awareness.
Hi Fab, thanks for the clarity on the podcast future sounds great to me.
To continue the feedback discussion a few points:
I agree that there has not been an increase in students with challenging needs but there is now a requirement to address these needs which is where the complexity comes from. While this is a good thing unfortunately it has not come with adequate time or really training to support teachers. As for inclusive education vs special education that is a more complex topic that I will not go into (however some of your points are valid).
When I said the business of education I forgot to mention I teach in public school, however it is being run like a business with most of the top executive team have never been teachers
I think you are onto something Fab about the impact of technology. I also had a thought as you were discussing it. The during original point of this discussion you mentioned IIRC that a German misused the term Nazi in a way that a non German might but they should not. This made me think that the internet may infact make knowledge what ever the collective or your subgroup believes.
Not sure if I have explained this well
I think the topic education is certainly interesting. The internet most definitely has a big influence on the education. But as with most things there are two sides to the coin.
It means you have almost all the knowledge at your fingertips. But it also means that misinformation can be spread really easily.
Therefore the skills critical thinking and the ability to check sources for their credibility become increasingly important. However schools seem to be very slow in catching up to this development.
I also feel, that schools teach less and less skills that have use in everyday life. I think some years back there was a discussion (I believe it was in Germany) that high school students learn to analyse poems, but have no idea how insurances work, or something like that. And the example in the episode that the student didn’t know how to write a letter at least points in the same direction.
In the discussion the question was asked why we see a similar development in different systems. My idea is that a common development in a lot of systems is the following. In my opinion a lot more students (or their parents) believe, that you have to go to university after school. And I think a lot of education systems cater to that thinking. It feels to me that school today prepares the students more to pass tests, than to actually understand the topics that are being taught. This means that the curriculum is streamlined accordingly which leads to the same effect in different systems. Admittedly I did not research the numbers for this theory.
What is your opinion to that idea?
Sounds about right to me. In Russia, the common misconception of “everyone should get a university education” lead to noticeable devaluation of the said education.
In my country we had the same issue. It’s driven by a mix of social and economic pressures: Having a degree is a status symbol + [used to] increase the potential for employment and as a consequence, a better living standard.
This led to me knowing a lot of people that I went to school with getting a degree, and then getting a job that has nothing to do with the degree they spent all that money on.
That seems to happen a lot everywhere, doesn’t it?