“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. “
- William Arthur Ward -
- William Arthur Ward -
Today I followed a Mini Hearing on “Innovation - Transforming Europe for a post-crisis world”. It was so interesting that I was thrilled and fascinated through the whole hearing up till now. Yesterday I took part in a seminar called “E-Learning - The Grand Challenges”. I noticed one thing. There seems to be a common trend of wanting to change the education system throughout the whole system, from primary schools until universities and adult learning.
I came myself to realize why I have had a feeling of anxiety when dealing with matters of primary school education, secondary education and university education. I have for a couple of years wondered why it is that way. Now I understand it. I am myself a very innovative person and I like to experience new things, most often want a change after a short while, and I like to try new ways of doing things. To create new ways of thinking and doing. The thing with the Finnish education system, which seems to be common throughout Europe, is that it is very old fashioned. I can see now after attending the seminar yesterday on E-learning and following today the Mini Hearing on Innovation, that the main “problem” for Europe and the reason for why it is lagging behind in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship (according to a release by the Commission last week), is the conservative ways of teaching in schools, as well as in universities. The education system is “old school”, so to speak.
The foundations of most universities were based in the 19th - 20th century, or even before. Finland’s first university, for instance, was founded in 1640. The national legislation has of course been updated, but the academia is still following very conservative protocol with the focus on authority and power, which is part of the “old world”. We live now in a “new world” that needs to be updated from old formulae, to be able to follow the fast changing circumstances and trends globally, if we want to maintain a high standard on research and education.
The seminar on E-learning focused primarily on primary and secondary education, while the Innovation Mini Hearing focused primarily on Universities and research within universities along with innovation. Still, two different stages of the same area are facing the same problem: there is a need for change, for renewal, for remodeling. The thing that today’s youth face in schools from their teachers is blocked energy and teachers of pretence, overly out-acted authority and patronizing, while the need for new ways of teaching, including the free flow of creativity within the teaching, is coming through one way or another. Many young people have mental disorders, and I believe that a huge part of that is due to lack of being able to use creativity freely and the lack of respect for individuality. In schools and within the academic fields, people are taught to be and act in a certain way. That most definitely is not creating foundations for innovative culture or respecting individuality. It is a widespread and common scheme for manufacturing robots.
The main focus in the future will be that the teachers and professors themselves need to become the learners again. There is a need for huge remodeling of the foundations of the education systems. It is not enough to change a few rules within the academic or educational system, but there is a need for founding think-tanks with people who can think outside the box, who see the core problems and the blocks, and who also have the innovative sight of how to change the core foundation. Then there is a need for political people who are courageous and strong enough to put forth the change of the mainstream way of thinking overall. Then we need the people, who also are able to think outside the box, who are able to teach forward the “new way of thinking”, so that future teachers AND learners will understand it. Forget all those old papa’s who have worked within the education or academic field for approximately 50 years and who only see the world in a narrow minded, conservative way, to ask for opinions on the renewal. Though, knowing the basics is a necessity to create something new.
I came myself to realize why I have had a feeling of anxiety when dealing with matters of primary school education, secondary education and university education. I have for a couple of years wondered why it is that way. Now I understand it. I am myself a very innovative person and I like to experience new things, most often want a change after a short while, and I like to try new ways of doing things. To create new ways of thinking and doing. The thing with the Finnish education system, which seems to be common throughout Europe, is that it is very old fashioned. I can see now after attending the seminar yesterday on E-learning and following today the Mini Hearing on Innovation, that the main “problem” for Europe and the reason for why it is lagging behind in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship (according to a release by the Commission last week), is the conservative ways of teaching in schools, as well as in universities. The education system is “old school”, so to speak.
The foundations of most universities were based in the 19th - 20th century, or even before. Finland’s first university, for instance, was founded in 1640. The national legislation has of course been updated, but the academia is still following very conservative protocol with the focus on authority and power, which is part of the “old world”. We live now in a “new world” that needs to be updated from old formulae, to be able to follow the fast changing circumstances and trends globally, if we want to maintain a high standard on research and education.
The seminar on E-learning focused primarily on primary and secondary education, while the Innovation Mini Hearing focused primarily on Universities and research within universities along with innovation. Still, two different stages of the same area are facing the same problem: there is a need for change, for renewal, for remodeling. The thing that today’s youth face in schools from their teachers is blocked energy and teachers of pretence, overly out-acted authority and patronizing, while the need for new ways of teaching, including the free flow of creativity within the teaching, is coming through one way or another. Many young people have mental disorders, and I believe that a huge part of that is due to lack of being able to use creativity freely and the lack of respect for individuality. In schools and within the academic fields, people are taught to be and act in a certain way. That most definitely is not creating foundations for innovative culture or respecting individuality. It is a widespread and common scheme for manufacturing robots.
The main focus in the future will be that the teachers and professors themselves need to become the learners again. There is a need for huge remodeling of the foundations of the education systems. It is not enough to change a few rules within the academic or educational system, but there is a need for founding think-tanks with people who can think outside the box, who see the core problems and the blocks, and who also have the innovative sight of how to change the core foundation. Then there is a need for political people who are courageous and strong enough to put forth the change of the mainstream way of thinking overall. Then we need the people, who also are able to think outside the box, who are able to teach forward the “new way of thinking”, so that future teachers AND learners will understand it. Forget all those old papa’s who have worked within the education or academic field for approximately 50 years and who only see the world in a narrow minded, conservative way, to ask for opinions on the renewal. Though, knowing the basics is a necessity to create something new.
Summa summarum: teachers are to be the new learners in the future. In fact, the teachers are actually always the huger learners.
“When you teach your son, you teach your son's son.“ - The Talmud -
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