http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/nov/14/michael-gove-backs-learning-by-rote
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| The British Ministry of Education Secretary Michael Gove Source: The Guardian |
By Alex Colombos, CRC, MA, MPS, MA Ed
NYS Certified Social Studies & Greek Teacher (7-12)
CRCC Certified Counselor
Having finished high school in Greece, I come from a school culture that is pretty similar to what Gove describes as "the key to success"... Although I can get homesick from time to time, I can’t say I miss the rigors of being a student in Greece. On the contrary, I feel very lucky to have attended college in the US and not Europe.
What Gove proposes as a key to the future is actually a very old and rather unsuccessful recipe. Exams in Greece are as tough as anywhere else in the world, and memorization is mandatory. In fact, there is such an emphasis on facts and details –often immaterial – that many students (including myself) find the learning process tedious and sometimes ridiculously excessive. For the average Greek adolescent, life is completely absorbed by countless of hours studying, and attending expensive learning centers. It seems as if all your dreams, talks, activities, thoughts, and feelings are geared toward one single event – the national Greek college entrance examinations. The psychosocial impact on those young souls and their families is often quite detrimental due to the pressure. The effects of the Greek government's educational policy failures have only been countered by private tutoring centers that exist in every neighborhood, even in remotest of areas, though the perennially worsening economic crisis plagues the country.
A teacher-centered memorization-based approach hinders creativity and self-expression. Usually, not only does it not motivate students, but it even discourages them. It's important to be given the opportunity to find your real self and know exactly where you exactly stand. More often than not, students who are (mis)labeled by the system end up discovering hidden talents and abilities that neither they nor their parents or teachers were previously aware of. Yes, competitive exams, some memorization, learning facts with both low and high-level questions, and a combination of both factual and conceptional learning are definitely needed. Neither Gove's traditionalist/authoritarian extreme nor ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg's business-centered/neo-liberal extreme are good.
Self-expression and creativity are more emphasized and far better facilitated here in the US as opposed to Europe. However, things are not rosy here either. Michael Bloomberg's Social Darwinist business-orientated approach is responsible for the downfall of NYC schools. Emphasis on quantity over quality and productivity statistics compromises quality of learning and teaching. Besides, standards and procedures of generating those productivity statistics raise some uncomfortable realizations and concerns on how a teacher's productivity, school's success, and student's progress are measured and quantified, as well as how they are presented to the public. "Productivity," in the business sense, does not work in education and it can be very inhumane for everyone involved. Also, prescriptivist attitudes of administrators toward curriculum and instruction with a strong tendency to standardize everything in education leads to "cookie-cutter" practices that are mechanistic, often very oppressive, and counter-productive for both students and teachers. Exclusive or excessive use of collaborative learning leads to poor classroom management with very little learning. This system transforms the teacher into an instrument of bureaucracy, an impersonal clerk, and a mere "facilitator," instead of a real teacher. It is an unrealistic ultra-liberal theory based on economics and business practices that never flies in the real classroom. It is a complete failure both in terms of academic rigor and classroom management with a catastrophic impact on society.
There is no magic recipe for a successful model of education. Certainly, overcomplicating matters won’t help. Like the old saying goes, "the best solution is the simplest." Giving a second chance to students is far more important than spoon feeding them mere knowledge and coaching them to ace their exams the way you train a dog for the circus in order to show it off. A variety of methods and approaches should be utilized, based on the standards and the agenda of the day's lesson, the needs of the particular class, and each individual student's own needs, abilities, and learning style.
There is no magic recipe for a successful model of education. Certainly, overcomplicating matters won’t help. Like the old saying goes, "the best solution is the simplest." Giving a second chance to students is far more important than spoon feeding them mere knowledge and coaching them to ace their exams the way you train a dog for the circus in order to show it off. A variety of methods and approaches should be utilized, based on the standards and the agenda of the day's lesson, the needs of the particular class, and each individual student's own needs, abilities, and learning style.
