A catch up on education reform

The American education system is in crisis. Faculty downsizing across all levels and piling student debts that jobless graduates are unable to repay have called for more aggressive reforms to the educational structure. However, when talks about the nation’s policies took place earlier this year, the solutions suggested to clarify the sector’s bleak future were a little less assuring than hoped for.

Image source: 141plus.files.wordpress.com

Rather than recommend ways on how educational facilities could meet the demand for more teachers or better standards, the government simply recommended that schools and colleges "narrow student choice." While a far cry from the tradition of encouraging the nation’s young minds to explore new and alternative ideas, the suggestion is backed by the premise that students will be more likely to complete their university degree if they are already on track as soon as they start college.

Image source: Roosevelt School

Influential people in the education sector, the likes of Frank Biden, might agree to this proposal. Biden is a vocal advocate of alternative learning methods, particularly those that focus on developing individual strengths. His approach aligns with the recommendation’s philosophy that students ought to focus on preparing for their careers early in their education rather than garner superficial experience in various fields as a contingency for all possible courses before they finally select their major.

Image source: Boston.com

Other policy changes included making it mandatory for schools to provide equal access to extracurricular athletic activities to students with disabilities. In this way, all students would have the opportunity to learn about “discipline, selflessness, passion, and courage” through sports.

More information about the developments in America’s education system can be found on this website.

Educating the youth on crucial factors to success

The future faced by today’s youth is filled with high technology, which makes it complex and extremely fast-paced. The current education system—with its emphasis on academic aspects—may prove inadequate as a means to help students keep up with the quickly changing trends and demands of the times. Hence, focus has shifted toward “noncognitive” factors as a crucial component of the formula for success in the 21st century.

Image Credit: teachildmath.com

Noncognitive factors, as defined by the US Department of Education (ED), are independent of an individual’s intellectual capacity. They include attitudes, attributes, dispositions, social skills, and other intrapersonal resources. Giving more emphasis on these aspects means that formal education would incorporate character building into the almost entirely academic model followed today.

In a study entitled Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World, the ED’s Office of Educational Technology analyzed the relevance of a set of noncognitive factors: grit, perseverance, and tenacity. The paper explained that these traits will play a significant role in helping a student enhance his or her capacity to withstand the challenges of higher education while keeping focused on the proper goals. These characteristics will also work with technical knowledge in the development of an individual who is equipped with both the know-how and the attitude of a potential success.

Image Source: photobucket.com/user/stantonchase

The main impediments to incorporating noncognitive factors to formal education programs include the means to measure them quantitatively and objectively and the methods to impart them to students. But with the continued research on the matter, there is little doubt that concrete methodologies will soon be created to solve these concerns.

In spite of the degree by which formal education has developed, academic knowledge is often hardly enough in today’s world. The inclusion of noncognitive factors in formal curriculums is a good step to initiating holistic learning that will ultimately help foster individuals who are well-equipped with the capacity to adapt and succeed.

Image Source: sunrisestudent.com

Frank Biden is an advocate of alternative methods of learning that focus on an individual’s capabilities. More information about him is available on this Twitter page.

On homework: How to make sure kids do them

Image source: eduguide.org

Homework -- many adults must have hated them as children, but it is actually good for kids. Homework is given for many reasons, primarily as a means of extending a child’s learning space beyond the walls of the classroom. It also enhances a child’s time management and study skills. The US Department of Education’s official blog shares some tips on how to encourage your kids to do their homework:

Set up a good study place
Ideally, this place must be quiet and void of any distraction. You must keep television, toys, or the computer away, unless they are needed for the assignment. Ensure that the place is well lit.

Set a good example
Your child tends to imitate what you do. As your child is focusing on the homework, do something similar like reading a novel while your child completes her reading assignment.


Image source: sri.com

Teach time management
Be sure to schedule a “homework time” and teach your child to become more responsible about deadlines.

Teach independence
Do not spoon-feed your child with answers. Let your child work alone, but provide help when it is needed.

Teach your child how to tackle a challenge
Teach your child to recognize which questions are hard and which are easy. Have him or her do the hard ones first and save the easy ones for later.

Homework is not given to children for nothing. It helps develop certain skills, and presents an opportunity for you to be involved and to determine how much progress your child is making in school. It gives you time to bond, too.


Image source: antibullyingprograms.org

Frank Biden is an advocate for alternative methods of education that focus on learning. This Facebook page offers more updates on the education sector.

Realizing the true purpose of schools

For many professionals who are involved in the education sector, there exists a glaring error that needs to be remedied as soon as possible. The American education system, some education experts argue, has deviated from the path that it should be taking. It now exists as something that prepares students to be workers instead of encouraging them to be lifelong learners and productive members of a democratic community.


Nikhil Goyal, a student and the author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student's Assessment of School, argues that in spite of all the discussions on educational reform, the people involved often overlook one of the most obvious questions that need to be answered: What is the purpose of schools? And only after arriving at an answer to this question should education experts then try to define what good education is.

Image source: slowdownfast.com

The problem with the current attitudes toward education is that far too many people place an emphasis on the importance of good grades and of performance in class. It seems that many educators of today have chosen to place less importance on qualities such as creativity, curiosity, and the inclination for exploration and innovation. Many just aim to teach students to be better at remembering information, following instructions, and conforming to the rules and to traditions.

Image source: blogs.e-rockford.com

It seems now, that there is much that needs to be changed both within the learning institutions and the nation that supports and is supported by the development of the education sector. When the nation learns to encourage young students to be lifelong learners, then it takes one step toward the realization of the true purpose of education and schooling.

Image source: blogs.learnnowonline.com

Frank Biden is involved in Mavericks High, an educational institution that provides alternative learning programs for at-risk and dropout students.

Making education matter: Taking cue from the students' interests and circumstances

Sometimes, educators need to cut back on their use of traditional learning methods and take a look at the situations and the interests of their students to find novel ways to make learning more enjoyable and more relevant.

Image credit: onlineuniversities-weblog.com

Evidence of the importance of a change in approach can be found in the success of alternative learning institutions such as the Frank Biden-supported Mavericks High, which has schools designed to be simple, inviting, and reflective of a teen’s lifestyle, and the use of Skype in the classroom initiative, which grants teachers with a free and easy way to open up the classroom.

Image credit: maverickshigh.com

In many alternative learning institutions, students who found themselves hindered by traditional learning methods are given a unique opportunity to earn a state-recognized diploma in a school environment that matches their pace of learning instead of leaving them unable to catch up.

Meanwhile, through alternative learning opportunities that take technology that the students of today are used to seeing and using in their leisure time, educators can keep their students more engaged with the lesson. It also fosters the sense of curiosity that is inherently within young students, giving them the motivation to pursue topics related to what they have just learned.

Image credit: bestlehighvalleyrealtor.com

With educators who are able to take into account the students’ interests and their situations in and out of school, the students are able to focus on their studies better and are empowered to take charge of their own future.

More updates on alternative education may be found on this Facebook page.

New York Times: A Class Where Opening Minds, Not Earning Credits, Is the Point

Many see education simply as the way to earn credits that would lead to future employment.  Read this article by Tamar Lewin, posted in The New York Times' website, about education as it should be seen--a means to open minds.



Tuvan throat singing was never in my repertoire. I had never heard of Tuva, a small Russian republic north of Mongolia. And until the third week of “Listening to World Music,” a free online course taught by a University of Pennsylvania professor, I did not know that the human throat was capable of producing two notes simultaneously.

Related Virtual U.: College of Future Could Be Come One, Come All (November 20, 2012) But after listening to a lecture on Tuvan culture and history and viewing throat-singing videos, I was hooked on the sound — a deep buzz saw with high overtone whistles — and was happy to watch the assigned 90-minute concert by a touring Tuvan ensemble. I wrote the required essay that night, the Tuvan steppes still on my mind.

Three days later, I was given five essays by classmates to grade. (With 36,000 students enrolled, peer grading was the only practical way that Coursera, the company offering the course, could assess students’ work.) I had my doubts about the process, but to my surprise, the process was interesting and useful and taught me as much as the lectures did.

Some of the essays were remarkably good, especially the first one I read, from a classmate who tackled a question I had avoided, on the view of Arjun Appadurai, a sociocultural anthropologist, that modernity necessarily means rupture. (Not what I was expecting from a world music course.) The classmate described her family’s migration experience, and concluded: “Appadurai says modernity is rupture, but I say it’s rapture.” Enraptured myself, I gave her the top score, a 10.

My own first score? A 4. I did not even get full points for writing style. Humiliating, but by the time we hit Tuva, I was getting 10s.

Grades were not the point, though. The course offered no credit, just a certificate for students scoring 70 percent (“with distinction” for 80 percent) — not so useful, given the underwhelming demand for world music expertise.

 As in other free MOOCs (massive open online courses), most of those who enrolled dropped out. The 36,000 in my course dwindled to 3,859 by the final week. But those who stuck with it did form a kind of community. A few weeks in, one student linked to a tribute song (“I Turn to You, Coursera”) on YouTube from the online forum. A Japanese version soon followed.

The course had its flaws. I did not get much out of videos in which teaching assistants “modeled” how to discuss the music. The production values were pitiful, with the professor displaying photos too small to see of her gumboot dancing time in South Africa or gesticulating like an inexperienced weatherman trying to point to the correct area on a map. And I was very aware of the potential for cheating, a common objection to online learning.

The final — 100 multiple-choice questions mostly taken verbatim from quizzes embedded in the lecture videos — took about 25 minutes. But the allotted time was 90 minutes, giving anyone so inclined a solid hour to look up answers on Google. And after complaints on the discussion forum about computer glitches and schedule problems, everyone got a second, then third, chance to take the final.

Often, I wished for more music and less politically correct discussion of exploitation, ethical music sampling and authenticity. And when the professor asked whether the Buena Vista Social Club’s “museumification” of a past era of Cuban music advanced or impeded our understanding of Cuba under Fidel Castro, it was good that she was not there to hear me yell “Who cares?”

But on balance, the seven-week course was mind-opening, a door to a new ethnomusicology adventure each week: sounds of Central African pygmies, Australian aborigines or South African bushmen. And long after the course ended, I am still working — on the subway, in the shower — on producing that growly Tuvan sound.