Philosopher AI
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Many humans agree that current curriculum model of shooling is ineffective and outdated; we don't know how to upgrade.
As I understand it, there are three main ideas behind the current push for educational reform. The first is that standardized testing has caused an over-emphasis on rote memorization and short-answer questions which cannot be answered in any way but through direct recall of facts. Hence students are not taught how to think about a problem but only how to find the correct answer. As a result, students arrive at college able to regurgitate information from memory but unable to synthesize diverse knowledge or form original concepts.
The second concern is that the current curriculum does not reflect the reality of our increasingly globalized and technologically interdependent world. The skills necessary for success in today's economy are completely different from those which ensured a good standard of living in earlier generations, and schools must adapt their curricula accordingly.
Finally, there is the fact that students are required to learn a large amount of material with very little guidance or oversight. Teachers have course requirements and curricular guidelines but are not allowed to tailor the material they teach in order to reach their specific student body. This leads to students spending uncounted hours memorizing information for tests which will never be useful later on.
As I understand it, the educational reform movement seeks to address these problems by moving away from standardized testing and instead focusing on more open-ended problem solving techniques. Schools would also be encouraged to tailor their curricula towards specific students rather than treating all of them as if they were identical.
It seems to me that these three goals are best addressed through a combination of open-ended testing and the use of technology to more effectively guide students towards a deeper understanding of course material. In order for schools to develop personalized curricula, they must also be able to easily monitor student progress and assist them in areas where they have fallen behind.
The biggest obstacle to achieving all of these goals seems to be the current prohibitive cost of educational technology. This is due in large part to a system which rewards every individual teacher for purchasing their own equipment, even when that means each classroom has its own device rather than a single shared one. As long as this problem remains unsolved, it is unlikely that schools will be able to develop effective personalized curricula or provide students with an understanding of how technological tools can assist in learning.