Blog Post #13

Alison Gopnik: “What do babies think” by: Jamie Baxter

Alison Gonik is a psychologist and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She researched about how children learn at a young age. In her video “What do babies think”, she explains how the past 20 years scientist and psychologist have changed their views on how babies think. I do not agree with this because I think babies learn and think the same way they always have. The reason one might think they learn different is because there are more tools to teach children due to technology.

One thing Alison said that stood out to me was "Babies and young children are very bad at narrowing down to just one thing. But they are very good at taking in lots of information of lots of different sources at once." I think this is a very interesting thing and made me think. I agree that children can take in a lot more information at a young age. The older they get the harder it is for children to learn because their attention span narrows.

Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums- Colin Richard

“Education +Technology =Hope”, so sayest Charles Leadbeater. His statements are mainly for children in 3rd world countries, but there are a few things I believe could be used in any educational environment.

One would be “radical” thinking. When it comes to anything that is not working well, it is stupid to continue and hope for the best. Our overall system here, especially in poverty ridden areas, need a different strategy. However, maybe the most radical of all thoughts would be emphasising teachers as the way forward. Making sure that teachers in lower class schools get a much higher pay raise would be high incentive to bring quality teachers away from other schools. Also, let the teachers be free to teach as they feel fit. Of course there would need to be yearly evaluations to make sure these teachers were not being incompetent, but I am sure there would be a more conducive place to want to learn by the students if this was allowed.

Second, “Start from a game or question….teach through normal fun things, not after”. To summarize, education does not need to begin with curriculum and then move to testing; teaching can start from what normally would be considered as extra curricula activities. So, let a game be the start, but have learning thrown in without the students even feel like it is a learning exercise. This, I learned, is called a “head fake” as told by Randy Pausch. Wonderful philosophy and one I will implement in my classrooms too.

I do disagree with some of Mr. Leadbeater’s arguments. One would be his displeasure with the current system that has a push, as opposed to a pull, element. Well, considering he said he was pushed into his education and he graduated from Oxford University with that method, how can one say that is a negative? Also, he says “Education has a payoff, but needs to be quicker if you are poor.” So, instant gratification is what technology has made our society and now we need to make education that way because of the poor? Now, should there be more technical and vocational schools? Yes, absolutely, but do not sacrifice higher learning due to a growing sense of deserve over desire.

Overall, this video was educational from a third world perspective toward teaching. There are problems all over the world that need to be addressed, but let us not doubt that without the funds or public outcry to back up radical thinking, there will never be the desired outcome that can only be talked about among the people that already have an education.