End of Education for Me.

Well just the education series of the blog. What I want is for education to improve. I see consequences if it does not. I want fewer people to be left behind, obviously the personal element was I was missed, because I was an individual that did not fit the system. Changes have been made and have happened over my life time not just longer periods of time. Women are not left behind as much as before, but many groups and individuals still are. They are not supported or served which is in no one’s interest. It is not easy to improve let alone somewhere near remedy. It is tied to it’s past where military and scientific management ideas have underpinned organisation. The mass market for the students were factories and mines that do not exist as such any more. People now live long enough to out live a career (which have quicker life cycles) and other factors have to be accounted for. Preparing children for a constantly changing environment is different than one job and marriage for life. The ability to change is paramount. Education also has to keep changing including providing for continual education for all ages.

I find it very easy to criticise ‘my education’. I cannot use words such as professional, personal, quality or many such words that I want to use about any experience. But this is the top problem for education it is not ultimately run professionally it does not work towards operation or development in a professional way. The top of course is made of two key elements politicians playing politics and irrational voters. Neither group has the knowledge, ability or a chance in hell of getting a professional system without getting out of the way. So many other concerns are put first. Many other groups interfere with their own I have to say warped, emotional input. The number of people left behind is large let alone the massive under performance of those not completely failed. At the moment the advice for anyone in education is to come from rich parents who can bypass the system (not just of education) to have a chance of meeting their potential and being in a strong position as an adult.

Once the corporate criminals are in their right place then professionalism can be introduced. The grand strategy of education is not within the abilities of any person or group. Priorities have to be set which would be philosophical. They have to include development. Too many people are left behind, the biggest task is social economic factors. Individual issues I have mentioned are not just gender and race but disabilities and abilities that are not supported and served. It is amazing how little people actually know and yet think they do. I have discussed a few times Physical education, where for many it is not physical (avoidance) and education is a misnomer. So you know how to run do you. OK who taught you? I am going to guess a 3 or 4 year old. Have you even thought of improving your running since or has anyone suggested it? Most people just hardly ever run for any reason. Of people who do run (half way there) injury rates are around 50% per year (probably an under estimate). Each year half of all runners injure themselves mainly through bad technique. Others hurt themselves moving objects. Let alone the errors people make with communication use of numbers and understanding of science. All targets of education need to be real understanding and application, not a stack of pieces of paper that just reduce the number of trees and give false confidence.

Of course education is within wider society, the direct political effect is not the only factor. Individuals leave (and do not value) many things to the state like health and security rather than being active in these aspects of life. Other participants such as businesses and industry market and lobby in their own interest and avoid the costs of their actions. Political and religious groups use similar methods to influence individuals and society. People wanting power just generally for what ever reason also take over rather than searching for the better qualified. Education is not marketing or entertainment it is more important. It would be more attractive to children if more of them made regular progress were more skillful, understood more and took responsibility for their actions. This needs higher quality schools (or alternatives) and staff and more restraint on non professional educational factors.

So I am sure I could come up (or be inspired) with more issues regarding education that are worth raising, discussing and implementing. But it’s simple if you think your or your children’s education is only important enough for schools etc. and not worth further consideration then you will reap the crops that you sow (or leave to others). Good look and thanks for the fish.

An approach using ideas from the blog.

Education has used IQ for over 100 years and it has it’s uses. It also has it’s limitations. I get a reasonably high number on IQ tests but it gave only a small aid on the rugby pitch, it did not help me much on the piano or learning Spanish. These limitations mirror the observations of work colleagues of graduates, who spot deficiencies very quickly if not perfectly accurately. IQ is used in education and predicts achievement in education quite well. Now it does tend to be used by people with higher IQs to assess and select people. Now I know when I try to learn a language or musical instrument that I can slowly pick things up. But next to me have been people who have progressed much faster. Some people have high IQ and can pick up musical skills quickly. So it’s not my idea that IQ is insufficient but most ‘jobs’ are not just IQ. They have requirements of interpersonal skills or Body-kinaesthetic skills for instance. IQ is not as good a predictor of real world success, it is one part of the picture that is measurable. Limiting to just one aspect that is measurable cherry picks and diminishes accuracy of judgements. It is an oversimplification of assessment and although it has truth within it, it misses too much.

These limitations have been noted for a long time. One answer is quite well known is Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences. In this he lists 7 intelligences. These cover the gamete of human abilities and although some flexibility is needed in categorising and use they are quite useful. The intelligences; Musical, Body-kinaesthetic, Logical-Mathematical, Linguistic, Spatial, Interpersonal and Intra-personal are quite clear for most lay people when explained. He has also talked of 5 minds disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful and ethical which dovetail with the intelligences.

A possible approach for education is to use these ideas to develop a curriculum (with room to manoeuvre). It would replace a traditional, bureaucratic curriculum not really based on the learners and learning. People have strengths and weaknesses in each of the intelligences some are clear others are not as obvious. Through early years education each intelligence area could be tried with some assessment of ability and achievement. This could help guide productive areas that can be prioritised with higher chances of progress. The strong areas would be prioritised so that students could progress or excel. Learners would concentrate on 1 to 3 areas with majors and minors. A forth fun area can be added for a break or of widening perspective. The myth of all excelling in everything cannot be done in existing systems with many capable people not having a realistic chance to progress and others having many opportunities over confident of their ability.

Syllabuses could still be formed around the intelligences with general levels such as excellent for the top 15% performers advanced for the next 15% and general for the next 15%. Those that are not in the top 45% would not follow that specific intelligence. Although a fun syllabus for others to experience the area if motivated or for those who have too many areas of ability. It would enable a reduction by omission of week areas where it is a very hard task for teacher and learner. Teaching could be by specialists (like subject specialisms today) and of mostly higher ability groups that will progress with fewer distractions. Each intelligence is still wide especially if the syllabus is not capped and the most able held back until convenient (bureaucratic) exam times. A range of ‘qualifications’ and achievements would be built up up until probably 18 years of age. Now some would be into degree level in their better academic specialisms, or would be operating at workplace level performance for other intelligences.

Obviously key skills would need to be pursued so that at 18 years for instance the basic levels would be achieved. Some general idea like the 5 GCSEs (or baccalaureate) at C or above including key skills like Maths, English and Science. These though are not actually needed until 18 years for the work place or further education (i.e Universities at present).

Teaching too would be clearer with some reduced pressure to get very unmotivated and incapable students up to an artificial C level (maybe for exam day only). Most groups would be made up of like groups with similar strengths and weaknesses. Teachers will have groups with similar weaknesses so strategies will work for the majority of a class, rather than needing many different teaching strategies or ignoring many learners. There will always be room for teachers who are good at building up people (of all ages) in key skills and there will be a need to learn how to teach logical-mathematical intelligence to musically intelligent gifted start with maths and science of music etc. These syllabuses and groups would be easier to organise and have fewer distractions. When key skills are being brought up to minimum type standards they will be with older children who have have had success in their strong areas and more transferable learning skills, hopefully with more motivation and confidence. These factors would help with personal examples of a disciplined mind (in their strength) that can be applied to weaker areas. They will be able to (with educator support) synthesise (connect) within their stronger areas which can be used as analogies for development in weaker areas. They will be more creative as they develop in their strong areas and respectful of others with different strengths when they have made progress themselves and know what others have done to progress. The wider understanding of strengths and weaknesses of all will provide evidence for the ethical mind.

Now people want simple one stop solutions and measurements but these are very limited and harm us all. Progress is the only measurement of progress not an artificial snap shot of a one for all exam. Learners are failed by the system but so are educators, and the rest of the country with false ideas of ability. Finding out what people really can do, reducing the labels when some areas are favoured and perceived as more important sometimes just because they can be measured. There is also a restricted group of measurements used. The Myers-Briggs Indicator is a popular test that evaluates psychological preferences. I have discussed problems with Autism and disability issues, more generally it can (and is) argued (quietly) that Introverts are not catered for in education (they prefer quieter environments and personal time and space) within a loud bustling loudest noise wins environment. Now these count as a third to a half of all people who are being disadvantaged in a similar way as those with Autism. Other aspects that are not measured are also disadvantaging some hiding their potential.

Ideas for Training.

For work places education becomes training, mostly set courses with segmented syllabuses of what the worker needs or is required to know to do their job. Some training has national standards like health and safety where courses are regulated and training is mandatory. These tend to be inflexible in that they are a set syllabus in set hours. Actual delivery of training is hit and miss with many factors reducing any effectiveness of training that could enhance performance in the topic or larger employment. For many this required training is not understood however clear the law or documentation is. The ability to make up ‘regulations’ on the spot or some excuse or power play is human nature and an interesting study unless you want a safe environment or help when something goes wrong.

So the first barriers are workplace ignorance, alternative focus (get their job done or get paid) and general disorganisation. Courses on site are constantly interrupted and mobiles need to to be off. Wanting to finish early to go to a meeting an appointment or pick up the kids is regular. Training is most definitely a lower concern let alone how to train effectively. Perceptions of learning and training are usually based on appearance and videos regardless of actual quality. Courses are made up of mixed students in terms of ability and experience. I have had people with over 20 years experience on a longer beginner course as their work had not put them on the right course to keep them in date as well as people with English as a second language. The courses are often set in terms of time and syllabus regardless of actual need.

Teaching involves taking the learners from where they start in terms of knowledge, skills etc. to the required standard. Some start the course at the required standard and some need more time or support (sometimes more than available) to reach standards. There is a gap between training assessment and real world performance as the real world is rarely organised and prepared so adapting to circumstance and avoiding consequences are the major tasks for many. Short term responsiveness is the norm and standards are low.

Improvement in this situation is paramount but regardless training needs to be more effective and useful and of course used. Training where someone stands at the front and reads a long Power-point slide is accepted in most professional courses even in schools where the same methods would fail inspection if performed by teachers. The ideas that have formed understanding are reflected in the words used. Educate comes from the Latin root ‘to lead’. Coach is from the idea of taking someone from one place to another. Training needs to take these (original) ideas on board. Leading classes and people to higher understanding and abilities and taking people from ignorance and inability to knowledge and ability. The next stage is to apply the higher knowledge and skills to the real world. I have received award winning training that just did not reflect the actual work place, I have struggled to remain awake and seen many fall asleep. I have seen many battle with acronyms that are not the required knowledge but a way of remembering, they are then tested on the acronym. None of this is learning or revision or educating or coaching. It is a waste of time telling people things they already know, you could always just ask them, write their correct answers on a board and then move on to something they do not know or can improve. Some training and trainers insist on a certain acronym rather than the general answer and claim it is the answer. Much training just ticks boxes.

To improve training must use the research that has been done and methods that have proved to be effective. Focusing on the most important elements for beginners and then gradually adding useful details rather than insisting on minor points claimed as important. Linking areas together, relating to the real world occurrence and to existing knowledge and experience all move understanding to higher levels. Traditionally stories have been used so real world examples carry this on, but also a narrative of actions in situations general and specific create a frame work (linkage) to work first the general ideas and then more detail as the frame and over view is understood. Separate elements with no connection are easily forgotten. Working from known and simple then developing to more complicated and specific is an organisational method that keeps progression (narrative). Rather than sudden isolated statements with little relevance. Too much ‘showing off’ of higher (pseudo) knowledge or experience is not for learning but teachers ego. This can be de-motivating if too advanced for learners or lead learners to attempt too advanced tasks for their own knowledge and skills.

Experience needs to be factored outside of just the course. Practice of skills and refreshing of knowledge. In first aid sometimes a first aider may have to perform in an emergency almost 3 years after their last training course. Are their skills really supposed to be good? Will they even be confident to try and help? Physical skills like CPR or bandages need to be practised over several weeks and regularly not once every 3 years which is just not effective and leads to low performance (yes poor CPR or un-attempted will not work!). Sports people and musicians practice a lot to reach high standards this pattern needs to be appropriately transposed to work training.

For many the use of pre existing knowledge can be used as a metaphor or a base to aid understanding. Children and young people may not have direct knowledge or experience to pin onto. Pre employment education needs to develop experience and knowledge up to required levels it cannot be completely disconnected from work (and society) environments. Much of education is perceived as irrelevant to the children and their lives and although it is not the perception is a barrier to motivation and attention. Teaching relevant skills and experiences need to be included especially for children from backgrounds different to the teachers.

Reducing Errors.

The problem with making a mistake is not just the direct consequences but the further indirect consequences. These are like a ripple on a pond’s surface as a stone drops onto it. Concentric rings in all directions, some barriers stop them but they rebound back and deflect and are channeled in many directions. Any action does the same but less obviously hence the need of a metaphor! The sequence after an action can die out with time or forever change the world like the butterfly effect. Physical examples of negative accumulations after the first act could be the foot position in a squatting action if the foot is like a duck (no not really like a real duck their not that stupid) the arch of the foot collapses and the knee collapses in, stretching the inside ligaments and creating a shear force on the whole joint and this will have ripples up the other joints. The consequences of not getting it right first time and not correcting cause chronic failure later. If you land from height with the same foot/knee/body position it can be traumatic. The trick is to get it right first time not make the error, as once the first move is made many factors keep from changing to a better position and motion after the initial action. In fact it’s safer to say you enter a tunnel in a bad direction and cannot change back. There is leeway in the body for foot position but you only have so many goes before you must have a correct position.

Much of the time adults make error upon error. Many accumulate, (chronic) to cause harm of themselves or others. Now ‘to err is to be human’. But the cost of errors can come back to haunt whether through pain, or failure. That is not enough for the modern world.

In fact reason started early, as with other animals some pattern spotting demonstrated a type of early reason. This has built up to a huge amount of knowledge and abilities for humans. And yet the ape heritage shows itself regularly in actions and words. We still make unreasoned decisions. We buy things we do not need, we pay over the odds for them, we make unhealthy and ineffective decisions in many areas of life. A concept alluded to by Sun Zi in the Art of War is of making oneself invincible and watching for vulnerability in one’s opponents. This higher level of competitive strategy consists first of making yourself strong and then perfecting this from becoming hard to beat to impossible. This is achieved by stopping making mistakes from the simple, big ones to the more subtle, and from the beginning to end. It has wider applications to life where eliminating errors reduces problems.

The first error is the health error. Do you want a Heart Attack? Stoke? Cancer? Other fatal but also painful debilitating illness and disease? I’m guessing the answer’s no. And yet the error of unhealthy eating, lack of activity or exercise and poor sleep patterns is the norm. The decisions made are not reasoned. The problem is not knowledge. We find all sorts of excuses for not eating, sleeping and moving well, but guess what our arteries still narrow with disease and then block, and our cells are bombarded with toxins to encourage cancer. Our body is still sent pre-diabetic reacting to lack of sleep and poor food. Then some add poisons beyond the bodies capacity to cope and bad movement patterns that destroy the joints and bones.

These health errors are primarily picked up in childhood and infancy. There is a limit to what education establishments can do when many factors are from the first 1,000 days (Barker’s hypothesis) of life. Also the majority of hours are outside of school hours beyond schools’ control. Perhaps the outside of school hours could be aided with the use of school facilities for nutrition, sports and activities. Arnold Schwarzenegger is behind a scheme to make this happen in the U.S. between 3 and 6 pm after school time perhaps giving children options rather than street corners and the internet. More support is needed for children under school age, to encourage better sleep, diet and activity.

A large factor beyond health although that may be enough is to improve thinking skills. The factor above is not the individuals choice the decision to give poor food and not enforce good sleep patterns and then move. These are adults decisions for the baby, infant and child. The child now has a harder time making decisions with a body full of unhelpful toxins and not enough of what the body needs like sleep and movement. The body then must cope in this situation and try to operate. Getting the brain to work beyond coping with these problems has to be supported. Reasoning takes practice! Here the adults reasoning is at fault and holds the children back.

Within education reason has to be promoted and errors of thinking challenged and corrected. Before you shout that I’m the thought police, enjoy the consequences of your errors in judgement and decisions that lead to such great outcomes as more heart attacks and pain from physical and mental actions (and you can self applaud your moral stance!). Of course the existing thought police already do this where traditions and their regimes for behaviour are enforced. I just think reasoning skills should be promoted to get better decisions and actions for better health (physical, mental, financial etc.) and avoidance of the consequences of errors in daily life.

The main thinking errors are combated with critical thinking, now not everyone wants people to think critically as they benefit from the errors that are made by the majority. As with health, young people have the deck stacked against them in thinking. They are bombarded (as are adults) with irrationality. ‘Legal’ marketing, politicians and unchallenged outbursts and supposed professionals produce a blanket of false facts and irrational stimulus. Now people buy emotionally so rationally, marketing is based on emotion. The defense against this onslaught is reasoned thinking and action. The skills for this are mentioned in passing, but little application is made in the real world. Many people are defenseless in the legal environment, or dealing with professionals or confidence tricksters.

The subject ‘critical thinking’ includes many of the defenses. The health habit has to be mirrored by healthy thinking habits. There are many cognitive biases that we naturally error with. We have to practice reason it is not a do once tick box subject. Simple aspects such as recognising more common and less common, and risk is a big black-hole of understanding for most. Many examples exist like the fear of gun crime, with accidents or violence in the home with guns. Although a bigger problem is more people are killed in swimming pools than with guns (U.S.). Where is the campaign for that? The analysis and interpretation of data needs to be regularly practised and corrected. Other fallacies occur regularly and mostly are unchallenged. Much political ‘debate’ is two doses of false argument. These fallacies need to be identified for children (and adults) and explained and practised to improve decisions. Good habits can be rewarded even if there is not understanding of why they are good, but explanations must be attempted. Study of what is effective, for instance what have successful people done consistently that correlate and cause their success. Are they organised, clear thinking, determined and constantly learning on the whole yes! They are not wearing fashionable clothes, shouting loudly and taking drugs, and yet that’s what children see most in the media and often in their surroundings.

Expertise by having some can then use analogy of hard work and higher levels of thought and performance. So the path is recognisable rather than ineffective instant gratification (delaying gratification is a big predictor of future success).