Introduction
All the people who are
different from each other live on the same earth. Our experiences, likes,
dislikes, skills are not the same. In a world like this, the school is the
first place where we can see these differences. The children enter a big
environment when they start school and they begin to learn the differences
between each other, how to be a good human, how to communicate and cooperate
with other people apart from the scientific subjects. Actually, we start to
know and learn life with the education. It starts and never ends throughout our
life. As we can see, education is all about human and we are all different.
While even a year makes a huge difference, how can we expect the same education
system to be successful for centuries?
Main ideas
In such an important
institution as education, we should always seek the ways of giving an answer to
the needs of students. Especially now, in the 21st century, we live
in a completely different time. There are more source, technology and
opportunity to learn new information and improve creativity. So why don’t we
use these opportunities in the best way? Why are the children forced to sit
quietly in a place, memorize and repeat the given information without adding
their own creativity, experience and thoughts to it?
The three videos we watched in
the class actually let us know the people who ask these questions and try to
create a difference in the traditional education system. Ken Robinson, for example, thinks
that the traditional education system kills the creativity of the kids and he
has many explanations supporting his idea. One of these ideas is that the
teachers educate the children for a future which is unpredictable for now. The
teachers can’t know which changes will take place in the future and if they
want all the students to do similar things, they may kill the creativity inside
the children. Also he says that creativity is as important in education as
literacy. In traditional education system, literacy is seen as the most
important thing in education and all the children are educated to become
doctors, lawyers, scientists of the future. However, think about a scientist
who has no creativity at all. How can we wait new ideas and inventions if
he/she cannot think creatively? Just literacy is not enough to be successful if
we don’t have a little bit creativity inside us. In order not to kill the
creativity of the kids, teachers shouldn’t make them afraid of making mistakes.
Because we can create new ideas only by making mistakes. Students should know
that their mistake won’t affect them in a negative way. They should be able to
see their mistakes as a key to the success and creating original ideas. And this
can be possible only by the teachers who are aware of the importance of
creativity in education.
Another person who tries to make a difference and seek the
ways of giving an answer to the children’s needs is Takaharu Tezuka. He is a creative architect who
built the best kindergarten in the world. While designing this kindergarten, he
thought all the details that should be taken into account. For instance, he
knows that the little children between the ages of 3-6 are in a period in which
they feel energetic most of the time. They want to run, jump and play. During
this period, it is not realistic to expect the children to sit quietly without
moving around for a long time. Consequently, he built the kindergarten in the
shape of circle so that the children can run, jump and play freely. There is a
roof on the top of the building and the roof is also in the sahepe of circle,
which allows the children to run and play not only in the building but also
outside of it. The building is designed inside a harmony with the nature. There
are trees in the building and the children can climb them. They may fall or
injure but Takaharu Tezuka says it is not good to protect the children all the
time. They need to be in danger to learn how to solve the problems and how to
help others. I think thanks to this idea the children can be more mature adults
in the future. However, it is not easy for all the parents to think in the same
way. They may not want to let their children be in danger even it will develop
them. Another good point about this kindergarten is that the classes are not
divided and thanks to this, the children learn how to work in a noisy
environment and improve their concentration. The design of this kindergarten is
a good example of creativity and innovation in education.
In the last video we watched the
speech of a young, creative and innovative teacher. What I liked most about
this teacher is that he treats his students as if they are adults. He asks
their opinion about an important issue and listens them very carefully. With
this behavior, I’m sure the children feel important and they try hard to do
their best in order to solve the problem. The teacher not only gives them a
chance to use their creativity but also makes them aware of the environmental
problems. The children both help their teacher and learn new things through
real experiences. This is a good example of educating the children according to
the needs of the 21st century.
All the videos share one thing
in common: These people reject the traditional methods, beliefs and methods
that kill the children’s creativity. They choose to make research and take the
relationship between the conditions of the 21st century and needs of
the children into account. With the growth of these people who tries to develop
the education system creatively and critically, more and more children will be
able to have a good education in the future.
Now, it is time to look some
ideas about ideal schools that we created with our friends. Maybe one day we
can be one of these creative people who create a change in the education
system, who knows?
Modern Students
The video of
the Modern students started with a scene from their favorite tv series Modern
Family, from which they took their group name. This kind of start shows the
creativity and originality of their video, I think. They introduced their ideal
school with the photos in a combination with the drawings and colorful notes
and I think this also shows the effort they gave for the video.
They dream of
an inclusive school with high participation and moral responsibility. They
suggest that the students should love the nature and animals. Taking care of
animals will improve the feeling of responsibility. In the methodology, they
want to give more importance to creativity rather than just teaching theories.
They think that a good interaction is important in the class, so tables will be
in the form of “S”.
They also
think that parents are part of the education and explained this idea with a
triangle.
The
teacher knows the content and she has to know the students. She also has to
make the students know each other. All the students have different backgrounds
and what the teacher knows about the students is very important for a good
learning experience.
Amigos del Football
This
group’s video started with a conversation between the group members.
Conversation is about the different education systems in Spain, Turkey and
Germany. This was my favourite part in the video because we had a chance to
know about the real systems of different countries. Also it’s a good idea to
make reflection about the school systems before creating their own ideal
school.
In
their conversation they focused highly on lesson and break durations. They
think that it’s an important issue for the concentration of the students.
They
wanted to solve the problems of the disabled children and give all the children
the same opportunity to have a good education. After the presentation of the
video there was a question-answer session. One of the questions was whether
there is anything good about the traditional school. They answered this
question by giving Germany’s education system as an example.In the traditional
schools in Germany there is not grade, there is just feedback. This can have a
good affect on children’s development and psychology. They also gave Germany as
an example of ideal lesson-break durations.
Wanderlust
Wanderlust’s
video was one of the creative and attracting videos. They act as if they were
news reporter and they mention the education systems of USA, Indonesia and
Finland. They supported the idea that not only scientific learning but also
values are important in an ideal school. In their ideal school, the physical
shape of the classroom is in the shape of “U”, there is a sound-proof music
room where the students can practice their musical skills without disturbing
other people, there is a trust between
the teachers and the students, each student has their own tablet and they can
make the most of the technology, they use renewable energy in the school and
finally there is no competition between the students. Their methodology is
based on the idea that students should be able to solve their own problems by
themselves.
Cronicas Viajeras
I really
liked the way of presenting this group’s video. They explained every detail by
drawing and voice recordings in the background. It was colorful, attracting and
informative. They dream about a multilingual school where the students will
have chance to learn different languages, where there are many cultural
activities and where all the children have equal opportunities. They give
importance to the natural environment in their school, so they want the
students to take care of plants and animals. They also want to make the
students aware of the basic traffic rules, which will make them good drivers in
the future. Their ideal school aims not only to teach scientific subjects but
also prepare the students for the real life.
Dumbledore Taecher’s Army
This group
mention the promlems in the schools such as bullying, heavy backpacks, dark and
small classrooms, parents’ education and too much information without practice.
While talking about these problems they used the scenes from the movie “Harry
Potter”. This makes the video more attractive and enjoyable to watch. In their
ideal school, they give importance to ethichs and values such as respect in a
multicultural environment, trust and also flexibility is an important point for
their ideal school. They say their ideal school should be an inclusive school.
Team Perk
This group
acted as reporter, principal and teacher in their video and they made
interviews about the possible problems in the treditional education system. The
main aim of their ideal school is to teach the students how to learn. There are
many ways to find information and learn new things in the 21st century.
However, if the students don’t learn how to find and use this information, it
won’t be beneficial. They also came up with some ideas about how to solve the
conflicts in a peaceful way, which was a different point from the other videos.
In an environment where the students learn cooperatively and live in a harmony,
there will certainly be some conflicts between the students. By teaching the importance
of the values such as trust and respect, these conflicts can be solved easily.
A peaceful and respectful environment is a key to succeed this.
Unknowns
Unknowns made
an interview with a school teacher and a primary school student, which I liked
very much. There were also subtitles in english and their conclusion was good. The
important points in their ideal school are values, parents’s education,
physical changes necessary for the school and the reasons for these changes.
They also reflect about the importance of healthy food for the little
children’s development. In their ideal school, there are new colors, outside
activities and peaceful solutions for the bullying in the school environment
Conclusion
Thinking
about creating our own ideal school made us realise the problems in the
traditional education system and find solutions for these problems. It was an
enjoyable and informative experience for me to create our ideal school and
watch the other videos. I saw that everybody has many ideas that can make the
education system better. Creativity, values, psychological development of the
children are the points to which everybody gives importance while creating
their ideal school. We had a chance to reflect about the benefits and
diffuculties of Cooperative learning and how to solve the problems in a
peaceful way.
All the
groups gave much time and effort to prepare the videos and presentations. I would
like to congratulate all the group members who have great ideas to improve the
education system in the way that will give answer to the needs of the students.
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