Comments on: Education and the Future – Two Paradigms

By: lenrosen4

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 13:39:38 +0000

Hi Steve, Think about the way we learned history, my background so my example…kings, dates, battles and causes. Now imagine studying Napoleon and his ascendancy to leadership in France in terms of cultural origins, Corsican acceptance in Metropolitan French society as a social driver, the science of the age that paralleled Napoleon’s rise (metric system, advances in chemistry, etc.) technological innovation, discoveries (Rosetta Stone), military strategy, cultural diffusion (the French concept of a United Europe repeated a century and a bit later by the Third Reich and today in the EU), political philosophy, and even calculating provisioning for the Grand Army of Napoleon to successfully campaign in Russia comparing it with historical data records. Now that is the way to study a historic period or event.

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By: steve papagiannis

Mon, 13 Jul 2015 11:19:00 +0000

An interesting approach that the Finns are taking, though there is a risk that it could be less effective. This won’t be found out for several years, so it will require careful monitoring of the students. It also triggered a memory of a news article from several years ago, where a BC school area gave students a single topic to continually research from Grades 1-12. It would allow the student to apply a variety of disciplines over that extended period of time.

For example, if the topic was mice, it would likely cover mouse habitats (environmental studies), genetics, evolution, etc. I remember this striking me as an incredible teaching tool for a student to become extremely well informed on not only the topic, but also a wide range of disciplines. If I can remember where I read the article, I’ll forward it along.

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