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The Forum > Article Comments > Revolutionary change in education > Comments

Revolutionary change in education : Comments

By Valerie Yule, published 20/2/2008

Long term prosperity and productivity growth depend upon education being treated as investment in human capital.

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I thought this a very interesting and well written piece, and a pleasure to read.

I’m not sure what is meant by “disrupted classes”, but if there are classes being disrupted by one or more students, then this is very easy to solve. Prepare a video that shows how a student should behave in class. If a student is disrupting a class, then make them watch the video.

Guaranteed to improve that students behavior, as not too many people want to watch the same video over and over. Watching the video becomes a part of that student’s education, and also a deterrent to misbehaving in class.

I’ve seen similar used in industry, with nearly a 100% success rate, and it would certainly beat lecturing the student or expulsion
Posted by HRS, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 9:28:01 AM
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I did not find the article a pleasure to read – quite the opposite. It is too close to the bone in revealing the actual situation of society compared with where education needs to be.
Word limit permitted it to only reveal the surface exposure of stark bones of embedded dysfunction.
Perhaps the most challenging of these would not exist if every child was a wanted child. One fostered in well-resourced parental care, where parents share in the joys and challenges of education and learning with the developing child. In localities stretching between Kalumburu and North Shore, and beyond, there are many children facing up to education from considerable disadvantage.
I thank the author for casting light on the scope of the attention needed for improvement of Australian education.
Posted by colinsett, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 11:29:54 AM
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HRS makes an excellent recommendation of videos showing ’how to behave in class’. This matches the recommendation in my article of TV documentaries showing brilliant classes – because how can you do something if you have never seen how to? The problems are so widespread that TV is needed.
If there are any videos like that already, for individual use, I and many teachers would like to know.
Video that students and teachers can watch on their own still has unfulfilled potential to show how to. That too is mentioned in the article, with regard to literacy.
With regard to individual behaviour, in Scotland twenty years ago I found the value of letting children referred for therapy for social learning problems watch themselves privately on video, so that they could realise what they were dong wrong and how to correct it. Unfortunately it was early days for videocam, and ours broke down soon after, so we could not take this successful approach further.
School exchanges also let children from unruly classrooms discover the pleasures of undisturbed ones.

Having said that, video is not always the complete solution, in places where even experienced teachers are under daily stress not with one or two disturbing students, but an entire school atmosphere that means that every day they have to start by getting some sort of order before they can even teach, and parents are a problem rather than a support. It is a major reason for teachers leaving the profession.
This is why I emphasised this problem as requiring major attention to reduce educational disadvantage.
Posted by ozideas, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 4:31:52 PM
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Ozideas,
It would be best to have the students make their own video, They can write the script, direct it, and act in it. That way they get more ownership of the video. However I think that it has been proven often enough that someone watching visual media will not learn much unless they are writting out notes, or someone watching visual media will not learn as much as someone watching the media while taking notes at the same time.

So as the children are watching their own video, they should also be asked to make written notes, and the video can be paused so that they can write out notes. This is sometimes done when employess are watching safety videos.

I’m not sure that our society is more unruly than in the past, as most crime rates per head of population have not increased, and in some areas of crime, the crime rates have actually declined.

There could be more people, but not more crime per head of population.
Posted by HRS, Wednesday, 20 February 2008 10:04:14 PM
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HRS, Schoolchildren making their own videos on educational issues is an excellent idea, and I have been trying to promote this ever since schools have had equipment to animate, and even Media Departments. My main concern has been for a whole school to make its own Help Yourself to Read video, which could use the different skills of dozens of students, including failing learners. (one experimental version is at www.ozreadandspell.com.au.) I could post details of ideas about how this could be organized.
I have also been seeking an indigenous version, called, say, Dreamtime Dillybag, to be made by indigenous artists of every mode, and using aboriginal culture – and have even offered an indigenous institution $35,000 to help make one, but had no reply. Previous governments have not been interested, but they may now be. And of course, it could have tourist and export sales.

On learning from vide - With the literacy video, learners sing and say along with the songs and words, and repeat-watch what they are still not clear about.
For behavour videos, action-while-you-watch, rather like playschool, can be melodromatic and funny.

Pausing during videos for children to write is not a good idea if there are slow writers in the class.

(I was not talking about crime in the community, but about classrooms which are disturbed by too much unruly behaviour so that little teaching and learning is possible, and teachers are unnecessarily stressed. And parents who can, send their children to private schools where these unruly students are simply expelled or not admitted.)
Posted by ozideas, Thursday, 21 February 2008 9:28:36 AM
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Oxideas,
Your proposed use of videos is quite good. I would suggest investigating how various industries operate employee inductions, as many of those induction procedures could be used in schools. I have known schools where there are virtually no induction procedures being carried out.

I would also suggest greater mentoring and personal interest be taken of students who have a record of bad behaviour in school. Much of this bad behaviour could be because no one is taking any interest in that child.

I tend to think that the overall rates of unruly behavior in schools may not be that great, because if this was the case, then crime rates in general society would be increasing, but in most areas of crime, the crime rates are actually falling or remaining constant.

However in today's society, if a student is expelled before they have a proper education, then it would be more likely that they would become involved in some type of criminal activity, as they would have much less chance of getting a job.
Posted by HRS, Thursday, 21 February 2008 10:13:38 AM
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