A blog post identified this week on the nature of learning and teaching by a leading educator Alfie Kohn (Dispelling the Myth of Deferred Gratification) begins with this comment "Traditional schooling isn't working for an awful lot of students. We can respond to that fact either by trying to fix the system (so it meets kids' needs better) or by trying to fix the kids (so they're more compliant and successful at whatever they're told to do). The current enthusiasm for teaching self-discipline and persistence represents a vote for the second option." The article goes on to say "Underlying self-discipline and grit is the idea of deferring gratification—for example, by putting off doing what you enjoy until you finish your "work." The appeal to many educators of transforming kids from lazy grasshoppers to hardworking ants explains the fresh wave of interest in a series of experiments conducted back in the 1960s known as the marshmallow studies." In these studies "preschool-age children were left alone in a room after having been told they could get a small treat (a marshmallow or pretzel) by ringing a bell at any time to summon the experimenter. But if they held out until he returned on his own, they could have a bigger treat (two marshmallows or pretzels). The outcome, as it's usually represented, is that the children who were able to wait for an extra treat scored better on measures of cognitive and social skills". In some ways, it could be said that the prescriptive, delay or avoid gratification messages in many health education curricula are based on this message of self-discipline. Consequently, we might want to read the rest of Kohn's article as a prelude to reviewing the pedagogy we often employ in health/personal/social education. Go to:
A new report from the 21st Century Learning Initiative summarizes the debates about the goals of schooling and proposes a transforrmative change. The Initiaitve has been active and widespread in many countries around the world. Advocates, practitioners, policy-makers and officials who support health and social development through schools based on the development of the whole child should take the time to review this paper. It begins with this overview:"Questions about school reform are being asked with increasing frequency in many countries, especially those seeking to adapt to rapidly changing social, economic and political turmoil. A range of indicators suggest, however, that after a couple of decades of intensive effort and vast expenditure of funds the results of several English-speaking countries remain problematic.3. Given what we now know from research into human learning, it would seem that what we need is not further school reform, but a radical transformation of the education system based on the complimentaryroles of home, community and school. To guide future policy we must recognise that the present structure of British, essentially English, education (a structure that has significantly shaped education in many English-speaking countries) is a result of numerous
decisions taken in times past by policymakers as they reacted to social and economic environments very different to those of today John Abbott, the leader of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, is the author of the paper and begins with this graphic metaphor:
"Lecturing widely around Britain, North America and Australia in the mid-1990s, I proposed a graphic metaphor: Do we want our children to grow up as battery hens or free-range chickens?" He then begins with the argument that "To develop a system that reduces the
individual’s adaptability so as to enhance a set of special skills – a battery hen-type schooling – requires a dangerous certainty about the future. If there is any doubt about the kind of world our children will inherit, then a free-range approach that encourages adaptability and creativity is not only desirable but essential." Abbot offers another metaphor. "Another way of challenging ourselves to think about what we are doing, is to ask whether we see children as pilgrims or customers. Pilgrim or customer? Creators of their own material and eternaldestiny, or consumers of a range of goods and services as defined by someone else? Thinkers able to take responsibility for their own actions, and willing to accept responsibility for working for the common good, or someone who, in their frustration that nothing so far pulled off the shelves of a supermarket quite suits their tastes, searches for yet another perfect brand? Quoting John Milton, Abbot and the Initiative call for a "A complete and generous education" Read more>>