Education is one of those few topics that everyone has an opinion about. For nearly all of us, we spend most of our entire childhood in an educational institution. For many of us, we spend the first quarter of our lives in it. Some of us never leave!
But the point is, we know what works well and what doesn't. At times education is exhilarating and in others, it is excruciating. Many of us fight to get in to the school or in to the class of our choice. Others wonder why we need to go to school at all, especially now when all of the knowledge of the world is so easily accessible online and on countless platforms.For this first journal entry, I ask you to reflect on what makes an experience truly educational. It may be something that happens within the institution (the school, the university), or it may be something that happens more generally. If you have any personal anecdotes to illustrate your point, please share!
Remember to include your ID# in your post. I look forward to reading your thoughts. Aj. M
Throughout my schooling experience, I've had a constant battle with the question of why I was attending school, this battle only continued to intensify as I got older. Some days I would feel very grateful for the education that I had received but other days I had an intense urge to just drop out. When you ask me about what makes an experience truly educational, I think about the class discussions I would have about various topics back in high school. These discussions were the only things I considered worth going to school for as I always found it very interesting to get a variety of perspectives on certain topics. I found myself learning and remembering a lot more when I was in a conversational setting rather than being forced to digest random information. Being in a discussion setting excited me and motivated me to actively listen to the information that was being put out there. I liked that fact that my teachers and my peers always pushed and challenged my thoughts while giving me the same opportunity to do the same. I believe that education is not held solely within texts, numbers, and information but it is something that is constantly around us wherever we go. Anything can be educational, from meeting a new person who brings a new perspective to the table to facing a failure or setback which teaches us to do better. That being said, of course there is a significance and a use for texts, numbers, and information but it is the way that it is delivered to students that is the most important.
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DeleteWonderful post. I also believe in the emotional energy that we invest in an idea together. Ideas can exist in many platforms, but it is through discussion and community that ideas are animated and made meaningful.
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ReplyDeleteEducation received within school certainly is educating but can all of it be considered truly educational. Rather, I find true education to be a joint effort between both parties, the ones teaching and the ones receiving. Throughout the break before college started, I put myself through this intense online course on the topic of probability. The course was well put together by the professors involved and the topics explained were out of this world. Looking back, had I not thrown myself into the harsh course I wouldn't have really gained anything. Personally, the ability to overcome the fear of learning could be one that leads to a fulfilling "true" educational experience. I’ve never really questioned whether education is a necessity but rather, I enjoy learning and the thrills I get from throwing myself into a tough spot.
What I like about this is the push to learn. It takes that first step, to be curious, and to seek out knowledge.
Delete6480297 : For me personally, I have always felt that education only truly educational when it has the ability to be life-changing or impactful in one way or another. I, for one, have always learned more things when I could find things that I could apply to life, or when I was experiencing it in real-time. Education through textbooks and notes were never really my thing and I wouldn’t see it as true education, because to me, true education comes from things that teach you about life and helps spark an interest or a flame in you that makes life truly enjoyable. It is true that we spend a lot of time in classroom settings, but we spend even more time living. To me, true education has to be about life to some aspect, because it is only then when we feel like no time was wasted, especially since time is limited. Education that I enjoy and render as true is almost always applicable to life, or at least stays with you for a significant amount of time.
ReplyDeleteReally nice post. Education is about life. Not just about subjects, chapters, or units. It is about being human, and investing in these big brains of ours.
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ReplyDeleteI view an educational experience to be one that imparts knowledge that is readily applicable to daily life or for use in future endeavors. This could be for an occupation or simply for personal enjoyment and self-fulfillment. For example, I wouldn’t consider my high school history classes to be educational, due to my lack of interest in the material and the fact that I did not attempt to use it/expand it beyond class. The same was true for my IB ITGS course. These lessons were in stark contrast with my biology classes, where I actively engaged with the content and found myself wanting to learn more. I believe a truly educational experience will instill a sense of inadequacy, accompanied by the strong desire to rectify it by improving one’s understanding of the topic.
Although I can’t claim the majority of my initial time in school to be an educational experience (based on how I’ve defined the term), they were still meaningful. The broadness of the classes exposed me to various disciplines, giving me a taste of what I would receive if I pursued them further. At this stage, actually retaining the information wasn’t significant; the classes served to shape my interests, allowing me to make decisions about future pathways.
An educational experience instills a sense of inadequacy... isn't that the truth! I think it was Mezirow, who called it a "disorienting dilemma," destabilizing our world view, and forcing us to transform.
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ReplyDeleteTo me an educational experience is one that is hard to forget. I believe anyone can instantly remember the time that they made a grave mistake or went through something painfully awkward. The lessons we learn through them are engraved into our minds. Another great form of education is a happy memory. Any parent remembers the birth of their child vividly. I remember the day of my graduation like it was yesterday. Joyous occasions can also be helpful to teachers. My high school teachers had stellar personalities and they managed to make their classes very entertaining. This is why as a business student I can easily recall physics theories because my physics teacher was just so exceptional. Going through something out of the ordinary can also be very educational. You can imagine going through your experiences as looking at a cityscape. It is much easier to point out the rare skyscrapers than the thousands of houses surrounding them.
I like this because education is not only something institutional, in a school or college, but in vivid experiences that act as turning points in life.
DeleteIn my opinion, for something to be considered truly educational, it needs to be something that changes the way you think or something that has a huge effect on you. This doesn't mean that I'm not grateful for getting the opportunity to have a good education, but I do think that not everything I have learnt at school/uni can be considered educational. Personally, I don't think 'true' education means watching lectures, reading textbooks, making notes, taking exams, etc. Instead, it comes from your experience in life. For example, a couple of years ago I was going through a rough time, and the things I learned about life and myself during that time is what I consider an educational experience.
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I like this. And I think I agree. When new knowledge gives me new perspective about the world around me, it's invigorating.
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ReplyDeleteThe sense people generally have behind the term or concept of education usually does not do the word justice. Education just covers a much larger scope than educational institutions. What differentiates an educational experience from another comes down to how useful or beneficial it is to an individual’s place in society and life. Having two education experiences isolated without considering the individual provides no method for comparison. I argue that it isn’t possible to say learning one thing is more valuable or better than another without also taking into account who is actually learning.
Therefore, formal education including mathematics, science, and the arts, is really just as educational as learning how to find good hiding spots in a simple silly game of hide and seek. A professional hide and seek player (if that exists) would find the latter a much more beneficial and valuable educational experience than learning the Pythagorean theorem in formal education.
A truly educational experience depends on what each individual is seeking in life. Somebody who wants to get rich and have their finances in order might find learning finance in school more valuable than a monk who seeks to live a humble life.
Of course, an educational experience also depends on the medium that it is being expressed through. For example, learning in school you learn through a teacher, but while playing a game you learn by losing. Learning something “the hard way” seems to be less forgetful than learning in school.
Absolutely love the way you laid out your thoughts. And I completely agree. All the advice you could receive in the world will not replace a mistake you yourself make. Because when it's personal, you don't forget. That's the real lesson.
DeleteNice post. We do all perceive knowledge and its applicability differently. Agreed. But as I age, I have found tremendous value in learning about things that I thought I wasn't interested in. My whole life, I have been an arts-inspired person, and someone who struggled with maths/science. But now as I study the Periodic Table with my young son, it's truly fascinating, an education.
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ReplyDeleteEver since I graduated from primary school, I have completely sucked at math. My brain could never string the numbers logically to produce a correct answer. Just the thought of doing simple addition and subtraction without a calculator inspires a sense of dread that thrillers aspire to instill into audiences. Math has and always will be my number one educational enemy, yet, my calculus teacher made me see the beauty and creativity in math. One word to describe Mr. Morley would definitely be "eccentric". He forges his own path in education and does not dismiss any query, no matter how ridiculous.
I failed a test incredibly terribly, I don't remember the score but it was definitely below 10% and I had to talk to him after school. The way Mr. Morley taught the questions I missed inspired a blooming sense of an appreciation for math. Instead of straight out explaining where I went wrong with my calculations, he questioned me. He'd say "Why'd you choose to do this?", "Now why do you think this will work?" and most often "Do you think this will work?” I retook the test and got a decent grade, definitely not a nice ‘A’ but I was still proud of myself. The experience widened my perspective on education.
I believe that education should not just be instruction but an exploration of the student’s thoughts and the subject. Mr. Morley showed me that I can apply myself, even the “dumb” questions I had were vital to learning. Education shouldn’t be strict and linear. Instead, it should allow an exploration of all the avenues one can go down. Unlike Robert Frost’s poem “The Road not Taken”, education is not just one path we walk down, it is like the roots of an ancient tree that connects with the rest of the forest, a multi-pathed, interconnected and living entity. Education not only allows one to gain knowledge about the world but also allows one to know themselves better by going through many different processes to gain knowledge about the subject.
I really like this post. As we will discuss at another point in this course, the main factor above all others that affects quality of education is the quality of the teacher.
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ReplyDeleteMeasuring knowledge is tricky. An IQ test only reveals your cognitive ability, but is the ability to learn and process the same as knowledge? Or is someone who can recite entire encyclopedias the real genius?
Education is not exempt from these questions, as for most of us it is our seed of knowledge. We attend school before we are even conscious, learning how to be a well-behaved toddler, then a disciplined child, and eventually a hard-working adult. In my opinion, questions about this process are not only welcome, but necessary to develop the ways in which we pass knowledge from one generation to the next.
In the beginning, the information age looked like a renaissance, but as we slowly wade into the mid 20s, I realize most of the people around me are dumb as bricks. Completely aloof. Mindless drones drooling over their phones that they pick up first thing in the morning and tuck into bed next to them at night. Tiktok stars and OnlyFans models who rule over this new kingdom we call the digital human experience.
The truth is, the information age has had the opposite effect. When everything to know is at your fingertips, what's to know? We as a people have given the thumbs up to be force fed information based on algorithms that predict our tastes for us. There is no drive to learn new things when everything is already discovered. Why should there be? Being second at anything never made anyone rich or famous. But it should be encouraged. Because otherwise, Wall-E is going to become a frightening portrait of what our collective futures may look like.
There is merit to the fundamental process of education. Being introduced to new concepts in class, building up your understanding of the subject, and finally being tested on how well you can apply it in the form of a test. It's bulletproof, and has worked for millennia. Where we can improve is the immersion of learning. Practical experiences are the most memorable. Whether it be chemistry labs or field trips, experiences outside the classroom to complement learning are supremely beneficial to translate theoretical concepts into the real world. If we truly want to be good educators, we must abandon the notion that if a computer can tell us an answer it's not worth knowing. When the meteor shower that hits all the satellites turns your phone into a brick, you'll be glad you put something in your noggin.
I enjoyed reading this. The other day my son asked me a question about something... I think about the moons of Mars. And I said, "hmmm" I'm not sure. And he said: "Just ask Siri." And being a proud dad, I refused! To. Ask. Siri! And got out our Nasa book, and looked it up!!
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ReplyDeleteMy relationship with school has been a love-hate relationship. When I'm learning, I desperately wait for it to end, just to look forward to school when I'm bored or during holidays. For me, an event is truly educational if it causes me to reflect on it or if I learn something from it, even if it is something basic or obvious. When I was in sixth grade, we had mandatory health classes where we learned about topics like cyberbullying, anxiety, and personal well-being that all young teenagers should be aware of. I assumed there would be nothing new or beneficial for me to learn in that class when I enrolled. In that lesson, I learned about other people's self-consciousness. Furthermore, we learned about bullying and how it was and continues to be, a huge issue. That got me thinking about how different people have different perspectives and how people, even people I know, have firsthand experience. We talked about a few incidents of cyberbullying and high school matters. After first believing that there was nothing to learn in this lesson, I found that there is a lot to learn about people I thought I know but don't know. It has prompted me to reflect on it whenever I encounter the topic of bullying while learning, making me think, "this is so obvious yet I never noticed it," or "this is something new I learned that has the potential to grab my attention." I believe that learning anything new, even if it is something everyone knows, has caused you to think, assembles the experience to be truly educational for me.
Good post. You can see that education is not just about subjects but about living in often unfair, often cruel society, and find ways to cope.
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ReplyDeleteFor me, how truly educational really depends on the environment that I am in. For example, in middle school I hated everything and wanted to just go back to sleep and not care about school, but that's because of how social isolated I was and how the subjects were taught. When I eventually moved on to high school, this changed, as I had more freedom to choose what subjects I was interested in and how radically different the social environment was. The subjects were taught in not only a fun manner but also in a way that allowed us to retain some of that knowledge even if it wasn't in our area of interest or expertise.
My experience in high school really taught myself that being allowed to choose what you prefer to learn and possibly make a career out of is the best method of education, as the student would have a genuine motive in learning more about the topic. This really does go for everything, from being inspired by books or novels that you read, to experiencing a new activity, these things can help motivate you into learning. That is what I think makes something you do truly educational, the motivation to learn from the activities you love.
Finding what motivates us is a process. Sometimes a painful one. We need to tolerate the boring in order to find the exciting.
Delete"when the curiousity of a person evolves to become an urge for further seeking and understanding about the specified topic", that would be how I'd personally call educational experience. Brighton and bangkok are the two educational environments or services I have had in my life to this point, however I can say for certain that the majority of my educational experiences occur in locations that werent these 2 places. some might say that educational experiences come with doing things that consist joy and love, but in my opinion, humans by nature like to be productive and get a certain enjoyment out of becoming more educated or a "better version of themselves". which gives them more motivation to continue to pursue in the aspect or field.
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DeleteI think you're right that we, as humans, are predisposed to learning. Our big brains demand it. I wonder what the difference is between learning, training, and educating.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that experience becomes truly educational when someone is forced to spot in their tracks and think over what just happened.
A recent example is when I found out that my cat has cancer.
Quite a dark example, but I strongly believe that the moment was truly educational.
The moment I heard the news, my mind was forced to stop just to digest the information. My cat has cancer and needs to undergo intense treatment just to keep her alive. The experience was truly horrible and I wish that it never happened.
However, I learned two main things from the incident.
1. I learned about the impact of life.
Cats are, quite frankly, useless in my daily life. If I never had a cat, I could still live on. However, I believe that the value and impact of a life does not have to be placed on a definite scale.
For me, my cat simply gives me happiness. Is that not enough?
2. Time is very precious.
Life is measured by many things such as achievement and worth, however, the most important measurement of life is time. Without time, life can't 'live.' Therefore, the more I enjoy the time I spend with my cat, the more value I receive from her precious life.
For me, that was truly an educational experience. I had to step back and revise everything I know just to come to a new conclusion.
Things that make you step back for a moment and just appreciate the problem can be considered educational. It doesn't have to be a big issue like my cat being diagnosed with cancer.
A smaller educational experience I went through was my first day on campus. I had to speak with a stranger in class for a class activity. It made me step back and realize how I am still quite introverted despite how I carry myself in front of my friends.
In summary, an educational experience is one that makes you step back and challenge your old and previous ideas to create new ones or reinforce old ones.
There are few moments in life more reflective than death and mortality. It forces one to re-evaluate what matters. I agree. A kind of education indeed.
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ReplyDeleteI have always questioned myself that what I am really learning from school because I knew that information from books will not help me to understand more about life.
How an experience becomes truly educational depends on the following. Understanding and learning something is a totally different aspect. We could understand every experience but we could not always learn from it and apply it to our daily life. We gain knowledge when we become open-minded. We start to sense and observe and that’s when an experience becomes truly educational.
I used to be afraid of everything. Tiny creatures like ants and other insects also used to frighten me. I even had no guts to walk on the grass without shoes because everything disgust me. That day eventually arrived when I finally grown up and get to know the true meaning of life. I was able to learn the beauty of nature. It was the most precious feeling I have ever felt in my life. My negative emotions and mindset disappeared the moment I stepped on the grass.
There are things we learn from our real-life experiences rather than from listening to some class lectures or reading from some books.
A vivid memory. A wonderful story. And you'll use this story going forward to teach people about around you about the meaning of life.
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ReplyDeleteEducational, by definition, refers to anything intended to intellectually, morally, or socially educate or enlighten individuals. Thus, an object, idea, or experience that is *meant* to achieve this effect, could be considered educational. However, I do not entirely agree with this perspective. My belief is that something should not be determined as educational based on its intended effect, but on the real effect it has when put into practice, and that the degree of which the thing is educational is not binary, but rather on a scale of how useful the knowledge or skill being taught is.
If a university course was designed to teach students about human biology, but fails to do so, is it still educational? Similarly, if a fiction novel was written only to entertain and never meant to be educational, but still taught readers a valuable lesson, should it not be considered educational as well? My belief is that the educational value of an object, idea, or experience, should be determined on a case-by-case basis of how it affects each specific individual.
Each individual reacts to informational input differently. This is based on a wide array of variables, from general mental capability, prior knowledge and experience, and topic complexity, to distractedness, tiredness, and general interest in the subject. One student may grasp a psychological theory due to having experienced prior event that they could use as an example of the phenomena, while another student may not be able to understand the theory due to having no comparable prior knowledge or experience (though in reality the required knowledge to understand a topic should have been taught before hand). It is possible to say that the lesson was more educational to the first student than the second in this specific scenario, as the first student gained an understanding of the theory while the second did not. Likewise, if a video game was able to teach a player to touch type due to its systems and design, despite "teaching player to touch type" having never been part of the video game's intended effects, it could be considered educational, as it has taught the individual a skill (especially since touch typing is a skill that is able to be applied outside of the game itself).
Lastly, we need to address how the degree of which something is educational can be determined. As stated previously, whether something is educational or not should be determined by whether it teaches an individual new knowledge or skills. However, the amount and usefulness of what is learned can vary. As previously stated, touch typing is a skill that is extremely useful to many situations, especially in an age where computers are integral to society and our main interface with them are though keyboard and mouse. Conversely, being taught golf by an amateur golfer could be seen as less educational. It is important to not misunderstand that the golf lesson was not educational, as you are still learning a skill from it. However, the degree of which it is educational could be considered lesser due to the skill being less applicable to problems in other fields, and learning less due to being taught by another amateur. Internal factors, such as interest in the subject, may also affect how much you learn from something, and thus how educational it is to you.
In summary, how educational something is should not be determined by what it was intended to teach, but what it actually does teach, and the degree to which something is educational should be determined by how much and how valuable the taught knowledge or skills are. How educational something is can be affected by an individual's personal factors as much as the thing itself. Things meant to be educational could have no value to someone unable to learn from it, whilst things not meant to be educational can be educational to those able to gleam new knowledge or skills from it.
A very thoughtful and thorough comment. You are a philosopher. You are interrogating education versus training, value versus usefulness, purpose versus intention. A really nice exploration.
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ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning of middle school until halfway through high school, I attended a school which was heavily STEM focused. Here, grades meant everything; if you didn't get good grades, you would be looked down upon by some teachers and peers. Consequently, after spending years in that institution, I developed a fear of failure. I pressured myself into studying endlessly to achieve good grades and would beat myself up over the tiniest mistakes. However, I wasn’t learning anything. I would spend all night memorizing the class content only to regurgitate it out during the exam and then forget about it right after.
Then, in my final year of high school, I decided to move to a different school. The environment here was vastly different and in a way, I experienced some form of 'culture shock'. I began to question what I had been doing the past 6 years of my life in my previous school. Here, I was encouraged to join clubs, meet new people, and help organize activities. I highly enjoyed these experiences and through them, I was able to learn ‘real life’ skills such as communication, marketing, public speaking, etc. I also picked up some fun skills such as acting and stop motion animation in the process. Most of my teachers at this school were supportive of me, they helped me discover my likes and my dislikes and guided me into finding the field I wanted to pursue. One of my teachers in particular (my physics teacher), was incredibly passionate about his field of study and would often share fun stories about his experiences. His passion for the subject managed to rub off on me and I found myself interested in it too despite it being one of my weakest subjects. As I grew interested, I retained the information better and sought more knowledge.
Therefore, I believe that for something to be educational, it should impart some sort of meaningful impact on the learner; whether that be challenging their mindset, granting them new knowledge which they would retain, or gaining skills that would help them in their daily lives.
It is an interesting comment. Often when we look at STEM programs, (and not always... I'm not against STEM), they are marketed to parents as they lead to "good" jobs. They are also in demand from governments who want more engineers in society. What is often lost is the needs/desires of the individual.
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ReplyDeleteIn the age of social media and search engines, knowledge is easily acquired by those who are eager to learn. I believe perspective shapes what we find educational. Whether it be a lecture or a Youtube video, the value is determined by us. What an aspiring musician finds useful may not be the case for a computer programmer. The information we seek is right in front of us on our screens. It is a matter of how relevant it is to our own life.
The same goes for life experiences. One year ago I would have said I regret encountering certain people. Now, in hindsight, I obtained certain traits and new perspectives I otherwise wouldn’t have. Those relationships- like brush strokes on a canvas- painted the picture of who I am now. Processing events, despite being long ago, allows you to reflect and learn what you may have not observed before. My point is that regardless of where you are in life, you have the ability to take a look within yourself and make any past experience an educational one.
A thoughtful comment. This leaves the door wide open to what can be educational. It just depends on whether your eyes are wide enough to find it.
DeleteThis journal blog is now closed. Thank you for your participation. Aj. M
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