Too many reform movements in education are designed to make education teacher-proof. The most successful systems in the world take the opposite view. They invest in teachers. The reason is that people succeed best when they have others who understand their talents, challenges, and abilities. This is why mentoring is such a helpful force in so many people lives. Great teachers have always understood that their real role is not to teach subjects but to teach students. Mentoring and coaching is the vital pulse of a living system of education.
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Education is being strangled persistently by the culture of standardized testing. The irony is that these tests are not raising standards except in some very particular areas, and at the expense of most of what really matters in education.
To get a perspective on this, compare the processes of quality assurance in education with those in an entire different field – catering. In the restaurant business, there are two distinct models of quality assurance. The first is the fast-food model. In this model, the quality of the food is guaranteed, because it is all standardized. The fast-food chains specify exactly what should be in burgers or nuggets, the oil in which they should be fried, the exact bun in which they should be served, how the fries should be made, what should be in the drinks, and exactly how they should be served. They specify how the room should be decorated and what the staff should wear. Everything is standardized. It’s often dreadful and bad for you. Some forms of fast food are contributing to the massive explosion of obesity and diabetes across the world. But at least the quality is guaranteed.
The other model of quality assurance in catering is the Michelin guide. In this model, the guides establish specific criteria for excellence, but they do not say how the particular restaurants should meet the criteria. They don’t say what should be on the menu, what the staff should wear, or how the rooms should be decorated. All that is at the discretion of the individual restaurant. The guides simply establish criteria, and it is up to every restaurantto meet them in whatever way they see best. They are then judged not to some impersonal standard, but by the assessment of experts who know what they are looking for and what a restaurant is actually like. The result is that every Michelin restaurant is terrific. And they are all unique and different from each other.
One of the essential problems for education is that most countries subject their schools to the fast-food model of quality assurance when they should be adopting the Michelin model instead. The future for education is not in standardizing but in customizing; not in promoting groupthink and “deindividuation” but in cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of every sort. …
The examples I have just given point the way to the sorts of education we now need in the 21st century. A number of them build on principles that educational visionaries have been promoting for generations – principles often seen as eccentric, even heretical. And they were, then. The views of these visionaries were ahead of their times (hence my describing them as visionary). But the right time has arrived. If we are serious about educational transformation, we must understand the times and catch the new tide. We can ride it into the future, or be overwhelmed and sink back into the past.
The stakes could hardly be higher for education and for all who pass through it.
The Element - How Finding your Passion Changes Everything– Ken Robinson Ph . D.
One of the world’s leading thinkers on creativity and innovation. pp249-250.
A12points / Prélèvements de mots transparents ou usuels
Nature of the document: an extract of a book on creativity and innovation
Topic:education
Author: Ken Robinson
A2
7 points / Prélèvements basés sur les éléments factuels essentiels et les liens simples.
Key actors in educationaccording to the author: teachers, ( 0, 5)
Key elements in educationaccording to the mosteducatinalreforms:standardized tests( 0,5)
Teachers’ role in educationaccording to the author: mentoring( advising/guiding) and coaching, teachingstudents not subjects.
What’s the main problem in educationfor him: standardized tests
What Is the purpose of these tests: raising standards( =improvingresults)
Do theysucceed? No
B1
8 points / Eléments d’analyse essentiels basés sur l’explicite.
What do fast-food restaurants guarantee? quality model, foodisguaranteed
Tick the specific items listed in the text for each type of restaurant: (5points)
Fast-food restaurant / Michelin restaurant
The content of the dish
The quality of the oil
The nature of the bread roll
The way the foodiseaten
The number of drinks sold
The room and decor
The staffs’ clothes
The criteria for excellence / The content of eachdish
The quality of the oil
The nature of the bread roll
The way the foodiseaten
The number of drinks sold
The room and decor
The staffs’ clothes
The criteria for exellence
Whatiseducation in most countries compared to? fast -food
Whyisit an issue? standardization
How are the principles of educatinalvisionariespresented by the author? eccentric andheretical in the past, vital in the future.
B2
7 points / Implicite(structurel, linguistique, culturel)
The author’s opinion about fast-food: healthy or dangerous -
Michelin restaurant: excellent or horrible,
Explain “ Too many reform movements in education are designed to make education teacher-proof”: to reduce education to test, erasing the role of teacher.
What does the author promote for the school model for the future?Customizing education. ( = aaunortohodox education, not mainstream education).
Explain what ‘ deindividuation’ means : standardizing education which means denying the individual abilities of each individual.
How does he feel about education transformation ? (explaining in your own words) time is running out, he is quite emotional about it.
Then quote the text to justify your answer ‘ the right time has arrived understand the times, catch the tide, overwhelmed and sink into the past, stakes … higher)