How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

[theworldismine13]

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/2/

These students in Matamoros, Mexico, didn’t have reliable Internet access, steady electricity, or much hope—until a radical new teaching method unlocked their potential Peter Yang

José Urbina López Primary School sits next to a dump just across the US border in Mexico. The school serves residents of Matamoros, a dusty, sunbaked city of 489,000 that is a flash point in the war on drugs. There are regular shoot-outs, and it’s not uncommon for locals to find bodies scattered in the street in the morning. To get to the school, students walk along a white dirt road that parallels a fetid canal. On a recent morning there was a 1940s-era tractor, a decaying boat in a ditch, and a herd of goats nibbling gray strands of grass. A cinder-block barrier separates the school from a wasteland—the far end of which is a mound of trash that grew so big, it was finally closed down. On most days, a rotten smell drifts through the cement-walled classrooms. Some people here call the school un lugar de castigo—”a place of punishment.”

For 12-year-old Paloma Noyola Bueno, it was a bright spot. More than 25 years ago, her family moved to the border from central Mexico in search of a better life. Instead, they got stuck living beside the dump. Her father spent all day scavenging for scrap, digging for pieces of aluminum, glass, and plastic in the muck. Recently, he had developed nosebleeds, but he didn’t want Paloma to worry. She was his little angel—the youngest of eight children.

After school, Paloma would come home and sit with her father in the main room of their cement-and-wood home. Her father was a weather-beaten, gaunt man who always wore a cowboy hat. Paloma would recite the day’s lessons for him in her crisp uniform—gray polo, blue-and-white skirt—and try to cheer him up. She had long black hair, a high forehead, and a thoughtful, measured way of talking. School had never been challenging for her. She sat in rows with the other students while teachers told the kids what they needed to know. It wasn’t hard to repeat it back, and she got good grades without thinking too much. As she headed into fifth grade, she assumed she was in for more of the same—lectures, memorization, and busy work.

Sergio Juárez Correa was used to teaching that kind of class. For five years, he had stood in front of students and worked his way through the government-mandated curriculum. It was mind-numbingly boring for him and the students, and he’d come to the conclusion that it was a waste of time. Test scores were poor, and even the students who did well weren’t truly engaged. Something had to change.

He too had grown up beside a garbage dump in Matamoros, and he had become a teacher to help kids learn enough to make something more of their lives. So in 2011—when Paloma entered his class—Juárez Correa decided to start experimenting. He began reading books and searching for ideas online. Soon he stumbled on a video describing the work of Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK. In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Mitra conducted experiments in which he gave children in India access to computers. Without any instruction, they were able to teach themselves a surprising variety of things, from DNA replication to English.

Continued http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/?cid=13144904

 

[theworldismine13]

Sohh people gonna ignore this epic story?

@TheReal_Broke_88m3_13

 

[unit321]

Sohh people gonna ignore this epic story?

@TheReal_Broke_88m3_13

This is the coli. Lower your expectations.

You can always do the "Hot Cheerleaders pictures" trick just to draw in suckers.

 

[TheReal_Broke_88m3_13]

interesting good luck trying to implement this...

 

[Suicide King]

Seems like the same thing the Khan Academy been pushing for the past few years, let students learn at their own pace and unrestricted by a structured curriculum.

It has potential if it keeps students engaged and not so indifferent towards learning.

 

[theworldismine13]

Seems like the same thing the Khan Academy been pushing for the past few years, let students learn at their own pace and unrestricted by a structured curriculum.

It has potential if it keeps students engaged and not so indifferent towards learning.

hmm no, its not what kahn academy is doing at all, kahn academy does let you go on your own pace but it is very structured, kahn is supplementary to regular school work, its not a replacement for it and its essentially the same exact methodologies used in any classroom, which is fine actually

what this dude is doing is essentially teaching this class to elementary students students https://www.coursera.org/course/maththink

Mathematical thinking is not the same as doing mathematics – at least not as mathematics is typically presented in our school system. School math typically focuses on learning procedures to solve highly stereotyped problems. Professional mathematicians think a certain way to solve real problems, problems that can arise from the everyday world, or from science, or from within mathematics itself. The key to success in school math is to learn to think inside-the-box. In contrast, a key feature of mathematical thinking is thinking outside-the-box – a valuable ability in today’s world. This course helps to develop that crucial way of thinking.

he is using high level methodologies used at the university level in elementary schools

 

[Brown_Pride]

it definitely sounds like a great idea, my concern would be a lack of ANY structure, which I know seams to be what they are shooting for. If you completely leave learning up to students they will only learn certain things and not necessarily what they need to know. (not that schools do that now).

IMHO this is more on point with creating intelligent, independent children vs what we currently have now.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Kinda reminds me a bit of the environments offered by Norwegian countries and even some homeschooled kids...

 

[Hawaiian Punch]

Man if you leave me in front of a computer with no instruction I'm gonna download porn

 

[Dafunkdoc_Unlimited]

Didn't this same type of thing happen in an African country where they just dropped a bunch of iPads in a village with no instructions and the villagers taught themselves English?​

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Free ipad apps for 1 year olds and up are the radical new teaching method that will unelash geniuses, FRIEND!

 

[Blackking]

Do they have this set up in the US?

I know the some home school groups do it like this..