Presentation Discussion, Essay Example

How accurate do you think Mr. Robinson’s assessment of the current state of education is?

In his report, an expert in education, Robinson (2010) gives quite an accurate assessment of the current education system of the United States form the historical, economic, and cultural point of view. It is true that the attitude towards education has changed greatly. Nowadays the meaning of labor is different than it used to be in XIX century. With the fast development of new technology, the labor has acquired a certain intellectual character. Thus, it is not enough to be only a skilled worker because nowadays successful employment requires having a University degree. Today, people clearly understand that living in the epoch of capitalism demands quick reaction on the changing situation in the field of technology to be competitive in the labor market. From the economic point of view, the state should update the national education system on a regular basis to enable its citizens to compete adequately. It is viable opinion that the process of globalization affects education greatly as not only the countries merge but the systems of education also acquire similar characteristics due to close cooperation, experience, and information exchange in the present area. Anyway, the system of education must not only borrow positive experiences from other states but also consider its national character and try to preserve its national entity (Robinson, 2010).

It seems quite reasonable that a modern problem of the attention deficit disorder among the U.S. schoolchildren is related to the situation with the US school system: the epidemic is caused by overloading the children with unnecessary information. The school system is unable to filter it out, which makes things even worse by providing the students with boring classes, standard curriculum, tests, etc. The recommendation of Robinson (2010) seems very wise since there is a clear need to move away from standardized teaching.

What do you believe needs to be done by education leaders to begin to transform education along the lines of your own personal assessment of education today?

The example with the reform of school system seems rather illustrative because almost all states all over the world are in the urgent need of reforming their systems of education. The current education system of the United States clearly shows the need for changes because it has started to lose its privileged status among other nations. It is obvious from the decreasing number of young people graduating with the 12^th highest degree among the 36 developed countries, and the increasing number of those not focused on education, which can threaten cultural, economic, and scientific welfare of the country (Reforming Education in America,” 2011).

It is reasonable to reform the education system in the following ways: to develop a uniform curriculum in the states because of the considerable differences in the level of education; to provide the states with more funding irrespective of a state; to focus on a learner instead of the teaching methodology; to provide special psychological training for teachers to teach them give positive and timely feedback to the students (Reforming Education in America,” 2011).

However, one of the most significant aspects of the reform to consider is the increased attention toward the learner instead of the teaching techniques. The teacher must learn to motivate the student in a right way because student self-motivation is a great motive power of the future education reform. The teacher has to realize that the learning process is based on the student, thus the teacher has to organize classes and adapt the material in the best way to ensure better performance of each student. By following the principle of the learner-focused education, the teacher can change the way the education had been done so far and help students take the education seriously, acquire leadership qualities, and be successful at the university. In addition, it will make a contribution to the creation of the community of motivated learners.

Do you think that Knowledge Management can contribute to help improve things in education?

As the education becomes more learner-centered, it has created the need for the implementation of the basic Knowledge Management concepts aimed at training of knowledgeable, skilled specialists who are highly competitive at the labor market. The implementation of the Knowledge Management concepts in the system of education has partially engendered the employers’ need for the workers who are able to get the required information quickly. Thus, the reformed education system will provide the students with the skills and knowledge sufficient for a successful employment since it is focused on the requirements of the labor market (Shanthana & Scholar, 2009).

Implementation of knowledge management will have positive influence on education as it takes into account various micro- and macro-level tasks: composition of materials for studies and possible ways of presentation of a learning material. The tasks include the choice of the student-faculty, student-student models of communication between the participants of learning process. The students are offered to follow the teacher’s instructions, either alone or by means of performing a group-based activity. The teachers must keep track of students’ performance assessment monitoring the learning results in terms of the set goals and standards required by the education process. It is true to say that only collective and systemic use of information and knowledge will enable achieving the objectives of higher education by means of better performance, and will increase its adaptability to the changing situation in education worldwide. Implementation of innovations in knowledge management will contribute to better assessment of students’ work and their performance in all academic areas, and will improve the standards of education at all levels. By developing the knowledge management in education, the national system of education will become highly competitive globally (Shanthana & Scholar, 2009). Knowledge management would be an effective regulatory mechanism required to ensure the quality and shape the field of higher education in the near future considerably.

References

Reforming Education in America. (2011). Hubpages, p.1 Retrieved from http://mrsdarcy.hubpages.com/hub/Its-Time-for-an-Education-Reform

Robinson, K., (2010). Changing education paradigms. Ted. Ideas Worth Spreading. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Shanthana, M.X., & Scholar. P.M. (2011, March). Innovations in Education –Knowledge Management. Fuzzvision Education. Retrieved from http://www.fuzzvision.com/innovations-in-education-knowledge-management/