The author starts with 4 questions:
1. Where does the seed take all the stuff that enables it to turn into a tree?
2. Can you light a bulb using wires and a battery?
3. Why is it hotter is summer than in winter?
4. What is shape the Solar system?
Before you click on the link, try to answer them.
Link: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jonathan_drori_on_what_we_think_we_know.html
! The 7 year old had better scores than MIT students
Reasons: Gaining of knowledge from common sense from observing the nature
Adults: Misconception of the real world as it is learned from books
Question to debate about:
Is school an impediment towards our true education?
Do we have less creativity after than before school? If so, why continue studying and gain “knowledge” that separates us from the real word?
Should we observe things and experience them hands on rather than engulf ourselves in books, diagrams and schemes?
By the way, the answers to the questions:
1. Air
2. Yes. He shows a picture
3. Rays from the sun are spread out more
4. Round
Source: www.ted.com, last visited on Sept 07 2008
Role of teamwork in schools????
16 years ago
5 comments:
I am waiting for your comments here... It is an open debate after all.
well, u come to school, u read the theory, probably what will stick in ur mind from an accounting book is that footnote about where the coca cola secret formula is kept..but the experience u get is from ur interaction in and out of school..it's a way of formation..u meet ppl, someone has smth interesting to say, smb else opened a business of his own and u'r inspired by that, or u simply participate in a scholarship competition offered by your university and u want to duplicate the idea in ur country..i'll stop here otherwise it sounds like theory in those school books u'r not passionate about:P cheers!
Check out the comment Jon Drori left on TED:
"Jonathan Drori – September 8 2008
I've been following the discussion with interest - thanks for the comments, many of which have made me think a lot! The atmosphere of these short TED Prof talks is a lot less formal than the main auditorium. If I'd thought about the attention that would be paid 18 months later, I might have been a little more scripted, not to mention more careful with my posture!
I stand by the original premise though. Children build 'common-sense' models of the world which are sometimes wrong. These models are difficult to shift and indeed sometimes unintentionally reinforced or compounded. Such models persist into adulthood and into society, among whom of course are science educators who are only human like the rest of us. I've met plenty of science teachers who hold a range of misconceptions.
One way of breaking out of this circle of misunderstanding is to listen to children's ideas about how the world works. Once such ideas are articulated, it's more possible to work with them. Another thing that can help is practical, gently guided, hands-on experience, allowing people to do experiments and see for themselves.
That's basically what I was trying to say.
Can I clear up one thing though? I used the cooling tower picture as a shorthand for power-generation in general and the kind of issue about which people need scientific knowledge in order to be able to make informed decisions. In fact, it is a combined coal/gas-fired station in England (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didcot_Power_Station). I'd be genuinely keen to know on what basis those people who were so sure it was nuclear made their decision? I wonder if people associate this design of cooling tower with nuclear power in North America because of the accident at Three Mile Island which had so much attention? I'm not sure that Europeans would see these cooling towers in the same way. Just a thought.
Thanks again. I'll continue to follow the conversation with interest, and humility. Jon Drori, London"
and my last comment, actually Thomas Cardinal's : Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.
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