timeline of the french educational/school system (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
LEGO bricks (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a must-read article published in the Japanese Times. Whilst the article is focused upon Japan, I believe that some of the concepts are generalizable to other advanced countries like the UK, France, the US and Australia.
The article reports that the teaching methods of Kazuya Takahashi, 35, using Lego blocks and speaking entirely in English, may not be the norm in the Japanese education system. But on a global level, the educator, who teaches at the Kogakuin junior high and high schools in Hachioji, western Tokyo, is considered ahead of the game and has won recognition for his efforts to promote global citizenship.
Source: Global education experts urge Japan to look beyond rote learning | The Japan Times
I worry about falling education standards in many advanced countries like the UK where performance against international benchmarks is mediocre. I question the role of politicians, bureaucrats, teachers, parents as well as the students themselves. Education in many countries like France for example is segregated into the world class institutes, like the grand ecoles, and the much lower performing universities.
Let me ask an open question:
Taking global best practice as the goal, how should Western policy makers achieved a real improvement in educational achievement?
Thoughts?
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