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Can Virtual Reality Open STEM Education And Jobs To More People?

Sasha Banks-Louie

By: Sasha Banks-Louie , Oracle

Employers need to fill 1.6 million jobs in the US that require backgrounds in science, technology, engineering, and math by 2021, according to a 2016 study by the US Department of Education. That demand is spurring new approaches to STEM education that are designed to appeal to more, and a greater diversity, of students.

“Science educators know we need to stop teaching facts and figures from textbooks and start showing students how to apply the fundamental concepts of scientific methods to real-world problems,” says Dr. Becky Sage, CEO of Interactive Scientific, a UK-based education technology firm.

Interactive Scientific, part of the Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator program in Bristol, has developed scientific simulation software, called Nano Simbox, which students are using to observe how atoms and molecules interact. Researchers are also using this technology to explore new theories, product designs, and drugs.

Employing tablets, virtual reality headsets and controllers, students can visualize atoms, observe how they behave in different combinations, and manipulate them for testing.

Dominique Skinner, a chemistry student at Queen Mary University of London studying biochemistry, used Nano Simbox technology and research to combine atoms and create digital models of the molecules for a plant-based line of cosmetics.

“I wanted to put science next to veganism, and veganism next to cosmetics,” Skinner says. “Nano Simbox allowed me to see how skin would react to molecules from animal proteins and synthetic chemicals that were harsh on the skin versus plant-based molecules that benefited the skin.”

New Approach to Learning

Interactive Scientific has begun experimenting with artificial intelligence to understand how students learn, and how applying machine-learning algorithms could guide their progress.

“Whilst our machine learning work is in its infancy we have already designed the software to help students understand complex, scientific concepts in a way that’s unique to their individual learning styles and encourages them to challenge their own thinking by exploring alternative ideas,” says Sage.

Traditional teaching approaches using textbooks and standardized testing tend to be less flexible, both in the pace at which students progress and how their understanding is tracked and measured.

Nano Simbox’s simulation software runs on Oracle Infrastructure as a Service, making it possible “to scale this really complex science,” says Interactive Scientific founder Dr. David Glowacki.

“We needed a system to help us monitor, log, and report on scalability in real-time,” says Glowacki, who’s also a Royal Society research fellow at the University of Bristol and visiting scholar with Stanford University’s chemistry and mechanical engineering departments.

Creating Opportunities

Traditional methods of teaching STEM can be a deterrent to some students. Females, minorities, and students from lower-income families are underrepresented in STEM education and related professions. According to the Department of Education study, that makes it harder to narrow education and poverty gaps, meet the demands of a tech-driven economy, and maintain US leadership in scientific research and innovation.

“Our goal is to open up lifelong science learning to everybody, whether you’re in grades K-12, studying at a university, or in a non-traditional learning environment,” says Sage. “And our hope for the future workforce is that inclusivity will be valued so anyone will be able to thrive in their working environment.”

Source:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2018/02/20/can-virtual-reality-open-stem-education-and-jobs-to-more-people/#78f87b508874

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Schools as Punishing Factories: The Handcuffing of Public Education

Henry Giroux

By: Dr. Henry Giroux

The Nobel Prize-winning author Ngugi wa Thiong’o has insisted rightfully that «Children are the future of any society,» adding, «If you want to maim the future of any society, you simply maim the children.» (1)

As we move into the second Gilded Age, young people are viewed more as a threat than as a social investment.

If one important measure of a democracy is how a society treats its children – especially children of color, poor and working-class youth, and those with disabilities – there can be little doubt that the United States is failing. Half of all public school children live in near poverty, 16 million children receive food stamps and 90 percent of Black children will be on food stamps at some point during childhood. (2) Moreover, too many children are either incarcerated or homeless.

The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that «One in 45 children experience homelessness in America each year. That’s over 1.6 million children. [Moreover] while homeless, they experience high rates of acute and chronic health problems. The constant barrage of stressful and traumatic experience also has profound effects on their development and ability to learn.» (3) Sadly, these statistics rarely scratch the surface of the dire and deep-seated problems facing many young people in the richest country in the world, a state of affairs that provokes too little public outrage.

Teachable Moment or Criminal Offense?

Every age has its approach to identifying and handling problems. As we move into the second Gilded Age, young people are viewed more as a threat than as a social investment. Instead of being viewed as at-risk in a society that has defaulted on its obligations to young people, youth today are viewed as the risk itself. Instead of recognizing the social problems and troubles they face – ranging from poverty to punishing schools – our society sees youth as spoiled or threatening. (4) One consequence is that their behaviors are increasingly criminalized in the streets, malls, schools and many other places once considered safe spaces for them. As compassion and social responsibility give way to punishment and fear as the most important modalities mediating the relationship of youth to the larger social order, schools resort more and more to zero-tolerance policies and other punitive practices. Such practices often result in the handing over of disciplinary problems to the police rather than to educational personnel.

Children are being punished instead of educated in US schools.

With the growing presence of police, surveillance technologies and security guards in schools, more and more of what kids do, how they act, how they dress and what they say are defined as a criminal offense, regardless of how trivial the offense may be – in some cases just doodling on a desk or violating a dress code. Such behaviors, which teachers and administrators use to regulate through everyday means, are now treated as infractions within the purview of the police. Consequently, suspensions, expulsions, arrests and jail time have become routine for poor youth of color. Even more shocking is the rise of zero-tolerance policies to punish Black students and students with disabilities. (5) Instead of recognizing the need to provide services for students with special needs, there is a dangerous trend on the part of school systems to adopt policies «that end in seclusion, restraint, expulsion, and – too often – law enforcement intervention for the disabled children involved.» (6) Sadly, this is but a small sampling of the ways in which children are being punished instead of educated in US schools, especially inner-city schools. Rather than treating school infractions as part of the professional responsibilities of teachers and administrators, schools are criminalizing such behaviors and calling the police. What might have become a teachable moment becomes a criminal offense. (7)

Since the 1990s, the US public has been swamped by the fear of an alleged rise in teenage crime and what was called a superpredator crisis. This crisis was largely popularized by John J. DiIulio Jr., then a political scientist at Princeton University, who argued without irony «that hordes of depraved teenagers [were about to resort] to unspeakable brutality, not tethered by conscience.» (8) Politicians, intellectuals and news organizations were convinced that young people posed a dire threat to the US public and not only reveled «on these sensational predictions [but also] ran with them like a punt returner finding daylight.» (9) While such chaos proved to be nonsense, the theses spawned a plethora of disciplinary practices in schools, such as zero-tolerance policies, which have turned them into institutions that resemble prisons with students being subjected to harsh disciplinary practices, particularly poor black children and children suffering from mental health problems, such as ADHD.

Policing Students in Classrooms and on Playgrounds

These harsh practices have been inflicted disproportionately on poor Black children and children suffering from mental health problems such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This was on full display as social media lit up with a video that disclosed an 8-year-old boy in the third grade in an elementary school classroom in Covington, Kentucky, screaming in pain because he was being handcuffed with his arms placed behind his back. (10) Standing beside the child is police officer, Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner, who issues the chilling message, «You either behave the way you are supposed to or you suffer the consequences.» The child, it was later revealed, suffers from a learning disability. According to the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington, «Charles Korzenborn, the sheriff in Covington, Kentucky … defended the officer … claiming that the police officer, Kevin Sumner, had done absolutely nothing wrong. The sheriff said his deputy had done ‘what he is sworn to do and in conformity with all constitutional and law enforcement standards…. I steadfastly stand behind Deputy Sumner who responded to the school’s request for help. Deputy Sumner is a highly respected and skilled law enforcement deputy, and is an asset to the community and those he serves.'» (11) Allegedly, Sumner was responding to the school’s call to diffuse «a threat.» It is hard to imagine what kind of threat a 3.5-foot tall 8-year-old elementary school child posed to either the school or to the police. At work here is not only a kind of bizarre rationality in which one becomes an asset to the community by handcuffing and arresting an 8-year-old boy but also the scourge of a willful ignorance which is the refusal to know or to recognize when an act of violence is being committed against a child.

Schools are considered dangerous because they are public, not because they are failing.

The sheriff’s unhinged defense of Sumner becomes even more apparent in light of the fact that it has been revealed that Sumner had engaged in similar behavior earlier in 2014. At that time, he participated in the handcuffing at John C. Carlisle Elementary School of a 9-year-old girl living with ADHD. At one level, this case reveals why police should not be in public schools in the first place and that the targeting of children by criminalizing their behavior represents the antithesis of how a school should treat its children. It also suggests something about the low regard the public has for public schools and the lives of our nation’s youth, especially poor children of color.

While the image of an 8-year-old boy handcuffed in an elementary school classroom in Covington, Kentucky, has rightfully drawn a great deal of attention on social media and in the mainstream news, it is far from unique. In 2013, a diabetic student in an Alabama high school was arrested and beaten for falling asleep in a classroom. (12) In 2013, Bronx police falsely accused a 7-year-old boy and «put him in handcuffs and held him in custody for ten hours after a playground fight» in which he was falsely accused of stealing $5 from another student. (13) It gets worse. The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in November 2012 charging that the Meridian, Mississippi, school district functioned largely as a school-to-prison pipeline, disproportionally focusing on Black youth. According to the Justice Department’s 37-page complaint, the Meridian school district engaged in «years of systemic abuse [which punished] youth ‘so arbitrarily and severely as to shock the conscience.'» (14)

As Julianne Hing reports,

In Meridian, when schools want to discipline children, they do much more than just send them to the principal’s office. They call the police, who show up to arrest children who are as young as 10 years old. Arrests, the Department of Justice says, happen automatically, regardless of whether the police officer knows exactly what kind of offense the child has committed or whether that offense is even worthy of an arrest. The police department’s policy is to arrest all children referred to the agency. Once those children are in the juvenile justice system, they are denied basic constitutional rights. They are handcuffed and incarcerated for days without any hearing and subsequently warehoused without understanding their alleged probation violations. (15)

The Meridian case makes clear what numerous reports have indicated for years: not only that zero-tolerance measures have failed, but also that they have made schools less secure, resulted in criminalizing student behavior and contributed to what has been called the school-to-prison pipeline, especially for poor youth of color. As the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) points out, the school-to-prison pipeline is a «disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.» (16) Putting the police in schools has little to do with improving the learning environment for children and a great deal to do with criminalizing students «for behavior that should be handled inside the school. Students of color are especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of discipline.» (17)

The war on youth and public schools is part of the larger assault on democracy itself.

The increasing criminalization of students of color, poor students and students with disabilities is taking place in the context of a broader attack on public schools as a whole. Like many institutions that represent the public good, public schools are under attack by market, religious and educational fundamentalists. Schools are considered dangerous because they are public, not because they are failing. State and corporate leaders are seeking to take power out of the hands of public school teachers and administrators because public schools harbor teachers with the potential to engage in pedagogies that are imaginative, empowering, critical and capable of connecting learning with the practice of freedom and the search for justice. The pedagogies of oppression – whether in the form of high-stakes testing, teaching for the test, imposing punitive disciplinary measures or the construction of relations that disempower teachers and empower security guards – are part of a broader attempt to destroy the social state and the institutions that produce the formative culture necessary for a democracy.

Students Are Not Criminals

There are no safe spaces left in the United States. As almost every aspect of society becomes militarized, the imposing apparatuses of the police state become more and more obvious, reckless and dangerous, and include more than the arming of local police forces.

As Chase Mader observes:

Even as simple a matter as getting yourself from point A to point B can quickly become a law enforcement matter as travel and public space are ever more aggressively policed. Waiting for a bus? Such loitering just got three Rochester youths arrested. Driving without a seat belt can easily escalate into an arrest, even if the driver is a state judge. (Notably, all four of these men were black.) If the police think you might be carrying drugs, warrantless body cavity searches at the nearest hospital may be in the offing – you will be sent the bill later. Air travel entails increasingly intimate pat-downs and arbitrary rules that many experts see as nothing more than ‘security theater.’ As for staying at home, it carries its own risks as Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates found out when a Cambridge police officer mistook him for a burglar and hauled him away – a case that is hardly unique. (18)

The rise of the punishing and police state depends on conformity, the squelching of dissent and the closing down of any institution capable of educating the young and old to hold authority accountable. More specifically, pedagogies of oppression are a central tool for dismantling critical learning and dissent and for increasing the power of the punishing state. Under the reign of neoliberalism, all things public are under attack, from schools to health care to public servants. The war on youth and public schools is part of the larger assault on democracy itself. The controlling elite view schools as dangerous to their interests. For the financial elite, right-wing ideologues and billionaires such as the Walton family, the Koch brothers and Bill Gates, public education must be defunded, broken and privatized because it contains the potential to educate young people to question authority and hold it accountable, and produce civically literate and socially engaged students and critically engaged citizens.

Schools are not prisons, teachers are not a security detail and students are not criminals. Schools should model the United States’ investment in children and to do so they need to view young people as a resource rather than as a threat. If public schools are going to improve they have to be appropriately funded. That means, raising corporate taxes, cutting the defense budget, and allocating funds that contribute to the public good. It also means closing down and defunding those financial and military institutions that produce misery and destroy human lives, especially the lives of children. Educators should be given the power, autonomy and resources to be able to work closely with children in order to provide them with the conditions for meaningful learning while providing safe spaces for them to be nourished ethically, intellectually and spiritually. Schools are a public good and should be defined as such. How the United States invests in schools will shape an entire generation of young people. The lesson these youth should not be learning is that they can’t be trusted and should be treated as criminals. That view of schooling is one we associate with totalitarian states, not with a genuine democratic society.

Footnotes:

1. Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural Freedom(London: James Currey, 1993), p. 76.

2. Lindsey Tanner, «Half of US Kids Will Get Food Stamps, Study Says,» The Associated Press (November 2, 2009). Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/02/food-stamps-will-feed-hal_n_342834.html

3. Cited from the website of The National Center on Family Homelessness. Online: http://www.familyhomelessness.org/children.php?p=ts

4. I have taken this issue up in great detail in Henry A. Giroux, Youth in a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability (New York: Palgrave, 2009). See also Kenneth Saltman, ed. Kenneth J. Saltman, David A. Gabbard, eds. Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of Schools (New York: Routledge, 2010).

5. Joy Resmovits, «American Schools Are STILL Racist, Government Report Finds,» The Huffington Post (March 21, 2015). Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/21/schools-discrimination_n_5002954.html

6. s.e. smith, «Police Handcuffing 7-Year-Olds? The Brutality Unleashed on Kids With Disabilities in Our School Systems,» AlterNet (May 22, 2012). Online: http://www.alternet.org/story/155526/police_handcuffing_7-year-olds_the_brutality_unleashed_on_kids_with_disabilities_in_our_school_systems?page=entire

7. Staff, Rethinking Schools, «Stop the School-to-Prison Pipeline» Truthout, (Jan. 15, 2012).

8. Clyde Haberman, «When Youth Violence Spurred ‘Superpredator’ Fear,» The New York Times (April 6, 2014). Online: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/us/politics/killing-on-bus-recalls-superpredator-threat-of-90s.html?_r=0

9. Ibid., Haberman.

10. The video can be seen here: Ed Pilkington, «Kentucky sheriff ‘steadfastly’ defends officer who handcuffed 8-year-old,» The Guardian (August 4, 2015). Online: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/04/kentucky-sheriff-defends-officer-handcuffed-child

11. Ibid., Pilkington.

12. Alex Kane, «Diabetic High School Girl Beaten by Police Officer and Arrested – For Falling Asleep in Class,» AlterNet, (May 7, 2013).

13. Natasha Lennard, «NYPD Handcuff, Interrogate 7-Year-Old Over $5,» AlterNet, (January 30, 2013). Online: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/nypd-handcuff-interrogate-7-year-old-over-5

14. Julianne Hing, «The Shocking Details of a Mississippi School-to-Prison Pipeline,» Truthout, (December 3, 2012). Online: http://truth-out.org/news/item/13121-the-shocking-details-of-a-mississippi-school-to-prison-pipeline

15. Ibid., Hing.

16. American Civil Liberties Union, «School-to-prison-pipeline,» ACLU Issues (August 5, 2015). Online: https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline

17. Ibid.

18. Chase Madar, «Everyone Is a Criminal: On the Over-Policing of America», The Huffington Post. (December 13, 2013). Online: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chase-madar/over-policing-of-america_b_4412187.html

 

Source:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32238-schools-as-punishing-factories-the-handcuffing-of-public-education

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Canada: Post-secondary education made more affordable for part-time students

Noticias

Canada/ February 27, 2018/By: Rattan Mall/Source: http://www.voiceonline.com

STARTING this academic year, nearly 10,000 more part-time students from low- and middle-income families will benefit from up to $1,800 in non‑repayable grants per year and up to $10,000 in loans.

This was announced by parliamentary secretary Terry Beech on behalf of Patty Hajdu, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, on Tuesday.

Additionally, access to grants for part-time students with children will be expanded allowing them to benefit from up to $1,920 per year in grants.

Expanded access to Canada Student Grants for full-time and part-time students and students with dependants helps more Canadians afford post-secondary education. These measures will benefit Canadian women in particular, who often strive to improve their career prospects while balancing family responsibilities.

Women represent nearly two-thirds of the Canada Student Loans Program’s part-time recipients, while approximately four out of five students receiving the Canada Student Grant for students with dependent children are women.

Hajdu said: “Helping more Canadians afford post-secondary education will help grow our economy and strengthen the middle class. Far too many Canadians face challenges when pursuing post-secondary education—not only because of the cost of education itself but also because of the financial pressures and time constraints of supporting our families. Our government has Canadians covered, no matter their circumstance—whether they are going to college or university for the first time, returning to school or upgrading their skills.”
Kathy Kinloch, President, British Columbia Institute of Technology, said: “The British Columbia Institute of Technology has always supported unique paths to post-secondary education. As we empower our students to embrace the challenges of a complex world, we work alongside the government and our industry partners to enhance education access opportunities for all learners.”

The Government of Canada is investing:
– $107.4 million over four years, starting in 2018–19, and $29.3 million per year thereafter, to expand eligibility for Canada Student Grants for students with dependants.
– $59.8 million over four years, starting in 2018–19, and $17 million per year thereafter to expand eligibility for Canada Student Grants for Part-Time Students and to increase the threshold for eligibility for Canada Student Loans for part-time students.
-Expanded access to Canada Student Grants for students with dependants, starting in the 2018–19 academic year, allows more:
– full-time students with children to receive up to $200 per month per child; and
– part-time students with children to receive up to $1,920 per year in grants.

Source:

Post-secondary education made more affordable for part-time students

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United Kingdom: Education experts criticise Theresa May’s university tuition fees review plans

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United Kingdom/February 27, 2018/By: Eleanor Busby/Source: http://www.independent.co.uk

Theresa May’s plans for tuition fees and the university funding system have faced criticism from across the education sector – with some suggesting they could do “more harm” than good.

The year-long review into higher education, announced by the Prime Minister in a speech on Monday, could result in universities charging students different tuition fees depending on the subject they choose.

Institutions could be encouraged to charge less for humanities courses, compared to science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) degrees.

But critics say the proposals could deter students from doing Stem degrees amid a skills shortage, as well as limiting the career prospects of poorer students pushed to choose cheaper courses.

Lord Baker, a former Education Secretary and chairman of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which promotes technical education, said: “If Stem degree courses cost more than academic courses, this could have the perverse effect of driving students away from the areas of greatest economic need, in view of the skills shortage.”

 He has called on the Government to offer bursaries to encourage students to take up Stem courses “rather than discouraging them through the fees system”.

Bill Rammell, the vice-chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and a former higher education minister, added that he would strongly oppose any move to introduce variable tuition fees.

He said: “You can’t judge the value of education based on the salary someone is going to earn or else no one would choose to be a nurse or work in the arts if that was the case.

“Also, it creates a two-tier system – students from poorer families will choose those courses with the lowest fees disadvantaging themselves from the start.”

Shakira Martin, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), warned that variable tuition fees could create more competition among universities and cause long-term damage to the sector.

She said: “We fear that tinkering around the edges without major commitments to supporting students into and through universities and colleges will do more harm than good.

“It is concerning that further investment appears to already have been ruled and the education minister has suggested that institutions will not be forced to make courses more affordable.

“This limits the review to a highly restricted remit, yet leaves the door open to the spectre of further competition through variable fees, which will likely only damage the sector in the long run.”

She added that the proposals can only lead to small piece reform. “The Prime Minister is choosing to move the deckchairs around a ship she already acknowledges to be sinking,” Ms Martin said.

Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, said: “Our post-18 education system has many strengths. It has a fantastic global reputation, we have record rates of disadvantaged students going to university and we are transforming technical education so employers have access to the skills they need.

“However, with a system where almost all institutions are charging the same price for courses – when some clearly cost more than others and some have higher returns to the student than others – it is right that we ask questions about choice and value for money.

“We also need to look at the balance between academic study and technical education to ensure there is genuine choice for young people and that we are giving employers access to a highly skilled workforce.”

Source:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/theresa-may-university-funding-tuition-fees-review-education-payment-a8219521.html

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Estados Unidos: Poneer pride, Stillwater Public Schools provides many resources to those with learning difficulties Melisa Kifer 11 hrs ago

Noticias

United States, February 24, 2018 /Author: Melisa Kifer/stwnewspress

Resumen: La ley federal conocida como la Ley de Educación para Individuos con Discapacidades (IDEA, por sus siglas en inglés) brinda a los estudiantes con discapacidades el derecho a ser evaluados y recibir un Plan de Educación Individual (IEP) diseñado para satisfacer sus necesidades únicas. Actualmente, más de 800 estudiantes de Stillwater Public School de 3 a 21 años reciben educación especial y servicios relacionados.

The federal law known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides students with disabilities the right to be evaluated and receive an Individual Education Plan (IEP) designed to meet their unique needs. Currently, more than 800 Stillwater Public School students ages 3 through 21 receive special education and related services. 

Students unable to achieve academic success, even with interventions and remediation, are provided a free comprehensive educational evaluation by the school district. The eligibility team reviews the evaluation results, along with other available data to determine if the student meets criteria for one of the IDEA defined disabilities. This team is also responsible for developing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for students who qualify for special education and related services. 

Each district must have a “Child Find” component to discover any students ages 3-21 that are living in district that need services. If infants and toddlers under three years of age are experiencing developmental delays in one or more of the following areas: cognitive, physical, communication, social or emotional, adaptive, or have a diagnosed physical or mental condition, they are evaluated and the team determines if an IEP for district provided services is needed. 

There are 13 disability categories defined under IDEA. Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is maintained under each category so that educational progress is made in the least restrictive environment. The disability categories are Autism, Deaf-Blindness, Developmental Delay, Emotional Disturbance, Intellectual Disability, Multiple Disabilities, Orthopedic Impairment, Other Health Impairment, Specific Learning Disability, Speech or Language Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, and Visual Impairment.

Special Services also oversees more than 200 students who are found eligible for accommodations and services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These are students who do not qualify for special education services, but need accommodations or services temporarily or long term in order to have full access to school. 

When special education was federally mandated in public schools, it was implemented with the intent for funding to be fully provided by state and federal sources. Local expenditures for the 2017 fiscal year exceeded 5 million dollars with less than 30 percent coming from federal and state sources.

 The annual special services report was presented at the Jan. 16 board meeting. The full report is available on the SPS website. Please contact the office of Special Services at 405-533-6300 if we can serve you in any way.

Fuente: http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/pioneer-pride-stillwater-public-schools-provides-many-resources-to-those/article_b5355246-16a4-11e8-8d01-cfa9a5fd70b9.html

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Can one learn to be creative?

Hazlina Aziz

By Hazlina Aziz

IN the next few years, more than three generations may be working side by side at the workplace. They are the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y (also known as millennials) and Generation Z.

Gen Z, who were born after 1995, are beginning to appear in the workplace. By next year, Gen Z is expected to represent more than 20 per cent of the workforce.

Growing up in a world where the Internet, social media and mobile technology have always existed, they will bring their new technology and big ideas with them. It can be a significant challenge to prepare for the clash of these four generations.

Many organisations are still struggling to analyse the challenge that millennials pose in the workplace.

But, how different will Gen Z really be? A digitally innate generation of students, Gen Z have access to more information than the generations before them. Growing up in the age of technology provides them with more outlets and digital tools for exploration and expression.

So, they are said to be more curious, innovative and open-minded than past generations.

While they should be more advanced in searching for information and figuring things out on their own, they also expect everything to be available at any time and with low barriers of access. With Gen Z starting university and the first batch graduating soon, are the schools preparing them for their future? Is higher education ready for them?

A study done by Adobe that provides insight into Malaysian Gen Z students shows that they are feeling unprepared for the problems the “real world” face today, and want greater focus on creativity and hands-on learning in the classroom.

The study, “Gen Z in the Classroom: Creating the Future”, surveyed 250 Gen Z students between the ages of 11 and 17, and 100 teachers in Malaysia.

A similar study was also conducted in five Asia-Pacific (Apac) countries — Australia, India, Thailand, China and Korea. For Malaysia, they found 97 per cent of students and 100 per cent of teachers — the highest rating among five other countries — see creativity as essential to students’ future success.

Malaysian Gen Z students also have mixed emotions when it comes to their future after they finish schools.

According to the study, they feel “excited” and “curious”, but at the same time “nervous” or “worried”. Some are concerned that schools have not properly prepared them for the real world.

They believe that there are a variety of careers that require creativity. Ninety six per cent of students from this study believe their future careers would involve creativity.

Both students and teachers alike agree that Gen Z learn best through hands-on experience and wish that there is more focus on creativity. Students feel that classes focusing on computers and technology hone their creativity and will best prepare them for their future.

Developing creative people is an aim that most in education share; there have been growing calls to nurture and teach creativity from an early age in schools and universities.

The World Economic Forum predicts that creativity will rise from the 10th most sought-after skill in 2015 to the third in 2020.

But, what is creativity? It can seem that creativity is a natural gift for those who are lucky, for instance, great artists, musicians or entrepreneurs. Can one learn to be creative? Can we prime the mind for creative ideas to emerge?

Research has shown that creativity is a skill that can be taught, practised and developed. With imagination, we can be wired to be creative. Creative thinkers in any discipline are those who can tackle complex problems and develop innovative solutions.

Of course, this does not mean that you can teach one to be a genius. The techniques of teaching creativity are not going to turn a student into Einstein or Picasso.

It is more about encouraging day-to-day creative thinking that can make a student, and then later, as an adult, more productive.

Many educators claim to value creativity, but they do not always prioritise it. In some parts of the world, teaching creativity is already a necessary part of an undergraduate experience.

The International Centre for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College in New York is the world’s first university department of its type.

The term “makerspace” in education — probably still new in Malaysia’s education scene — is also the buzzword now to refer to physical spaces that support learning and doing, in a way that redefines traditional schooling. It provides hands-on experiences and encourages creative ways for students to design, experiment, build and invent.

How can creativity be cultivated in the classroom? The way Gen Z students consume and learn today is very different from past generations, hence, educators in Malaysia need to provide the right environment, updated tools and creative outlets to bring out the best in their students and foster innovative problem-solving skills the future workforce will need.

Education systems should focus less on the reproduction of information and more on critical thinking and problem solving. There are multiple solutions to open-ended and complex problems, a situation that the students will face as they pursue future careers.

Encouraging divergent instead of convergent thinking leads to solving problems that do not have one correct answer.

However, it is important to remember that teaching creativity does not mean that we should throw out the textbooks and exams while encouraging children to let their minds wander rather than concentrate in the classroom.

Children should not be given free rein for their imagination to run wild at the cost of understanding a subject. In encouraging creativity, I believe if you want to think outside the box, you must fully understand what is inside the box first.

Link: https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2018/01/330504/can-one-learn-be-creative

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Education ministry to introduce new compulsory subjects at high schools in Japan

Noticias

Japon/February 17, 2018/By Jiji/Japantimes

Resumen: El Ministerio de Educación publicó el miércoles un borrador de las directrices revisadas del plan de estudios para las escuelas secundarias, incluida la introducción de rekishi sōgō (historia integral) y kōkyō (asuntos públicos) como nuevas asignaturas obligatorias.

The education ministry released a draft Wednesday of revised curriculum guidelines for high schools, including the introduction of rekishi sōgō (comprehensive history) and kōkyō (public affairs) as new compulsory subjects.

New comprehensive history courses will cover the modern and contemporary history of both Japan and the rest of the world. In public affairs students will learn about issues including those related to popular sovereignty — governing according to the will of the people. In 2016 the minimum voting age was lowered from 20 to 18.

Active learning programs intended to nurture students’ ability to independently identify problems and solutions through debate and presentations will be introduced in all subjects.

The ministry will solicit public comments on the draft until March 15, and announce the new curriculum guidelines by the end of fiscal 2017 on March 31. The new guidelines are scheduled to be introduced in stages from fiscal 2022.

Revisions to curriculum guidelines for elementary and junior high schools have already been made, and are set to be fully implemented from fiscal 2020 at elementary schools and from fiscal 2021 at junior high schools.

The complete revision of high school curriculum guidelines will be the first since 2009.

The ministry hopes that the revised guidelines and the fiscal 2020 launch of a new unified university entrance examination system will help raise high school students’ level of understanding. The new exams will replace the system currently handled by the National Center for University Entrance Examinations.

The number of credits required to graduate from high school will remain the same at 74. The ministry will not reduce the amount of educational content, in a continued shift away from the yutori (relaxed) education policy.

In addition the new guidelines will make it compulsory for high school students to take chiri sōgō (comprehensive geography), which will cover contemporary geographical issues including those related to the environment and disaster prevention.

The ministry will also introduce as an optional subject risū tankyū, in which students independently choose themes involved with the fields of mathematics and science for research.

Computer-related subjects such as information security will be introduced, and courses in programming will be compulsory through elementary, junior high and high school.

English will be reorganized into two categories, with one aimed at comprehensively developing students’ listening, reading, speaking and writing skills while the other focuses on strengthening their speaking and writing abilities.

The number of English words students will learn at elementary through high school will increase to about 4,000-5,000 from some 3,000 at present. This is in addition to the adoption of English as an official subject for elementary school fifth- and sixth-graders under the new primary education curriculum guidelines.

Fuente: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/02/15/national/japan-introduce-new-high-school-compulsory-subjects/#.WoYzkLzibMw

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