Check this article on NY times. It's a project going on in India.
This looks very much like what we talked about. There is a five year project in underprevilieged areas in India, which moves from the traditional education of drilling and intensive memorizing. They let the children write thier own stories, and the children do proejcts of their own.
They have not seen a signficant increase in achievement scores yet... but seems to be promising considering what we talked today. Isn't this great, that in a part of the world, an educational experiment is going on! (and to the direction we like to see!)
It sounds odd to me that they use an average test score to show the effect of this project. Isn't it what the utilitarian derived diagram does (just learned that word from this week's reading)? And since this project is mainly focusing on primary education, I wonder whether the students will experience difficulties when they enter middle schools or higher level of education that is not consistent with how they were taught in the primary school. But I agree that it is an interesting project and I wonder how it will proceed in the future.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's a good point. I too think it is wierd that they used a test score. However, because they kind of want to prove that this new program will result in better achievement, I think they are compromising a little..
ReplyDeleteBut its interesting we're still tied to the "realist" framework - we are afraid to let go of the "objective" measures of achievement (i.e., aggregated happiness)... the project can only challenge so far, in that it is still tied to the need to aggregate and assess the society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Dewey question would be something along the lines of how does the new "project" allow children to address relevant problems in their everyday lives and their societies?