Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

It’s Time to Rethink the Classroom

2951985331 (1)It’s a horse that has been beaten to death, but we continue to resurrect it: The United States spends more on public education than any other developed nation, and yet it lags behind in key metrics of performance. Much of the policy debate still grapples over spending on K-12 education: Should we be spending more? Should we cut spending?
We can experiment with spending all we want, but until we fundamentally change the way education is administered to our students, better results are unlikely. As a country that values innovation more than any other, the United States should not be afraid to reinvent some of the most critical components of its social structure.

The best way to improve our educational system’s performance is to turn it on its head: Use technology wisely and prescribe lectures for homework.

Have teachers record videos of themselves or utilize content made by other experts, then go over the material that students learned the previous night in the classroom. With this method, students are able to leverage professional expertise both at home and at school. They will retain more because the lecture watched at home won’t dissipate when it is finished. They can go back and replay the content over and over again if need be. And then the teacher can act as a facilitator by bridging misunderstanding in students’ knowledge. It’s a far more efficient use of resources.

This isn’t a merely idealistic proposal. Such methods have already been implemented, with reasonable success. Take, for example, Khan Academy, a nonprofit enterprise whose mission is to put knowledge online for free. It has worked with schools in the Silicon Valley region to pilot such a system. The results are certainly promising.

In one school in Los Altos, Calif., after assigning students to view Khan Academy posts at home to learn objective information, teachers used the classroom as a laboratory in which students were encouraged to interact with each other. They helped to solve each other’s problems, and the teacher intervened when necessary. The creation of this marketplace of ideas has yielded an increase in students who become very proficient in the material. More importantly, it has decreased the number of students who do not become comfortable with the material. After using Khan Academy, the percentage of students categorized as “advanced” or “proficient” with the material increased from 23 to 41 percent, and the percentage of students labeled as “below basic” in proficiency declined from 29 to 12 percent.

Lack of comfort with the material is what causes large discrepancies in knowledge and dissonance from certain types of education — STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, in particular — later in life. Concepts, especially in math and science, build continually throughout early education, and if a student stands upon a weak foundation in a subject, it can be increasingly frustrating and disheartening. This alternative mode of instruction seeks to mitigate these gaps in knowledge and — from what the data shows — is generally effective in doing so.

There really is no reason why a system similar to this one cannot be implemented on a wider level. Most students have regular access to technology, and we can target funding to students who do not. We keep our faith in an antiquated method of learning that has endured for centuries, but now we have the tools to drastically improve it. Why not make the right moves at the policy level to spearhead its activation?
Of course, the impact of the United States lagging behind in education cannot be overstated. We look to enter a world that is more interdependent and comfortable with pooling its human resources. If we are to produce higher levels of achievement as a country, we must make smart changes. What we are doing right now clearly isn’t working.

Let’s move the bell curve to the right. It’s time to inject a little common sense into the equation.

PARTH SHAH is a sophomore in the College.

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