Shiv on Learning

Bring on the learning revolution! (Ken Robinson’s new TED talk)

Another great video from Sir Ken Robinson. He outlines 3 things that represent the old industrial model of education (that we currently use):

• Linearity – The idea that you start at one point follow a predetermined path and get to where you want to be at the end. 
• Conformity - The one size fits all model of education. 
• Batching people

Sir Ken makes the point that human flourishing is not a mechanical process but a human one. Education needs to move to a model where people can develop their own solutions, with external support, based on a personalised curriculum. 

This is very relevant to the ELT industry. Everything in the traditional ELT world is linear, from courses to course books and even online materials. They all seem to be based on the idea that there is one single path to achieve your objective and that this path is best for everyone. 

Linearity was abandoned long ago at Languagelab, we don’t do courses or fixed timetables or insist you go though materials in any specific order. As soon as we did results improved dramatically.   

The same applies for conformity and batching people. We allow people to choose the classes, times and sequence that best suits them rather than insisting they move at the pace of a group. It allows students to customise their learning to their needs, it is personalising education to the people you are teaching.  

The testing we have done tells us this new model easily outperforms the old. If more people tried it I expect they would find the same were true.