Re:Why Education Startups Do Not Succeed (2011)
by thomastjeffery on Thursday November 16, 2017 @12:11AM
(#15710393)
One problem I see is that the scale of teaching has defined what teaching is. Since there is usually a very small ratio of students to teachers, "teaching" has evolved into lecturing and homework, in hopes that it can become more scalable.
One problem is that this method of "teaching" is not appealing to most of us, so the ratio of teachers to students does not increase.
Another problem is that "traditional" lectures, homework, and testing are not the most effective methods of learning, they are simply more well-known, and known to be scalable.
It doesn't seem scalable for each student to follow her/his own curriculum, since that would create more contexts for teachers to respond to, thereby creating a need for more teachers. What is ignored here, is the redefinition of "teacher". Such a teacher is much more of a "mentor", and that is certainly a more appealing job to me.
One problem is that this method of "teaching" is not appealing to most of us, so the ratio of teachers to students does not increase.
Another problem is that "traditional" lectures, homework, and testing are not the most effective methods of learning, they are simply more well-known, and known to be scalable.
It doesn't seem scalable for each student to follow her/his own curriculum, since that would create more contexts for teachers to respond to, thereby creating a need for more teachers. What is ignored here, is the redefinition of "teacher". Such a teacher is much more of a "mentor", and that is certainly a more appealing job to me.