Slashdot Mirror
How Tech Is Transforming Teaching In a South African Township
An anonymous reader writes: The founders of the African School for Excellence have an ambitious goal — nothing less than redefining low cost, scalable teaching that brings international standards to the poorest schools in Africa. Their first model school is off to a good start: in just 18 months, all grade 9 students are achieving scores higher than 50% on Cambridge Curriculum Checkpoint tests, and only one student scored less than 50% in math. The national average score in math is 13%. The school relies on a locally designed piece of marking software to function. Their teach-to-pupil ratios are not great, but the teachers are committed to using technology to stretch themselves as far as they can. What's most remarkable is that the school's running costs are already half the cost of a traditional government school, and the quality of education is much, much better. All this, and they're only a year and a half into the program.
Ubiquitous good education will do the world a lot of good.
At first I thought this is impossible, but then I found this: (Warning, PDF) http://www.education.gov.za/Li... This is a report on a standardised nation wide test. The average for grade 9 math is indeed ~13%.
One of the primary goals is to foster curiosity in the kids (which is essentially internal motivation, one of the strongest forms).
The kids often work in groups on tasks that are slightly above their current skill level, which teaches them cooperation and problem-solving.
Teachers mainly come in to fill in gaps by answering questions and summarize what the kids learn.
Then the kids spend time on Khan Academy or similar doing tests to make sure they mastered the subject.
It would be interesting to see which of the elements actually helps the most - I would say it's not the "PeerMarker" software that lets pupils compare two essays and show which one is better using a slider (no written feedback on students' written assignment? that must hurt the learning, although it's understandable given the lack of teachers), but a breakdown of the other elements would be very interesting. Too bad a lot of the article focuses on math, it would be interesting to see more detail e.g. about writing.
the school's running costs are already half the cost of a traditional government school, and the quality of education is much, much better.
The government will never stand for this sort of nonsense. It requires people to be as dumb as possible (to continue voting them into power), while having a fraction of the population being able to be nominally employed (taxes, to pay government officials' lavish salaries and benefits), while enough remain unemployable ("long live the struggle!").
On a less sarcastic (not less serious) note: I believe that the population growth rate in SA outstrips the rate at which new schools are being built. Hence some investment firms see education (private schools and even homeschooling systems) as a viable niche market.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
It's not the technology what's helping those kids, but teachers. Appreciating kids, and encouraging them, and making them feel special and motivated. They could have done it the same with just pen and pencil. Remarking the use of technology completely misses the point. Computers are great tools for communication, and thus only work when you have something to communicate.
No, they're very good at reproducing things and if you haven't got teachers or you haven't got skilled teachers or you haven't got interested teachers then the computer at least give kids a chance to learn. Unlike here in western society for these kids education is a precious resource that they know is essential to have a decent future, first you have to give them the opportunities before you start worrying about motivating them to make use of them.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
International Standards eh? Like my company management is always droning on about "World Standards". Actually, if you take the average of "International" quality standards, it's shit.
When educational programs first start they almost always have better than average results. Part of the reason is that the creators are committed to making the programs work. Once the programs are widely used, the results decline because the teachers are not as committed. While these results merit further trials, there is no guarantee that the results would be sustained when widely used.
When experimental educational programs first start they almost always have better than average results. Part of the reason is that the creators are committed to making the programs work and excellent teachers are employed. Once the programs are widely used, the results decline because the ordinary teachers are not as committed and capable. While these results merit further trials, there is no guarantee that the results would be sustained when widely used.
(in bold my inclusions)
I agree.
P.S. When i was a kid growing in Greece, 3 decades ago, my excellent public school (classes from 6 to 12 years old) was experimental -Montessori type- and managed by the Greek pedagogic academy, where older excellent teachers trained young teachers - then socialists come to power and the "every kid/teacher is equal/same" mantra ruined it...
While there's no doubt that technology does play a part in the success of that school, MHO is that it is wrong to attribute all the success on technology alone
The fact is that school got so much attention from so many people, so much so that the inventor of the 3D printed limb, Richard van As was present at that school
Or, in other words, it was Hawthorne Effect ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... ) that has contributed to the dramatic improvement on the performances of the students of that school
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !