Monolithic view of Education - Jean Piaget video

After viewing the following video from Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtNdLKqPCyI discuss the Monolithic view of our educational system.

Our education system has been rooted in a methodology of learning that has been effective for hundreds of years; but now as a global culture, we are experiencing a technological revolution. To answer whether our education system is rooted in a monolithic model of instruction and learning, I had to first go to Webster’s Dictionary to understand what the term monolithic actually meant. There were several definitions, “consisting of one piece; solid or unbroken: a boat with a monolithic hull; constructed of monoliths or huge blocks of stone: the monolithic monuments of the New Stone Age; characterized by massiveness, total uniformity, rigidity, invulnerability, etc.: a monolithic society, or Electronics: of or pertaining to an integrated circuit formed in a single chip. Education styles will always lag behind new technology, but successful teachers must take the role of a visionary and be adaptable to changing environments. The definition of the word monolithic intrigued me as we are evolving into a global mass of information, shared and connected through the internet similar to the electronics definition of the integrated circuit forming one chip. As a society we are moving from a rigid and uniform approach to a collective of many parts that create one unit.

Educators must be visionary, but the bureaucrats and administrators must also be open to new ideas and new methods to deliver curriculum. Piaget asked, “Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? When we continue to do something just because it worked in the past, we will miss opportunities to grow and can be impacted by competition. In the last few months, as I have returned to school, it is obvious to me that I had an enormous gap of knowledge and understanding of new resources, technologies and was not being as effective of a trainer as I could have been. There is new life in the way I teach, what I talk about with my students, how I relate to them on their level. The dedication to education is being able to meet the student where they are as each generation changes.
As educators we need to teach our students how to create new knowledge, how to spark passions for learning and develop their natural talents. Piaget said, “We should try to develop creative and innovative minds capable of discovery from preschool age on, throughout life?” However, we cannot abandon what has worked in the past, using history, examples, scenarios and case studies as methods to teach students problem resolution is still effective. If we can teach minds to interpret, analyze and make appropriate decisions, then they are equipped with skills to follow passions and develop talents.

After you view the video, what do you think?


Reference
Ccaldero. (Producer). (2007). Swiss psychologist jean piaget. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtNdLKqPCyI.