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Re: eForesee malta-ict: Scenarios for Malta in ICT

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  • Subject: Re: eForesee malta-ict: Scenarios for Malta in ICT
  • From: Antoine Gambin
  • Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 5:01:36 +0200

On Thu, 22 Aug 2002 14:17:22 +0200 "Juan Borg Manduca" wrote:
> I'd like to add to this suggestion (see email from Leonard Bezzina
> below) because it particularly interests me.
> 
> Since I have been involved in formative assessments for some time
> now, an area worth pursuing is how to develop a system which will
> evolve the present system of education (exam based) into one which
> will take into consideration the special needs of 'individual' students.
> 
> In fact, the National Minimum Curriculum makes reference to
> introducing formative assessments as part of a school's delivery
> mechanism.
> 
> In many cases, exams are actually detrimental to our children, and
> instead of achieving the desired target of 'educating' our children,
> are actually harming them by focusing on getting the students
> 'through' exams.
> 
> The major problem with today's system is that it does the exact
> opposite of what such a system is supposed to do ie instead of the
> system being made to fit the student, the student is being forced to
> fit the system.
> 
> I would categorise students into three main groups, a) bookworm, b)
> learning by observation, c) learning by 'hands-on'.
> 
> The present system caters for only the bookworm (as we all know), and 
> all other students end up falling through the net, and in most cases
> being branded as failures. This branding of students occurs at as
> early an age as 5-6 years.
> 
> The advent of ICT presents us with a unique opportunity to design a
> case study, eg take the syllabus of one particular subject in one
> particular year and present the same syallabus in three different
> formats to suit all groups of students (ie one format will address
> the bookworm and may not differ considerably from today's
> presentation method, but the other two would of course ensure that
> the student learns by using techniques customised to that particular
> group). The use of computers will be the fulcrum of delivery of
> curriculum.
> 
> Of course, proper tests are to be designed in order to be able to
> categorise students properly.
> 
> In this manner, one could use this case study on a group of students
> from a particular school (willing to participate), and results
> (statistics) could then be used and compared in order to gauge
> success (or failure) of the project.
> 
> These are just my thoughts..........
> 
> Juan
> 
DO YOU THINK THAT TEACHER PROFILING IS ALSO USEFUL. I AM NOT AN EDUCATOR
AND I DO NOT INTEND TO BECOME ONE BUT THIS QUESTION IS THE RESULT OF MY
CURIOSITY. SHOULD THIS BE POSSIBLE THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO COMES TO MY MIND;
Once we are looking scenarios that can ensue in 10 years time it means
that there will be today's forty year old teachers still in the education 
system. Evidently these teachers do not all come from the IT culture in
the same way as younger teachers will be. Again I do not believe that
once education in the wide sense of the word becomes more IT based it
would automatically mean strict standardisation of teaching practices.
The scenario I see is that teacher training becomes focused on different
kinds of teachers who can cater for different kinds of teaching and
different kinds of methods of teaching in the different kinds of
teaching. Sounds complicated so I will simplify it. There will obviously
be different kinds of teaching, example, for primary, for secondary, for
online teaching of business practices, online teaching of languages, IT
based training in design etc. In each of these different kinds of
teaching, although all maybe IT based, there will be different methods of 
teaching depending on the kind of market or student population, depending 
on age groups, on the subject specialisation, on the software used in the 
kind of teaching - maybe it will not be Windows as we know it today ! THE 
SCENARIO THAT I CAN IMAGINE IS THAT INDIVIDUALS WANTING TO OPT FOR THE
TEACHING PROFESSION CAN BE PROFILED AND CAN BE TRAINED FOR ONE OF THE
DIFFERENT KINDS OF TEACHING FIRST AND SECONDLY FOR THE SPECIFIC METHOD OF 
TEACHING ONE WANTS TO OR IS APT TO PRACTICE IN.
Following a Council of Europe initiative a language passport has been
designed for students to facilitate classification or profiling of the
language abilities of students. In this passport or, as it is called,
language portfolio, one has schools attended, training in the various
languages and the method of teaching used etc. Today we are speaking of
IT techinicians' driving licence, in the future I can see teachers'
driving licences for facilitate mobility between European countries and
mobility from one employer to another thanks to this profiling of teachers.
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