Blog Assignment: The United Educator Directorate

The United Educator Directorate (UED)

A World Lacking Proper Education

Countries are facing a serious issue. Education is falling behind in providing the skills that competitive labor markets demand and few feel the need to invest the required amount to help improve standards. We’ve seen a consistent degradation of the public school system, as the quality of education is in clear decline, especially in the Americas. The world cannot expect to eliminate poverty without first improving education, an important challenge for developing nations. We know the world needs to raise the quality of education, but what exactly inhibits governments from doing so? Is it just a lack of funding or is there more behind it? Although funding plays a key role in an educational system’s success, other factors also come into play.

One of the bigger issues at hand is the system itself. We often see systems that mirror each other in many countries, but may not be very effective in imparting knowledge to students. These systems focus on final exams, grades, and standardized tests to measure whether a student is doing well or not. However, many were taken by surprise to find that in Finland, a country that shuns the traditional system of testing, students scored among the best in the PISA survey (a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which compared 15-year old students in different countries in math, reading, and science).

The Finnish system does not use final examinations or any type of standardized examination for that matter, they stress equality over competition. Teachers only give tests that they specifically make with a didactic focus and grades based only on their assessments, not those of a governing body. So should every country just copy the Finnish system? This is debatable, because after all, what works in one country won’t necessarily work in another.

No system is perfect, and all have strengths and challenges, but there is something we could all learn from each system. So, how can we really improve education standards as a whole? By analyzing a network of educators.

The UED Network

The purpose of the UED network would be to unite all educators around the globe to share their teaching methods with each other. This would work as a communications network where different methods of teaching would be evaluated until the one with the best results (or an amalgamation of the most effective ones) is found. Although a teaching method in Ecuador may work for students in Spain, Vietnamese students may end up getting better results with a method used in Nigeria. These methods may not just vary by country but also by age group and even language. Each educator in the network can make observations and detail their findings as well as the specific modifications that were necessary to accommodate their classes. Consider it a crowd sourcing for education.

Collecting the Data

The network will mainly serve the purpose of collecting different teaching “methods” as described by educators. These methods may focus on general classroom rules to specific situations with a particular student. Each method can be traced back to the educator who created it or added to it; this way if someone wishes to learn more, they can review the network to find where the educator is or who might know him best. Considering that the network can be managed through an app, the network itself would be easy to create, the information concerning the methods would also be easy to acquire. Even educators who don’t actively participate will still benefit from the network by just reading other’s suggestions and methods. Educators may even feel invigorated by the network, as it would give them a sense of comradery with other users.

What to Measure

Once the network is established, we can see which educators are more connected, which countries participate more, and which methods seem to work best in certain areas and why. With this type of data we’d be able to understand why some educators participate more than others and why their methods work so well. What would need to be measured are the subgroups that are formed as time passes in the network. Educators from certain countries may form connections faster than others, highlighting the importance of evaluating which ones are forming tighter groups through the use of the network. A whole-network measure would give a clear picture of who is connecting with whom.  Another important measuring tool would include the use of Eigenvectors to see which educators are providing the most information as well as which ones are receiving the most. The ability to upload videos of effective techniques and studying the mega data derived from users’ shared experience would be a novel approach to connect educators globally.

Why Analyze the Network?

The network itself would help educators practice, refine, and test new methods to successfully teach children. The analysis of the network aims to identify which countries’ educators are lagging behind and why. Participation from some educators may be scarce; the analysis will help pinpoint who these educators are and why they show little to no enthusiasm. Several problems could be identified; it may be a general lack of funds or even a lack of disciplined students, among other reasons.

Even a simple network analysis can help reveal many things about educator’s behaviors as well as the challenges they face, all of which can lead to a better educational system world-wide.

-          Nicholas Reusche

Information gathered from the following sites:

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/250-million-reasons-invest-education

http://blog.results.org.uk/2014/03/31/reason-1-to-invest-in-the-global-partnership-for-education-now-we-cannot-end-poverty-without-investing-in-education/