“He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all”
Sir William Osler, Canadian Physician
Here we go, the second post is waiting to read!! This time we will not discuss about the education culture in certain country. If you haven’t read the first post of Clever Lands, this is one of the series of book review section. This post might be jumped into, something like, conclusion after the writer’s journey to superpower education country. I skip writing the other countries education system/culture. Hopefully, I can write about that in another ocassion. In the next few minutes, you would understand what are the crucial principles to become great education country. What we have to do to obtain good outcome in education. So, this is about Principles for High Performing Education System.
The main idea to get great performing students at school is make children ready for formal learning. Lucy Crehan, the writer, had compared the children in England and children in Finland and China at the same age. She found that the children studied England didn’t have higher mathematical understanding than children in the last 2 countries at 5 years old, despite the Finland and China children haven’t go into the formal school. This fact is also supported by a research, explaining that the effect of at what age children go into formal school is not significant when it comes to academic abilities. Academic abilities are the ability which taught in the formal school like mathematics. The ability level difference would be disappear by time at this very young age. The immature children aren’t ready yet to accept materials of formal school. This would affect their motivation on the future.
Research said instead of put the young age (3 or 4) into primary school, parents could do better by teach them social skill and cognitive abilities. Teaching them basic ability also would be great. For instance, reading and others pre-mathematical skills like relational skill also counting skill. Five years old children haven’t ready yet to accept the learning materials from their formal school and no academic outcomes can be expected from them. They just waste the time that they can use to do some activities to strengthen their mental and social skill. For instance, there are high possibility that 4 years old crying in the middle of the class. This caused ineffective learning process. But with more mentally & socially prepared children, that wouldn’t be happen anymore. Hence, learning process would be more effective without any distraction. The writer suggest that before age six, enhance social and pre-academic skills through rich environments and playful learning, rather than requiring pecific academic outcomes form them.
In conclusion, teaching the right things in the right age should come first in teachers’ and education stakeholders’ mind. Don’t make a deal with difficult things like mathematics if they have not ready yet. Effectivity is the key.
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