Why old school REALLY is failing?

I saw an excellent presentation by Kenth Hedevåg the other day. I’ll summarize it here, or in fact just a little piece of it. First, this is applying mainly to the Swedish education system, but I think it’s global. We, in Sweden, have introduced new requirements about learning in school. There’s a new focus around more social…

Systemic failure nr 9: The problems comes from within, not from the outside

Here’s the ninth systemic failure: The outside world is mainly believed as causing the school’s problems of today (misbehaving and lazy pupils, spoiled parents, the entertainment industry, Internet and technology etc) rather than the design of the education system itself.  Every complex business organisation existing today has been forced to change and adapt. There have…

Systemic failure nr 8: Desicion makers are the ones benefitting from the controlling school rather than the learning school

Here’s the 8th systemic failure: The decision makers have themselves been successful in the “old” school so they see no reason to change it for those who are not benefitting from it.  It’s Machiavellian and the power structure is ancient: It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in…

Systemic failure nr 4: Logical fallacies rule the debate around changing school

Here’s the forth systemic failure: The debate is ultimately springing from logical fallacies for example authority beliefs (the teacher knows best), cherry picking (too many to mention), anecdotical evidence (old school worked for “me”), ad hominem (anyone outside school criticizing the education system is stupid). The debate about school and the education system is very infected sometimes.…