{"id":3515,"date":"2012-12-27T09:18:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T08:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/?p=3515"},"modified":"2012-12-27T09:18:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T08:18:06","slug":"review-the-one-world-schoolhouse-salman-khan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2012\/12\/review-the-one-world-schoolhouse-salman-khan\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The One World Schoolhouse (Salman Khan)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The One World Schoolhouse – Salman Khan<\/a> ebook free download pdf<\/p>\n

This is a short, easy to read, nonacademic (few references) book. it has som shortcomings on matters dealing with test taking and intelligence tests, but isnt that important for the main topics of the book. this book shud be read by anyone interested in public policy regarding education.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As always, quotes and comments below. quotes ar in red.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—-<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was born in Metairie, Louisiana, a residential area within <\/span><\/p>\n

metro New Orleans. My father, a pediatrician, had moved <\/span><\/p>\n

there from Bangladesh for his medical residency at LSU and, <\/span><\/p>\n

later, his practice at Charity Hospital. In 1972, he briefly <\/span><\/p>\n

returned to Bangladesh and came back with my mother\u2014who <\/span><\/p>\n

was born in India. It was an arranged marriage, very traditional <\/span><\/p>\n

(my mother tried to peek during the ceremony to make sure <\/span><\/p>\n

she was marrying the brother she thought she was). Over the <\/span><\/p>\n

next several years, five of my mother\u2019s brothers and one cousin <\/span><\/p>\n

came to visit, and they all fell in love with the New Orleans <\/span><\/p>\n

area. I believe that they did this because Louisiana was as close<\/span><\/p>\n

to South Asia as the United States could get; it had spicy food, <\/span><\/p>\n

humidity, giant cockroaches, and a corrupt government. We <\/span><\/p>\n

were a close family\u2014even though, at any given moment, half <\/span><\/p>\n

of my relatives weren\u2019t speaking to the other half.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Chuckle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let me be clear\u2014I think it\u2019s essential for everything that <\/span><\/p>\n

follows\u2014that at the start this was all an experiment, an impro\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

visation. I \u2019d had no teacher training, no Big Idea for the most <\/span><\/p>\n

effective way to teach. I did feel that I understood math intu\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

itively and holistically, but this was no guarantee that I \u2019d be <\/span><\/p>\n

effective as a teacher. I \u2019d had plenty of professors who knew <\/span><\/p>\n

their subject cold but simply weren\u2019t very good at sharing what <\/span><\/p>\n

they knew. I believed, and still believe, that teaching is a sepa\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

rate skill\u2014in fact, an art that is creative, intuitive, and highly <\/span><\/p>\n

personal.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i think he is right about that. so, it makes no sens to me when danish politicians focus on having research-based education. this means that the teacher must be a researcher himself. but given the nonperfect and perhaps low (?) correlation between teaching ability and researcher ability, that seems like at best at bad idea, and at worst, a dangerusly bad idea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It ignores several basic facts about how people actually learn. <\/span><\/p>\n

People learn at different rates. Some people seem to catch on to <\/span><\/p>\n

things in quick bursts of intuition; others grunt and grind their <\/span><\/p>\n

way toward comprehension. Quicker isn\u2019t necessarily smarter <\/span><\/p>\n

and slower definitely isn\u2019t dumber. Further, catching on quickly <\/span><\/p>\n

isn\u2019t the same as understanding thoroughly. So the pace of <\/span><\/p>\n

learning is a question of style, not relative intelligence. The tor\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

toise may very well end up with more knowledge\u2014more use\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

ful, lasting knowledge\u2014than the hare.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it pains me to read stuff like this. u gotta into g<\/em> mr. Khan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let me emphasize this difference, because it is central to <\/span><\/p>\n

everything I argue for in this book. In a traditional academic <\/span><\/p>\n

model, the time allotted to learn something is fixed while the <\/span><\/p>\n

comprehension of the concept is variable. Washburne was <\/span><\/p>\n

advocating the opposite. What should be fixed is a high level <\/span><\/p>\n

of comprehension and what should be variable is the amount of <\/span><\/p>\n

time students have to understand a concept.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

obvius, but apparently ignored by those that support the current one-size fits all system (based on age). well almost one size. ther is special education for those simply too stupid or too unruly or too handicapped to learn somthing in a normal class.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The findings of Kandel and other neuroscientists have much <\/span><\/p>\n

to say about how we actually learn; unfortunately, the standard <\/span><\/p>\n

classroom model tends to ignore or even to fly in the face of these <\/span><\/p>\n

fundamental biological truths. Stressing passivity over activity is <\/span><\/p>\n

one such misstep. Another, equally important, is the failure of <\/span><\/p>\n

standard education to maximize the brain\u2019s capacity for associa\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tive learning\u2014the achieving of deeper comprehension and more <\/span><\/p>\n

durable memory by relating something newly learned to some\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

thing already known. Let\u2019s take a moment to consider this.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yes, this is very important. hence why mem-based learning works really well<\/em> (an online learning site, www.memrise.com<\/a>, is based on this idea, and it works very well!). also think of how memory techniqs work – they ar based on associations as well. cf. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Memorization#Techniques<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

recently, quite a few books hav been written on this subject. probably becus of the recent interest in memory as a sport disciplin. cf. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/World_Memory_Championships<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Active learning, owned learning, also begins with giving <\/span><\/p>\n

each student the freedom to determine where and when the <\/span><\/p>\n

learning will occur. This is the beauty of the Internet and the <\/span><\/p>\n

personal computer. I f someone wants to study the quadratic <\/span><\/p>\n

equation on his back porch at 3 a.m., he can. I f someone thinks <\/span><\/p>\n

best in a coffee shop or on the sideline of a soccer field, no prob\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

lem. Haven\u2019t we all come across kids who seem bright and alert <\/span><\/p>\n

except when they’re in class? Isn\u2019t it clear that there are morning <\/span><\/p>\n

people and night people? The radical portability of Internet- <\/span><\/p>\n

based education allows students to learn in accordance with <\/span><\/p>\n

their own personal rhythms, and therefore most efficiently.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

good application to fix the morningness vs. eveningsness problem (in DA: a-menneske vs. b-mennesker). cf. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Morningness-eveningness_questionnaire<\/a> and https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Chronotype<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tests say little or nothing about a student\u2019s potential to learn <\/span><\/p>\n

a subject. At best, they offer a snapshot of where the student <\/span><\/p>\n

stands at a given moment in time. Since we have seen that stu\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

dents learn at widely varying rates, and that catching on faster <\/span><\/p>\n

does not necessarily imply understanding more deeply, how <\/span><\/p>\n

meaningful are these isolated snapshots?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

yes they do. achievement tests correlate well with g factor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And all of this might have happened because of one snapshot <\/span><\/p>\n

test, administered on one morning in the life of a twelve-year- <\/span><\/p>\n

old girl\u2014a test that didn\u2019t even test what it purported to be <\/span><\/p>\n

testing! The exam, remember, claimed to be measuring math <\/span><\/p>\n

potential\u2014that is, future performance. Nadia did poorly on it <\/span><\/p>\n

because of one past concept that she\u2019d misunderstood. She has <\/span><\/p>\n

cruised through every math class she\u2019s ever taken since (she<\/span><\/p>\n

took calculus as a sophomore in high school). What does this <\/span><\/p>\n

say about the meaningfulness and reliability of the test? Yet <\/span><\/p>\n

we look to exams like this to make crucial, often irreversible, <\/span><\/p>\n

and deceptively \u201cobjective\u201d decisions regarding the futures of <\/span><\/p>\n

our kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it implies that it isnt a perfectly valid test. no one claims that such tests hav perfect validity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it doesnt say anything about reliability afaict.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What will make this goal attainable is the enlightened use of technology. Let me stress ENLIGHTENED use. Clearly, I believe that technology-enhanced teaching and learning is our best chance for an affordable and equitable educational future. But the key question is how the technology is used. It’s not enough to put a bunch of computers and smartboards into classrooms. The idea is to integrate the technology into how we teach and learn; without meaningful and imaginative integration, technology in the classroom could turn out to be just one more very expensive gimmick.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[had to type it off, apparently, the OCR cudnt handle bold text???]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Surely mr. Khan is right about this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I happen to believe that every student, given the tools and <\/span><\/p>\n

the help that he or she needs, can reach this level of profi\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

ciency in basic math and science. I also believe it is a disservice <\/span><\/p>\n

to allow students to advance without this level of proficiency, <\/span><\/p>\n

because they\u2019ll fall on their faces sometime later.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

living in a dream world. good luck teaching math to the mentally retarded.<\/p>\n

lesson: this is why NOT to use words like <every> and <all>. it is not possible to raise everybody to full mastery of basic math and science. but it is surely possible to lift most people to new heights with better teaching etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It turned out that Peninsula Bridge used the video lessons <\/span><\/p>\n

and software at three of its campuses that summer. Some of <\/span><\/p>\n

the ground rules were clear. The Academy would be used in <\/span><\/p>\n

addition to, not in place of, a traditional math curriculum. The <\/span><\/p>\n

videos would only be used during \u201ccomputer time,\u201d a slot that <\/span><\/p>\n

was shared with learning other tools such as Adobe Photoshop <\/span><\/p>\n

and Illustrator. Even within this structure, however, there were <\/span><\/p>\n

some important decisions to be made; the decisions, in turn, <\/span><\/p>\n

transformed the Peninsula Bridge experience into a fascinating <\/span><\/p>\n

and in some ways surprising test case.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first decision was the question of where in math the kids <\/span><\/p>\n

should start. The Academy math curriculum began, literally, <\/span><\/p>\n

with 1 + 1=2. But the campers were mainly sixth to eighth <\/span><\/p>\n

graders. True, most of them had serious gaps in their under\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

standing of math and many were working below their grade <\/span><\/p>\n

level. Still, wouldn\u2019t it be a bit insulting and a waste of time to <\/span><\/p>\n

start them with basic addition? I thought so, and so I proposed<\/span><\/p>\n

beginning at what would normally be considered fifth-grade <\/span><\/p>\n

material, in order to allow for some review. To my surprise, <\/span><\/p>\n

however, two of the three teachers who were actually imple\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

menting the plan said they preferred to start at the very begin\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

ning. Since the classes had been randomly chosen, we thereby <\/span><\/p>\n

ended up with a small but classic controlled experiment.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first assumption to be challenged was that middle- <\/span><\/p>\n

school students would find basic arithmetic far too easy. Among <\/span><\/p>\n

the groups that had started with 1 + 1, most of the kids, as <\/span><\/p>\n

expected, rocketed through the early concepts. But some didn\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>\n

A few got stuck on things as fundamental as two-digit subtrac\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tion problems. Some had clearly never learned their multiplica\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tion tables. Others were lacking basic skills regarding fractions <\/span><\/p>\n

or division. I stress that these were motivated and intelligent <\/span><\/p>\n

kids. But for whatever reason, the Swiss cheese gaps in their <\/span><\/p>\n

learning had started creeping in at a distressingly early stage, <\/span><\/p>\n

and until those gaps were repaired they had little chance of <\/span><\/p>\n

mastering algebra and beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The good news, however, is that once identified, those gaps <\/span><\/p>\n

could be repaired, and that when the shaky foundation had been <\/span><\/p>\n

rebuilt, the kids were able to advance quite smoothly.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was in vivid and unexpected contrast to the group that <\/span><\/p>\n

had started at the fifth-grade level. Since they\u2019d begun with <\/span><\/p>\n

such a big head start, I assumed that by the end of the six-week <\/span><\/p>\n

program they would be working on far more advanced con\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

cepts than the other group. In fact just the opposite happened. <\/span><\/p>\n

As in the classic story of the tortoise and the hare, the 1 + 1 <\/span><\/p>\n

group plodded and plodded and eventually passed them right <\/span><\/p>\n

by. Some of the students in the \u201chead start\u201d group, on the other<\/span><\/p>\n

hand, hit a wall and just couldn\u2019t seem to progress. There were <\/span><\/p>\n

sixth- and seventh-grade concepts that they simply couldn\u2019t <\/span><\/p>\n

seem to master, presumably because of gaps in earlier concepts. <\/span><\/p>\n

In comparing the performance of the two groups, the conclu\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

sion seemed abundantly clear: Nearly all the students needed <\/span><\/p>\n

some degree of remediation, and the time spent on finding and <\/span><\/p>\n

fixing the gaps turned out both to save time and deepen learning in <\/span><\/p>\n

the longer term.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

if that is really true, thats a HUGELY important finding. any replications of this?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As we settled into the MIT routine, Shantanu and I began <\/span><\/p>\n

independently to arrive at the same subversive but increasingly <\/span><\/p>\n

obvious conclusion: The giant lecture classes were a monu\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

mental waste of time. Three hundred students crammed into <\/span><\/p>\n

a stifling lecture hall; one professor droning through a talk he <\/span><\/p>\n

knew by heart and had delivered a hundred times before. The <\/span><\/p>\n

sixty-minute talks were bad enough; the ninety-minute talks <\/span><\/p>\n

were torture. What was the point? Was this education or an <\/span><\/p>\n

endurance contest? Was anybody actually learning anything? <\/span><\/p>\n

Why did students show up at all? Shantanu and I came up with <\/span><\/p>\n

two basic theories about this. Kids went to the lectures either <\/span><\/p>\n

because their parents were paying x number of dollars per, or <\/span><\/p>\n

because many of the lecturers were academic celebrities, so <\/span><\/p>\n

there was an element of show business involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

i feel exactly the same about my university classes. i want to learn goddamit, not sit in class waiting for it to end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then there are the standardized tests to which students are <\/span><\/p>\n

subjected from third grade straight on through to grad school. <\/span><\/p>\n

As I \u2019ve said, I am not antitesting; I believe that well-conceived, <\/span><\/p>\n

well-designed, and fairly administered tests constitute one of <\/span><\/p>\n

our few real sources of reliable and relatively objective data <\/span><\/p>\n

regarding students\u2019 preparedness. But note that I say prepared\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

ness, not potential. Well-designed tests can give a pretty solid <\/span><\/p>\n

idea of what a student has learned, but only a very approximate <\/span><\/p>\n

picture of what she can learn. To put it in a slightly different <\/span><\/p>\n

way, tests tend to measure quantities of information (and some\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

times knowledge) rather than quality of minds\u2014not to men\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tion character. Besides, for all their attempts to appear precise <\/span><\/p>\n

and comprehensive, test scores seldom identify truly notable <\/span><\/p>\n

ability. I f you\u2019re the admissions director at Caltech or in charge <\/span><\/p>\n

of hiring engineers at Apple, you\u2019re going to see a heck of a lot <\/span><\/p>\n

of candidates who had perfect scores on their math SATs. They <\/span><\/p>\n

are all going to be fairly smart people, but the scores tell you <\/span><\/p>\n

little about who is truly unique.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

mr. Khan obvisuly knows little about intelligence tests. sure, SAT, ACT, GRE tests are achievement tests, but those correlate moderately to strongly with g factor, so they are okay to decent intelligence tests. and ofc, IQ tests like RPM are really good at measuring g factor. they really can measure a students potential, in that it measures the students ability very well, and that is closely related to the students potential.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For me personally, the biggest discovery has been how hun\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

gry students are for real understanding. I sometimes get push- <\/span><\/p>\n

back from people saying, \u201cWell, this is all well and good, but it <\/span><\/p>\n

will only work for motivated students.\u201d And they say it assum\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

ing that maybe 20 percent of students fall into that category. I <\/span><\/p>\n

probably would have agreed with them seven years ago, based <\/span><\/p>\n

on what I\u2019d seen in my own experience with the traditional aca\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

demic model. When I first started making videos, I thought I <\/span><\/p>\n

was making them only for some subset of students who cared\u2014 <\/span><\/p>\n

like my cousins or younger versions of myself. What was truly <\/span><\/p>\n

startling was the reception the lessons received from students <\/span><\/p>\n

whom people had given up on, and who were about to give up <\/span><\/p>\n

on themselves. It made me realize that if you give students the <\/span><\/p>\n

opportunity to learn deeply and to see the magic of the universe <\/span><\/p>\n

around them, almost everyone will be motivated.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it will be interesting to see just how many students care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is Khan Academy, along with the intuitions and ideas that <\/span><\/p>\n

underpin it, our best chance to move toward a better educa\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tional future? That\u2019s not for me to say. Other people of vision <\/span><\/p>\n

and goodwill have differing approaches, and I fervently hope<\/span><\/p>\n

that all are given a fair trial in the wider world. But new and <\/span><\/p>\n

bold approaches do need to be tried. The one thing we cannot <\/span><\/p>\n

afford to do is to leave things as they are. The cost of inac\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

tion is unconscionably high, and it is counted out not in dol\u00ad<\/span><\/p>\n

lars or euros or rupees but in human destinies. Still, as both an <\/span><\/p>\n

engineer and a stubborn optimist, I believe that where there are <\/span><\/p>\n

problems, there are also solutions. I f Khan Academy proves to <\/span><\/p>\n

be even part of the solution to our educational malaise, I will <\/span><\/p>\n

feel proud and privileged to have made a contribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

indeed, never trying anything new implies no progress.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

reminds me of another book i want to read soon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/13237711-uncontrolled?auto_login_attempted=true<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The One World Schoolhouse – Salman Khan ebook free download pdf This is a short, easy to read, nonacademic (few references) book. it has som shortcomings on matters dealing with test taking and intelligence tests, but isnt that important for the main topics of the book. this book shud be read by anyone interested in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1937,1879],"tags":[1945],"class_list":["post-3515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-science","category-education-politik","tag-education-philosophy","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3517,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions\/3517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}