Sir Ken Robinson's most recent TED talk is a great validation of our approach at ThoughtWorks University. While Sir Ken speaks about education and I'm more a corporate educator and for long I've felt strongly against one-size-fits-all, factory style, conformant education. I've always been one for a pull-based approach as you may have noticed from my past blogposts some of which are below:
- Put your learners on a diet - consider a pull-based approach
- Empowering learners in an Induction Program
- 5 Simple Ideas to give an Edge to your Induction Experience
- Learning to Learn in the modern Enterprise
"Education, in a way, dislocates very many people from their natural talents. And human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep."Great speaking and great inspiration for those like me who believe in individualisation and diversity. We need to give our learners credit for who they are and move away from one-size-fits-all training. Instead, let's find an agricultural model that works for the enterprise. More about this when I post about ThoughtWorks University next month. Thanks Sir Ken - this is great ammunition to support my thoughts!
"The great problem for reform or transformation is the tyranny of common sense, things that people think, 'Well, it can't be done any other way because that's the way it's done.'"
"You know, to me, human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability."
"The other big issue is conformity. We have built our education systems on the model of fast food. This is something Jamie Oliver talked about the other day. You know there are two models of quality assurance in catering. One is fast food, where everything is standardized. The other are things like Zagat and Michelin restaurants, where everything is not standardized, they're customized to local circumstances. And we have sold ourselves into a fast food model of education. And it's impoverishing our spirit and our energies as much as fast food is depleting our physical bodies."
"We have to go from what is essentially an industrial model of education, a manufacturing model, which is based on linearity and conformity and batching people. We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it's an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish."
"It's about customizing to your circumstances, and personalizing education to the people you're actually teaching."
"It's not about scaling a new solution; it's about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum."
"Now, in this room, there are people who represent extraordinary resources in business, in multimedia, in the internet. These technologies, combined with the extraordinary talents of teachers, provide an opportunity to revolutionize education."
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