In case you didn’t catch it, this week on the TEDx blog, we featured four talks examining advancements in education.
It’s a topic we talk a lot about here at TED and it’s a conversation TEDx events have contributed to en masse. Needless to say, there are countless approaches to the issue.
Check out four of those approaches below and, if that’s not enough, enjoy nine more.
Preventing forgetfulness after the test: Jamshed Bharucha at TEDxCooperUnion
"We as teachers often forget that our students forget."
If you’re like most students, you probably forget most of what you’ve learned soon after the test. At TEDxCooperUnion, Jamshed Bharucha calls attention to the problem of forgetfulness and explains how new research into memory and long-term learning could guide the development of a new teaching methods.
Where is the research and development in education? Jim Shelton at TEDxMidAtlantic
"These are all things that are within our reach…so why aren’t we doing this?"
We value education deeply and talk protractedly about fixing it, but how much do we actually invest in its future? Jim Shelton calls for an expanded effort to use existing technologies that can give every student a personalized education and for substantial public investment into the research and development of new education practices and platforms.
The impact of desegregation on learning: Rucker Johnson at TEDxMiamiUniversity
"Denying children access to resources damages both their educational and later life outcomes."
As schools were desegregated in the 1950s and 1960s, opponents feared that embracing students from low-performing all-black schools would lower standards and unfairly disrupt white students’ performances. In fact, as Rucker Johnson shows with his extensive research, desegregation had essentially no effect on white students, but propelled minority students to unprecedented levels of success.
An end to age-grouping in the classroom: Mary Esselman at TEDxSarasota
"Imagine being a sixth grade teacher with students at fourteen different levels in your classroom"
When students are grouped by age, teachers must teach to every level of aptitude at once. Mary Esselman offers a bold solution: end grade-levels and group kids by skill and proficiency. In this talk, she shares her successes experimenting with this intensely personalized and differentiated education model.