On teaching
2023-11-06
A few ideas that could possibly make a huge impact on education
I've always had a question in my mind, an unsolved mystery - why math and other science is so damn easy, but yet so many students fail it? I am no special person - not some kind of genius, and many others could achieve much more than I had. And everything seems so simple as you get an explanation from peer student. And so damn dificult as you learn everything by the pace of an average Lithianian school.
I tried tutoring, also tried teaching - but is probably seems obvious, that you cannot change a lot in education by makiing difference only when you spend your own time. A lot of your own time. And not using what other people have already created/invented.
The real answer to this question is long solved. It's called the SDT - Self Determination Theory. It is a psychology theory about what is needed to spark intrinsic motivation to learn or do something. And intrinsic motivation is long proved to be the best type of motivation - motivation which rises within us and cannot be incited with some materialistic rewards, such as a good grade or a great pay. And with this intrinsic motivation students can achive the most. And be happiest and self trusted.
SDT has pointed out 3 main things for intrinsic motivation to appear:
- Autonomy - you need to be able to decide by yourself what you want to learn/do.
- Competence - you need to do something that that has importance/competence and can be used in the world
- Relatedness - you need some other people that would do the same / share the same interest
And to implement this in real life, I created The Science Guild (Mokslo gildija), where people with similar interest in learning science would gather around (Relatedness) and present what they have learned abot some complex and important (Competence) science stuff, which is, of course, not mandatory, and for which topics to learn are chosen freely (Autonomy).
Science Dictionary
Another question that I was contemplating a lot is how could I help students learn math? And what is needed for everyone to get opportunity to have a really good quality education.
It seems obvious, that the Internet has all the solutions - you could find tutorials for any education topic, and in many different styles. Youtube is STUFFED with really good tutorials. The only problem is - school students usually don't get a vocabulary with Lithuanian-English translations of sometimes complex science terms. And sometimes those translations really doesn't make sense and no way could be googled or translated with google translate.
And for that I started making the Science Dictionary LT -> EN (sci-dict.org). Where students could find all the school (and beyond) math terms with translations from Lithuanian to English, and then successfully google, youtube and research in other ways their important school topics.