An initiative: Discussion on issues that influence the quality of teaching by providers.

According to Alvin Toffler: The illiterate of the 21st century is not someone who cannot read or write, but someone who cannot learn, un-learn or relearn.

I have to confess that I come from a mostly talk and chalk background which I sometimes sweetened to provide an image of learner-centered learning and had to do a lot of de-learning and relearning myself and is still learning.

Most of my de-learning took place the last 10 years resulted in my 2012 book: The DNA of Great Teachers.                                                                 This is however not the end of my learning.

My view is that if teachers/trainers are not going to change their teaching approach our rating on the World Competitive Report will slide from the current position 59 to 62^nd position within the next 5 years.
The worst a country can do to increase the quality of teaching is to change the curriculum. I think in education we are busy with the 3^rd curriculum, still leading us nowhere in terms of quality.

The same happened when the NQF was introduced. Every Dick, Tom and Mary ran to SETA created provider opportunities and started giving themselves out as facilitators, material developers, etc. 


The solution would be to invest in teaching competencies. Great Teachers can make any curriculum work!The most sophisticated curriculum will certainly fail because of incompetent teachers.
 “I have a dream that all teachers are great teachers empowering learners to become great learners.”

If I receive sufficient ‘comments’ and ‘likes’ on this post, it will ensure me there is sufficient 21^st century literate members in the teaching fraternity interested in contributing to help saving our education and training system.
I will then I will share some of my great teaching arguments, insight and snippets in future, aimed at initiating debate and learning, from which all, including myself will benefit. I am confident that there will be other contributors as well.

So, if you want this to continue, ‘comment’ or ‘like’. I you do not want to have it continues, just view and leave.I intend to start with the relationship between a curriculum or for that matter a unit standard and development of learning material first.(by Casper Olivier )

What is your opinion? Leave a comment and share this post.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates all did dropout from Colleges. So, Is Higher Education worth it?

Is higher education really required to make a mark? Does higher education really provide you with the edge over others as it claims? What happens if you don’t pursue higher education?

Well the answer is Partly Yes and Partly No. There are many well known and established people who are college dropouts. And when they left their schooling everyone claimed that they will get lost amidst the crowd. But surprisingly it was not meant to be so. Take for Example Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.

Bill Gates a dropout is responsible for his huge contribution in the world of computers. He is practically responsible for the functioning of computers across the globe. Who can underplay the role of Windows in our everyday life? Without Windows and Microsoft we are practically crippled.

Not to forget Steve Jobs. How can we undermine his creations like Apple Mac Computers and the vast range of “i” products like iPhone, iPod, and iPad? And this guy never completed his graduation and yet contributed so much to the world’s economy.

Then there is Mark Zuckerberg who dropped out of college to build the social networking site called Facebook. Almost everyone who uses computer and internet has an account in Facebook.

Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams dropped out of college to create Twitter in 2006, and that’s doing pretty well financially. Digg, a social news website, was started by dropout Kevin Rose in 2004, and David Karp, the inventor of Tumblr and a high school dropout, was valued at $800 million in 2011.

{Source: http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2012/12/dropouts-give-reason-to-question-worth-of-higher-education-124}

But then at the same time can we overlook the fact that people like them are in the minority. Majority of us will stand nowhere without a proper education, otherwise the education industry would not be thriving. Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Steve Jobs – whatever they achieved is because they followed their passion but then everyone is not that strong willed nor everyone gets those opportunities or has the resources. Many might come up different business ideas but it takes effort and resources to make it a reality.

For the rest of us, we have to depend on education to get a proper job and maintain our financial standard. How can we undermine the fact that education improves our skills and expertise? There are many professions like Doctor, Architect, and Engineer that has no value without proper education and degree from a reputed educational institution. Education has no replacement. If all of us decided to drop out of colleges and universities to pursue our passion, there is a high chance that many of us will fail to accomplish what we set out to achieve. So we can very well estimate that there will be a huge number of unemployed youths which in turn will affect the economy of the country. And instead of being a flourishing country, it will end up being poor and financially dependent on other countries.

By Leona Sharon