| HappySqurriel said: Several decades ago it was noticed that people learn far more in far less time when they study a subject they're interested in on their own than if they take part in a formal educational program ... Lots of research was done on this and a formal educational system, called inquiry based learning, was produced based on this research. Essentially, it takes a subject that a student must learn and allows them to learn it in relation to a subject they're interested in, for example a student could learn about statistics based on sports-statistics or videogame sales. Even with inquiry based learning, a motivated individual still can learn far more about a subject they're interested in from self study than they ever can from a formal educational program. |
You're correct. Schools, in Canada at least, are [only now] beginning to lean toward this approach. The child essentially chooses their own curriculum (with guidance and some direction depending on the childs' ability). Discovery over knowledge. We're still quite a long ways away, though. It's at the point where it's all that is taught in education programs (all I heard my entire year in education was - constructivism, constructivism, constructivism) and it's beginning to sprout in some province's Science curriculum.
It really is a win-win I for both the teacher and the student. It's much easier to help motivate a student to learn about statistics if they can pick their own context and it's especially beneficial to the student in several ways: If motivated, they will become much more effecient and independant learners; and more may actually like learning than they do now.
