Issue51 Thrive小组第1次作业

vic_rainUID: 2304309

参考了好多优秀习作.



51："Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."

Syllabus:
   Overview: Partly agreement. I agree with the assertion that specifically designed education for individuals may serve students better than general education, the latter still have potential problems undermining its feasibility.
1.      Affirmed student-oriented education’s potential effective and positive influence.
2.      the concept of specific education does have some potential problems that prevent it from being feasible in a large scale
1> First, the technical feasibility of the concept is highly questionable.
2> Secondly, too much emphasis on specific education may make students disregard the importance of general knowledge, therefore undermining the academic basis of students.
3> Finally, specific education would bring out tremendous obstacles in evaluating students.
   3.  Brought forward my suggestion that the most eclectic and effective way to combine specialization with generalization may be like today's education mode in which students learn a wide range of courses in high school and study major subjects in university.
Conclusion: I agree with the speaker insofar as that individual needs and potentials of each student should be outscored and valued, but public general education should remain the way it has been.

Words: mediocre, dig out, talents, curriculum; cater to; guarantees; exploitation;


TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
WORDS: 610          TIME: 00:60:02          DATE: 2008-2-1 18:21:19

While I agree with the speaker that the specifically designed education for each individual may serves students better than traditional education we adopt today, this kind of education is more likely to have potential problems and even harms undermining its feasibility.

Admittedly, since we are at a time most people advocate and appreciate special characteristics and skills, individuals should value and improve one's own interests, especially in a competing world now. With respect to one's own vacation, social development demands that only the candidates with unique abilities and special skills would be the most distinguished people. Each individual is competing with peers all over the world. If everyone receives the same general education, it is quite possible that he/she would merely reach mediocre level, say nothing of being an expert. With respect to school education, specific education is needed to inspire students' interests and dig out ones' potentials, which would otherwise be masked by general education. Taking general education in high school as an example, there should be talents with special gifts in music, literature, management and business. As they receive the same curriculum including few relative subjects about their own interests, he/she would be very difficult to discover and explore his/her potentials. From the two respects above, I strongly hold a positive attitude towards the specialized education which caters to individual needs and interests.

However, the concept of specific education does have some potential problems and even harms that prevent it from being feasible in a large scale.

First, the technical feasibility of the concept is highly questionable. How can we devise a curriculum to meet so many needs and interests? How can we arrange these courses according to the omnipotent curriculum? And how many teachers are needed to implement these courses? Therefore it is not reasonable and practical, let alone effective, to adopt this kind of education.

Secondly, too much emphasis on specific education would make students disregard the importance of general knowledge, therefore undermining the academic basis of students. Considering high school education, we encourage students to learn a large range of basic disciplines, such as literature, physics, maths, chemistry and so on, to ensure they receive a comprehensive training. That guarantees them to have an all-round background supporting there subsequent potentials' exploitation. Whereas, the students with individual interests plough into only few subjects and neglect others, their career development would never make progress much. For instance, a students only interested in literature and overlooked other subjects wouldn't go deeply enough because of being lacking of logical and analytic training.

Thirdly, specific education would also bring out tremendous obstacles to students' evaluating system. No unified criteria can be created if we adopt such an individualized educational mode. How can we compare a student specializing in literature with others who study chemistry? How can we determine the students who should be admitted to further their study in universities while others are not? Some people may argue that we can divide the college entrance examination into several parts. However, it is still too demanding and expensive for organizing so large scale test. In fact, general knowledge should be tested no matter him/she has or not. Why every under graduated students who want to further their study should take GRE in United States?

      To sum up, I agree with the speaker's point that individual interests and needs should be outscored and valued, but public education should stay as it has been. Because general education has its inherent limitations, we can not require too much from it. For cooperating with general education in high school, parents should pay more attention to individual needs and interests of their children, since they know their children best and have every motivation to explore their children's potentials. And family tutoring is an effective way as well.

[ 本帖最后由 vic_rain 于 2008-2-1 20:50 编辑 ]