Jaime Bonilla presented on breaking education paradigms and argues that the current education system is outdated and designed for the economic needs of the Industrial Revolution. The system treats students like factories with bells and separate classrooms for each subject. It also assumes all students of the same age are alike, but students today live in a highly stimulating world and have different skills and ways of learning. Standardized testing and divergent thinking are discouraged, but we need an education system that allows students to be creative and collaborative to prepare for the changing world.

1. Presented by: Jaime Bonilla
Cambridge International Examinations Coordinator
Colegio Inglés de los Andes
Santiago de Cali, May 3rd 2013
BREAKING
EDUCATION
PARADIGMS

2. *

3. The first one is economic!

4. The second one is cultural!

5. So… what is the problem with our education
system?
The problem is that the current system of education was designed and
conceived and structured for the economic circumstances of the Industrial
Revolution.
Schools are still pretty much organized on factory lines, with ringing bells,
separate facilities specialized into separate subjects.

6. Also, the fact that we are trying to meet the
future by doing what we did in the past
doesn’t help!

7. I don’t think so. We put them through the system by age group under the
assumption that the most important thing kids have in common is how old they
are.
Does educating children based on age groups
work?

8. What has changed in the past 20 years?
Our children are living in the most intensely stimulating period in the history
of the earth. They are bombarded with information from every platform,
computers, from iPhones, from advertising holdings from hundreds of
television channels. And we are penalizing them for getting distracted…From
what? Boring stuff. At school for the most part!

9. Is standardized testing the best way to assure
fairness ?
No…There are kids who are much better than other kids at the same age
in different disciplines, at different times of the day or better in smaller
groups than in large groups or sometimes they want to be on their own.

10. What is divergent thinking?
Divergent thinking isn't the same thing as creativity. It's the ability to see lots of
possible answers to a question. Lots of possible ways of interpreting a question.

11. How many uses can you think of for a paper
clip?
Most people might come with 10 or 15. People who are good at this might come
with 200. And they do that by saying. Well, could the paper clip be 200 foot tall
and be made of foam rubber?

12. Is copying from another cheating?
Well, outside school that's called collaboration but, inside schools it’s called
cheating. And this isn't because teachers wanted this way it's just because it
happens that way. We have to recognize most great learning happens in groups.
That collaboration is the stuff of growth.

13. The major issue with our education paradigms as we know it today is that it was
created for a different time. We need to get with the times and understand that
these new generations have different needs. We all have a capacity when we are
young to think divergently and we are being taught out of this as we go through
the current paradigm. We need to place emphasis on allowing our children to be
fully awake and use all sides of their creative-intellectual selves to create adults
that are ready to face our changing world.
In summary…

14. Thank you for your kind attention!
jbonilla158@inglesdelosandes.edu.co
www.tesol5.blogspot.com
QUESTIONS???