Education Reform Plan Survey

[stargroup]

A bit off-topic, but it's important, so I put it here.

Please fill this out as fully as possible. Take your time with it. Send it to me any way you want. (PM, E-mail, IM, file transfer, etc)

[Kokobeanie]

what about canadians?

[profrainE]

Just a thought pestering me, but is this survey related to today's date or is it actually serious? (no offense)

[stargroup]

It's actually serious.

And I updated the survey to include one comment related to education outside the U.S. You can still fill it out, just indicate your nationality.

[bmah]

Although I live in Canada, I'll still answer the questions as it stands for me. You can still find some use in this by making a comparison of American students' quality of education vs my experiences with the Canadian system, whatever differences that may be.

1. What is your ideal education system?

A system that offers as much variety as possible, opens as many doors as possible, and tries to achieve quality at the same time. This of course is a general response to the system as a whole. At an individual sector (a district, a university, a small school, whatever the scope), education quality of course varies, and certain schools employ different strategies according to their individual beliefs on education.

In regards to variety:
- a varied number of degrees should be available; ever wonder why some people travel far away from home just to go to a university that has a program for OT training? etc.
- a wide variety of courses should be available, and new ones should be introduced from year to year to keep variety going; this would at least have students looking forward to different things and keep up their interests or provide them more ideas for their future careers
- a variety of social outlets and extracurricular activity; just because you live in Canada doesn't mean that the majority of socialization have to be beer drinking in bars; just because you live in California doesn't mean that one should just let beach parties/surfing be the biggest form of extracurricular activity; get the community involved in other things

In regards to opening doors:
- you can't open many doors and opportunities if you can't afford to go to the college you want; I've been to the states several times, and by far the costs for many universities are FAR beyond what Canadian universities have to pay (and that's in part due to the level of gov't contribution on education between the two countries) - only exceptions may be community colleges in the US
- course availability - and what I mean by this is that some people are forced to design their schedules based on some courses that are only offered at certain times of the year, or offered every other year, etc.; changing the school's calendar system may fix this; for example, having a trimester system instead of a semester system (3 semesters vs 2 semesters) would increase flexibility amongst profs in regards to their time for contribution and would increase opportunities for students to choose courses with limited availability - in retrospect, this would also reduce the number of waiting lists or "priorities" given to students that major in a certain area
- potential job availability and in that respect, internships with various companies; you know, I still wonder what the hell I'll be doing after I graduate

In regards to quality:
- starting with an obvious one, classroom quality; we're talking about sufficient "supplies", effective "supplies", and effective classroom sizes/number of students enrolled in a course; there are obvious advantages/disadvantages for large and small classroom sizes. Small classroom sizes usually result in increased attentiveness of students paying attention, and more notably, increased attentiveness of professors in tracking the student's progress. Large classroom sizes do not typically offer this kind of attentiveness on both parties, but does promote in a way independent/self-learning and finding resources other than the prof - the atmosphere is more closely relegated to real life, in which you have to independently find your own solutions - you don't have a mentor by your side all the time.
- course quality; this includes effective "professors", effective "teaching methods", effective self-checks and evaluations on the system itself. Professor personality: the most enthusiastic professors tend to give the best quality and enjoyment of a course to students; if a Harvard professor isn't that, it's just another professor IMO. And probably one who researches better than he/she can socialize. Teaching methods: there's this current trend of independent learning going on that can be a good and bad thing. Independent learning obviously promotes self-efficiency/self-dependence, etc. which is wholly applicable to real-life situations. However, it sometimes can deviate to the point in which it might be better just to buy the textbook and not even bother enrolling in the course. This applies to situations in which professors encourage this type of learning, or more commonly now, online course offerings where professors are non-existant. Your opinion on this would likely depend on whether you think it's sufficient that students learn self-independence within their coursework, or learn self-independence at their own time. Checks on the system: at the end of every course, students at my university are given a scantron-like T.A./professor evaluation form. They personally evalute them and it really DOES affect the professor's potential job continuity. On occasion, sometimes surveys are offered to your email address. Also, an effective Student Union is very important as a more effective voice for students to reach their concerns out to gov't, university, and other big cheeses. Hence, student council voting is an important process as well. Problems that plagues this is clearly student apathy - in which case more effective communication to get the words out to the public is required (by email, student newsletters/newspaper, etc.).

2. How would you rate the current education system in each aspect? (from 1-10, 1 being terrible, 10 being perfect)
- Efficiency 6.5
- Material/Coursework 8.0
- Real world preparation 7.5
- Fairness 7.5
- Extracurriculars 7.0
- Social atmosphere 7.0
- Facilities/Resources6.0
- Teachers 6.5
- Affordability 6.0

Above is a general overview of my opinion on Canada's system. This is quite general and IMO harder to evaluate that a system that has probably a more glaring problem such as the US.

3. Would you like a personalized education system?
- Yes BUT ONLY IF IT'S FEASIBLE, and I doubt that it's the most efficient use of resource, however many resources are available
- No
- Not sure
- Don't care
- Other

4. How would you rate the proposed personalized education system in each aspect? (from 1-10, 1 being terrible, 10 being perfect)

I honestly can't rate a system that I haven't tried, never mind been being implemented yet. For nearly all of the below, I have to say that it can vary widely, depending on the student's goals and needs (or rather, wants). So a student can taylor something so customized that it would really only work in this system and not anywhere else. Or perhaps another students wants to focus on another aspect, such as work experience and real life preparation. It would vary.

- Efficiency
- Material/Coursework
- Real world preparation
- Fairness
- Extracurriculars
- Social atmosphere
- Facilities/Resources
- Teachers
- Affordability

5. What other suggestions/recommendations do you have regarding this new education system?

I mentioned this already, but I suspect there can be a resource-fiscal issue. Is having a personalized education plan for every student going to overload the gov't of resources? How idealistic is this, and how close can the system come to realization? And WHAT time frame are we assuming this plan begins? During a time in which the world is still digging its way out of that big hole the big banks created called depression?

6. Are you willing to contribute your efforts/resources/time to help build this education system?

The question clearly is directed to the people living in America. But if it applied here, it's hard for me to say. In what way would I contribute? Tax dollars? Actual planning with high-ranking officials? Or perhaps using the Student Council? To be honest, I'd rather have the gov't or some other body compose the plan, and I'd be a tester by immersing myself in the new system, not be the one to make the plan myself.

7. Please add any additional comments you have.

Summary: plan seems flexible, but I'd need more specific info on how this could become operable and feasible. The info provided in the questionnaire is willy-nilly at best.

8. Please include any personal information you are comfortable with sharing.

It took me like a fricken hour or so to write this. I don't write out crap, that's for sure.