Hippy Education

I recently read an article on education that made me see my own schooltime from a whole new perspective. It describes a study where a group of students were divided in to two different groups partly in to their course. One group os taught according to the "traditional University model" whereas the other was "deliberate practice": "Class time is spent on problem-solving, discussion and group work, while the absorption of facts and formulae is left for homework."

The article presents this model as if it is a new way of teaching although it is the predominant teaching method I remember from my childhood, youth and university course in Denmark. And suddenly I realised why groupwork was so hard when I did my postgrad at an international management school. I was so used to learning that way that I didn't even think about how to do it. I've been problem-solving, discussing and groupworking as an natural way of learning since I could read. The other guys had learned things off by heart. They were used to working as individuals and I was used to the type of groupwork the University required us to do. But I had no idea of how to deal with people to whom this concept was entirely new.

In the workplace many jobs require you to be able to work together with people as well as working as an individual. It is interesting to see how people's background make them more skilled at one or the other. The challenge is to know when which method is appropriate.