Contemporary Educational Change - Essay Example

?Educational Change The modern education system has been a of criticism due to lack of connection with the real world. The question of “why current education change is such an important issue in contemporary education” has remained a controversial question. Arguments raised to support changes in education are based on the education needs of various students and the ability of the education to deliver according to its expectations. Counter arguments raised on the issue rely on the fact that education changes should not be artificial. This is to imply that any changes made on an education system should be realized from developments in the education but not on the need of the people to create easy or student friendly education. Effectiveness and value of modern education can only be realized through a transformation of the entire education system. This paper will therefore, give a discussion on why change is important in the contemporary education. Current schooling has many weaknesses that deny its beneficiaries the value for their investments in education. Although the flaws in existing education have been in existence for a long time, their impacts have not yet been analyzed. The education system was structured long time ago but the needs of the society have changed with time hence necessitating an overhaul change in the education system (Hallinger, 2003). Effective changes on the current education can only be realized from a transformation of the entire educational system. Partial changes will leave loopholes or weakness on the resultant education system. It is worth noting that education is a multivariate concept and therefore, all facets should be given appropriate attention. Effectiveness of an education system lies in the ability to transform its beneficiaries and the entire society. Notably, education system focuses too much on theoretical aspects whereas the world has become more practical. Therefore, it is important to incorporate practical aspect in the education system in order to enable students handle practical life experiences once they leave the school. This is evident with most college graduates who never apply their education after completing their courses from various colleges (Hargreaves, 2004). The purpose of schooling is realized through application of acquired knowledge to solve real-world problems. Significance of education can therefore, be established by determining the rate of application of knowledge outside educational institutions (Hallinger, 2003). However, it has been found out that modern education system discourage application of knowledge in solving real-world problems. A lot of evidence supports that education system does not offer adequate skills needed for practical life experience. Most of the principles taught in school are either too complicated and complex to be applied in real life or are not adequate at all. This is particularly ironical since many resources have been applied to acquire these skills. It can be agreed that learning complicated skills is a waste of valuable time for students. This is because students spend their prime age in life acquiring life skills in school. If students are not able to apply the skills learned in school in real life, then it becomes a waste of time, energy, and resources. Changing the current education is important in order to incorporate the application aspect in contemporary education. Value of education can only be realized through application of the knowledge acquired through education. It is possible to view education as an investment since students will have to get returns once they start using the skills learned in school. With the rising economic crisis in many countries, investment in education becomes expensive both to the government and to individuals as well. Since beneficiaries of education use little if any of the skills gained from education in real life, then education becomes even more expensive. Simply put, return on investment on educations is not justified. The cost of education and the actual value of education can be determined from the both the cost that learners needs to pay in exchange for their education and the time that they need to spend in order to acquire education. Many individuals who do not get into highly paying jobs have to work for many years before they recover the investments they spent on education. This can even affect the structures of the economy. Knowledge acquired through current education lacks relevance and application in the real job market. In most scenarios, college graduate who go through modern education have to be retrained in order to fit in the job market. Acquiring additional knowledge in order to fit in the job market indicates that beneficiaries of existing education do not realize the full value of their education. Additionally, lack of adequate skills puts an increased and undeserved burden to employers since they have to train new employees before they fit into the job market (Fullan, 1998). This is clear evidence that there is dire need to change the education system such that students can fit directly into the job market without having to be retrained again by the employers. Lack of application for knowledge acquired through schooling contributes to the low value of contemporary education. This is because education plays a different role from which it should. Modern education is viewed as a factor of creating a difference between people of a similar class. This is of greater importance in the job market where education is used as a selection criterion for various candidates (Hopkins, Ainscow, & West, 1997). Modern education system needs to be changed in order to improve its role as a measure of intelligence or knowledge. Contemporary education also needs to be changed to eliminate the factor of competition that is associated with current education. Although competition is important in a society, it contributes to wastage of resources and underdevelopment of a society. Existing education does not provide a sufficient measure for the intelligence or knowledge of a person since it measures the ability of a person to remember things taught through education (Blenkin, Edwards, & Kelly, 1979). It is the high time to think about the education system especially the standardized tests which are biased and uncalled for. Each student is unique and thus should be treated specially. Subjecting students to standardized tests promotes competition rather than acquisition of knowledge. Most notably, students exposed to standardized testing will only remember things that were taught under standardized tests and not general real life application of knowledge. Conclusion The value and effectiveness of education can only be realized by changing the entire system. Although current education is important in developing the society, it is not sufficient. In addition, contemporary education does not cover the cost that its beneficiaries pay to acquire it. Complexity of modern education in relation to the expectation of the real world is the main cause of low value in modern education. Current education needs to be changed in order to increase its value by eliminating complexity, improve application and to improve its ability to measure the intelligence and knowledge of an individual. References Blenkin, G., Edwards, G. & Kelly, A. (1979). Perspectives on educational change. In A. Harris, N. Bennett & M. Preedy, Organizational effectiveness and improvement in education, (pp.216- 230). Buckingham: Open University Press.  Fullan, M. (1998). The meaning of educational change: a quarter of a century of learning. In A. Hargreaves, A. Lieberman, M. Fullan & D. Hopkins (Eds), International handbook of educational change (pp.214-228). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.  Hallinger, P. (2003). Leading educational change: reflections on the practice of instrumental and transformational leadership. Cambridge journal of education. 33(3), 329-351. Hargreaves, A. (2004). Inclusive and exclusive educational change: emotional responses of teachers and implications for leadership. School leadership & management. 24(3), 287-309.  Hopkins, D., Ainscow, M. & West, M. (1997). Making sense of change. In M. Preedy, R. Glatter & R. Levacic (Eds.) Educational management: strategy, quality and resources.Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press.  Read More