How a school should look: How to improve the education of secondary students
It’s a well-known fact that high school isn’t very fun. Sure, it’s seen as ‘the best time of your life’, and many adults would love to go back to school, but if you ask any student what they think about school currently, they will always say that it is either boring, stressful, or tiring. It’s just the way it’s been. While the Australian curriculum is constantly being updated, it still seems miss the key updates that it requires to truly cater for the modern-day Australian student. Below are some concepts that have the potential to allow the high school curriculum to become an educational powerhouse.
Civics, Citizenship and Finance
Civics and citizenship is the area of the curriculum that is designed to allow students to foster a better understanding of political and legal environments. I have theorised another area to be added to this lesson: finance. The addition of finance to civics and citizenship would allow students to leave school not only educationally intelligent, but also financially intelligent. With the cost-of-living crisis snapping at our heels, the most important thing for anyone to learn is how to be better with their money.
This addition would teach students about taxes, and savings accounts, and income. This would give them the tools and skills they need to live a successful financial life and help them tackle their future aspirations free from many of the debts they would have without this education. Not only would it teach them how to stay out of debt, but it would also teach them how to get ahead finically, by investing intelligently and building healthy saving habits.
Practical Learning
The current curriculum focuses on teaching students in equal amounts of practical and theoretical learning. Where possible, it would be highly beneficial for all students to have a practical-oriented learning style. It has been found that children and young adults absorb far more information through practical learning experiences opposed to theoretical explanations. Not only would it be more informative, but students would be more entertained, allowing them to access their full learning potential. Subjects that have a largely theoretical basis could have more excursions/field trips incorporated to allow for students to interact with their learning. This change to how students learn would enhance the amount of information that they could retain in the long term.
Student Led and Tailored to Students
Students are becoming more aware of what they require out of their learning. It is vital that teachers and students understand that they can form an understanding that would allow them to shape the delivery of their education to better suit both parties. All classes are different; therefore, it is vital for teachers to learn the learning capabilities of their students, and tailor the education their deliver based on their findings.
With social media being such a necessity in our lives, and it becomes harder to make a living, youth are being forced to mature faster than we have ever seen before. As a result of this, students can start learning in more advanced formats faster. For instance, opposed to providing students with a plethora of general information that they won’t remember/ever use a majority of, students could start working on larger projects of their choosing on a topic that they enjoy. This would not only allow students to be more engaged and excited to show up to class, but they would also develop the skills they need for the career of their choice sooner. This would give them a substantial amount of extra time to refine and improve these skills before they enter the workforce, improving the quality of products and services available to the public.
While at the end of the day schools will always need to be improved to keep up with the modern day, with the help of these ideas, and the many more that I’m sure we will see develop over the coming years, school could become a largely improved environment for both students and teachers.