We are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Debats d’Educació by giving the educational community the opportunity to air its views
I’m an educator, psychologist and journalist. I’ve worked with adolescents since the 1970’s. I still dream we can create another kind of school.
The three things I’ve learned
I’m happy. Today i know more
This year I've discovered that the answers to some of the questions I sometimes ask myself can be found in what I learn at school. I don’t have to check the horoscope. It’s the uneducated people who believe everything. The teacher doesn’t ask questions and give us the answers. He tries to first find out what we know and whether we have any questions or if we don’t really care.
I don’t think it's about studying and even less so, cramming. What’s cool is having to investigate: doing experiments in chemistry class, searching on the Internet without getting lost, reaching some type of conclusion, your own conclusions. Sometimes there are topics which I seriously don’t know what their purpose is, but you feel important when you dominate them. I have a teacher who loves rocks and another who loves romance novels. Now I know why a diamond is hard and what I shouldn't say to girls I like. It’s not that I don’t care about learning, I don’t care for studying books that have little to do with me.
Sometimes saturdays are boring and mondays fun
When I was a kid, I liked going to school. Then, things changed in secondary school. Last year I really only went to see my friends and have a good time. I would dream of Saturday. Now I’ve changed schools and at the new school, I think many Mondays are much more fun than many of the boring moments with friends at the weekend. In social studies, we are finding out why people are left without jobs during economic crises and what happens when you send a daring photo via WhatsApp. We can write some papers by adding up ten Twitter tweets and since everybody’s family has got a mortgage, we’ve learnt how to calculate interest and find out if it's worth it to ask for a loan. Now that some are trying to smoke electronic cigarettes without knowing what the tube contains, we’ve discovered how resistance and the composition of the gases work. Today we discussed whether pot causes cancer or whether, as some say, it helps cure it.
I was able to explain the pythagorean theorem to a friend
I’m not very good at writing but I really get into it when I talk. Some kids just don't really understand the calculations you have to do with triangles. I understood it when the teacher explained the relationship between satellites and mobile phones. Since throughout the week we all have to explain to someone else what we learnt, I was able to teach Cristian how to calculate distances based on two points. In exchange, he helped me write the verbs better in Catalan. There's always someone in all of the classes who only thinks about the marks and it seems like it's easy for them because all they do is study. But, most of us are neither stupid nor super intelligent. We know how to do some things and it takes us a bit to learn others. But the best way to learn is by teaching others what you know. The great thing about it is that you get a mark not for what you know but because you were able to get your friend to learn it.
Francesc BalaguéInvesitigador i Formador,... Oberta al món
MARGARITA ALONSO GUEVARAMestra Ens cal aprendre a conviure
Elvira Borrell Closainspectora d'educació L'avaluació és tant un procés tècnic com ètic i social
Noemi Vila i JuvantenyAprenent de mestra, un procés... Facilitar la relació amb les famílies
Franc Ponti RocaProfessor a EADA Anar a la contra
Marta Masoliver BrutauMestra Som un mirall
Christian RieraDocente Debe ser divertida
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