Recently I have got the privilege to share my research work with secondary school students. During the talk, it was obvious to me that the younger the students were, the more imaginative the questions that they could come up with and the more fearless they were in asking questions. One reason is that the eduction has often encouraged students to give the “right answer”; otherwise, they will not get good grades. So, when the students are growing up, they quickly learn how to shut up and only seek ways to give the “right answer”. That reminds me of several great talks by Sir Ken Robinson on education, including a TED talk on how schools kill creativity that I shared here before, and an RSA talk on Changing Education Paradigms. The latter is a very thought-provoking talk, and the RSA has made a nicely animated version of the key part:
Posts tagged ‘TED talks’
Just come across these two great TED talks by Ben Goldacre that talks about how the information in scientific literature can be distorted and why not all information that is essential for medical advance can be found in the literature. It is really a flaw in the research system and human nature that positive and new findings will (preferentially) be rewarded. This has suppressed the appearance of negative findings and solid repeats that would validate ideas that would benefit human kinds. The reason behind this is partially because the scientists who conducted these kinds of studies will often be labeled non-productive (productive = getting positive findings) and non-innovative. Is there a solution to that?
Just come across this interesting video the other day..
which is an except from this TED talk : Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals