Innovating Education

I'm taking a class here in education, what the Brits call the learning sciences. It incorporates different sciences like neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive sciences with education and learning. We will be doing a research paper on a question we have about education in the next few weeks based on some of the research we will have been doing. One reason I wanted to do the Pembroke-King's programme was to expose myself to the Cambridge system of learning, quite different from universities in the states. Last night I attended a plenary lecture by well known historian Johnathan Steinberg who spoke on "Why Cambridge is Unique." The interesting thing about Cambridge's structure, he explained, is that its a medieval guild structure. Quite unlike universities in America, the independent colleges of Cambridge (King's, Pembroke, Trinity, St. John's, etc.) are tremendously democratic, with fellowships (yes, like in The Lord of the Rings!). This division of power between college and university is federal in nature, meaning fellows of each college contribute to how the college is run. Dr. Steinberg shared an example of this system at work when one of the colleges received the offer of a £2 million pound donation from a tobacco company. In the fellowships of each college, any 10 members can ask for a debate on any decision, like this large donation. The debate was over whether or not they wanted to accept money from a tobacco company, interesting that they even allowed for some moral scruples there with such a huge sum of money. So they debated, and then per the rule, which is that 50 members can call for a vote, which they did, the donation was turned down. Thus a truly democratic system is at work in the colleges. I think its brilliant. I also think this talk from Sir Ken Robinson on education reform is also brilliant. It has some cool animation along with it.