I really enjoyed watching the film, Most Likely to Succeed. It explores an age-old question related to education: what is society trying to achieve with education, and given that, how should time be spent in schools? I think the filmmakers present a compelling argument for the idea that things have changed and the pedagogy should reflect that new reality. Their model for school change is also a compelling one, as their methods seemed to maximize student involvement, empowerment and interest, and minimize the disinterest that is observed all too many times in classrooms. Their model appears to focus, simplistically put, on pursuing depth rather than breadth in relation to content. While they espoused the benefits of this and explore some of the potential concerns, I remain undecided over this issue. Is there a body of content knowledge that we should collectively know? And if so, who decides what that is? How can the inherent biases in those decisions be addressed? Given the new directions of the BC curriculum with a focus on big ideas and competencies, it seems the writers of this curriculum may have also been wrestling with many of these issues.
Leave a Reply