Day: March 17, 2013

International Higher Education

Higher Education is different in different countries, religion, gender, economic position and political ideologies play a role and determine who gets it ,  and where – when education is given.

In El Salvador, higher education is public (small % of population get access) and private (only people that can afford it have access to it).

According with The U21 ranking of national higher education systems 2012  report , US has been ranked as the highest in higher education  system in terms of resources, environment, connectivity and output , if US has been ranked so high in those criteria, why it is still ranking low in the other ones?

http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2011/20110315_EdShorts_PISA/PISA_final.pdf
http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2011/20110315_EdShorts_PISA/PISA_final.pdf

Can we think that achievement has a direct relationship with economy?

Screen-Shot-2012-08-10-at-11-02-48-AM

Can we also think that we are investing more in sports? 

http://educationnext.org/america%E2%80%99s-athletics-vs-academics-the-results-might-surprise-you/
http://educationnext.org/america%E2%80%99s-athletics-vs-academics-the-results-might-surprise-you/

Research (journals) about international higher ed can be found here .

 

PBL- When the theory meets the practice.

PBL offers a new educational environment and helps to decrease the boredom, but still it can create certain uncertainty, on one hand students might think that PBL looks like a lot of work  and on the other hand the educators might find that even thought PBL is a very innovated way of teaching, still they will need to assess if their student have learned the content.

PBL can actually be a win-win situation for both , the students and the educators; the content can be assess, perhaps in the traditional way by given  a quiz/test to the students  as was done by UVA . PBL  will help educator and students to have a learning environment that will go beyond the classroom, it will go to the real life, as we know getting a high score does not necessary means than we can do things in real life, it does not guaranty that students have really learned.

In my opinion, I can definitely think that it is easier to learn while we apply our knowledge than just memorizing and according with the adult learning principles , adults need to know what they are learning  and learn through doing, also I feel like it is easier to remember when we actually can apply what we have learned that just memorizing things, therefore PBL offers a very exciting new way of learning and also the opportunity to use our creativity and interact with more people.

If you want to enroll in an online PBL course, you can do it here.

 

Information/Education is always the KEY!

When we speak about  food deserts and chronic diseases, it is frustrating to see how people can get sick due to their location and accessibility to grocery stores, but what happens when people have a healthier food choice and still do not take it?, well we can assume that income will be a barrier, also we can think of lack of education or motivation and that is why some institutions have tried to decrease this kind of  barriers in order to increase the access to healthy choices.  Boston could  not be the exception , Mass is the only state (so far) with Universal Care therefore getting access to health care professionals is not an issue, but still people have been getting chronic diseases that are linked to unhealthy behaviors.

When health care access is not longer an issue,then we realize the information/education and location are the key to get access  to  healthier food choices.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/health/ship/dhfs_ship-communitygardens
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/health/ship/dhfs_ship-communitygardens

Other thing that has been decreasing the economic barrier is the  fact that farmer markets have started accepting nutrition assistance programs such as : WIC and EBT .

http://farmersmarketcoalition.org/snap-sales-up-in-2012
http://farmersmarketcoalition.org/snap-sales-up-in-2012

Access is a very complex issue, but if we know the problems and causes, we can look for possible solutions.