Fragmented Knowledge or Connective Learning?

What do you think of the effectiveness of school curricula in creating an intellectual student?
Published in Education
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There is no doubt that school curricula are extremely important to introduce students to great knowledge and prepare them for their educational and academic future. School curricula from grade 1 until grade 12, with all the different curricula and books taught globally, aim to shed light on different aspects of knowledge such as languages, sciences, and social sciences. However, have we asked ourselves before about the effectiveness of school curricula and whether they can create an intellectual individual? From my observations online, reading some tweets on X, and watching videos for a lot of activists, opinions seem to vary from people supporting school curricula and believing that school curricula are beneficial for students' intellect to people rejecting this idea and claiming that school curricula lack creativity and interdisciplinarity.

Recently, I was watching a video on YouTube where an activist was talking about educational systems and whether they are good enough to create intellectual and knowledgeable students. In the video, the activist criticized educational systems globally and believed that education systems, kill creativity in students and do not provide them with the real knowledge they need to become intellectual in different aspects of life. Additionally, the activist claimed that educational systems globally provide students with fragmented knowledge, meaning that every subject is being taught separately with no connection between them, emphasizing the connection between science and literature.

In my point of view, there is always space for improvement in any academic system, and qualified individuals are required to utilize their knowledge in curriculum development to improve any educational curriculum. However, if we want to comment on the claim presented above, I will say that this claim is very generic and is not considered a structured critique that aims to improve or fill the gaps in school education. In order to provide support to improve any school curricula, structured programs need to be developed and implemented that match a specific curriculum taught in order to come up with improvements that will be reflected in students' intellectual abilities and knowledge.

Additionally, the claim of fragmented knowledge can be refuted by saying that students at young ages need to be introduced to different topics separately in school subjects to be able to draw comparisons between them and know the implications of each taught course. Applying interdisciplinary learning to the school curriculum can cause confusion when it comes to fundamental concepts and burden students to understand the class topics.

This feature of school education—teaching separate courses such as chemistry and physics – can be seen as an advantage rather than a deficiency, as it can provide students with comprehensive knowledge on a certain topic that would support them in later academic stages to select the field of study they would like to specialize in when they join university education. Additionally, the intellectual abilities of young students in primary and middle school might not be sufficient to provide them with a full curriculum providing interdisciplinary concepts. However, this can be adopted as part of a school lesson or as additional insights that can be added to the school textbook. Also, interdisciplinary can be included in extracurricular activities, which would encourage students' creativity, enhance their capabilities, and make them produce new concepts and ideas.

On the other hand, universities tend to expose students to a variety of topics and encourage students to attend seminars on different topics to enrich their knowledge. The distinction between school systems and universities can be bridged with communication between the two sectors and their effective collaboration. This can be done by designing seminars for school students, especially high school students, to introduce them to the university system and all the opportunities provided, as well as a great opportunity to introduce the academic majors available to students.

To sum up, although school curricula can be seen as systems providing fragmented knowledge, they definitely support students' intellect to produce minds that are well-educated in different disciplines such as science and social sciences. By working on bridging the gap between school and university education, we can provide connective learning, develop students who are prepared for university education, and start connecting the dots of knowledge gained from school education using university learning and experience.

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