Who Spends More Time In School?

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 Education is one of the primary concerns of any country as it can significantly impact the national economy and its overall development. As our society keep on progressing with further technological advancements, it has become more important that we focus on what our children are learning and how we can improve the learning experience for them. However, in order to develop our existing educational structure we will need to understand and learn from other nations and what kind of academic system they have adopted. 

Comparing Education Systems

 

Although the social, economic, political and cultural scenario in each country is different, it is often useful to compare different education systems across the world. This helps us to better understand what is working and what is not. Hence it becomes imperative that we look at education from a global perspective. 

Calculating School Life Expectancy 

 

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One of the most common metrics we use to evaluate global education systems is School Life Expectancy. This is basically a measure of the number of years a student will attend school during his lifetime, given the enrolment rates remain same. School Life Expectancy is usually calculated by UNESCO Institute for Statistics which helps experts and statisticians to contrast and compute the development of various nations. 

In the United States, we mostly presume that our students go to school usually for a minimum period of 13 years (K-12); with some additional years in college or university education. However, whenever we discuss about education and schools in various developing nations, we find out that many children are unable to attend schools after a specific age (which can be as less as 8 years) as they are compelled to work and earn money to financially support their family. Apart from these, there are many other reasons as well like lack of proper infrastructure, lack of educational opportunities, gender issues and in some countries it is even unsafe, hazardous or immensely expensive to attend school.  (Source: bit.ly/1paqisf)

Do More Years In School Mean Better Learning?

 

Recently a study was conducted by INSEAD, Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization to observe the school life expectancy of students in different countries across the world. The findings of the study were rather interesting, although they bring up several questions like can more number of years in school result in better learning? Does it help our students to better prepare for their future careers?

However, it is quite obvious that number years do not necessarily mean more learning for our students. But better school life expectancy can result in higher test scores which in turn can help our students learn in a better way. 

Let’s have a look at the Global School Life Expectancy-

 

Where do you think students are attending school for the longest periods? It is not surprising that developed countries have the highest numbers as the education system in these regions has been enhanced over many years. Students in 8 prominent nations like Finland, Spain, Norway, Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia attend school for an average period of 17 years to 20 years. 

However the number is greatly low in many developing nations. The report revealed that 5 nations, namely Niger, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Pakistan and Senegal, have the lowest school life expectancy where their students attend school for 0 years to 5 years. This is seriously alarming as it can severely affect their national and economic growth. 

The study also found that most of the countries, for which statistics were available, revealed that their students usually attend school for an average period of 10 years to 15 years. 

What do you think about the findings? Do you think more time in school and result in improved learning? We would love to hear your views and opinions; so feel free to comment below.

The Aids Of Visuals In Education

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We understand our surroundings, the environment & the people we live with, because our visual components accompany us to do so. The same goes with learning. Being associated with education for several years, I have observed that, students tend to show more interest in text plus visual representations, rather than in only text blocks as visuals allow them the time they need to process what they are being asked to do.

How Visual Learning Effects Education

There is no doubt that education has come a long way, evolving & embracing various tools to reach every education seeking hand. The strategies, offered by visual learning, such as graphic organizers, diagrams, outlines & many more, are today being used to equip students not only to manage learning objectives and achieve academic success, but visual learning strategies also help students to better understand and retain information. As students are required to evaluate and interpret information from a variety of sources, incorporate new knowledge with what they already have learned, and improve writing skills and think critically, visual learning tools assist students to meet those demands.

As Far As Students Are Concerned

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Research in both educational theory and cognitive psychology enlightens us about the fact that, visual learning is one of the best academic methods for teaching students of all ages how to think and how to learn. 

Students can learn best when they are able to see ideas & information, they are being taught about, to be connected & organized. Visual learning provides both students & teachers with the aptness to understand new concepts more thoroughly & easily as well.

Visual learning not only helps students to organize & analyze information that they are provided with but they are also being skilled enough by the flair of visual learning to integrate new knowledge.

If the question arises what is the most benefited area among the students by visual leaning, the definite answer would be all those children, who are standing on the first step of their academic ladder. Besides, this learning aid also helps those, who indeed need it. The children who are striving for education through many difficulties like Down Syndrome, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Language Disorders and Delays, Hearing Impairment or Learning Difficulties, visual learning has been proved to be best companion to them.

What The Figures Convey

• The sum of the information that gets imparted to our brain through visual is 90%.
• Our brain takes approximate one hour to process 36,000 visual cues.
• Almost 50% of our brain gets involved in visual processing.
• Learning outcomes is elevated 400% due to the use of visuals.

The Do's Of Visuals

• Clarifying complex ideas is one of the key tasks that the visual learning tool performs to educate children.

• Making connection s with people, understanding new information & helping students to relate those information to what they already know is another vital point to keep in conscience.

• Using catchy visuals in the classroom to attract & hold children's attention elevates visuals' accomplishment rate.

The Dont's Of Visuals

• Using poor quality visuals, those are pixelated, stretched weird, sized improperly, or don’t fit in the space is a complete “no-no” in teaching students through visual tool.

• Visuals that don't make a tangible connection to the presented study material is of no use to the students' benefits.

• Using copyrighted visuals without permission is considered as a violation & no educator should do that.

What To Say Finally

Visual Aids for learning is an essential edu-tool that streamlines & support learning, developing images & consequently empowers people to participate and achieve success and independence. As one of the sole ambitions of visual learning tool is to escalate the self esteem of the students' with learning difficulties, the consultation with teachers, trained in early childhood, primary school, high school and speech therapy, is reckoned to be very crucial while developing the resources.