Education

Adapting Traditional Education to Meet Future Challenges

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In the 20th century, the school as a factory metaphor appeared. Our schools are, in a sense, factories, in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down. Ellwood Patterson Cubberley The school as a factory metaphor worked for the past century, as education mainly was linear: …

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The Cultural Phenomenon of Jólabókaflóð, Iceland’s Book Flood

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‘Twas the night before Christmas, in each Icelandic home,   When families gathered, not a soul felt alone; Kleinur and laufabrauð were arranged with great care, As the magic of Christmas filled the crisp evening air. The children were nestled all snug with a book in their hands,   Sailing through sagas and tales from faraway lands; And mamma with her mystery, and I with my book,   Had just settled our brains in our cozy nook. During the Christmas festive season, the Icelandic word Jólabókaflóð makes the rounds …

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Dilemmas in Approaching Scientific Content

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Understanding some basic neuroscience can be highly liberating as it can undo some of our apparently irreversible limitations or failings. As you can imagine, much of this content is based on scientific research. Reading studies about neuroscience, procrastination, productivity, etc., is where the waters become muddier because scientific research often has an agenda that can lead to the “file drawer problem” or publication bias. This bias states that research results that don’t validate the researchers’ hypothesis tend to end up in the file drawers. …

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What Makes Finland a Happy Country

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A few weeks ago, the World Happiness Report published its yearly global survey results about how people from more than 150 countries worldwide evaluated their lives. The full report can be found here (page 22). What is the methodology for ranking countries based on their happiness? The polling company Gallup conducts interviews with hundreds of thousands of people across the nations included in the report. People assess their own happiness using a scale from 1 to 10, responding to questions such as if they smiled, laughed or experienced …

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