Name: 【TEDx】TEDxXavierSchool - Brian Maraña - Learning through Getting Lost
Uploaded: 2014-06-15T15:57:40.000Z
Duration: 17 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past simple

Good morning. For the past four years, I've had the pleasure of working in Xavier's International

Programs Office where we've been focusing on a program that we called the Xavier China

This is a study abroad program in china that is now a mandatory requirement for all of

our students to participate in before they graduate.

And I'd like to share this morning some of the lessons and insights that we've gained

from implementing the Xavier China Experience because I think that those insights and those

lessons can be relevant not just for those who might want to study abroad but for educators

So I'd like to go back to our theme this morning about innovation based on tradition. And I'd

like for us to think about what it means to have innovation and tradition in the educational

So let's think of traditional education. For me, I think of traditional structure of having

subjects that are separate, the Chemistry and Physics and Math and English that are

I think of a structure in an organization where we have several periods in a day that

are usually the same amount of times. For the first 45 minutes, you're in one class.

The next 45 minutes, you're in another class, then 45 minutes after that and so on and so

forth. And everything is sort of predictable and expectations are clear.

Now, this doesn't work for everyone. We've heard speakers this morning who aren't always

so thrilled with that educational setup. But at the same time, there are some really valuable

things I think about the traditional education that are worth preserving.

One thing about an educational system that's very traditional is that it's structured and

it's clear. A student always has very clear expectations of what's expected of him or

her in the classroom, from the time that you stepped into school to the time that you leave.

You know where you're supposed to be, you know where you're supposed to sit, you know

what notes you're supposed to take, what pages you're supposed to read, what essay you're

supposed to write, what multiple-choice questions you're supposed to answer.

And while this can be at times frustrating, on the other hand, it provides very clear

structure for us to learn and acquire very difficult things.

I can't imagine studying Trigonometry or Calculus or Physics in an environment that's chaotic.

The structure and the clarity definitely helps.

In addition to this, many of the things that we learned from a traditional educational

setup are quite intellectually rigorous. It's not easy to learn to solve some of those Physics

problems, it's not easy to do a well-designed scientific experiment; it's not easy to write

And so, to have the structure and clarity and guidance and supervision of good teachers

in a traditional classroom setup are definitely things that are worth having.

But as we've heard this morning and as we know from our own experience, that when we

think about the hours that we've spent in class, when we think about those subjects

that we maybe, we weren't so interested in, there are large portions of our own educational

system that to us can seem irrelevant and boring.

And so what we want to do is to try to think of ways that we can innovate, think of ways

to be more creative, think of ways to energize our educational system so that it can be more

And so, there have been a lot of movements and a lot of efforts in the past few years

to try to do this. And one of these efforts is something that we call student-centered

learning where you give students the initiative and the choice to figure out what they want

And certainly doing this provides a kind of relevance and engagement to the students that

they wouldn't otherwise have. It allows students to choose topics of their own choice and so

they're motivated. And we all know that when you're motivated, when you have that energy

to do something out of natural curiosity, you'll accomplish much more. Not because of

a grade, not because you're going to fail but simply because you want to. So that's

At the same time, I think this kind of student-centered learning is also quite empowering. What we're

telling the students in this setup is that you are in-charge of your education, that

learning is a life-long process and that you need to be active in it.

And what a valuable lesson rather than saying that education is about sitting in a classroom

and being passive and trying to take everything that a teacher is telling you. Now, we're

saying you are - you have the responsibility, you have the freedom, you have the privilege

But just as traditional education has its own setbacks, so too does innovation and progressive

education. If we sit in a classroom and we say, "Okay, everyone, what do you want to

study and how is it that you want to study it?" there's a real danger of the education

And let's face it. There are certain standards that we want our students to live up to. There

are certain standards of writing that we want them to be able to achieve. There are certain

standards in Mathematics and Science that they should be able to have before they graduate

and go on to college and go on to the real world.

So we don't want to be aimless in our student-centered approach. We don't want to be aimless when

we try to just come up with all of these innovations.

So what do we want? What would be ideal? I think would be really perfect for all of us

is if we could take the best of traditional education and take the best of our innovations,

if we could have a system that had the same kind of rigor and structure and clarity that

a traditional education provides but is also relevant, meaningful and empowering. But what

For Xavier School, one of the ways that we've tried to do this is through the Xavier China

Experience or the XCE. This happens during the third quarter. So it happens during an

And so, in addition to having our students study Chinese language and Chinese culture,

they also have to study Physics and Math and Biology while they're there.

So it's a real challenge. We're trying to again, take the traditional subject areas

and make sure our students keep up with those subjects and at the same time innovate and

say that you can learn while being abroad, you can learn while being in a foreign environment,

And we have three programs that we offer students. And they can choose one before they graduate.

So 7th grade students who are 13 to 14 year olds here, they have a chance to go to Southern

China and spend six weeks in Guangzhou or high school sophomores have the option to

go to South West China and study the diversity of Yunnan province.

And our seniors have the chance to go to the capital of China in Beijing where there's

a rich sense of history and a rich sense also of development.

And what we want to do is make sure that this is relevant and engaging and at the same time

rigorous and difficult, challenging. And one of the ways that we do this is providing certain

themes to our educational process rather than subject areas.

So what do I mean? What I mean is that when our students go to Beijing as a good example,

they aren't taking courses in English or Social Science or Filipino. They're taking classes

One theme that we see in China is all of the societal and cultural change. So we have a

course entitled Societal and Cultural Change. Because if you go to Beijing, you might go