Education reform has been a recurring issue in recent years. There are points which people from inside and outside the academe raise from time to time which relate reforming the education or academic system. Some people argue that the measuring tools used by some schools in rating student academic performance produce results which are not conclusive or representative of the true knowledge and learning the students indeed have. Others assert that some teaching strategies used by specific schools or the education sector in general are not effective.
- Measuring Tools – In the issue of education reform, the tools used by teachers or professors in schools can be one of the most important factor to consider. To be able to make a decision whether there is a problem with the education system and reforming it is truly called for, one should measure the product or output of education or the schools. These products or outputs are the students and measuring them means measuring their academic performance. In doing so, we use measuring tools which are called pedagogical tools or assessment, evaluation, rating or grading tools. Further, we should examine whether these tools truly yield results representative of the what is indeed achieved by the students.
- Teaching Strategies – Aside from the pedagogical tools, teaching strategies are also essential elements when we debate about education reform. Discussing teaching strategies require the account of the different aspects of teaching, training and instruction. Teaching strategies are tackled in the aspects of efficiency, effectiveness and overall benefits to the learners or students. We should research what studies have been done about teaching strategies and what are their findings and recommendations. Then, we should also check what are the studies which contradict or oppose one another in one or more aspects. Doing this, we can make our own educated opinion whether to agree or disagree to reform the present education system.
