Whenever I see this kinda stuff, I start thinking about a link that I believe got posted here a while back about education in Finland. I don't remember where it was, so I can't share it as part of this discussion, but what really stuck out to me about the whole thing is summarized by asking:
Do students get a better education by being surrounded by genius peers and mentors? Or is it better to forget about the distraction that competition for seating creates (ie: limited University seats, and other various competitive factors that we have between students in North America, starting a very early level), and instead, relax that whole thing so that students can REALLY learn by teaching their less advanced peers, thereby allowing teachers to leverage the smarter kids in the room to normalize the average at a much higher level, which is exactly what happens in Finland.
The other part of the equation, of course, stems from the fact that classes in Finland are capable of swallowing harder material because the peer-tutoring thing creates a much higher base level competence, which, in turn, can understand more challenging material. That whole thing disappears when your base level competence has an IQ north of 140 to start with.
(forgive grammarz plz, head spinning, can't be bothered to proof read)
Do students get a better education by being surrounded by genius peers and mentors? Or is it better to forget about the distraction that competition for seating creates (ie: limited University seats, and other various competitive factors that we have between students in North America, starting a very early level), and instead, relax that whole thing so that students can REALLY learn by teaching their less advanced peers, thereby allowing teachers to leverage the smarter kids in the room to normalize the average at a much higher level, which is exactly what happens in Finland.
The other part of the equation, of course, stems from the fact that classes in Finland are capable of swallowing harder material because the peer-tutoring thing creates a much higher base level competence, which, in turn, can understand more challenging material. That whole thing disappears when your base level competence has an IQ north of 140 to start with.
(forgive grammarz plz, head spinning, can't be bothered to proof read)