Helping students become creative learners
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Hezki Arieli, center in the front row, chairman of the Institution for Global Excellence (IGE), a Seoul-based education institute, poses with Dr. Liat Ben David, to his right, director-general of the Wolf Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Israel that annually awards the Wolf Prize, during a seminar held to celebrate the founding of the IGE at the SC Convention Center in southern Seoul, Oct. 22. Arieli stressed the importance of cooperation between Korea and Israel in the education field in his keynote presentation at the seminar. / Courtesy of IGE
Expert emphasizes importance of developing new ideas
Hezki Arieli, chairman of Global Excellence
By Chung Hyun-chae
An international authority on education has called on Korea to provide curiosity-driven, interactive and dynamic classes to students to help them become creative learners.
“First and foremost I believe that government policy needs to be dramatically changed in Korea,” said Hezki Arieli, chairman of Global Excellence, an international educational institute. He also serves as chairman of the Seoul-based Institution for Global Excellence (IGE).
“Government should create a ‘grand educational strategy’ for Korean schools. This strategy is to prepare students to the ever changing world in three main domains: social and personal values, skills and knowledge,” he said.
He stressed that government should allow schools and teachers more freedom to translate the grand strategy into action.
“The key is to teach students to research and discover independently; students should learn how to learn _ a tool that will serve them for the rest of their lives,” he said. “Teachers should not provide students with answers but rather with skills to solve the problems themselves. Providing them with answers to questions prevents them from thinking and effectively developing their minds.”
Arieli, an internationally renowned expert in education, went to school in Israel where he received Jewish education.
He was CEO of the Israel Center for Excellence through Education from 1997 to 2008 and has built an international network between education centers for special education for the gifted.
He believes that the Jewish teaching method he experienced is effective in cultivating creative talent.
Arieli pointed out Korea’s “humble” culture prohibits Korea from producing Nobel laureates as well as winners of the Wolf Prize, often considered to be a precursor to the Nobel Prize.
“Korean people have been known to be smart, intelligent and hardworking people for generations. There are hardly any homes or institutions and companies around the world that do not use ‘made in Korea’ quality products in their daily lives,” he said. “The issue of not receiving a Nobel is not related to the Korean IQ, but rather to the cultural approach of learning and education.”
He recommended that Korea should nurture scientists or artists who dare take risks and challenge conventional ideas although their own ideas sound strange and unconventional to others.
“I think that because Korean culture is so humble and disciplined with great respect to the past and to the elders, these are also factors that might be preventing students (which later will become professors) from daring to introduce their own creative ideas,” Arieli said.
Havruta way
He urged Korea to adopt a Havruta way, a traditional rabbinic teaching method invented by Jewish scholars who wrote the Talmud more than 2,000 years ago in which pairs of students discuss and debate a shared text.
“This is when two people are studying together, not as a teacher and a student but rather as two learners who are creating an intellectual bond of the minds,” he said.
“It is the most effective way for deep learning, for focus and high concentration and definitely for coming up with the most creative thinking and originality.”
He believes that students can develop new ideas through the Havruta system than by memorizing teachers’ ideas, as this learning system constantly challenges learners to think with the aim of drawing conclusions.
A number of Nobel Prize laureates have proved the effectiveness of this kind of learning system.
Although the Jewish population takes up about 0.2 percent of the world population, the number of Jewish Nobel laureates stands at 178, accounting for about 22 percent of the total.
Arieli said he believes that the Havruta system can be successful in Korea which he think is in the center of a major change in terms of education.
“The Havruta way can encourage Korean students or employees to ask more questions and to develop out-of-box ideas as well as can help them to become ‘active players’ and not passive observers,” he said.
To promote such a system in Korea, Arieli established the IGE in cooperation with several local education companies in August.
He visited Korea from Oct. 21 to 25 to attend a seminar on communication culture differences and similarities of Korea and Israel, which was held on Oct. 22 in commemoration of the founding of the IGE.
“The IGE is an Israeli-Korean alliance. Our goal is to introduce to Korean society leading models of educational excellence from Israel and from classical Jewish methods for creative and innovative thinking: the Havruta way,” he said.
IGE provides advanced training and a variety of educational programs and services for teachers, parents and executives.