One of they key factors in providing a rich and modern educational experience is balancing the teaching of knowledge and practical skills. Both are important aspects of a quality education, but recently people have been arguing that too much time is being spent teaching factual information at the expense of the development of hands-on skills. I certainly feel that this is the case during compulsory education up to the age of 16, although it’s less of an issue when it comes to university.
The main reason for my view is that skills, which are an essential part of education, tend to be neglected when the learning of factual knowledge is over-emphasised. This has become a problem in the era of standardised testing, especially in the area of pre-16 compulsory education, where many governments around the world have started to introduce more examinations as a way of measuring student progress. Tests, by their very nature, tend to ask questions about facts, and this has led to a reduction in emphasis on skills. For example, I used to teach in a school where hands-on scientific experiments were neglected in favour of learning scientific facts from textbooks, something which was entirely due to the importance placed on science examinations.
However, I feel that the problem of balancing skills and knowledge teaching at the post-16 level is less of a concern. Many university courses, by their very nature, tend to emphasise theoretical, rather than practical, knowledge, and there are plenty of vocational courses available in less academic higher education institutions. For example, there is a local college in my town which has a curriculum rich in practical skills development, with courses available in everything from photography to bricklaying.
in conclusion, the increasing emphasis on teaching factual information over skills-based approaches is certainly a problem in our schools. The huge pressure on teachers to secure good exam results means practical lessons and experiments are being dropped, and children’s backpacks are being increasingly weighed down by textbooks. If we are to provide our young people with skills suited for the 21st century, we will need to address this imbalance.
- Some people say that in all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, too much time is spent on learning facts and not enough on learning practical skill. Do you agree or disagree? 89
- You have recently moved to a different house.Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter•Explain why you have moved•Describe the new house•Invite your friend to come and visit 70
- News stories on TV and in newspapers are very often accompanied by pictures.Some people say that these pictures are more effective than words.What is your opinion about this? 73
- You lost an item on your recent vacation and wants to claim an insurance covering it 73
- You are going to another country to study. You would like to do a part-time job while you are studying, so you want to ask a friend who lives there for some help 89
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 423, Rule ID: POSSESIVE_APOSTROPHE[2]
Message: Possible typo: apostrophe is missing. Did you mean 'skills'' or 'skill's'?
Suggestion: skills'; skill's
...hich has a curriculum rich in practical skills development, with courses available in ...
^^^^^^
Line 7, column 1, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: In
...ing from photography to bricklaying. in conclusion, the increasing emphasis on ...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, however, if, so, for example, i feel, in conclusion
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 21.0 13.1623246493 160% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 2.0 7.85571142285 25% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 10.4138276553 77% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 7.30460921844 151% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 24.0651302605 91% => OK
Preposition: 63.0 41.998997996 150% => OK
Nominalization: 14.0 8.3376753507 168% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1882.0 1615.20841683 117% => OK
No of words: 353.0 315.596192385 112% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33144475921 5.12529762239 104% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.33454660006 4.20363070211 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.12069202456 2.80592935109 111% => OK
Unique words: 198.0 176.041082164 112% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.560906515581 0.561755894193 100% => OK
syllable_count: 577.8 506.74238477 114% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.60771543086 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 5.43587174349 92% => OK
Article: 3.0 2.52805611222 119% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 2.10420841683 95% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 0.809619238477 494% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 4.0 4.76152304609 84% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 16.0721442886 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 27.0 20.2975951904 133% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 41.9486866027 49.4020404114 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 144.769230769 106.682146367 136% => OK
Words per sentence: 27.1538461538 20.7667163134 131% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.30769230769 7.06120827912 61% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.38176352705 91% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.01903807615 40% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 8.67935871743 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 3.9879759519 100% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 3.4128256513 88% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.142332819093 0.244688304435 58% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0455844178288 0.084324248473 54% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0415424803749 0.0667982634062 62% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0789648552699 0.151304729494 52% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0192868798111 0.056905535591 34% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 17.2 13.0946893788 131% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 44.07 50.2224549098 88% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.44779559118 150% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.8 11.3001002004 122% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.93 12.4159519038 112% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.23 8.58950901804 107% => OK
difficult_words: 95.0 78.4519038076 121% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 9.78957915832 148% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.8 10.1190380762 126% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 10.7795591182 130% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.6516853933 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 7.0 Out of 9
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.