Sal Khan has flipped traditional educational models on their heads through the innovative Khan Academy. (Photo credit to Pixabay user Pexels)

Sal Khan knows classrooms. With three degrees from MIT ( a BS in math and a BS and MS in computer science and electrical engineering) and an MBA from Harvard, he has spent his share of time in a chair in front of a lecturer (Thompson, 2011). But it wasn’t until he started applying his wealth of knowledge as a Math tutor for his younger cousins across the country that he stumbled upon an incredible formula for successful teaching (Sparks, 2011). Khan’s cousins had asked him to create teaching videos for them so they could feel less pressured than learning with him over the telephone. This saved his cousins some embarrassment and allowed Khan to stumble across an educational model that utilized the concepts of mastery-based learning in a casual, low-pressure format.

Sal Khan developed hundreds of videos and subsequently gained tens of thousands of followers on YouTube. The success led him to establish the Khan Academy, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing educational videos to learners around the world – for free. Many of the Khan Academy’s earlier videos were filmed by Khan himself, always in a casual conversational style and with only his hand-drawn teachings appearing on the screen, never his face. This informal style has struck a chord with many learners, as it feels like Khan is right there with you, cheering you on for success. (Thompson, 2011) Khan has been commended for his wonderfully relational teaching style by Bill Gates, who was amazed by his ability to teach such a wide variety of topics in the same casual style that so many are connecting with (Thompson, 2011).

Not everyone is a Khan fan though. In her book of lectures, The Monsters of Education, Audrey Watters is wary of Khan’s intentions. Watters (2014) posits that his vision for teaching and learning is one that stems from  “…MIT academic culture…” and that Khan is more concerned with self-pacing through the curriculum with one’s smartest peers, and focuses on passing assessments rather than on class attendance (n.p.). I appreciate the skepticism but wonder if this is a somewhat cynical view of Khan’s vision for education. Learner assessments establish whether they have achieved subject mastery. Teachers can then run analytics to ensure their learners are ready for in-class activities to build on their knowledge in a more constructivist manner doing games, art and creative activities (Thompson, 2011). Thompson’s (2011) article states that most of Khan’s critics are ‘constructionists’  who believe his teaching methods are too mechanical (n.p.). Yet Khan persists that he is trying to liberate and humanize the classroom. He repeatedly emphasizes the benefits of social learning, interactive learning, and engaged classrooms all with the foundational underpinnings of achieving a solid mastery of subject (Khan Academy, 2013).

Khan speaks to his belief that effective education is giving the learner the required tools for taking agency over their own learning instead of simply achieving an understanding of a topic (Khan Academy, 2013). Khan is attempting to change the way teachers teach by removing lectures from the classroom thus creating space for more engagement. This model is called ‘flipping’ the classroom as lectures are done at home and the analysis and exploration of topics normally completed as homework is done in the classroom instead.

Khan’s conversation in the video below seems somewhat contrary to the concerns of Watters (2014) and, interestingly, in line with her support of Seymour Papert’s vision for creativity and challenge to a system in which we could be doing more with the technology we already have.

Salman Khan stumbled upon a wonderfully successful way to teach to the masses, for free. He does not claim perfection and emphasizes that his techniques are “…not a silver bullet” for educating everyone (Khan Academy, 2013). I, for one, enjoy the benefit of the Khan Academy as a teaching resource for my children (and myself) and wish him the best in creating his envisioned one world schoolhouse.

Here is a link to the Khan Academy website.

Here is a link to the Khan Academy’s YouTube channel.

Here is a link to the Khan Academy’s Twitter account and Khan’s personal Twitter account.

References

Khan Academy [Khan Academy], (2013). Salman Khan on Charlie Rose: 2/26/2013. Retrieved Sept 16, 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiPQuOFVHl4

Sparks, S. D., (2011). Schools ‘flip’ for lesson model promoted by Khan Academy. Education Week, 31(5), 1-14.

Thompson, C., (2011). How Khan Academy is changing the rules of education. Wired Magazine. (n.p.) Retrieved Sept 15, 2018

Watters, A. (2014). Un-fathomable: The Hidden History of Ed-Tech, Chapter 2. In The monsters of education technology. Licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA.