Teaching and Learning should be like Star Trek Discovery

I love Science Fiction. Although I love talking about Star Wars and delving into its lore, I have been eagerly waiting every single week for the next episode of Star Trek: Discovery. I'll admit, I had my doubts when I first started watching Star Trek: Discovery. I did not enjoy many of the past versions of Star Trek such as Enterprise and deep space nine. The older movies were ok but things started to change with the Star Trek movie starring Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto .

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That was why I gave Star Trek: Discovery a chance. Besides, Michelle Yeoh was in it, so the show had my support and was I impressed. I know, many friends of mine who are hardcore Star Trek fans do not like it, especially since the focus is not on a Captain but a normal officer. However, the show does remind of Game of Thrones, The expanse and Agents of Shield. Every episode is enjoyed and appreciated. The fan theories too have been amazing and it seems that the entire story has been guessed correctly by its fans.

What sets Star Trek: Discovery apart from other Star Trek in my opinion is how it keeps up with how most mainstream TV series are like. In many cases, Star Trek: Discovery should be a model of how teaching and learning should be in our current time.

Continuity

If you have watched Star Trek Voyager, the Next Generation and Enterprise, you will find that every episode does not relate to a larger story-line. They do, in a very loose sense, but every episode introduces a new alien or something interesting. Star Trek: Discovery's story-line continues from one episode to the next. Every episode follows the general story arc, introducing the problem, issues and surprises continuously over a season. Certain elements from the very first episode will still be touched on, providing some form of continuity to issues introduced at the very first episode. Even the most minor dialogue and hints present clues that will only come to light many many episodes later. It is also one of the reasons why hardcore Star Trek fans are able to guess the answers to the mysteries with ease. That's because many of the surprises were brought up in older Star Trek shows. This only increases the entertainment value of the show. This, in my opinion is what causes me to watch it religiously every week.

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Much of what is taught and learnt in school does not follow the same continuity. Every year, a new problem is introduced. Although from an experienced educator's point of view, it is easy to see how these newly introduced topics continue from the previous years, the students more often than not, do not see the continuity of what they have learnt. As such, everything is learnt in isolation and as such this may cause confusion. An example is my experience in teaching grammar and vocabulary. As both of these components are taught in isolation and tested in the exam, the students fail to apply it in their writing or daily conversation. It is rather fascinating when students are able to write perfectly but their speech is marred with many grammatical errors.

Not Focusing on the Captain

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Very often, teaching and learning focuses on the vast majority of average students. If you are familiar with the bell curve, the highest number of the students fall under the average category. As such, a lot of what is taught is geared towards this group of students. That is why if a teacher gets a class of students who have mixed ability, it is common for the average students to finish their task within the time stipulated, the good students will finish their work really quickly and the weak students will take a much longer time to complete their tasks.

There is nothing wrong with that, however, nothing much is being done to draw the focus away from the average performers. The students who are high performers should be given an opportunity to pursue more advanced tasks. In addition, they should not be confined to a particular year even when their ability far exceeds their peers in that particular age group. The same should be done for those who are not performing well. Thus, education should be all-inclusive in a way where it helps students, regardless of their performance levels, to learn well.

The same goes with the entire Star Trek franchise where the focus is always on a starship's captain. Yes, the other characters do get some form of character building, however, the focus is never on anyone else but the captain. Thus, it is refreshing to see this being done. Furthermore, this has also allowed for certain aspects such as redemption and learning to take place and is rarely seen on the other shows in the franchise.

Keeping Up With Current Trends

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The most important one of all I would say is how it keeps up with how current TV shows are being done. Many shows try to depict the reality of how life is like. This includes Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones where characters that are familiar are killed off and The expanse where it tries to stay true to science. Basically, the current trend that I am focusing on is that life is never black or white but most frequently, grey. Starting from the very first episode, the main characters drew a fine line between what is morally right and grey. The main character was willing to go to great lengths just to ensure the survival of her fellow ship mates.

In addition, the federation being ever positive and peace loving, is depicted in the show to have a secret branch conducting research that may be forbidden. People also do die in the show, which is not something very common on Star Trek shows.

While, I don't wish for death to be a part of the syllabus, I do think that we should ensure that teaching and learning is kept current. Think about it, children or teenagers spend a large amount of time in front of a screen and when they arrive in school, they are told not to use any of it. Their learning is very frequently, detached from the reality in which they live. Thus, it is not surprising to see many students not being able to keep up. It is like telling someone who has been sending E-mails all their life to start using a fax machine.

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Thus, perhaps teaching and learning should change and evolve to be more game-like and experiential focused. This will help ensure that their normally over-active minds are not bored by just reading from the textbooks. That being said, change should come soon and I hope the change is as good as the change they made to Star Trek in Star Trek: Discovery

Live long and prosper.

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