The Students Know Best, Can Education Learn from Community? | Aylon Samouha
Mar 5, 2025
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Aylon Samouha, CEO of Transcend and co-founder of The Third Way, dives into innovative education reform. He discusses the limitations of traditional top-down approaches and the need for community-based design. Aylon emphasizes the importance of listening to students to create effective learning environments. He reflects on how the pandemic reshaped educational perspectives, urging for greater parental involvement and emotional intelligence in teaching. The conversation cleverly parallels jazz with education, highlighting creativity and collaboration as keys to success.
Aylon Samouha advocates for 'The Third Way', a community-based educational model that integrates students' insights to foster engagement and empowerment.
The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped parental expectations, emphasizing the need for meaningful learning experiences prioritizing student engagement and emotional well-being.
Deep dives
The Need for a New Educational Model
Current educational systems often reflect outdated designs that do not meet the needs of today's students, rooted in an industrial model created over a century ago. The limitations of top-down mandates and grassroots efforts have highlighted a significant mismatch between what students require for success and what schools provide. Alon Samoa advocates for a new model called The Third Way, which emphasizes community-based design that incorporates the values and insights of students and families. This approach seeks to foster personal engagement, empowerment, and intellectual curiosity among students, thus preparing them for modern challenges.
Challenges of Change in Education
The slow pace of change in educational systems can be attributed to the entrenched nature of existing frameworks, which often resists transformation. Unlike other sectors that have successfully adapted through focused investment and research and development, education is subjected to the rigidity of historical paradigms that influence perceptions and expectations. Alon highlights that the shared experiences of individuals create a powerful incumbency that complicates reform efforts, as parents and educators tend to project their past experiences onto current educational structures. This deep-rooted attachment makes it difficult to recognize the need for innovative practices that accommodate contemporary learning needs.
The Impact of the Pandemic on Parental Awareness
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shifted parental engagement and expectations regarding student experiences in schools. Many parents gained insight into the realities of schooling, prompting a deeper focus on student engagement and emotional well-being. This newfound awareness challenges the traditional perspectives of education as merely efficient, instead highlighting the importance of meaningful learning experiences. As a result, there is a collective belief among stakeholders, including students, families, and educators, that prioritizing the student experience is crucial for achieving desired educational outcomes.
In this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, host Rebecca Midles sits down with Aylon Samouha, the CEO of Transcend and a visionary in education reform. They delve into the concept of The Third Way, an approach that blends community insights with proven educational practices to create lasting change in schools. Aylon shares his insights from years of experience in the field, discussing the limitations of traditional top-down reforms and the challenges faced by grassroots efforts. Together, they explore the importance of truly listening to students and communities to design learning environments that meet today's needs. The conversation is a thoughtful journey through the complexities and possibilities of transforming education, emphasizing the power of student-centered learning and community-based design.