Four months ago it was known that the Secretary of Education chosen by Javier Milei was Carlos Torrendell, but until this Sunday little and nothing was known about his project for the current administration or, at least, where he will stand regarding key issues, such as different theories of learning. In particular, two that are usually presented as antithetical: the so-called
constructivist (or global) method and the structural (or phonological awareness) method
. Here, what these concepts mean and what the downward trend will be at the national level.
In the interview in which we were finally able to get to know him a little, the allusion to these theories did not come from Torrendell but from the journalist Luciana Vázquez (La Nación+), who spoke with the Secretary of Education for 40 minutes. Some nodal topics were touched upon, in the context of the major educational crisis that the country is going through and the significant budget cut of the area, now reduced to Secretariat (under the Ministry of Human Capital led by Sandra Pettovello).
Thanks to the interviewer's remarks, Torrendell addressed spicy topics, such as the eternal controversy of teacher training, the cuts to Education in general and universities, in particular; and the questionable gesture of indoctrination against the voluntary interruption of pregnancy by President Javier Milei, in the speech he gave a month ago at the Cardenal Copello school, where he himself was a student (a topic in which, by the way, Torrendell supported him).
Now, beyond those little pearls, it is worth focusing on the moment when Vázquez consulted Torrendell about whether, in terms of literacy,
constructivism
or the
structural
method could be more effective in Argentina .
The context of that passage of the talk is not minor. Many specialists point out that the great problem of education at the local level is one of “method” and, to give one figure of the many available, already in 2019 (without the devastating effects of the pandemic) the fourth Regional Comparative and Explanatory Study (ERCE ) of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean showed how the primary school crisis affected the national territory: only one in two third graders reached the minimum level of reading comprehension.
Beyond the use of one method or another, the state of education also depends on salaries and working conditions.
What does it mean then that Education adopts a constructivist approach or, instead, relies on the structural method or phonological awareness? And where will the current Ministry of Education go?
Constructivism vs. structural method: a “back of closet” topic
Viviana Postay has a master's degree in educational research, is specialized in educational management and works in teacher training, in addition to being a reference for the Argentinos por la Educación Observatory. The dichotomy constructivism vs. structural method, she advanced, “is fallacious,” since, in practice, “it is not one thing or the other.”
Postay is a remarkable interviewee, both for her grace and for her particular didacticism in conveying complex ideas. The metaphor is one of her supports and in this case she used it with determination. She defined the whole issue of Argentine Education as
a severe closet problem
.
The concept comes from the world of fashion and refers to the recommendation of specialists to always have “basic” clothing or garments available in the closet. Those basics or wildcards that easily combine with each other and on which it will later be easy to add distinctive accessories that “lift” the entire look. Save this image for later and let's return to the problem of Education.
“Let's see what happens in Argentina with reading and writing,” Postay introduced, after clarifying that the concept of “reading and writing,” from his point of view, is not adequate, since both - reading and writing - They involve different learning processes and completely different degrees of difficulty.
But the point is that, "for a long time, there was the hegemony of teaching in the terms of the typical '
ma-me-mi-mo-moo
', and incorporating what is known as 'phonological awareness' (
N. de la A.: also called “structural method”
). That is, children identify individual sounds and repeat them, which will ultimately lead them to recognize the structure. You make them write - copy from the board or do dictations - and you have the alphabet in cursive, in print, with uppercase and lowercase letters available on the classroom posters.”
There are other tools that are associated by default with this form of teaching: “In another era, having a calligraphy notebook. And for a long time, the question of correctness: that of crossing out and putting '
wrong
' in red. They are a set of reading and writing teaching practices, in which the tendency was to
copy a large amount of text from the blackboard
, memorize spelling rules and for dictation to have a central place, in addition to, in the older ones, doing and doing syntactic and morphological analysis”.
What happened to all this? According to Postay's diagnosis, "the amounts were mixed up and everything ended up being thrown away."
Students with their teacher in a classroom at the General Belgrano school, in Florida.
Education in Argentina and the constructivist trend
“There is a moment when
confusion
occurs . It is a time when, happily, great educators appear, like Emilia Ferreiro, who get involved in teacher training and say '
we are not interested in the kid learning single sentences but rather in understanding the texts
'."
There “starts the newest concept that
there is no single rhythm
and that each boy has his own. As he has the rhythm of it, '
he is going to realize
things'
, and this is how the learning will be '
constructed
'.”
However, "this led to the dismantling of goals and the idea that there are 'key' moments in learning, such as that after three months of first grade, a child should know certain things, to give an example."
In a sense, constructivism is a learning theory that aims to be more respectful of human beings and their particularities, but, the expert emphasized, it does not work as the only strategy, since “it is not that you learn
with a or b
; They are nuances in the learning scenario and there are situations in which
one method is more effective
and in others, it is the other way around.”
Emilia Ferreiro is usually associated with a rather constructivist perspective, but Postay remarked that “she never said that it was not important to learn and memorize the alphabet.”
Let's return then to tackling and the essential basics: “Today we know that the basics are fundamental to learning to read and write. The wardrobe staple is those black boots or the white shirt that match everything. It is a set of habits that have been largely dismantled in the Argentine school in recent decades and produced a situation of permanent procrastination. In short, '
next year's teacher will take care of that boy
.'”
“First it seemed to us that it wasn't going that way: it didn't go for cursive, for dictation, or for the calligraphy notebook. So we throw everything away. But
we threw away so many things that in the end we didn't know where
He was going. We must recover those basic or inevitable learning elements,” he added.
Torrendel and Education in Argentina
It must be clarified that Torrendell is a man who, due to his training, is respected in the environment, including educators with whom
Clarín
spoke who define themselves as opponents of the current Government and who do not agree with several of the ideas that he usually outlines.
When Luciana Vázquez consulted him about the dichotomy “constructivism vs. structural method”, the Secretary of Education was emphatic in two senses.
On the one hand, he said that, “
from the Nation, it is not up to us to say how
.” Yes, it is appropriate to set goals, verify whether there have been improvements or not, study what good practices contribute and share those logics in the Federal Council, but not impose a single method from the Nation.
Then he stated his personal position, “structured method, without a doubt,” but clarified that he is not a specialist on the subject.
He added - like a colorful note - that the methods he likes are those that "paradoxically are used in Cuba", and from there he turned to the ideological question that is talked about so much in certain niches, since the classical method - which Torrendell supports - tends to be associated with a rather
conservative
view , while the constructivist is linked to a more
humanistic
or more respectful view of the individual.
“In any case, it is not that the constructivist method does not work, but rather that first we have to see
how all the methods are applied
. And secondly, there are also different contexts where one or other methods can have different results,” he clarified.
For Postay, the key is somewhere in the middle, of course, but none of these debates can be fully concluded if other central points are not considered.
That is, address the
very poor salary context
of teachers (“one in three primary school teachers has more than one position,” he reported), solve the major problems of school infrastructure and address the worrying levels of student absenteeism. “The teachers end up having to make sushi with a stick and an olive pit,” she ironized.
P.S.