Learning … it’s all about passion

Dr Ricardo Antillon Rector (President) of USP GuatemalaI met Dr. Ricardo Antillon, Rector (President) of Universidad San Pablo in Guatemala in Miami where some 25 educators from around the world were meeting for the first time to think tank a new model of higher education, especially for the Global South (or Developing World as it used to be called).  Ricardo had travelled to Miami to be part of this and as we got to know each other I realised that this man was leading a revolution in education in his country and has been modelling for years something the West is still struggling with …  learner centric interactive education which holds central the student experience.

This is episode one of a three part series.  Here Ricardo talks about he has reshaped his faculty to kindle passion for teaching and how that passion has translated into student engagement. He showed his faculty how to engage the students in learning and how to encourage passion for learning in them using discovery. Ricardo explains how the usual entrance criteria for university of test scores is not enough .. how even high achievers entering university tend to dropout or desert their programmes. Ricardo and his faculty discover the reasons most give for this desertion is only excuses that the real reason is lack of poor self image and they have convinced themselves they cannot learn. Ricard set about developing ways of training the staff to care for the students and improve the student experience. Ricardo shares how he started with the professional development of the teaching staff.

This approach changed the University Ricardo was leading in Honduras. In ten years it had a 300% increase in students from 6000 students to 18,000 students. Listen to him tell this wonderful story.

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