Top 10 Modern Methods of Execution

We have all heard about the various methods of execution used around the world in civilized nations, but quite often we don’t know the methods involved in executing the act. With this list I hope to shed some light on the background of an execution, modern style. All but two of these methods of execution are still in use today. [WARNING: This list includes graphic images.]

1. Lethal Injection

Lethal injection room in Huntsville, Texas

In the short time before an execution by lethal injection, the prisoner is prepared for his death. This can include a change of clothing, a last meal, and a shower. The prisoner is taken to the execution chamber and two IV tubes are inserted in to his arms; a saline solution is fed through the tubes. These tubes are then fed through the wall in to an anteroom from where the execution will be carried out. The anteroom contains direct telephone connections to officials who have the power to stay the execution. Once the IV tubes are connected, the curtains are drawn back so that witnesses may watch the execution, and the prisoner is allowed to make his last statement.

Unless a stay is given, the execution begins. There can be one or more executioners, and sometimes in the case of multiple executioners, the lethal dose is given by only one so that no one knows who delivered it. The executioners are shielded from the view of the prisoner and witnesses. The drugs can be delivered by a machine, but due to the fear of mechanical failure, most US states prefer to manually inject the drugs in to the IV. The drugs are then administered in the following order:

Sodium thiopental: This drug, also known as Pentathol is a barbiturate used as a surgical anesthetic. In surgery, a dose of up to 150mg is used; in execution, up to 5,000mg is used. This is a lethal dose. From this point on if the prisoner is still alive, he should feel nothing.

Pancuronium bromide: Also known as Pavulon, this is a muscle relaxant given in a strong enough dose to paralyse the diaphragm and lungs. This drug takes effect in 1-3 minutes. A normal medical dose is 40 – 100mcg per kilogram; the dose delivered in an execution is up to 100mg.

Potassium chloride: This is a toxic agent which induces cardiac arrest. Not all states use this as the first two drugs are sufficient to bring about death.

Saline solution is used to flush the IV between each dose. Within a minute of two after the final dose is given, a doctor declares the prisoner dead. The body is then sent to the coroner for verification and sometimes an autopsy and is released to the family for burial or is buried by the state.

2. The Electric Chair

Electric Chair at Sing Sing

The electric chair was invented by Harold P. Brown who was employed by Thomas Edison for the sole purpose of investigating the uses of electricity for execution. Brown, a dentist used to working with people in chairs, used a chair design for his device. At the time there was still competition to see whether Edison’s direct current (DC) or Westinghouse’s alternating current (AC) would win the current war. Edison was in favor of using his opponents AC as he thought it would lead people to believe that AC was more dangerous than DC. In fact, it would make little difference which current were used at the voltage needed for an execution. Edison was so keen to alienate Westinghouse, that he tried to get people to refer to execution by electrocution as “westinghousing” someone. The chair was first adopted in 1889 and the first execution took place in 1890 in New York.

In execution by electric chair, the prisoner is strapped to the chair with metal straps and a wet sponge is placed in his head to aid conductivity. Electrodes are placed on the head and leg to create a closed circuit. Depending on the physical state of the prisoner, two currents of varying level and duration are applied. This is generally 2,000 volts for 15 seconds for the first current to cause unconsciousness and to stop the heart. The second current is usually lowered to 8 amps. The current will normally cause severe damage to internal organs and the body can heat up to 138 °F (59 °C). While unconsciousness should occur within the first second or two, there have been occasions where it has taken much longer, leading people to speak out against this method of execution.

The post-execution cleanup is an unpleasant task as skin can melt to the electrodes and the person often loses control over bodily functions. The skin is also often burnt. The last use of the chair was on the 12th of September in Tennessee (6 days ago as of writing this). You can view a gruesome image of a person after being executed by the electric chair here.

3. Gas Chamber

Gas chamber at Mississippi State Penitentiary

The gas chamber has been used for executions for a considerable number of years. It has gained the most notoriety from its use in the German prison camps during World War II where it was used to exterminate millions of people in one of the worst cases of genocide in the 20th century. All of the five US states that still use the gas chamber allow the prisoner to choose death by lethal injection instead. The last death by gas chamber in the US was in 1999 when German Walter LaGrand was executed in Arizona. There are unconfirmed reports that North Korea is using the gas chamber as a method of execution and to test poisonous gasses on prisoners.

Prior to the execution, the executioner will enter the chamber and place potassium cyanide (KCN) pellets into a small compartment beneath the execution chair. The prisoner is then brought in and secured to the chair. The chamber is sealed and the executioner pours a quantity of concentrated sulfuric acid (H2SO4) through a tube which leads to a holding compartment in the chair. The curtains are drawn back for witnesses to see the execution and the prisoner is asked to make his last statement. After the last statement, a level is thrown by the executioner and the acid mixes with the cyanide pellets generating lethal hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas. The prisoners will generally have been told to take deep breaths in order to speed up unconsciousness, but in most cases they hold their breath. Death from hydrogen cyanide is painful and unpleasant.

After the prisoner is dead, the chamber is purged of gas and neutralized with anhydrous ammonia (NH3). Both the ammonia and the acid that must be removed from the chamber are highly dangerous. Guards with oxygen masks then enter the chamber and remove the body so that it can be examined by a doctor.

4. Single Person Shooting

Execution of a Vietcong captian

Execution by shooting is the most common method of execution in the world, used in over 70 countries. Whilst most of these countries use the firing squad, single person shooting is still found. In Soviet Russia, a single bullet to the back of the head was the most frequently used method of execution for military and non-military alike. This is still the main method of execution in Communist China though the gunshot can be to either the neck or head. In the past, the Chinese government would ask the family of the executed person to pay the price of the bullet. In Taiwan, the prisoner is first injected with a strong anesthetic to render him senseless and then a bullet is fired in to his heart.

5. Firing Squad

Antonio Echazarreta executed in 1913 in Mexio

The firing squad is considered by many to be the most honorable method of execution, and for that reason it was specifically not used on war criminals. While the method differs widely from country to country, generally the condemned is blindfolded and restrained. A group of men then fire a single bullet in to the heart of the prisoner. In some cases, one of the shooters is given a blank – so that afterwards he will feel less guilt. None of the shooters knows who has a blank or, in fact, if any of them do. In the most recent execution by firing squad in Utah, the brother of the executed man stated that there were five bullet holes in his brother’s shirt, indicating that every shooter fired a live round. Here is an eyewitness account of the execution of William Johnson, a deserter in the Army of the Potomac in 1861.

All being ready the Marshal waved his handkerchief as the signal, and the firing party discharged the volley. Johnson did not move, remaining in a sitting posture for several seconds after the rifles were discharged. Then he quivered a little, and fell over beside his coffin. He was still alive, however, and the four reserves were called to complete the work. It was found that two of the firing party, Germans, had not discharged their pieces, and they were immediately put in irons. Johnson was shot several times in the heart by the first volley. Each of the four shots fired by the reserves took effect in his head, and he died instantly. One penetrated his chin, another his left cheek, while two entered the brain just above the left eyebrow. He died at precisely a quarter to four o’clock.

In the United States only two states allow execution by firing squad: Idaho, and Oklahoma; though Utah still has four prisoners on death row who were sentenced when it was lawful there and they may be permitted to be executed in this way.

6. Hanging

17 and 18 year old boys hanged in Iran for homosexuality

Hanging is carried out in a variety of ways: the short drop is when the prisoner is made to stand on an object which is then thrust away – leaving them to die by strangulation. This was a common method of hanging used by the Nazis and was the most common form used before the 1850s. Death is slow and painful. Suspension hanging (very popular in Iran) is when the gallows itself is movable. The prisoner stands on the ground with the noose around their neck and the gallows is then lifted in to the air, taking the prisoner with it. The standard drop was in common use in English nations after the 1850s – it involved tying the noose around the prisoner’s neck and then dropping them a short distance (usually 4-6 feet) to break the neck. This was the method used to execute the Nazi war criminals. The final method is the long drop, devised in 1872 in which the weight of a person was taken in to account to determine the correct rope and drop to be used to ensure the breaking of the neck. This was the method used by Albert Pierrepoint, the last executioner of England, described here in more detail:

The night before the execution, Pierrepoint would visit the condemned man in his cell with the Warden. The prisoner was not told that pierrepoint was his executioner. The purpose of the visit was to size the man up. Pierrepoint would use the information he had gained on the visit to decide what thickness of rope and what length of drop to use. He would soak the rope in water and would hang a sandbag the weight of the prisoner at the end to prevent stretching during the execution. The next day pierrepoint would put a cloth over the face of the prisoner and tighten the noose around his neck. He was very careful to ensure that the trapdoor beneath the condemned would be opened as soon after the noose went on as possible and would often kick the level with his foot. The person would then drop through the trapdoor and their neck would break, causing death.

There have been some instances where the long drop method has caused decapitation – the most recent of which was the hanging of Saddam Hussein’s half brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, in Iraq in 2007.

If you can play real audio, here is a BBC interview with Pierrepoint.

7. Beheading

Sentenced at 15, Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’i, executed July 2007

In some nations that adhere to Islamic Sharia law, beheadings are still a commonly used method of execution. The most frequently seen cases involve beheading by a curved, single-edged sword. While many nations allow beheading by law, Saudi Arabia is the country that uses it most often. The sentence is normally carried out on a Friday night in public outside the main mosque of the city after prayers. The penalty can be dealt for rape, murder, drug related crimes, and apostasy (rejection of religious beliefs).

Saudi Arabia frequently comes under fire from international agencies because of the fact that they continue to pass this sentence on minors. Saudi Arabian officials state that they are not in breach of international law because the sentence is not carried out until the child has reached the age of 18. This was the case with Dhahian Rakan al-Sibai’i (pictured above) who was sentenced at 15 but executed this year at the age of 18.

8. Guillotine

Eugène Weidmann, last public guillotine execution in France, 1939

Contrary to popular belief, Joseph-Ignace Guillotin did not invent the Guillotine; he suggested that a method of execution be devised that was quick and to be used on all people regardless of class. He sat on the committee that eventually designed the device, but it was actually Antoine Louis who came up with the design that was then used to build the first functioning guillotine. This is one of the two execution methods on this list which is no longer used anywhere in the world.

The device itself is a large timber frame with a space at the bottom for the neck of the prisoner. At the top of the machine is a large angled blade. Once the prisoner is secured, the blade is dropped, severing the head and bringing about immediate death. Much speculation exists as to whether or not the person dies immediately, and one man went so far as to ask a prisoner to blink after his head was cut off if he could. The accounts tell us that he did blink, but it is most likely that if he did, it would have been a post-death twitch.

The last public guillotining in France (photo above) was secretly filmed, and the scandalous behavior of the onlookers caused the government to ban public executions. It was the official method of execution in France until the death penalty was outlawed in 1981.

9. Stoning

A stoning in Iran

Stoning to death is when a person’s movements are restricted and an organized group throws stones at them until dead. Under Islamic Sharia law, stoning is an acceptable method of execution and it is used in many Islamic nations. In Iran, stoning is sanctioned for adultery and other crimes. Article 104 of the Law of Hodoud provides that the stones should not be so large that a person dies after being hit with two of them, nor so small as to be defined as pebbles, but must cause severe injury.

“The penalty for adultery under Article 83 of the penal code, called the Law of Hodoud is flogging (100 lashes of the whip) for unmarried male and female offenders. Married offenders may be punished by stoning regardless of their gender, but the method laid down for a man involves his burial up to his waist, and for a woman up to her neck (article 102). The law provides that if a person who is to be stoned manages to escape, he or she will be allowed to go free. Since it is easier for a man to escape, this discrimination literally becomes a matter of life and death.” [Source]

Sentences to death by stoning, or stoning without a sentence have occurred in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Saudi-Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in recent years, according to the International Society of Human Rights. Videos of recent stonings have been smuggled out of Iran. You can watch them here. The most recent stoning in Iran was in 2007 when Jaffar Kiani was stoned to death for adultery.

10. Garrote

1901 execution by garotte in Manila

The garrote is the second method of execution on this list which is no longer sanctioned by law in any country though training in its use is still carried out in the French Foreign Legion. The garrote is a device that strangles a person to death (as in the photograph above). It can also be used to break a person’s neck. The device was used in Spain until it was outlawed in 1978 with the abolition of the death penalty. It normally consisted of a seat in which the prisoner was restrained while the executioner tightened a metal band around his neck until he died. Some versions of the garrote incorporated a metal bolt which pressed in to the spinal chord, breaking the neck. This spiked version is known as the Catalan garrote. The last execution by garrote was José Luis Cerveto in October 1977. Andorra was the last country in the world to outlaw its use, doing so in 1990.

World mission in the 21st century:

God sent His Son Jesus because He loved "the world"

(1) A new generation for modern times

Today's generation is very different from the generations before it. They have been brought up in a time of rapid political, social, cultural and technological change. They are also familiar with modern IT technologies. They have received excellent training, they have travelled widely and come across many cultures. They are open to the world, put strong emphasis on personal relationships, sensible, self-critical, extremely creative, enthusiastic and willing to work under indigenous leadership. But many of them come from broken homes and carry scars on their souls. They are looking for fellowship. Stamina and self discipline are not their strengths. With this background they are best suited to urban ministries and marginalized peoples. But mission structures need to change so that their strengths will flourish. They need different concepts of training, adjusted work assignments carefully chosen tasks for a limited time, a cooperative leadership style, flexible structures, life and ministry in a team, sympathetic personal supervision, simple administration and a lifestyle of continuous learning. They need a new type of mission agency.

(2) Short-term work is important

Short-term work has been available for a long time (such as OM), and it prepares young people for world mission. Former generations would have gone into missionary work even without this exposure - but not so the young generation. They feel so aware of their own limitations that they do not have the courage to commit themselves to long-term work. They need to experience personally that God can brings them through and use their gifts and experiences to do something meaningful and bless people. Young people mainly learn experientially (by doing and personal involvement) and not so much through reasoning and rational insights. Therefore short-term work is very important today. God uses it to boost significant ministries and simultaneously the Lord calls people into long-term mission work.

(3) Sending churches want to be involved directly

Mission flows from God's heart and He has chosen the church as his primary instrument in world mission. The church sends her missionaries to build Christ's church in the country of service and the sending church in return receives lots of blessings. This fundamental truth has not always been recognised by churches and mission agencies. Today churches do not like to be restricted to praying and giving but they want to be directly involved in the life and ministry of their missionaries, use their gifts and experience, be well informed and actively involved in the decision making. By this the church's competence in mission and their involvement is greatly advanced. Their missionary's ministry becomes their own project and the sending church an active partner of the missionary team. This requires close communication between church and mission agency. It requires effective structures, global thinking, simple administration, delegation of tasks and commitment to partnership.

(4) Secularised West: Crisis and opportunity for mission

The "Christian West" is something from the past and was replaced by the post-modern time. Today personal feelings are important, all opinions and lifestyles are equally acceptable which leads to a break-down of consensus in society: everybody has his own truth and life-style, it's like a supermarket of ideology . In the city of Leipzig only 8% of the population belongs to a Christian church. These characteristics of the post-modern time are also present in our churches today. The uniqueness of Jesus is questioned and world mission, God's claim to the whole world, considered as an offence. The piety of Muslims and Buddhists is admired. Many people consider themselves as Christians even if they do not know the Gospel - and it seems unthinkable to question their beliefs. Today we need new, fresh answers to many fundamental questions.

(5) World mission on our doorstep

At the same time, our cities have become very multicultural. In many districts the majority of the population comes from abroad. And even in rural areas there are big homes for asylum seekers with people of many nationalities - the United Nations on our doorstep. Many international neighbours from Romania, Brazil or Ghana for instance are already followers of Christ. How can they feel at home in our churches? Churches have to find new methods of worship, incorporating these people in church life.

Other international residents have never heard the gospel: World mission on our doorstep. How can our churches fulfil the great commission in their neighbourhood effectively? Mission agencies and missionaries with international experience and language skills can help effectively. I am also grateful for African, Korean and Latin-American missionaries (besides many US-Americans) who come to Germany in order to help in church planting and mission. World mission no longer is sending missionaries abroad - it is a network of relationships and ministries: from everywhere to everywhere.

(6) A new type of missionary is required

The rapid social and political change in the world has also reached the countries of service (globalisation). Their big cities hardly differ from Frankfurt and Hamburg. In rural parts of Africa, technology may have stopped, but in the cities even more people carry mobile phones than in Europe. Our computer software is developed in India, radios are assembled in North Africa. The economic boom in South Asia has catapulted these countries and cultures into modern times - regarding economy, social sciences, education, language and culture. Today most of the world's unreached people live in the jungle of big cities and no longer in the real jungle.

If missionaries want to reach these hearts, activities must be geared to the people and their needs and values. They need to address their issues for today. This is relevant for church meetings, literature, bible correspondence courses, radio programmes etc. Successful methods of the past may be outdated today. Missionaries need to constantly reflect their ministries, take over new tasks, continuously re-train, develop an attitude of life-long learning.

(7) Indigenous Christians take over the leadership

In many countries strong churches have grown in the meantime and self-confident leaders have taken over the leadership. Often missionaries work under their leadership or in cooperation with them. Missionaries are no longer pioneers who develop and put into practice projects independently. They are guests workers who fill specific gaps where there are no local experts available - for example in theological teaching, children's ministry and youth work, social work, development projects, training etc. This requires a new type of personality from missionaries: ability to work in a team with good communication and conflict resolution skills, willing to compromise. They need humility, sympathetic understanding and cross-cultural communication. At times church leaders set other priorities than our liking. There might be financial expectations or ethnic prejudices or focus on the support of existing churches - and a mutual solution needs to be found in sensitivity, love and grace. Cooperation is not always easy.

(8) Modern communication offers great opportunities

The new communication technologies have revolutionised our world. News and pictures travel around the world in seconds. One mouse click and the whole world knows - the most remote places of the world are connected - and the same holds true for missionary work.

There are new forms of mission work: the evangelisation via satellite TV, Christian movies on DVD, bibles and theological literature available on the Internet even in "closed" countries, chat rooms provide discreet discussion rounds with people from all countries, evangelistic programmes on an interactive webpage and theological training through email. These are fantastic missionary opportunities but they are no substitute for the living example of an ambassador for Christ.

The life of the missionary has also changed dramatically: solar energy and water purification, satellite phone in remote mountains, satellite navigation in the jungle, language learning via CD, schooling of missionary kids through the Internet, instant access to all of the libraries of the world. Cheap air tickets permit visits from friends or a brief visit at home.

The communication with home churches and supporters has become much easier. Just one email and hundreds of friends can pray specifically. Pictures sent by email illustrate the ministry minutes later at the information board in church, a phone call with a mobile phone during church service provides up-to-date information, a video clip etc.... There are hardly any limits to your imagination and technical possibilities. This results in high expectations from supporters at home in regard to regular news and to the quality of presentations - and the missionary needs to compete with the information overkill. In the end communication is not a matter of technical possibilities but of personality.

(9) Missionaries from the Southern hemisphere

The most impressive characteristic of modern mission is the fantastic growth of the mission movement in many southern countries (traditional missionary receiving countries). With great enthusiasm and sacrifices they send their own missionaries to unreached areas in their own country and to other countries and many support their missionaries financially with great sacrifices. Today half the global mission movement comes from the new sending countries of the South: Korean missionaries in Central Asia, Brazilian missionaries in North Africa, Philippinos in the Far East... The "Evangelical Church in Westafrica" (ECWA) in Nigeria alone has sent 1070 missionaries; the Presbyterian Churches in Mizoram in the north east of India have sent 900 missionaries. The missionaries from the South come mainly from cultures which are very community orientated and thus have other needs than Western missionaries. Their sending churches and mission organisations often do not have the same financial resources as European agencies. They need different forms of mission structures for sending, leadership and care supervision - "new wineskins for new wine".

Missionaries from countries of the South also come to Europe. In Germany alone there are 200 Korean missionaries who proclaim the gospel to "German heathens". Possibly the spirituality and prayer fervour of an Asian missionary or the joyful faith of an African or the courage of a Latin-American missionary is more attractive to our fellow Germans than the rationality of a European. In Germany too we need ambassadors of Christ from other countries in order to reach our younger generation with the gospel.

(10) Mission is more than evangelism

In the past years powerful prayer movements for unreached people have come into being and the Lord has done great things through them. Nevertheless there is a growing awareness that the great commission is more than techniques, operation plans, superficial evangelism and impressive numbers of conversions. The centre piece of the Great Commission according to Matthew 28 is the command: "make disciples". This is more than preaching of the gospel or leading people to a decision for Jesus. All areas of life have to come under the leadership of Christ and each believer has to find a place in a local church. This cannot be achieved through the mass media even though they might be very effective in evangelism. We need living example of what God's grace can do in one's life, discipleship needs to be acted out in life. Our personal life needs to be transparent in order to encourage people to follow Christ.

(11) To preach Jesus in everything

Our time is characterised by great challenges and disasters: flooding, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, drought, Aids, epidemics, ethnic conflicts, refugees, incredible suffering in slums, persecution of Christians, spiritually bound people, closed countries and hearts closed for the gospel in the Western world. Here we need signs of God's love and great creativity in order to open doors for the proclamation of the gospel. Jesus always addressed the whole person. Salvation is to be found only in a personal faith in Jesus Christ. But this message must be communicated through word, deed and personality of the ambassador. It needs to start at the basic needs and interests of the people. The church of Christ is called to be a blessing for her town and country.

(12) Cooperation is of great importance

The challenges of this world are so immense that no church, mission agency or initiative can deal with it alone. Various knowledge, resources, experience and staff are needed. All efforts need to be coordinated. Jesus prayed especially for the unity of his disciples (John 17). This starts where Western missionaries work with colleagues from the South, often in multicultural teams. They can encourage each other, complement each others expertise and gifting, learn and encourage each other - but it also needs careful communication, willingness to compromise and grace so that the cultural and personal differences work out as an enrichment for each other.

To a growing extent this already takes place in regional partnerships. In one ethnic group in the north of India for example 400 mission agencies and churches work together. Each one adds it's part to the whole. This requires a wide horizon so that everybody is able to recognise and value the coworkers who Jesus has placed next to them. Own ideas and priorities may have to be put aside in order to achieve the common goal. Grand coalitions can only be built when everybody is willing to work together and to agree on compromises. This is the key for the future. Only together we can achieve it - and the Lord of mission will do it. God reaches his goal.

Dr. Detlef Blöcher

Modern Trends In Education: 50 Different Approaches To Learning

Education sprouts in many forms depending on how you look at it. Our views of what it should look like and how it should materialize depend on our value of it and our experience with it.

What if a class consisted of words that led to information that whirled into blended realms of creativity set up just for students, created by students. The students then dictated what they learned instead of reluctantly ingesting information and standards imposed upon them.

That exists here and now. In every nook and cranny, around every corner, inside every well-engineered lesson, students might just learn what they want to learn and actually find success while improving the world around them.

Take a tour of 50 different views of education that somehow find a similar note:  Education must change.

1. Ground Up Diversity

Sir Ken Robinson campaigns changing education through talks, writing, advising, and teaching. He believes education must change because it’s a stale environment in which most students don’t really learn what they should or want to learn. How that happens makes all the difference—from the ground up. People, students, and teachers create the change not the administrators or the executives.

2. Social Networking

With social networking growing to the point that Technorati last tracked about 70 million updated blogs, using social networking to teach any subject and catapult students into a realm other than stagnant learning means blending the traditional education with modern communication. Many educators believe this is the route to engaging students in learning all the basic skills they need.

3. Talking Education

Educators believe using talking or videos to review lessons and teach concepts helps students learn and retain more. Between TedEd and TeacherTube, education talks a lot about everything. Students love movement, television and film so utilizing these snippets of information transforms the meaning of learning especially for many students who are strapped for time.

4. Underground Education

According to John Taylor Gatto, teachers should choose the real world over the classroom. Students don’t learn to live or survive in a classroom. They learn to survive in the real world so the concept of underground education challenges educators in any walk of life to give students the tools with which to live and breathe in the world around them. If the lesson must be taught, then teach it thinking of who they might become.

5. Navdanya

Dr. Vadana Shiva’s mission lives and breathes in Navdanya, an organization that promotes self-reliance and earth democracy. The leaders of the organization are women who find strength in women’s movements and give women a voice. Earth democracy developed from the idea of seed saving helping local communities become self-reliant.

6. Asset

In China, seeing education as an asset means you’re a high net worth individual or HNWI. China has approximately 1.4 million HNWI’s equaling out to around $8.7 trillion in wealth stock according to Julius Baer Group Ltd. With the cost of tertiary education rising so quickly, this also makes education a luxury item.

7. Social Status

Even more significant to learning than being an asset, social status plays an underlying role in the education of a small or large group of people whether it’s an entire country’s agenda or certain sections or communities within that country. In other words, if that community puts importance on education as a social benefit, students and people in that community will strive to achieve it in order to raise their status in the community.

8. Lesson Study

Originating in Japan, lesson study applies to style of teaching. Conceptually, lesson study promotes the idea that teachers constantly improve and change their style of teaching based on students’ performance and reaction to it. It sounds like what we already do but not exactly. Collaboration between teachers is paramount and so is change. Combining these two factors with constant change means students never stop learning.

9. Constructive Struggling

Another Japanese form of teaching is to allow students to struggle through a lesson with guidance from their teacher. In other words, the student shouldn’t be embarrassed about failing the first time around, not even the second or third time. The instructor should actually encourage students to learn from that failure.

10. School in the Clouds

After experimenting with a computer in a wall where poor children basically found a way to learn without a teacher, Sugata Mitra won the Ted Prize of $1 million in 2013. He wrote an ebook named Beyond the Hole in the Wall offering an ideal for education based on a very real premise that students learn no matter what social status or economic background. They simply need the tools with which to do so.

11. Problem Based Learning

In regards to tertiary education, problem based learning is gaining popularity in Australia. Students are given a real-world problem then they work together to find a solution to this. In Australia, nursing programmes have begun to embrace this style of teaching and learning because it challenges the students to work as if they’re dealing with real problems they’ll encounter in the workplace. Teachers find it invaluable because students learn more with this method.

12. Learning with Technologies

Another view found all around the world but also heavily used in Australia surrounds the use of technologies as the key to students improving their learning abilities and their marketability. Within the realm of technologies, teachers encourage students to innovate, bringing them full-circle into the 21st century where survival and stability rule.

13. Constructivist Learning

According to Dimitrios Thanasoulas of Greece with relation to philosopher Giambattista Vico, humans only understand what they construct. This concept runs on the idea that students create their own learning environments, actively participating in the knowledge they ingest. Creating your own learning involves making mistakes with no preset agenda in place. Constructive learning is not stable so many educational systems reject it.

14. International Objectives

Many countries are creating a climate conducive to international students’ interests and desires. In 2010, $7.7 billion was spent on tuition by international students in Canada. Countries that give attention to international students find economic benefits in both education and employment.

15. MOOCs & eLearning

Free education has materialized in the form of eLearning and Massive Open Online Courses as a direct result of students wanting to learn but not having the resources to do so whether that means they don’t have the money or the background to achieve their learning goals.

16. Competency Based Education

Competency based education says that regardless of the length of time it takes for a student to complete a course, the student completes it based on what they know already. The only factor in determining how or when the student completes the course is the mastery of knowledge within the subject.

17. The Bologna Process

More an agreement than a concept, the Bologna Process is an agenda bent on responding to the changing landscape of education. Higher education systems in European countries organize themselves to create a more modern, advanced system of higher education for the incoming students.

18. Degree Qualifications

The Lumina Foundation argues that degree programs need to set benchmarks for students that prepare them for an ever-changing workplace. These degrees then aren’t simply meant for study but give students goals and skills that will help them find and maintain jobs once they enter the workforce.

19. Herbert Stein’s Law

Herbert Stein’s Law states, “If something can’t go on forever, it will stop.” Many within and outside of the field of education have latched onto this law as a wake-up call to educators. It shows its presence with the advent of so many changes actively taking place and being embraced throughout every educational environment.

20. Disrupting Innovation

Some see online education as a disruptive process in the clean line that traditional education has managed to stronghold, which links to Herbert Stein’s law in the sense that online education is putting an end to this stronghold. Americans see this as a crisis because of the unemployment rate and the competition from China and India. In response, disruptive innovation means the expense and elitism of education is changing to provide an affordable alternative.

21. Open Innovation

Open innovation promotes the idea of competition. In the business world this means opening up platforms for companies in the form of contests. In higher education, this means bringing together various institutions for competitions locally and globally. It means not confining it to only a select few but opening up to as many contestants as possible.

22. High-Quality Teachers

Another view and criticism of education puts the success or the blame on the teachers’ low salary. Respect for the teaching profession should be shown monetarily then creating high-quality teachers. Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg believes that educators should be paid more and for good reason. In Finland, receiving placement in a master’s programme for teachers is harder than getting a law or medical degree.

23. Finnish Education

Instead of focusing on meeting standards and racing to the top, Finland focuses on providing a quality education to everyone. Contrary to many of the other views in this list, Finland doesn’t believe in competition or even giving grades until fifth grade. The system also doesn’t believe in punitive measures but encourages trust and equality.

24. Social Support Strategy

Organizations such as The Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy and Leadership Initiative (AGALI) use social support strategy to ensure young women learn about themselves beyond social norms. Realizing that the institutionalization of education can only go so far, these organizations provide education in other, far-reaching ways that give people a sense of confidence and self-worth necessary to finding success in life.

25. Change Agents

Elevating the teacher as the key to changing the groaning educational system, change agents are teachers who not only embrace the notion of change but simply make change happen. They don’t wait for a law to pass or a standard to take effect, they just take the initiative to ensure students learn no matter what the circumstances or limitations.

26. Common Core Change

In the United States, the implementation of common core standards is meant to support higher education, which has reported a lower standard in educational abilities than in years before. It’s also meant to challenge students more by forcing education to enter the 21st century with more student-driven learning.

27. Start-up Education

Start-ups and education are slowly finding each other and attempting to link up with one another. The only problem is that bureaucracy in education creates slow change. But, when that change does occur, fast change and innovation give students and educators an ecosystem in which to thrive and learn. LearnLaunchX showcased startups’ products to educators creating enthusiasm in hopes of changing educational sloth.

28. Mobile Education

We move as a global society so that where ever we go, we carry our smart phones with us. Between conversations, we look down and tap away at whatever our minds fancy necessary or entertaining. So education, at least in the most cognizant facets, says it will be there too. It will walk with us on our journeys, our whims, our detours, and our desires. If we take our laptops around the world, education will walk with us according to mobile educational theories.

29. Invisible Structures

On that same note, why place a student in a box? If a student prefers to learn while traveling the world, then so be it. Breaking down the walls of education doesn’t simply mean creating online classrooms but encouraging students to meet in open spaces and learn outside the confines of the institution. Teaching outside the classroom should be a source of inspiration, not a strange phenomenon.

30. Economic Empowerment

Giving students the ability to control their economic status through teaching them skills and economic value systems around the world helps them become leaders and innovators but also helps them find a basis for earning an income in a fluctuating economy.

31. Vocational Training

Whether students are seeking a specialized higher education or a specific skill in order to further a career path, vocational training has become a more popular avenue and view of education in general. Often used by governments to train displaced workers, it can be a valuable source of study for anyone wanting to specialize in areas such as various types of medical technicians or even graphic arts.

32. Gamification

The concept of gamification basically means introducing the gaming experience to environments where gaming would normally be unacceptable:  Education. The word gamification was actually coined by an English programmer, Nick Pelling, in 2004. Adding gaming to education means simply enough that the user completes certain tasks for rewards just like in a video game.

33. Smart Capital

Smart capital involves placing funds exactly where they should be. Instead of handing funds over to an entire community or country based on need, the money flows into the hands of those that need it but will also use it effectively then share their ideas and funds with others so that we eliminate mediocre use or even no use of technology and funds.

34. Catalytic Role

Many foundations or organizations play a catalytic role in advancements in education such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They help innovators change the dynamics of education by providing monetary and other resources as support through college-ready education and post-secondary success. The main idea is to strengthen the relationship between teacher and student so that the learning process progresses to the point at which students not only learn but apply what they learn.

35. Blended Learning

Blending learning and technology gives students an advantage over others. It’s one thing to move along at one’s own pace. It’s another to learn at one’s own pace. Linking the two makes a difference worth noting. Teachers don’t have to be breathing over the neck of the student. Guiding the student is often quite enough.

36. Collective Education

The individual takes the back seat when it comes to the idea of collectivist education. Students learn in groups and more importantly with each other better and more effectively than alone. This doesn’t mean that we disregard the individual online learner, but it means that the online learner will learn better when exposed to a group of learners with similar interests who can offer insight and questioning into the process of learning any particular subject.

37. Personalized Education

Ironically enough, personalized education holds even more value than ever. The difference is that personalized education doesn’t mean there isn’t collective education. It just means that the education is given importance to personalized needs and desires, that the individual should mean something within the collective forum.

38. Flexible Learning

With the personalized education, the value of flexible learning needs to be addressed. Flexible learning offers students choices, convenience, and a personal approach to learning any given subject. Because we are individuals, learning and teaching should entail some form of flexibility within the realm of standardization.

39. Flipped Learning

As bluntly put as possible, a “flipped classroom” means turning learning on its head. Take the learning environment and flip it around so that students do the nitty gritty of learning with their teachers or professors as opposed to studying for exams alone in a dark room with only a bright lamp to guide them. The fun part happens at home with a link to a short article or a video. The tough part happens in school where the teachers can help students fill in the blanks.

40. Classical Education

The classical education of any group of students rewind to a time lost to them if delivered in a lecture format. Students can experience the beauty of Shakespeare at any age because they see it like it was and is, in a theater, no matter how small or large. Students at Oxford, in an online class, or students at a small school experience classical education because it’s handed to them by teachers who deliver it in motion.

41. Free Post-Secondary Education

Countries all over the world offer free post-secondary education giving students in those countries an obvious advantage over other students who may or may not receive any education at all. Students might be able to pay for their education if they work while they’re putting themselves through school and if they’re lucky enough maybe they have a resource providing them with funds for their education, but free resources guarantee an education that adds value to whatever they want to become.

42. Religious Education

Religious education exists because communities and cultures give it an importance beyond knowledge. Linking them together with time and presence, students learn the nature of who their families and communities believe they are as well as how to deal with a changing world full of disappointments and violence.

43. Moral Education

Moral education involves many religions and many insights into the way humans interact with one another. How we manage our way through difficulties is just as important as how we maneuver through technological advances, at least to our ancestors and their views of right and wrong.

44. Character Education

Within the realm of creating morality, there’s character standing right next to it. Character may even be a stronger element of education than morality. With students so quickly exposed to violence and sexism throughout the Internet, character development takes effort and awareness. At every level of education, students should be exposed to it and given a chance to exercise their understanding of it.

45. Readiness Testing

Readiness Testing points educator and students in the right direction according to the people who view it as necessary. It allows educational systems to decide whether students can perform various tasks at a particular level therefore giving everyone insight into where and how students should move forward.

46. Sharing Voices

In New Zealand, students are encouraged to use online tools in order to tell their own stories and have their voices heard throughout their own communities and their country. In fact, the Ministry of Education’s goal is to have students express themselves and take responsibility of their own learning.

47. Expeditionary Learning

Expeditionary learning brings the learning out into the world expediting the need to learn more than what’s confined inside the classroom walls but even more so using the world to learn. Students feel engaged in learning while achieving goals and accomplishing character development when exposed to learning outside.

48. Global View

According to renowned educator Yong Zhoa, high-stakes testing creates more problems than provides answers and it doesn’t match success in the world today. Educating creative, entrepreneurial students should be the focus of education with what he calls world-class learners in his latest book. Zhoa believes there needs to be a paradigm shift in education that builds on students’ strengths and gives them a format where their talents flourish and take shape instead of education shaping them.