To get to where we want to be, we have to make a new map and design our collective journey. As a community of educators, we have to have the vision to see where our students will end up when they leave our influence. We, the educators, must foresee the future to prepare our students for their success. We are the professionals who not only change how people see themselves, but how our nation identifies itself. Let us consider all this as we re-program the GPS for our future citizens.
Where did we come from, where are we now, where are we going are thoughts I ruminate on. Our current education system is similar to what the famous economist Adam Smith designed for efficient factory production. To take that same idea and force that template upon students worked for a limited amount of time, but with advances in psychology, math, sociology, and all other areas of sciences, our design consisting of 42 minute classes and bell ringing to shift the cadres to the appropriate classroom should be a thing of the past. There have been small experimental changes, such as no walls for the open classrooms, for integration of all levels of students in one class, for elimination of windows, and more trends from the crazy to the brilliant throughout the decades. Not all of these ideas were winners, but they were attempted. But these trends never addressed the bigger picture.
We should be aligning our trajectory with our desired citizenship outcome. Furthermore, we as citizens – we should be demanding the brightest of our teachers to come together and design a better classroom, improve lesson delivery, and mutual control between teachers and administration regarding budgetary requirements. The days of counting photocopy paper should be over.
To be successful, we have to recognize that we are currently within the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution.’ The first Industrial Revolution involved coal and steam and machines to increase our capability. The second was technology, communication, and travel. The third was the introduction of the supercomputer, a new form of logic was invented. The fourth revolution has changed each person on this planet, we are now personally enhanced with smartphones and cyber technology to scaffold the person to greater capabilities. As well, this not only involves technology but the ethic and value system that is integrated with it, that being the forward march and change towards post-capitalism. We are slowly changing towards a new ethical business system, we no longer give a high value to what is flashy like those oversized houses or ostentatious diamond rings but what is considered true wealth; that being shared intelligence, creativity, collaboration, networked individuals, and ecological sustainability. As the African proverb states, one can move faster but many can move further. We are now favouring sustainability and team work more than the maverick style entrepreneur arriving to work in his side-moving-parking Lamborghini. We are now moving towards a post-capitalistic fourth industrial revolution. The person who will be garnering the greater respect will be the leader who arrived to work on their bicycle with their lunch in his backpack, and the leader also greets the caretaker equally as they do the stockholders and who puts well-working teams together with complimentary skills with their own dedicated time to participate in the project, and before major decisions are made, they pull in their team for their opinions.
Combine the fourth industrial revolution with post capitalism and this is what our educational processes must aim for. If our education system does not embrace this future, our students will be left behind in another century.
The World Economic Forum wrote a paper called Schools of the Future, 2019. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Schools_of_the_Future_Report_2019.pdf
Their key findings included these eight skills.
- Global Citizenship skills.
- Innovation and creativity skills
- Technology skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Personalised and self-paced learning
- Accessible and inclusive learning
- Problem-based and collaborative learning
- Lifelong and student driven learning.
There are many schools that have enveloped one or more of the above eight strategies. The challenge is changing how stakeholders think of the responsibility of the educators, as they tend to be those above the teachers passing down the curriculum requirements and lesson expectations. We should not be focusing upon the ‘Three Rs’ but the above broader goals which enfold the ‘Three Rs’ within them. The stand and deliver model is over. The phrases I used to hear were ‘the student-centred classroom’ or how to ‘differentiate’ may very well be outdated terms by now. To go another level up, our assessments also need to change. What we really want are not more routine workers but innovative citizens. To change the outcome, we have to change the process.
What is the cost benefit analysis of this change? What are we going to change? How fast does this change happen?
What is the cost of this change? In my opinion the cost of this change will be greater if we do not change. We will be forever producing bus drivers and waitresses, admittedly they too are necessary, but no country needs a majority of service industry persons nor do we need an access of professors who stand and deliver. Even they too need to think outside the box when leaving their mundane jobs. If we do not change our education system, we will not change our society. We will continue to ravage the planet, we will continue to have wars, and so many far outdated ways to control our environment. [Consider how useless it is to continue to mow that lawn when gardens are far more rewarding.] Our current way is not progress, it is regression. We must begin to change from the beginning, that being from kindergarten upward. In total then, it would take somewhere between 10-12 years of new methodology of teaching to change our society. Therefore this ideal will not be able to change society quickly but over time. We the educators, we the teachers, we the administration, we the departments of education, we the government must change how we teach, how to support, how to assess, and how to support our youth. Now we know why we must design a new map to success, now let’s see who is willing to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Let’s start planning together.
