[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyBsRn2vIlE&w=560&h=315]
Schools and unis can no longer provide students with the complete toolkit for their futures; now it’s about equipping them with skills to be lifelong learners.
Our students need self confidence, adaptability, and strong values
School’s task to develop people as successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.
Knowledge remains vital but it’s not enough. Success depends on deep understanding and having the skills to turn knowledge to useful effect. Deep learning and the development of skills is important.
The curriculum should not be a catalogue of content – things to be learned. Students should be building networks and developing collaboration.
Deep learning and development of skills are critically important.
In the modern world, the evidence needs to be increasingly in advanced transferable cognitive skill – critical thinking, problem solving and creativity.
There is a new emphasis on learner engagement. There is the idea that the learner has to take responsibility for his/her own decisions and has to be involved in his/her progress.
All learning has to become more ambitious. We have our new mission statements. We share the objectives but nobody has yet made the breakthrough to real 21st century practice.
When will we stop talking about this and start taking apart an outdated, irrelevant system?
Experiencing and knowing the principles of most anything does not always translate to action or behavior. It is frustrating when so much of our future slips between our fingers. We can play the ‘sanddollar story’ of each of us trying to do our own little part…and perhaps that will lead to a true grassroots effort with global power, but I’m seeing more steps backwards than forwards these days. Though some of us have been exposed to these thoughts for a number of years, I think that many of those in ‘leadership’ positions have not or have prioritized other agenda items – they also get caught up in the ‘ivory tower’ mentality. But ultimately, change (with action and behaviors) will happen – do we wait for the disaster to occur and do the knee-jerk reaction as so many changes? Or can we find a way to influence those with a proactive stance? Sign me up! 🙂
I’ll take the latter suggestion, Marie. Why do you think leadership is often oblivious of the need for change in curriculum and skills needed for today’s world? It’s frustrating but sometimes small influences still seem worthwhile.
Regrettably, I think many in leadership roles lose the big picture and some sensibility [both common sense and sense of humanity] at that level – the bigger the fiefdom, the worse it gets…I guess I have pretty much given up on trying to really influence them, but I do continue to be proactive in my little world – I can’t stand the thought of being apathetic or just reactive. Great to ‘chat’!
We stop trying, we die.