Blog post 1 – What form of education needs to take to prepare students for great lives in the 21st century?
It has become clear that there needs to be a paradigm shift in education. The current system where students attend schools which operate in a “factory line” setting is no longer working, and it is harming our children’s capacity to be creative which is essential to set themselves up for living in the 21st century.
So, what is the answer? What form does education need to take on to enhance each child’s strength’s rather than simply trying to fix their deficit? According to Sir Ken Robinson and Yong Zhao, we need to have to think differently about human capacity. Jobs for the future are ones that are highly creative, require talent, and entrepreneurial skills. The current education system suppresses divergent thinking, and instead it anaesthetises student’s from any form of independent thinking or expression. The answer is that we need to embrace student’s creativity, push them to think about job creation, and not educating them to simply be employees.
Children in today’s society are living in the most media-stimulated period to date, providing them with a magnitude of skills and platforms. Teacher’s and society overall need to be embracing these skills. Teachers need to be teaching students “real-world” experiences, and content they can relate to. The significance and applicability of what is taught needs to be reanalysed. Students lack motivation to learn as they do not see the relevance in learning it. There also needs to be a shift of less content, more skills. There is often not enough time for students to explore their skills as the content layer of learning is too heavy.
A transformation in the education system is critically important if we want our future students to be skilled, ready to work, and contribute to today’s 21st century environment.