What children of the future need from schools
Commentary ( 10 )
TOKYO —
The evolution of new careers and industries is inevitable, so how can schools really prepare students for this future? What skills will the adults and workforce of upcoming decades need to not only be effective and economically satisfied in their respective workplaces, but also solve the global challenges the future will present?
Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned speaker on education, has considered some of these questions and talked about “the need not for school evolution, but for school revolution.”
He has discussed how schools of the future will have to create conditions in which children are encouraged to find their innate skills and passions, maintain their creativity and celebrate who they are — so that they might be their most authentic selves.
This is an exciting prospect, and in many ways international schools have a head start, particularly those based in Tokyo, where innovation, individuality and creativity can be readily seen walking the streets. International schools by their very multicultural and global nature, can enable children to have a range of contextually rich and relevant experiences that open their eyes and ears to the experiences of others and worlds beyond their own immediate family and culture.
But how can we ensure that children are being exposed to a high quality learning experience while developing a sound perception of themselves and their creative potential?
One key factor is the personalization of enriched learning experiences. Children develop at different rates and need to be knowledgeable about what they are achieving and their next areas of development. The close tracking and analysis of individual progress, combined with purposeful written and verbal feedback, enables schools to ensure that children benefit from each experience and become reflective in their thinking and approach to their own improvement. Personalization provides a supportive framework and clear path to sustained progress and improved attainment, while enabling children to explore and extend their talents both in and outside the classroom.
Another factor is the rigorous acquisition of key skills. Whatever the future holds, the global workforce will still need core skills. Literacy, numeracy and technology skills transcend traditional subject boundaries. The core curriculum of schools now and in the future must require and maintain high standards in core areas.
For children to access, explore and communicate their creative ideas and innovative solutions, they need to be able to articulate and process both linguistically and numerically. It goes without saying that the future will depend on technology, and that the continuing expansion of the use of technology in learning situations, therefore, is vital.
Embedded within the personalization of learning and the development of key skills, school curricula must have at their core the personal, social and emotional development of their pupils. We are already seeing the impact social networking is having on the global workplace.
Children need to be formally and informally learning about how to interact with others in a positive and constructive way. They must be aware of the implications of their actions, as well as develop an awareness of both their own contribution to interactions and their own core values. Schools must find ways for pupils to be involved with the community and society, learning and demonstrating appropriate social behavior and learning how to take responsibility.
Children of the future will need schools to make a difference, more so than at any time in the past. Schools must inspire and galvanize children, encourage them to become individuals who challenge themselves, who look outside the box, who socially network, see links, innovate and think for themselves. They must help children become adults who truly have a love of learning and a passion for finding and harnessing their innate strengths — whatever they are.
Above all, schools must help children become people who are determined to succeed, relish challenge and seek solutions wherever they may originate. Children of today must be prepared to become the innovators of tomorrow.
The revolution has begun, here in Tokyo!
The author is deputy head, primary school, The British School in Tokyo.
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10 Comments
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1
illsayit
wow! confusing; when one paragragh says "authentic self" and the next paragraph pushes "experiences of others and worlds beyond their own immediate family and culture". And surely the emphasis on literacy and numeracy would allow individuals who are interested, to technologies. Or perhaps the suggestion is that future schools and education can be revolutionized around technology, which would completely transform the need for a building? I would have liked to seen the suggestion that the revolutionized school to not TEACH interaction, but facilitate the community center-like sports or music-where children can participate and with experience, develope their social skills. I believe that a future school will need the revolution of including parents in the educational process. Like english speaking mothers helping out with english classes, surely the local mothers can participate in some way, besides being sidelined to pta.
3
NeverSubmit
I don't see any concrete or clear suggestions in this article, it's just a series of buzzwords strung together.
2
Frungy
This article keeps on going on about "skills", and thus misses the critical difference between training and education. Skills (training in how to use an existing technology) are rapidly outdated, while education (teaching someone how to learn and how to dissect and adapt to new situations and problems) is of life-long value.
To my mind this article, in mentioning skills so many times, misses the critical factor in teaching children how to adapt to a rapidly changing world, that education is not something that stops at school, but rather is a life-long endeavour. Providing children with the tools to learn and keep on learning is the only subject they should be teaching. Ironically enough this approach isn't new, and the Greeks employed it more than 2000 years ago develop theories about everything from astronomy to quantum physics that we are only now developing the technology to confirm, and in the majority of cases confirming as correct. The Greeks' fundamental approach was to learn and keep on learning, an approach that is sadly being replaced with "skills training", which becomes outdated as rapidly as you complete the latest course.
1
Tomasz Stasinski
There are a lot of whats in this article, but no hows. How the author proposes to deliver a more personal experience in education? Smaller classrooms? One-to-one tutelage? No more grades/years to pass or fail? How will bullying be prevented? How how how?
1
pamelot
Precious British psycho-babble.
Fundamentals. Build on that.
1
bicultural
Yup, I think this sentence pretty much sums up the whole article. As someone mentioned, a bunch of buzzwords. What is this article trying to say? Nothing. It's just an advertisement. By the way, the word "core" is used 5 times in the span of a few paragraphs. I just wasted 5 minutes of my life reading this crap.
0
MaboDofuIsSpicy
But the Japanese Mombu system does not even recognize international schools. I work at one. I know.
0
MaboDofuIsSpicy
Been in Japan nearly thirty years. I can walk into any Japanese school across the nation, and on any given day, they are all teaching the same thing. Even the art and music projects are the same. The art projects are anything but creative. You should see the art supply catalogs. Pathetic.
-1
MaboDofuIsSpicy
bicultural...got to learn speed reading. Helps with lame articles like this.
2
Samantha Ueno
here's a radical idea--maybe children need to be children. Instead of having elementary school children who go to school and study as much or more as the average adult, including weekends and even eating dinner at juku every night, how about they socialize and play and learn the skills they need naturally. Then maybe they could be happy adults, meeting partners and getting married through normal social interaction rather than working 12 hours a day in some office, and then realizing that they are nearly 30 and get a quickie marriage through some keitai website so they can produce another child that will spend its life in daycares, schools, jukus, anything that mom can schedule. Maybe this is just a generalization, but from what I have seen Japanese schoolchildren at play usually have a certain game, baseball, catch, soccer, etc, something with an object and set rules, but American schoolchildren can make up elaborate scenarios for games to play without any tools or props except their imagination. I wonder why??
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