future focused schools

CORE Breakfast presentation, Friday 7 November, Auckland

Future Focused Education:

What does it look like in your school?

•  How will learning occur?

•  What about the role of teachers?

•  What sorts of environments?

•  What will we learn about?

•  What will we learn with?

EDUCATION IN THE FUTURE

A future vision of school?

Nothing different on the

inside?

EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE

What skills/knowledge/ competencies do we need to be developing now in order to cope with what the future might hold?

FUTURE FOCUSED – WHICH FUTURE?

Picture from a reading book for the primary school (8 year olds) in Sweden, 1903

http://io9.com/these-are-the-surprising-jobs-youll-be-doing-by-the-203-1577363367

The surprising jobs you’ll be doing by the 2030s

•  Robot counsellor •  Rewilder •  Garbage designer •  Neighbourhood watch specialist •  Simplicity expert •  Healthcare navigator •  Nostalgist •  Telesurgeon •  Solar technology specialist •  Aquaponic fish farmer

http://io9.com/these-are-the-surprising-jobs-youll-be-doing-by-the-203-1577363367

Why School?

COMPETING PHILOSOPHIES

Philosophy A Philosophy B

Education Broken, but can be fixed (quickly)

Long term investment in the future

Technology Drives change Enables, supports and accelerates change

Teachers Another problem to be fixed Supported professionals

Learners The future workforce Future citizens

Innovation Flourishes in all directions Must be scalable and sustainable

Success Input targets and attainment

Wider long-term benefits, personal and society

Curriculum Don’t trust teachers - ‘package’ it up

Guidance and support for teachers

Core Values & beliefs

Principles

Practices Lived expression of your values

Derived from values and beliefs – captured in policy statements

Mutually agreed upon and owned by the school community – provides a common sense of purpose. Made explicit in vision/mission statement

WHY

HOW

WHAT

WHAT IS FUTURE-FOCUSED EDUCATION?

How can schooling change to meet meet the opportunities and challenges of the

21st century?

The world of today’s

student is different…

CHANGING SCHOOLS…

“Schools may be the starkest example in modern society of an entire institution modelled after the assembly line. This has dramatically increased educational capability in our time, but it has also created many of the most intractable problems with which students, teachers and parents struggle to this day.

If we want to change schools, it is unlikely to happen until we understand more deeply the core assumptions on which the industrial-age school is based” Peter Senge

TESTING ASSUMPTIONS…

1996, Prof. Hedley Beare

“egg crate” classrooms set class groups based on age

period-based timetable linear curriculum

division of all human knowledge into “subjects”

division of staff by “subject”

allocation of most school tasks to teachers

assumption that learning is geographically bound

notion of stand-alone school

limiting ‘formal schooling’ to years 0-13

9-3 school day

320,000

330,000

340,000

350,000

360,000

370,000

380,000

390,000

2011

2016

2021

2026

2031

2036

2041

2046

2051

2056

2061

Nu

mb

er

13-18 years

PROJECTED SECONDARY SCHOOL POPULATION

Need to be vigilant about this space

Statistics New Zealand National Population Projections by Age and Sex, 2011(base)-2061

-20,000

-10,000

0

10,000

20,000

30,000 20

11-2

016

2016

-202

1

2021

-202

6

2026

-203

1

2031

-203

6

2036

-204

1

1041

-204

6

2046

-205

1

2051

-205

6

2056

-206

1

Projected change in numbers at 15-19 years (Total NZ)

NZ: 28,000 FEWER SCHOOL LEAVERS OVER THE NEXT 10 YEARS

Source: Statistics NZ 2012 Projected population of New Zealand by age and sex, 2011(base)-2061

325,119

369,090

353,091

300,000 310,000 320,000 330,000 340,000 350,000 360,000 370,000 380,000

2001 2006 2013

Nu

mb

er

Actual Numbers 13-18 Years 2001, 2006, 2013 (Total NZ)

IT IS HAPPENING – CENSUS 2013

Source: Statistics NZ 2012 Projected population of New Zealand by age and sex, 2011(base)-2061

SUMMARY

•  Every year for the next 19 years a successively larger cohort will reach the retirement zone

•  Every year for the next 15 years they will be replaced by a successively smaller cohort

•  2021-26 will see a brief respite, as the recently-born baby blip arrives at labour market age

•  A zero unemployment opportunity is here

Students in physical school, instruction

and assessment predominantly on-

site

Students access formal learning via

the network, instruction and

assessment provided online

Students learning through their online personal learning

network, incl. social networking

environments

Students at home, library or other

space, pursuing own interests individually

or collaboratively

FORMAL  

INFORMAL  

PHYSICAL

  VIRTUAL  

Location

Purp

ose

WHAT IS FUTURE-FOCUSED EDUCATION?

How can we prepare students to address "future-focused" issues such as

sustainability, globalisation, citizenship, and enterprise?

THINKING 3D

•  kjb

WHAT IS FUTURE-FOCUSED EDUCATION?

How can education prepare students for living in the 21st century?

C D

A B

Reproduction Transformation

Vision of learning and technology

How do we think about the integration of

technology with learning? Is it simply a

substitute for existing practice – or does it open

up opportunities for new things in new ways?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29063614

Technology is capable of accelerating learning

– nothing new here, as the same thinking was

used to accelerate the training of pilots in WW2

Modern technologies provide students with

the potential for experiences of unprecedented breadth, depth and relevance.

�

.

We now have the conditions for

modern learners to tackle projects of

a complexity previously

unimaginable.

..as a result we must

rethink what we expect of our students.

We must stop

underestimating what they are now capable of;

and above all…set much

higher expectations

.

C D

A B O

wn

ersh

ip o

f kn

owle

dge

Individual

Collective

Reproduction Transformation

Vision of learning and technology

Shifting from thinking of learning and knowledge construction from being an individual endeavour, to where knowledge is created and owned collectively. What are the implications for how we organise learners, learning, curriculum and assessment?

•  Strong support for creating and sharing

•  Some type of informal mentorship

• Members believe that their contributions matter

• Members feel some degree of social connection with one another

• Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

Participatory culture…

Play the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Performance the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery

Simulation the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes

Appropriation the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitaskng the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

Distributed cognition

the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262513623_Confronting_the_Challenges.pdf

Collective Intelligence

The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal

Judgment The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation

The ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation The ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms

https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262513623_Confronting_the_Challenges.pdf

C D

A B O

wn

ersh

ip o

f kn

owle

dge

Individual

Collective

Reproduction Transformation

Vision of learning and technology

Collective frustration.

Potential of 21st Century

learning realised

Personal orientation, innovation

resisted

Isolated pockets of innovation

Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Derived from values/beliefs. Captured in policy statements.

What you stand for. Mutually agreed and owned by the school community. Shared beliefs/values. Made explicit in mission/vision statement.

Lived expression of your values.

Practices

Principles

Moral Purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Learning is a individual activity. Tradition. Competition. Independence.

Academic success is the focus of schooling, and is achieved through personal discipline and effort.

Traditional setup

Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Learning is a individual activity. Style, ergonomics and technology must be considered.

Academic success is the focus of schooling, and is achieved through personal discipline and effort.

Funky, but traditional setup

Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Collaboration. Interaction. Social participation. Flexibility. Choice. Aesthetics.

Children are social beings. Knowledge building is the result of social interaction.

New opportunities, but

still individual at desk

Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Collaboration. Interaction. Social participation. Flexibility. Choice. Aesthetics. Informality.

Children are social beings. Knowledge building is the result of social interaction.

A complete learning

ecosystem

How can schooling change to meet meet the opportunities and challenges of the 21st century? How can we prepare students to address "future-focused" issues such as sustainability, globalisation, citizenship, and enterprise? How can education prepare students for living in the 21st century?

Derek Wenmoth Email: derek@core-ed.org

Blog: http://blog.core-ed.org/derek Skype: <dwenmoth>