Periodical with a Sharper Understanding of Education

EducastTM

November 2012

Periodical with a Sharper Understanding of Education

EducastTM

APRIL 2014

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Scholastic

www.learnmile.com

Last weekend, I was finishing a presentation on my laptop at home, while my 6 year old daughter sat on her chair

swiping her fingers rapidly on her iPad. As I reflected on how weekends have changed since we were children, I

remarked, 'Zoya, do you know when we were children, there were no iPads. We used to play with marbles in the

playground.' She looked incredulously from her Peppa pig video, paused to check if I was joking and having

decided that I was not, asked in all seriousness, 'Why, were you very poor?'

In between laughing at her innocent deduction, I was left to ponder how our world has changed in the last 25

years. Liberalization has opened our country. Technology has shrunk our world. We work on devices that were not

invented, in buildings that were not designed and in companies that did not exist when we graduated from

school. In fact the largest company in the world by market capitalization, Apple, did not exist when I was born!

This rate of change is only increasing. We can't predict how the world would be when our children graduate from

school in the 2020s! Unfortunately, our schools pretend as if nothing has changed. Most schools around the

country run as assembly lines where syllabus completion is the goal, conformity is the norm and teachers live in a

time warp. After 12 years of such schooling, when children step out, they are armed with a nicely framed certificate stbut are not ready to lead life independently. This cannot continue if we want our children to lead the 21 century.

Most people recognize the need to change. But most stop at incremental changes as they create solutions in the thimage of their past. Having been themselves brought up in a 20 century school, they simply create a better

version of it. What is needed, however, is a complete re-imagining of school education. Here are three key ideas of

transformation:

. How we see ourselves, others and life (our mindsets) and what we do (our habits) are more important than

what we know because leading life effectively rests more on mindsets and habits than knowledge. Research on

non-cognitive traits now clearly establishes this. This is not to say that Maths and English are not important. I mean

that school goals need to go beyond the fundamental skills of literacy and numeracy that enable all learning, to

include mindsets and habits of leading life effectively.

Different children learn differently – both

in ways that they learn and pace at which they learn.

Schools need to leverage technology and re-imagine

classroom grouping to achieve this. Instead of one-size-

fits-all lectures, educators need to leverage a wide gamut

of strategies such as flipped classrooms, video pre-

viewing, kinesthetic activities, Socratic dialogue and peer

learning to enable different kind of learners. Grouping

children by learning proficiency instead of age, narrows the

learning gap in the class, enabling every child's progress.

First, the goal of school education needs to expand from 'knowledge transfer' to 'leadership of

life'

stSecond, 21 century education needs to become

personalized.

Learning in the 21st century

Third, schools need to invest heavily in their teachers. Learning will continue to rest on the shoulders of

inspired and committed teachers. There is a lot of conversation about technology and big data driving the next

phase of education. While they're important enablers, teachers are fundamental to learning. However, they will

need to learn new strategies, unlearn old habits and continue to grow to remain relevant. Schools will do well to

invest in their teachers because it's great teachers that make great schools.

stWhile whole school transformation for the 21 century has other peripheral aspects, schools will do well to use the

above 3 ideas to at least start their journey.

Sumeet Yashpal Mehta

@mehtasumeet | sumeet@leadershipboulevard.com |

www.leadershipboulevard.blogspot.in

Managing Director, Leadership Boulevard.

www.learnmile.com 7

Sumeet Mehta, Managing Director –

Leadership Boulevard

Scholastic

Learning in the 21st century

Author: Sumeet Mehta, Managing Director – Leadership Boulevard