The Future of Education?

Education is the Future

In imagining the future of education, the truth of the global citizenry is either quite bleak or excitedly dynamic, dependent entirely on perspective.  With only half of college graduates holding full-time employment, questions about the importance of education versus the payoff to the individual abound. While Dr. Yong Zhao, in World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, frames education in terms of the word, entrepreneur, defined as someone who undertakes a significant project or activity (Zhao, p. 76), I like to think about the skills required not just to start a business or create something new but to live and be in a global world.  In other words, how can education open up to helping students be better humans in the current and forthcoming world?  It seems we are in a time and of a mindset, while much of what we are experiencing is “not working” in terms of the economy, peace, preservation of resources and, of course, education, where humans are primed for a thinking evolution.  How might we shift from “American” education or thinking and “Chinese” education towards Global Thinking and Education?  Would this not be a better fit for our digital native citizenry?  Who do I want to be community partners with, no matter where in the world I am?

Humans need time and space for thinking in all areas of functionality. Especially when coming of age, deciding who you are as a human being requires reflective thinking, plus time and space to do so.  However, this goes against the “billable” hours thinking of many organizations and the very regimented or structured school day of most educational institutions. This is evidenced by the “Post-it Note” anecdote Zhao referenced where 3M employees are encouraged to devote time in their workweek to personal ideas resulting in many innovations we use everyday.  (Zhao, p. 79)  The entrepreneurial spirit captures the common qualities shared by entrepreneurs: “inspiration, creativity, direct action, courage, and fortitude” (Martin & Osberg, 2007, pp. 32– 33; Zhao, p. 81). These are traits for functional humaning, as well.  I want our world to be filled with strong critical thinkers who can make examined decisions when choosing leadership, who can execute plans for how to care themselves and those around them, who feel connected to the world at large, who are driven by a desire to act in a manner that is productive, who are open to new ideas, curious about what hits their senses, authentic in their interactions, and who consider themselves capable, connected and full of passion and purpose.  As an educator, I care far less about a student’s ability to recall a name, date, passage or formula than I do about whether or not they know how to be a good human after spending time in my classroom.  The question is how do we shape education to fit an entrepreneurial driven world that helps students become skilled at being human?  

Perhaps the best idea for reshaping education is taken out of context and put this way, “Simply speaking, blow it up [the Chinese education system].” (Kang, 2010)  Apparently there is a mismatch of understanding of educational excellence.  Where opportunity exists for stable work, fewer feel compelled towards entrepreneurship of any kind. (Zhao, p. 89, pp. 102-103)  But what is entrepreneurial education and what kinds of learners does it produce?

It seems cliché to say, make it like it is in the real-world, like Google or other hip and successful companies.  But what if a classroom was like that?  From flexible schedules, flexible workspaces, collaboration with others near and across borders, to learning driven by student passion with authentic purpose, learning could exist this way. Tom Loveless spoke about “the happiness factor”— teachers paying attention to enjoyment of their class (Zhao, p. 136). As previously noted in Zhao’s work, happiness is part of the skillset needed for entrepreneurship.  We have to find ways to balance what we think is prerequisite knowledge needed and what are more practical skills for global citizenry while keeping in mind that happy students learn more.  Zhao framed the key factors as needed for an entrepreneurial classroom as:

1. Student voice and choice

2. Student support: mentoring and personalization

3. Authentic product

4. Process: drafts, discipline, review

5. Global orientation & competence

Without negating the need for basic skills, again, students learn more when engaged and passionate about their learning.  If writing well is required as a means to an end that is important to them, they will work hard at the best possible writing product and enlist support to improve their writing. Freedom to learn what you want is expressed through examples like the Summerhill School, which scared me when I first heard of it years ago.  If students didn’t have to come to class, then how would I have a chance to teach anything?  From an ego standpoint, that translated to how would I know if I’m a good teacher?  I see now, though, through my recent foray into allowing students time and space to learn or not on any given day, that given enough flexibility to not be required to learn when students’ heads are not in the game often results in tremendous productivity on the day’s when they are feeling ready to learn.  “Authenticity is defined by the degree to which the final product or service serves a genuine purpose, solves a real problem, meets a genuine need of others, or is personally meaningful.  If a product only ends as evidence for measuring a student’s mastery of certain content or skills, it is not authentic.”  (Zhao, p. 247) I want schools to be hubs of idea generation with the support and skill nourishing from teachers as needed for any given area of study, project or performance outcome.

When thinking about my role in global education and making such education happen, I circle back to the work I focused on for my graduate program studies: individualized learning that focuses on critical thinking.  Knowledge is so readily accessible; my role is to help students decipher the vast information, consider it with critical thinking skills and mold learning to couple personal passions and effective productivity.  Helping to ask the right questions with students is a means to guide them to take ownership of learning and teaching them how to address hurdles with problem solving skills fosters ownership of learning and the global human skills I’d like to see in the world.  If I am merely a project manager guiding and supporting my students, and one that they enjoy “working for”, then I’m already en route to tremendous success in education.  It requires a bit of revolutionary philosophy to ignore the rigors of testing and core standards, but I feel confident that more time spent thinking and less on regurgitating will result in a better world.  We can have the exciting and dynamic future filled with creativity and peaceful connectedness everyone craves; we just have to believe it is possible and trust our students to lead us there.  

Reference

(2012) Zhao, Yong. World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. Corwin/SAGE Company. Thousand Oaks, CA. Kindle Edition.