“Ci concentriamo le nostre lezioni sul tentativo di comprendere l'impulso per i sentimenti di xenofobia e nazionalismo nel mondo.” – Jamie Steckart
E se fosse possibile andare a una scuola in cui la vostra formazione è stata incentrata viaggio, immersione culturale, empatia e sviluppare le competenze per fare un cambiamento positivo nel mondo? La prima classe di laurea di pensare globalmente Scuola ha appena completato i loro studi post-secondari e mentre è un po 'troppo presto per prevedere ciò che i loro laureati raggiungerà, Responsabile della Scuola Jamie Steckart ritiene che un programma di studi radicata nella apprendimento basato progetto li ha preparati per il mondo reale.
THINK Global School transitioned from the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) to their own internally designed “Changemaker Curriculum” developed to put students “back in charge of their own learning.” Steckart believes that when students are in control of their own learning, they are “more engaged and motivated to put forth their best effort.”
Il Global Ricerca per l'Educazione welcomes Jamie Steckart, Head of School for the THINK Global School to talk about his predictions for learning today and learning in the future.
“Tomorrow’s workers will very likely be collaborating with teams on projects across the world.” – Jamie Steckart
Jamie, how is your curriculum preparing students for the real world?
The Changemaker Curriculum is rooted in project-based learning, and we use its concepts to incorporate the “real world” into our daily curriculum through a variety of teacher-led modules and student-led projects. In each new country they visit, students select one teacher-led module to focus on as well as 2-3 academic projects of their own choosing. Each of these multidisciplinary modules focuses on a different social, ambientale, culturale, or economic topic specific to the current location, allowing students to engage in subjects during their time in the country that they are passionate about.
To ensure that our students are receiving a well-rounded education covering all academic disciplines, they are required to meet a series of learning targets that we developed in conjunction with the Changemaker Curriculum. Samples of our learning targets include active literacy, comando, and research methods. They are wide reaching and allow our students to explore a lot of different concepts. Say we have students who really enjoy biology. We would encourage them to choose projects and modules that explore scientific concepts, allowing them to gain real-world skills that they can utilize in and beyond college. Come ho già detto, students do have to satisfy a range of learning targets, so skills like creativity and critical thinking are baked into the modules and personal projects that they choose from.
In terms of intercultural understanding, each of our modules are place-based, due to our traveling nature, and allows us to make the most of our host countries and their resources. In India, students might choose to focus on gaining insight into the sustainability issues linked to the country’s population density and distribution. In Giappone, they might choose to study the consequences of overfishing and the rise of conscious consumerism, or instead choose to focus on how nuclear energy has affected Japan, and how it will affect the future of the world. Our curriculum team spent a year traveling across our host countries developing these modules, and we’re really proud of how their results impact on students.
Regarding empathy, I can speak from experience: being in countries like India and viewing the wealth inequality gap firsthand will develop a sense of empathy. We don’t steer away from these experiences, but instead gravitate towards them. This past year, our students participated in service projects in India that took them deep into Mumbai’s largest slum, Dharavi. They saw firsthand the squalor that many people are resigned to, spending hours a day cramped in filth, waiting for their turn at a potable water pump. We hope experiences like these help humanize the impoverished in our students’ eyes, and motivate them to create change. People often think of traveling programs as vacations that highlight the good in the places they visit, but we want to explore every facet of our host country—good and bad—and learn from them.
“As the world changes, we expect our students to be fluid and adaptive themselves.” – Jamie Steckart
Some nations are pushing more protectionist policies under a political trend towards isolationism and nativism. How do you think this will impact education globally?
I see no benefit in these policies, e, if anything, they show that the need for a school such as ours is more imperative than ever.
Countries like the United States, where the ruling party is actively going out of its way to limit immigration, are depriving American students of similar experiences, which benefits no one, save those opposed to diversity. And from a classroom perspective, we focus our lessons on trying to understand the impetus for feelings of xenophobia and nationalism in the world.
We have to hope that schools and initiatives that possess an open mind prove more popular than those that wish to close their doors to those who don’t fit a particular profile. I think we’ll win out.
How do you envision the future of work? Quali sono i posti di lavoro nella vostra mente che non esistono ancora?
It’s difficult to predict exactly how it will look. The future is looking increasingly digitized and favorable to freelance work, so students will need to possess the ability to be quick thinkers and problem solvers. People no longer stay in the same job at the same company for years on end, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — but the gig economy doesn’t have time for complacency. To succeed, our youth are going to have to really be motivated and engaged in what they do, and that’s going to require a massive shift in the traditional classroom, which means teaching life skills early on and putting students as leaders of their own learning.
As the world becomes more connected through technology, it inherently becomes more global and interconnected. Tomorrow’s workers will very likely be collaborating with teams on projects across the world. To succeed, they’ll need to be able to speak multiple languages, blend into different societies, and take the lead on projects—all skills we are looking to build in our students as they travel the world. I think that’s a very useful blueprint for other schools to follow.
I think with such a large aging population on the horizon, a key area of growth will come from that sector. Developing empathic jobs in all facets of elder care, recreation, and companionship will be needed. The transportation sector will be hardest hit in the near future as these roles are lost to automation.
“The majority of students in public schools around the world aren’t being given the chance to pursue their passions during their formative years, che, understandably, causes them to lose their love of learning.” – Jamie Steckart
Qualora gli studenti si sentono minacciati a fronte di automazione e robot?
Dell put out a report last year stating that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been created yet. In a recent article, The Economist stated that a full 47% of jobs could be done by machines “over the next decade or two.” Our overarching question is how do you prepare students to succeed in a shifting future?
This is where my concerns about standard curriculums really come into play. Students around the world are still being taught to learn in a very rote manner. They process information almost solely for the purpose of regurgitating it later during tests. It’s also a “one size fits all” philosophy that doesn’t take each student’s strengths and weaknesses into account. How are these students supposed to have any hope in a future where jobs are ever more dependent on your ability to be fluid and adapt?
Low-skill jobs are the brunt of those that will be replaced. By helping our students pursue their passions, they graduate high school with a head start, having spent the last 2-3 years mastering their most passionate learning targets. As the world changes, we expect our students to be fluid and adaptive themselves.
As to whether students should feel threatened in the face of automation, I don’t feel our students should necessarily, but I do think it is a concern for many, many youths out there. More than ever, the reality is that you need to be engaged in lifelong learning to succeed. The majority of students in public schools around the world aren’t being given the chance to pursue their passions during their formative years, che, understandably, causes them to lose their love of learning.
C M Rubin and Jamie Steckart
Unitevi a me e leader di pensiero di fama mondiale tra cui Sir Michael Barber (Regno Unito), Dr. Michael Block (Stati Uniti), Dr. Leon Botstein (Stati Uniti), Il professor Argilla Christensen (Stati Uniti), Dr. Linda di Darling-Hammond (Stati Uniti), Dr. MadhavChavan (India), Charles Fadel (Stati Uniti), Il professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Il professor Howard Gardner (Stati Uniti), Il professor Andy Hargreaves (Stati Uniti), Il professor Yvonne Hellman (Paesi Bassi), Il professor Kristin Helstad (Norvegia), Jean Hendrickson (Stati Uniti), Il professor Rose Hipkins (Nuova Zelanda), Il professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Onorevole Jeff Johnson (Canada), Sig.ra. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgio), Dr. EijaKauppinen (Finlandia), Sottosegretario di Stato TapioKosunen (Finlandia), Il professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgio), Il professor Hugh Lauder (Regno Unito), Signore Ken Macdonald (Regno Unito), Il professor Geoff Masters (Australia), Il professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Il professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. PAK NG (Singapore), Dr. Denise Papa (Stati Uniti), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (Stati Uniti), Richard Wilson Riley (Stati Uniti), Sir Ken Robinson (Regno Unito), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finlandia), Il professor Manabu Sato (Giappone), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OCSE), Dr. Anthony Seldon (Regno Unito), Dr. David Shaffer (Stati Uniti), Dr. Kirsten Immersive Are (Norvegia), Cancelliere Stephen Spahn (Stati Uniti), Yves Theze (LyceeFrancais Stati Uniti), Il professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Il professor Tony Wagner (Stati Uniti), Sir David Watson (Regno Unito), Professor Dylan Wiliam (Regno Unito), Dr. Mark Wormald (Regno Unito), Il professor Theo Wubbels (Paesi Bassi), Il professor Michael Young (Regno Unito), e il professor Zhang Minxuan (Porcellana) mentre esplorano le grandi questioni educative immagine che tutte le nazioni devono affrontare oggi.
Il Global Ricerca per l'Educazione della Comunità Pagina
C. M. Rubin è l'autore di due ampiamente lettura serie on-line per il quale ha ricevuto una 2011 Premio Upton Sinclair, "Il Global Search per l'Educazione" e "Come leggeremo?"Lei è anche l'autore di tre libri bestseller, CompresoThe Real Alice in Wonderland, è l'editore di CMRubinWorld ed è un disgregatore Foundation Fellow.
Segui C. M. Rubin su Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
Commenti recenti