Activity 3: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally
Identify and evaluate two contemporary issues or trends that are influencing or shaping NZ or international education, which you find most relevant to your practice.
One of the key issues in education at the moment is how best to 'modernise' our education system to meet the changing, and often unknown, demands our students will face in the future. Sir Ken Robinson (RSA Animate video - Changing Education Paradigms) argues that the traditional method of education was designed to produce workers for the industrial system, however, those jobs are in decline and we need to prepare students for a world in which problem-solving and innovation are more important that rote memorisation of knowledge. Students need to know how to access, evaluate and apply information to solve a multitude of problems. KPMG's Future State 2030 infographic shows how different the world will be in 2030 to now highlighting that we can't teach students in the same way we always have if we want them to be ready for the future.
In order to address this issue, in my cluster within the school we are developing a learning programme which gives students opportunities to solve problems in their own way and provides support for them to do this. They have lots of opportunities to engage with information that isn't just designed for students but is widely available for anyone. This gives students the chance to evaluate what they are reading and judge what is useful and how they can use it. We also need to give them opportunities to engage with the wider community beyond their school, their local community and beyond their country.
Another issue in global education that applies very much to my own practice is how we engage students in education. The traditional education system was centred on the teacher who held all the knowledge and imparted it to the students. However, as Sir Ken Robinson highlights (Changing Education Paradigms, 2010) this turns many students off learning. We need to encourage divergent thinking or the ability to see multiple answers and solutions to a problem. This can help to engage students as it values all their ideas and views. Robinson argues that our current education system discourages divergent thinking. This also links to the idea of setting students up for the future as in order to be successful in the changing world they will need to be able to collaborate and be able to be innovative.
In order to address this in our community of practice we are focussing on collaborative learning experiences for our students, encouraging them to solve problems in their own way and provided open ended learning experiences. Students are able to tackle a problem in a way that makes sense for them and we are trying to get them to be creative. It is a challenge to get them to move away from traditional ways of learning as they've already been at school for a number of years and are used to having information provided to them by the teachers but they are getting better! They are also enjoying the freedom to explore aspects that interest them and solve problems in their own way rather than the way prescribed by the teacher.
References:
The RSA.(2010, Oct 14). RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.
KPMG Australia. (2014, May 22). Future State 2030 - Global Megatrends. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im5SwtapHl8
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