Periodical with a Sharper Understanding of Education

Educast
TM
November 2012
Periodical with a Sharper Understanding of Education
Educast
TM
APRIL 2014
www.learnmile.com
6
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
st
but 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
th
image 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'
st
Second, 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.
st
While 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