education for enterprise and empowerment: the importance of cognitive skills for sustainable...
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EDUCATION FOR ENTERPRISE AND EMPOWERMENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF COGNITIVE SKILLS FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS AND BETTER FUTURESSTEPHEN BAYLEY16 SEPTEMBER 2015
UNDERSTANDING COGNITIVE SKILLS
Soft
Catalytic
21st Century
Core
Life
Affective Cognitive
Transferable
?
BLOOM’S TAXONOMY
Adapted from Overbaugh and Schultz, n.d.
Eval.
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge
Original Version
Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
New Version
THE VALUE OF COGNITIVE SKILLS
Economic
Social
Innovation for sustainable enterprise and livelihoods
Flexible workforces able to adapt to evolving conditions
Identify commercial risks and understand client needs
Empowerment for proactive participation
Empathy for tolerance, inclusion and social cohesion
Plan lives and mitigate personal risks
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Perspectives among agencies and NGOs in Kigali, Rwanda in 2012
Nine semi-structured interviews
Mix of participants – gender, nationality
Focused on basic education
Human capital framework
FINDINGS – INTERPLAY WITH QUALITY
Learning Quality
Cognitive Skill Development
Curr
icul
um
Peda
gogy
Mat
eria
ls
Lear
ning
As
sess
men
t
FINDINGS – RWANDAN ENABLERSPolitical• Government dynamism, commitment and motivation to build human capital• Establishment of the Rwanda Education Board to unify quality initiatives• Rising profile of quality and creation of the Quality Implementation Working
Group
Cultural• Universal reach of Kinyarwanda as national language
Educational• Stated preference for learner-centred teaching• Increased availability of learning aids, including textbooks and ICT
FINDINGS – DISABLERS
Political• Ambiguous nature of skills and uncertainty around their development in children• Resource constraints:
• Human – technical capacity, turnover of staff, need for more diverse actors• Financial – stretched system, competing priorities – preference for tangible
investments, language of instruction change, twelve-year basic education
Cultural• Hierarchical society with a preference for conformity and uniformity • Little encouragement for creativity, proactive problem solving or dissent
Educational• Limited global understanding around cognitive development in children• Need for effective coordination – curriculum, teacher training, assessment• Teaching constraints – low capacity/questionable skills, poor conditions, few
incentives, over-reliance on teacher-centred methodologies, subject specialists• Assessment practices – teaching to the test
OPPORTUNITIES IN RWANDA TODAY
© UNICEF Rwanda/2013/Mugabe
SO WHAT?
Cognitive skills warrant greater prominence in education policies and competency-based curricula
Their development should be nurtured in early schooling and not limited to secondary, tertiary or technical education
The demand for such skills will only increase given the need for job creation and exponential growth in global knowledge
WHERE NEXT?
Research, understand and value cognitive skills
Promote their importance to planners, policymakers and parents
Review curricula, teacher training, assessment and early childhood education
THANK YOU
www.camb-ed.com
IMPROVINGEDUCATIO
NQUALITYWORLDWI
DE