What should we teach to first-graders

so they will thank us?

CLASS 2020:

Pavel Lukshapavel.luksha@gmail.com

Presented to the Forum on the Future of Education,

November 2008,Bekasovo, Russia

School: A Weak Link in the Russian Society

• School system is one of the most undervalued institutions by the Russian society and the government

• Poor quality of existing school system and relative under-investment in education will lead to Russia’s strategic decline in the 21st century.

• The success of individuals who start their formal education now will only be possible if radical transformation of education occurs

Problems of the Modern School

• Poor quality / obsolescence of education programs

• Poor quality / lack of education facilities

• Poor quality of teacher preparation and professional development

• Poor quality of student interaction

“School for Life”, “School of Life”OR “School AGAINST Life”?

Why So: The Path Dependency• The USSR Legacy

– The model of ‘sieged fortress’: ‘the best in the world’ education system supported primarily supported the defence industry complex

– The isolationism policy in science and culture: locally knowledgeable, globally ignorant

– Bureaucracy (!)• The degradation of the social basis in 1990-2000s

– The erosion of high quality human resources + degradation of teacher professional education & development system

– The absence of requests from the society and the government

– Resources are provided to schools on the‘residual’ basis

And Meanwhile…Country territories proportional to expenditures on education

Source: University of Sheffield

And Meanwhile…

Source: (Kurzweil, 2008)

And Meanwhile…

‘Catching Up’ Doesn’t Work

• School education in Russia is strategically degraded in terms of ideology and practice

• Recent educational reforms (EGE*) are ‘preparations for the last war”

• Increased financing doesn’t solve the problem (the limited ‘absorbing capacity’ of institutions)

* EGE = Unified State Examination (simalar to SAT)

The Future is Already Here: Class-2020

• Will become economically and politically active by 2025

• Will shape the mid-21st century world

• Will go to school in 2008

QUESTION: What should be taught to these first graders so they will thank us?

Targeting the Future

• When the hockey player Wayne Gretzky was asked: “How do you play so fast?” he answered: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”

Education Pragmatics

School 2008-2020 Society 2025

Demands:- economy

- science / technology- culture / arts- government

?

Demands for today’s education systemare shaped in the future

What Do We Know about the Future: Some of the Trends

• Globalization

• Asia (!)

• Ultrafast change of technologies

• Hyper-competition

• Internet

• Social self-organization

Economy 2025• Global competition of labor force and

producers• Replacement of traditional natural

resource economies by environmentally sustainable technologies (oil&gas will count less and less)

• Further increased significance of intellectual and creative jobs, flexibility and re-learning ability

The high quality human capital will be the only sustainable competitive advantage of any country!

Informational Environment 2025• Digitalization of intellectual and

cultural human heritage• Constantly amended shared

knowledge libraries (wiki-technologies)

• Development of virtual communication environments

• Distributed work environments with virtual presence

• Integrated ‘computer-human’ system (‘computer dissappearance’)

• Internet of Things!

Tendencies in Education

•“Module” learning

•Continuous learning all lifetime

•On-line education (eLearning) as the main learning form:

•virtual learning environment (virtual boards, classrooms, exhibits…)

•virtual learning groups

•“distributed” schools

Source: Russia ICT Foresight 2007

Hyper-competition in Business: Current Dynamics

• Fortune 500 of 1994 observed in 2004– 153 companies went bankrupt, 130 companies have

been reorganized (and changed the key business)

• Situation changes faster than we want it to:– The average company lifespan went from 14 to 10

years– 72% of top-managers believe that main competitors

of their company will be different in 5 years

Source: (Zook, 2007)

Response of successful organizations: development of dynamic capabilities

Dynamic Capabilities• The “ability to integrate, build, and

reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments“

• Three types of dynamic capabilities for organizations:– Effective communication processes– Effective internal learning and innovation

creation systems– Effective and fast re-learning /

re-organization processes

• Organization demands to employees:– Effective communication skills– Learning / re-learning skills– Creativity / innovativeness

Source: (Teece et al., 1997; Eisenhardt&Martin 2000)

What Should a School Teach?

• Basic intellectual skills (reading, writing, counting)

• “World view”, common cultural basis

• Prepare to choose one profession

(in addition will need)•Basic skills:

– Work with large volumes of information

– Communication skills

– Creativity

– Re-learning skills

•“Module” skills

School 2020School 1908-2008

Basic Human Skills in 2025

• Work with large volume of information (“man is a knowledge pool” system)

– Skill of acquiring information– Mindmapping skills– Pattern recognition skills

• Communication skills (95% of all workload will involve communication with other people):

– Structured “ecological” communication leading to positive change (G. Bateson, …)

– Non-verbal communication skills (70-80% of information in human communication)

– Creation of proto-artificial intellect: development of human-computer communication interface

Basic Skills… (2)

• Creativity– manageable individual creativity (Disney’s methods,

TRIZ, …)– creative group methods: think tank technologies,

‘knowledge reactors’ etc.

• Re-learning skills– development of ‘learn to learn’ ability (learning-2, -3

by G. Bateson)– Prerequisite of continuous learning over all life

according to education process logics

Changes in School Education Programs• ‘Through’ development of the Skills of the Future in school

process (from first to last grade)• Change in emphasis of teaching, in methods of information

delivery, in student involvement formats, methods of appraisal, etc.

• Gradual shift from subject-oriented to skill-oriented courses (mathematics, literature, logics, programming, etc.)

• Increase in individual and group project-based study and creativity-focused study

• Early development of computer competences: active use of Internet and programming in school education

What Can Be Done Right Now?

• Study and implementation of ‘future skills’ development methods by educational innovators

• Creation of innovator network to launch pilot projects (with active use of Internet environment)

• Shared knowledge database (wiki)• Prerequisites for establishing new

educational standards