The future is now
Opinion by Joshua Murphy –
Educating youth for an ever-changing world
The world is changing, whether we like it or not. Self-driving cars are ready to go on the market in 2019, Amazon’s new “Go” model of grocery stores make cashiers obsolete, robotics is moving into manufacturing and other industries in a huge way, and with any luck our energy sector will be converted to renewables within coming decades. All of this is happening under the constant threat of environmental catastrophe and/or nuclear war, as different groups contend to define how we will live in the future and what nations and ideals will be at the helm of “spaceship earth.” But none of this is news to you, you have certainly witnessed the changes going on in society, it is unavoidable since change has become a part of our everyday lives. What I’m really curious about, however, and hope to help you think more deeply about as well, is how education is changing to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.
As a preface, I should state that this opinion piece does not intend to advocate for any particular policy for innovation in the education sector, such as charter schools or voucher programs, but seeks to explore some of the emerging thoughts and trends that are shaking things up. This is an important conversation today because education is changing globally, and if we continue to take traditional schooling for granted we will just be swept up in the trends and miss a great opportunity to mindfully reinvent this critical social system. Thankfully, researchers in the learning sciences have been paving the way for us. Much of what is emerging today has grown out of foundational thought and research done in the early and mid 1900’s by people such as John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky. However, as with any science, it has taken time for theory and research to crystallize into tools and practices that will radically change our lives.
In case you are not convinced, let us first explore the need for changing the paradigm in education. To me, the rationale boils down to two critical factors: abilities and values. The Partnership for 21st Century Learning proposes a framework that highlights the importance of “life and career skills, learning and innovation skills (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity),” and “information, media, and technology skills,” embedded within traditional subjects and integrating “21st century themes” that include “global awareness, environmental literacy, and entrepreneurialism.” It is clear to most educators that the jobs of tomorrow are not going to be the same as the jobs of today, and education must seek to prepare young people to live and work in the new economy. Now, while inviting values into education is often controversial, what I mean is to invite the “revolution of values” that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. invited decades ago: “to shift from a thing oriented society, to a person oriented society.” I say this because traditional education conceptualizes learners more as things to be filled with knowledge than as people to be empowered to learn and develop.
I have had the opportunity to see this shift take place in a number of educational spaces, from public school classrooms where teachers employ more collaborative and student-centered curriculum, to homeschool-turned-unschool families that give young people full control of their own educational pursuits. Many of these experiences intentionally situate children’s learning within the broader social context, inviting youth to learn through localized research and active citizenship. Today there are schools of all sorts, and alternatives to school as well, that provide unique educational experiences rather than a “one size fit’s all” model that we know does not adequately engage or prepare young people. That, I believe, is the most critical component of the future of education: it will be personalized and dynamic. Technology helps to make this possible, with adaptive learning software such as Khan Academy, but things like this and project or inquiry-based learning is only the beginning. The rise of technology in the classroom has forced us to recognize the learning that occurs outside of student/teacher interactions, and to become more adept at understanding learning and development holistically. Kristiina Kumpulainen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland (the country you always hear is leading the world in education) is one of many learning scientists writing about “connected learning” as a way to conceptualize individualized education in our fast paced, high-tech world, by understanding that it happens everywhere all the time. Kumpulainen is also known for her Tedx talk “Why does lifelong play matter?” and indeed emerging alternative education models, such as Agile Learning Centers, keep play at the core.
By now you may be scratching your head and wishing I’d be more specific or concise about what the future of education will be like. But the beauty of education today and in the future, is that it is not one thing because as people we do not all thrive under the same conditions, and the future of education is about creating the conditions in which individuals can thrive. In some cases, the future of education means robots in kindergarten, learning through virtual reality, and apprenticeships in the tech industry for adolescents, in others it looks more like a re-boot of Jack Black’s School of Rock, and recently I saw an article about a school in China that trains professional video gamers—seriously! Regardless of what it looks like, as education continues to change, I hope that the education revolution can be a revolution of values, of viewing students as people and empowering them to learn and develop along their own paths.
Joshua Murphy holds a B.A. in Psychology from SUNY Geneseo. He is an Academic Advisor at Monroe Community College’s Liberty Partnerships Program, a Board Member and Facilitator at Lagom Landing Gap Year, and a student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.