Do we have 2020 Vision?

Do we have 2020 vision?

Moving into this new decade encourages us to take a long term perspective.  We have been around 13.7 billion years and expressed in 24 hour chronological time, we humans only show up at 22:30 and the whole of recorded history happens in the last 10 seconds before the chimes of Big Ben at midnight!

No wonder then that we may be reeling with the pace of change; or is it just me?  Thomas Friedman thinks not: he implies technological change is outpacing our ability to adapt to it.  The technological supernova is charging ahead and we lack the cognitive (let alone the social or emotional) capacity to keep up.  If the pace of technological change (expressed in terms of the development of Intel processors since 1971) were applied to a VW Beetle, it would be hurtling around at 300,000 miles per hour and we’d be getting 2 million miles per gallon of petrol.  It would cost US 4 cents.  

So what are the lessons here for us educators?  How do we accelerate students’ ability to adapt?  At UWC Atlantic, we are on a quest to develop a methodology for Changemaker Education that resonates with our mission: to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.

So here are 3 curriculum predictions and resolutions for 2020 that will help us start this decade on the right course:

1) This decade will see a shift from assessment by performance to assessment by portfolio.  

Linear, assessment heavy, curriculum models drain the wellbeing of young people and make learning the servant of validity, reliability and accountability.  We need a new valuing system for educational success; one that captures all that has been learned.  Success comes from understanding oneself as an agent of change; finding purpose and being given the chance to share this with the world.  Exploring new forms of evaluation doesn’t mean being shallow about learning; it means capturing and celebrating what has actually been learned and empowering students to own this process.

This chimes with how the professional world is shifting.  Google, Apple and Ernst and Young are among firms no longer requiring undergraduate degrees. They are valuing applicants’ future capacity to learn, evidence of projects they have led or managed, and the impact they have had.  Young people need a portfolio that showcases their passion, the depth of their learning, their readiness to progress to further study, their professional skills, their talent and impact.  In 2020, at UWC Atlantic we will explore new forms of assessment and evaluation. We will encourage universities to ‘insource’ their admission processes through Mastery Transcript Consortium leaving students free to learn what is most useful to them and the world.

2) This decade will see a continued shift from single subject curriculum delivery to issue based, real world, learning.

Young people want (and need) to understand how the world works and is changing and what the drivers and consequences of this change are so they can make intelligent and responsible decisions.  Single subject learning prepares students well for more single subject learning but not to live in a world beset with ‘wicked problems’ such as climate change, conflict, structural inequality, migration, health and wellbeing - each of which draw on a myriad of disciplines. The era of the specialist is giving way to the era of the technical generalist who can make connections between diverse fields that singular specialists cannot.  David Epstein in Range argues that this makes generalists more creative, innovative and, ultimately, more impactful.  In 2020, at UWC Atlantic, we will find ways of allowing students to learn about the world in its complexity to help them find their passion and develop the skills they need to make an impact in the world.

3) This decade will see a disruption towards a more agile approach to curriculum development and learning

In the old model we forged a career from the knowledge we acquired during our undergraduate degree.  Not anymore; we need to keep learning to progress.  Businesses now create mobile micro-learning opportunities that help employees keep pace with sector and organisational change.  This is how learning happens:  people are accessing ‘just in time’ knowledge when it suits them rather than learning ‘just in case’ knowledge as a group.  In schools and colleges, we are wedded to a 5-year curriculum review cycle (at best) and teaching courses that are sometimes out of date before they have even been taught.  The curriculum development process needs disrupting so that teachers can reclaim the essence of their craft.  In 2020, at UWC Atlantic, we will empower teachers to develop curricula so that students are learning from an emerging future rather than reaching into the future to find it continually beyond their grasp.

These aspirations will evolve as we start our Big Changemaker Education Conversation in the early part of this year.  Please be part of this by sharing your comments and your own curriculum innovations here and on Mighty Network.  Happy New Year and remember, we journey alone but we voyage together!