Preparing Students for an Unpredictable Future
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” The choices used to be abundantly clear: doctor, teacher, lawyer,
scientist. School was designed to provide the type of learning
that facilitated kids into these careers.
Fast forward to today and ask the same question — the answer
will be different, if answered at all. According to The World
Economic Forum, 65 percent of jobs that students embark on
today have not yet been created, which sets an unpredictable path
into the future workforce. Given this complexity and so many unknowns,
how can an educator prepare students for future success?
The answer is to become agile. It used to be enough for
educators and learning environments to be flexible and adapt
to change that is predictable. Now, educators are teaching to
unknown opportunities and unpredictable innovations. In order
to respond, we must become more than just flexible, but agile,
quick and adaptable in our responses to navigate the unknown.
Agility: The Key to
Navigating the Unknown
Research shows that future preparedness — not the attainment
of knowledge — is the most essential output for learners.
There are three major shifts that must take place in today’s educational
framework to successfully help students prepare for the
future. One is to change the nature of what students are being
taught from knowledge to life skills. The second is for the educator’s
role to evolve into that of a facilitator or guide, empowering
students to take ownership over their learning; and the third is
to reshape the learning environment into a safe, inclusive and
adaptable space. These factors are interrelated and together represent
how to help learners succeed in a yet-to-be known world.
1. Teaching Transversal Skills — Not Knowledge
Transversal skills refer to a broad set of capabilities, skills, habits
and attitudes that are essential for students to succeed today
and tomorrow. These transversal skills prepare learners for the
future: innovation, enterprise, creativity, collaboration, critical
thinking, communication, problem solving and digital literacy.
These skills can be applied across all subjects, occupations and
activities. They are not a learning output; they are the means for
staying capable and effective in a rapidly changing environment.
They are also the critical element in ensuring future preparedness
in a digitally advanced world. Successfully integrating
transversal skill growth across disciplines has become the key
element in safeguarding the next generation.
2. Redefining the Educator’s Role
Within this new educational framework, the teacher’s role has
shifted from instructor to facilitator or guide, and even active
learner on their own learning path. Technology is critical in
driving the change, as most of the knowledge once imparted
by the educator is now available online. This opens up new
possibilities for the educator to empower learners to be authors
of their learning journey. The way in which we interact with
content and curricula has eliminated the teacher’s fixed position
at the front of the class. It physically frees the educator to foster
transversal skills in learners while creating safe, collaborative
and creative learning ecosystems.
3. Step Inside the Agile Classroom
The agile classroom is one that above all else values the growth
of emotional intelligence, encouraging learners to take risks and
speaking to needs around comfort and safety.
The agile classroom is designed to facilitate collaboration,
spark creativity and create opportunities for learners to be a part
of a community — while also being able to deescalate when
needed. The agile classroom is functional and adaptable to the
needs of the curriculum and pedagogy and specific in the way it
organizes to facilitate these tasks. At the same time, it is flexible,
multi-functional and endlessly adaptable to evolving needs of
both task and learner now and into the future.
Teaching Toward the Future
An agile classroom doesn’t happen by chance; it’s created
through intentional design, rooted in deep research around evolving
pedagogical needs and learners’ EQ. Intentionally designed
products and spaces contribute to fostering Engagement and Agency.
The learning space itself becomes a key contributor to students’
attainment of future-forward skills and provides an equitable
learning environment for every child, meeting every learner’s needs
independently. This construct of teaching toward an unknown
future has dramatically altered today’s pedagogy, demanding an
openness to uncertainty and an acceptance of the unknown.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of Spaces4Learning.
About the Author
Jolene Levin is director at NorvaNivel, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of agile learning spaces