C.M. Rubin’s Global Education Report
Many experts believe deepening unemployment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), as robots and artificial intelligence transform global production, will widen inequities and deepen social fragmentation. What is the role of education? “The hate we see in the world today is likely a failure in exposing learners enough to the diversity,” writes Alusine Barrie, one of our global Millennial bloggers. “Diversity has to be embedded in school curricula as well as extra-curricular activities.” Barrie also discusses the critical need to help poor countries that lack “the necessary institutional, infrastructural and human capital resources” to “make the necessary transformation.” Millennial Blogger James Kernochan advocates for more arts education in the age of AI. “Plenty are crying loudly about the marginalization of the arts in modern education. Swift action is needed before a generation forgets why it was valuable in the first place,” he writes.
We teach to the test. We have to. Tests are powerful tools. They tell us what people believe is important. What happens when vast amounts of what we test can be answered in seconds on our smartphones? It is not uncommon, according to OECD principal Andreas Schleicher who joined us in The Global Search for Education this month, to find “a few academics and government officials who determine what millions of students will learn” and these leaders “will often defend the scope and integrity of their discipline.” Schleicher should know. He’s the man behind the powerful, international PISA test and the person who’s currently leading over 70 countries in their efforts to design and implement education policies and practices for a new world. He is also the author of the new book, World Class: How to build a 21st-century school system.
As our global population continues to grow, migration and increasing social and cultural diversity are reshaping countries and communities. New York’s Battery Dance launched its Dancing to Connect programs in 2006. Since that time, the program has spread to 6 continents, 50 countries, 100 cities, and 1,000 schools. While the program has had its share of challenges, Founder Jonathan Hollander believes that “no divide has been too great for the art of dance, the primacy of movement, the common humanity, and expression, to span.” Produced by Cornelia Ravenal, Mikael Södersten, and Wendy Sax, Moving Stories, a brilliant new documentary by Wilderness Films, follows six dancers from Battery Dance from India to Eastern Europe to the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East as they support vulnerable youth, helping them to express themselves through movement. Ravenal says that as a trauma survivor she understood the power of art to “heal and transform.” Cornelia Ravenal, Jonathan Hollander and Rob Fruchtman, the Director of the film, joined us in The Global Search for Education to talk about their timely film, Moving Stories.
The Global Teacher Bloggers are pioneers and innovators in fields such as technology integration, mathematics coaching, special needs education, science instruction, and gender equity. They have founded schools, written curricula, and led classrooms in 16 different countries that stretch across every populated continent on earth. This month we asked our teachers to discuss what a holistic approach to learning should look like and to share specific examples of projects in progress from classrooms around the world. “It Takes Time to Develop and Learn,” writes Vicki Davis. “Get rid of the Google it and copy it off Wikipedia projects and move more full-bodied comprehensive projects full of meaning and momentum into the classroom.” “I believe every young mind should be trained on creating a balance between mind and heart along with other activities,” writes Rashmi Kathuria. Kathuria shares personal insights into balancing academic strength with physical fitness, life skills, living in a digital world and robotics.
Our thanks once again to all our amazing teachers, millennials, other contributors and supporters around the world. We look forward to more of your contributions next month. When it comes to the world of children, there is always more work to be done.
(Photos are courtesy of CMRubinWorld)
C. M. Rubin
Join me and globally renowned thought leaders including Sir Michael Barber (UK), Dr. Michael Block (U.S.), Dr. Leon Botstein (U.S.), Professor Clay Christensen (U.S.), Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond (U.S.), Dr. MadhavChavan (India), Charles Fadel (U.S.), Professor Michael Fullan (Canada), Professor Howard Gardner (U.S.), Professor Andy Hargreaves (U.S.), Professor Yvonne Hellman (The Netherlands), Professor Kristin Helstad (Norway), Jean Hendrickson (U.S.), Professor Rose Hipkins (New Zealand), Professor Cornelia Hoogland (Canada), Honourable Jeff Johnson (Canada), Mme. Chantal Kaufmann (Belgium), Dr. EijaKauppinen (Finland), State Secretary TapioKosunen (Finland), Professor Dominique Lafontaine (Belgium), Professor Hugh Lauder (UK), Lord Ken Macdonald (UK), Professor Geoff Masters (Australia), Professor Barry McGaw (Australia), Shiv Nadar (India), Professor R. Natarajan (India), Dr. Pak Tee Ng (Singapore), Dr. Denise Pope (US), Sridhar Rajagopalan (India), Dr. Diane Ravitch (U.S.), Richard Wilson Riley (U.S.), Sir Ken Robinson (UK), Professor Pasi Sahlberg (Finland), Professor Manabu Sato (Japan), Andreas Schleicher (PISA, OECD), Dr. Anthony Seldon (UK), Dr. David Shaffer (U.S.), Dr. Kirsten Sivesind (Norway), Chancellor Stephen Spahn (U.S.), Yves Theze (LyceeFrancais U.S.), Professor Charles Ungerleider (Canada), Professor Tony Wagner (U.S.), Sir David Watson (UK), Professor Dylan Wiliam (UK), Dr. Mark Wormald (UK), Professor Theo Wubbels (The Netherlands), Professor Michael Young (UK), and Professor Minxuan Zhang (China) as they explore the big picture education questions that all nations face today.
The Global Search for Education Community Page
C. M. Rubin is the author of two widely read online series for which she received a 2011 Upton Sinclair award, “The Global Search for Education” and “How Will We Read?” She is also the author of three bestselling books, including The Real Alice in Wonderland, is the publisher of CMRubinWorld and is a Disruptor Foundation Fellow.
Follow C. M. Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@cmrubinworld
Recent Comments