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Old School? New Way of Learning?December 9th, 2008

There have been too much talking about how school should adapt

themselves to the age of globalisation. In fact, one question couldbe that does the school really realise and in what degree theyrealise how critical this can be for todays education and students.

Time magazine released an article in Y2006, . It started with a joke, Rip VanWinkle awakens in the 21st century after 100 year snooze, he couldnot recognize this world where it was used to be in 1906 due to thevery much development, only by finally he walks into a schoolroomhe knows where he is. This is a school, we used to have these backin 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.

Yes, the schoolhouse, the classroom, the way of teaching, the way oflearning do not change following the fast development of economy,politics, society, culture, technology. Students today learned thesame way their great-grandparents did: sitting in rows, listening toteachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooksthat are out of date by the time they are printed. A yawning chasm(with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside theschoolhouse from the world outside. (from Time)

But todays world and economy has been changed so much, itrequires different and more sophisiticated skills to survive and getahead.

Todays economy demands not only a high-level competence inthe traditional academic disciplines but also what might be called21st century skills. Heres what they are:

Knowing more about the world. Kids are global citizens now,even in small-town America, and they must learn to act that way.Mike Eskew, CEO of UPS, talks about needing workers who are

global trade literate, sensitive to foreign cultures, conversant indifferent languagesnot exactly strong points in the U.S., wherefewer than half of high school students are enrolled in a foreign-language class and where the social-studies curriculum tends tofixate on U.S. history.

Thinking outside the box. Jobs in the new economy, put anenormous premium on creative and innovative skills, seeingpatterns where other people see only chaos, (Marc Tucker,president of the National Center on Education and the Economy).

Kids also must learn to think across disciplines, since thatswhere most new breakthroughs are made. Its interdisciplinary

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combinationsdesign and technology, mathematics and artthatproduce YouTube and Google,(Thomas Friedman, author of )

Becoming smarter about new sources of information. In an age

of overflowing information and proliferating media, kids need torapidly process whats coming at them and distinguish betweenwhats reliable and what isnt. Its important that students knowhow to manage it, interpret it, validate it, and how to act onit,(Karen Bruett, Dell executive)

Developing good people skills. EQ, or emotional intelligence, isas important as IQ for success in todays workplace. Mostinnovations today involve large teams of people, we have toemphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams andwith people from different cultures. (Norman Augustine, formerLockheed Martin CEO)

Fairly speaking, its difficult for students to get aware how much theworld is flat and how much this will influence their future by stayinginside an ivory tower. Therefore educational organisations,institutions and enterprises should take more responsibility toprovide platform, product, service, communities to students tobroaden their horizon, to expand scope of cross-culture interactionfor them, to really enable them to think and act globally.

This is also mission for Students Space. It strives on this way.

http://www.studentsspace.net/http://www.studentsspace.net/