Are your educational approaches and your evaluation procedures based upon competition and not collaboration and cooperation? Do you focus on data-driven, right or wrong regurgitation of what you believe is important? Is there a class valedictorian and models of achievement that all students are expected to conform to? If so, your class or school is forcing students to conform to industrial age thinking. What must change?
Emphasis must be on problem solving which requires collaboration and cooperation wherein students work together to solve real problems that affect their lives. Inherent in that process students learn to identify a broad spectrum of ideas and opinions. To have positive attitudes like: I know how to solve a problem. I know how to learn. I know how to bring people together to solve these problems. And most of all, I’m learning about myself. How I learn. How I can contribute. How I fit into society. How I can work with others. These processes utilize human abilities like creativity, curiosity, and empathy; they build the skills necessary for students to work with machine intelligence which is a skill they need and must develop right now.
There must be a focus on deep learning and innovation. Students must be encouraged to learn how AI can be used to help humans create new programs, new thoughts, and new ways of thinking that are necessary for the application of knowledge rather than the regurgitation of data.
Educational experiences must end with the student making a contribution to himself and to society. John Dewey pointed that out more than a century ago.
Student portfolios document accomplishments, build skill sets, and provide personal insight into who they are, where they are going, and how flexible they are.
There is no legitimate debate about the changes that must be made so that our existing educational systems are tuned to the future. The students must adapt to and succeed in a rapidly changing world. What worked for students in the past no longer applies; it is a waste of time and talent. You don’t have to start from scratch and invent a new system to make the changes that must be made. There are effective models of school districts that have already put in place much of what is required. There are amazing educational leaders like Dr. Sabba Quidwai. There are enlightened school superintendents like Dr. John Malloy, from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District in California, who are well ahead in creating schools that meet the future needs of students, America, and the world.