My focus turned to what we don't yet know, and how we discover what we need to know, by asking the right questions (I expand on this theme in this post). I would argue that the best, and most powerful forms of education are based on asking questions rather than being given answers. Learning through conversation has always been more powerful than learning by rote or instruction. No matter how clever or persuasive certain so called experts' arguments appear to be about the need for children to memorise facts and receive their knowledge from teachers, we should not be taken in by such rhetoric. We need to see these people for what they actually are. They are dangerous individuals who are trying to prevent progress by perpetuating a restrictive method of schooling that ultimately, will rob our children of their futures. They are self acclaimed experts who wish to maintain control over our education system by perpetuating standardised testing, rote learning and whole class instruction, while demonising alternative approaches such as personalised learning, games playing and problem solving.
They wrap up their ideas in a cloak of respectability and present them exclusively as the answer to today's education crisis. They snipe and sneer at those who advocate progressive approaches to education, as they fight desperately to preserve what control they have over schools. In so doing, they are depriving an entire generation of children the right to discover for themselves just how wonderful learning really is. They rob this generation of students of their human right to receive a good, dynamic and relevant education.
They are like King Canute trying to hold back the tide. Given time, their ideas will fade into irrelevance, because there is a dynamic alternative. If we concede that transmitting knowledge is no longer the sole function of education, if we believe that schools should not be training children exclusively for the workplace, we will see it. Children need to be prepared to live and work in a rapidly changing world where they will be employed (or even employ themselves) in many new and unfamiliar contexts. Children will need to gain a wider and deeper appreciation of their changing world, and need to know what questions to ask when they are met with previously unknown challenges. This cannot be founded solely on the knowledge we already have. It requires the ability to create new knowledge, and the development of new skills, competencies and literacies. The problems our students will encounter when they reach adulthood will be unique to their generation, possibly created by the new technologies they use, and no amount of knowledge acquisition from today's curriculum, nor teaching from today's experts, can prepare them for that. They will need to be entrepreneurs and innovators, problem solvers, inventors and creators to survive.
How can you educate children to be entrepreneurial or innovative? You might do so by creating learning environments in which they can safely take risks and experiment, and where they can fail and learn through that failure. You work with them to create their own curriculum, one that is relevant to their future needs, and one that exploits their current skills and interests. The success of this will be based on being able to frame the right questions to meet the demands of future society.
When my students do their research projects they start with questions, and invariably end up with many further, related questions. In my classes I practice a Socratic method of pedagogy, which includes the setting of challenges. Inquiry based learning is the foundation for deeper understanding. It is the prime ingredient in all progressive learning methods. It is the essence of knowledge production, and the thread that runs through all entrepreneurial and innovative behaviour. It is also the only hope we have for the future. May the coming year be a successful one for all those educators who see children as creative individuals rather than as commodities.
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