Excellent, as always, Mike - unfortunately, we'll never get policymakers, policy influencers or the established institutions and large corporations to read, never mind understand. #KeepRocking 'em.
Very true! This is precisely why we need to double down on 21st-century competencies. As more and more international studies and government frameworks are showing, qualities like adaptability, critical thinking, and agency are not just nice-to-haves, but what employers value most and what humans fundamentally need to thrive in an unpredictable world.
Thank you Michaela. I think we agree, however I don’t think we should attempt to define these things as competencies. Qualities, perhaps, that are noticeable in our behaviours, rather than as things to be ticked off an an assessment list…
I hated school. I endured its coercive pettiness, its hero-worship of sporting prowess, its wall of information it expected you to climb blindfolded and of course its crowning glory - the exam. I couldn't have put it into words then but it was the invisibility it created for all but the 'best' - those who had the facility to produce what was required - that really got to me.
Most kids want to be noticed in a positive way. Affirmed and recognised. The narrowness that education has evinced since its inception at the start of the industrial revolution reflects the purposes for which it was created. Factory fodder.
For a vision of what education might look like if we were to have the light bulb realisation that what you propose might actually be a good idea, I suggest this:
I love that! And I relate to your experience! I ended up teaching in what used to be called an approved school, where kids found a different strategy for receiving affirmation!
My own view is that Bateson's levels of learning is a useful guide - and the system we have seems unaware that there are levels beyond the acquisition of knowledge. In fact how to cope with the absence of knowledge is a good starting point - how to enquire - processes of discovery and an awareness of becoming - the unfolding of reality.
Wow! It even worse than I thought! I remember sitting in meetings at the Telecommunications Vocational Standards Council in the late 1990s. Operational managers argued that the industry needed more people skilled in building copper networks. But around another table sat strategists who knew fibre optics would transform the industry. They needed a different workforce altogether.
Both were right. They were looking at different futures.
Education has an even longer horizon. Many of the children entering primary school this September will retire around the year 2090. None of us, not ministers, not employers, not academics, not AI can describe the world they will inhabit. If that is true, then the central task of education is not to predict the future accurately, but to develop people who can continue learning as the future arrives.
Excellent, as always, Mike - unfortunately, we'll never get policymakers, policy influencers or the established institutions and large corporations to read, never mind understand. #KeepRocking 'em.
Live in hope Tony! Sending much love your way!
Always, Sir.
https://ianmcniff.substack.com/p/the-application-gap?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2lo6de
Very true! This is precisely why we need to double down on 21st-century competencies. As more and more international studies and government frameworks are showing, qualities like adaptability, critical thinking, and agency are not just nice-to-haves, but what employers value most and what humans fundamentally need to thrive in an unpredictable world.
Thank you Michaela. I think we agree, however I don’t think we should attempt to define these things as competencies. Qualities, perhaps, that are noticeable in our behaviours, rather than as things to be ticked off an an assessment list…
https://ianmcniff.substack.com/p/the-application-gap?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2lo6de
I hated school. I endured its coercive pettiness, its hero-worship of sporting prowess, its wall of information it expected you to climb blindfolded and of course its crowning glory - the exam. I couldn't have put it into words then but it was the invisibility it created for all but the 'best' - those who had the facility to produce what was required - that really got to me.
Most kids want to be noticed in a positive way. Affirmed and recognised. The narrowness that education has evinced since its inception at the start of the industrial revolution reflects the purposes for which it was created. Factory fodder.
For a vision of what education might look like if we were to have the light bulb realisation that what you propose might actually be a good idea, I suggest this:
https://anarcasper.substack.com/p/the-learning-grove
It is deliberately a bit 'other worldly' but in this and so many other ways I feel we are in desperate need of another world.
I love that! And I relate to your experience! I ended up teaching in what used to be called an approved school, where kids found a different strategy for receiving affirmation!
I just read your piece on Wolves which gave an added dimension to ‘another world’!
That Barry Lopez book! I read it as a student and it changed me! I’ve just read it as a 63 year old and it has changed everything…
I was such an innocent for so long. I have a lot of reading to catch up on!
Absolutely, Mike.
My own view is that Bateson's levels of learning is a useful guide - and the system we have seems unaware that there are levels beyond the acquisition of knowledge. In fact how to cope with the absence of knowledge is a good starting point - how to enquire - processes of discovery and an awareness of becoming - the unfolding of reality.
I’d forgotten about Bateson’s levels, but refer to Dilts’ levels a fair bit. Both suggest that knowledge acquisition is pretty trivial - if useful!
Thanks for reading and commenting John.
https://ianmcniff.substack.com/p/the-remit-gap-d8e?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2lo6de
Wow! It even worse than I thought! I remember sitting in meetings at the Telecommunications Vocational Standards Council in the late 1990s. Operational managers argued that the industry needed more people skilled in building copper networks. But around another table sat strategists who knew fibre optics would transform the industry. They needed a different workforce altogether.
Both were right. They were looking at different futures.
Education has an even longer horizon. Many of the children entering primary school this September will retire around the year 2090. None of us, not ministers, not employers, not academics, not AI can describe the world they will inhabit. If that is true, then the central task of education is not to predict the future accurately, but to develop people who can continue learning as the future arrives.