in an article in the latest edition of “IB World” magazine, the official publication of International Baccalaureate, editors ask IB educators to weigh in on what students will need to succeed in the future and how that may shape their lesson plans.
All three divisions of Notre Dame are International Baccalaureate World Schools.
We asked you. . .
Will there be a future global skills crisis?
As the world develops and technology advances faster than ever, IB World magazine asks educators what skills they believe students will need in the future, and how they plan to teach them.
Aprajita Ralli, Middle Years Program (MYP) teacher Pathways School, Noida, India
Soft skills, such as communication, collaboration, problem-solving, researching and evaluation will be the most useful as time goes on. This is simply because the world’s resources are getting used — the environment is under threat and many people do not reuse or recycle.
I encourage teachers to give students the chance to reflect on their role in the global community, and work out how they con positively contribute to solving the world's problems whenever they can.
We need to prepare students to adapt to the various changes that will take place and encourage them to be caring thinkers who constantly inquire about right and wrong, so they will develop into principled and balanced decision makers.
The best way forward is a holistic approach that includes activities that encourage students to achieve a balance of the skills mentioned.
Pathways School has weekly lessons in which students form small groups to discuss topics such as ethics, values and social issues, and we begin each day with a short mindfulness activity. This improves students’ self-reported measures of optimism and positive emotions. Because we're seeing a steady degradation of human values, students have to understand the complexities of global issues and develop a holistic appreciation of them. Mindfulness is key to evolving into a caring world.
Notre Dame’s lower division is authorized to teach IB’s Primary Years Program.
Martina Ferk, Economics teacher, International School of Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Technology has the ability to work quickly and repetitively, but it cannot create or be creative. Creativity will be a priceless skill in the future, because, it is not something that can be copied, which also means it can be tricky to teach.
Students will have to be equipped with competencies consisting of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will allow them to monitor and adjust to a tech-driven world. With this in mind, entrepreneurial competence and lifelong learning will also be key to success in the future labor market, as more people work independently. Therefore, teachers need to focus on soft skills such as communication, teamwork and negotiation.
Teaching these skills bas to be done with students at the center of the process to reach and engage them. Teachers who subtly include entrepreneurial and independence skills in all subjects will see the most natural results. Such skills can also be taught during sports and arts and crafts activities.
Susan Matthews, Grade 8 Spanish teacher, International School of Monterey, California
Resilience will be vital in the future, particularly because technology gives students access to everything they need to know at their fingertips. This is a trend that will only continue.
Technology is the means through which students are able to work and it has become a helpful part of life, but mindfulness is a basic skill that needs to be integrated to make other skills work.
For instance, if students are mindful and able to observe what is happening around them without emotional stress, it will help them solve problems with more depth and to think more clearly.
It is so important for students to learn how to rise to the challenge of the many different problems that they may encounter later on in life.
We are growing as an information-rich society, so students need relevant tools to handle the influx of data through critical thinking. This will help students use the information to make a difference and improve the human condition.
As the world becomes more connected, students must learn to view situations from different perspectives. It's important to face challenges and be critical thinkers, but this also needs to happen in the context of the world in which we live today, not just locally. As students put all these skills into practice, they also need to see the world through the eyes of others, marking a step toward collaboration on a global level. Developing this mind set will be a critical component of future job success.
Notre Dame was first authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate program in late 2007.
Tom Triller, Director of Teaching and Learning, International School of Tanganyika, Tanzania
Broad background knowledge is a crucial skill for the future. This may seem surprising at first glance, but cognitive science tells us that the kind of high-level critical and creative thinking we value for our students is so closely tied with knowledge stored in long-term memory that you really can’t separate the two.
It's suggested that today's technology makes knowledge acquisition unimportant because you can just look up information on an as-needed basis, but if you are using working memory to find information you will have little processing power left over to think and communicate at high levels.
Engaging on issues within any community requires broad, general knowledge. Understanding and participating in discussions requires the possession of some presumed knowledge that comes from communicating a wide variety of topics and issues.
Schools can help students acquire the knowledge they need for creative and critical thinking by ensuring that the awareness and understanding phase of the inquiry cycle planning, action and reflection.
Effective learning happens when knowledge is embedded in authentic contexts.
Susana Arango Moreno, MYP teacher, IB School of Silicon Valley, California
To be successful, today’s students need a catalog of skills and attributes, mainly made up of the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL) categories of communication, social, self-management, research and thinking.
Schools are the best places to start re-humanizing people and encouraging these attributes. Many of the horrors we see on the news are just a lack of awareness of human commonality taken to dreadful extremes.
With this awareness, students can learn the value of their rational and emotional selves — the first step to acknowledging these qualities in others.
The most powerful method is leading by example. Teachers who illustrate a consistent dose of vulnerability are encouraging students to learn to be empathic too.
Kelsey Breen, Science, Mathematics and Design teacher, Arthur I. Meyer Jewish Academy, Florida
In our fast-paced technological world, it is increasingly important for our students to be open-minded. This is central to what I teach in the IB Learner Profile — appreciating other points of view and understanding other cultures. As educators, it’s our job to encourage our students to take this a step further and to enact it in their everyday lives.
Our job also focuses on preparing our students for a world that does not even exist yet, for jobs that haven't yet been created. It may not be possible to know for sure, but it is possible to encourage students to continue working on skills they have been polishing over the last few years. Skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration are practiced over and over through every part of the IB curriculum, and will be essential in the future.
Although it may be impossible for us to predict exactly what skills our students will need, we can ofter them the opportunity to find out for themselves by giving them plenty of exposure to new and emerging technologies. Computer science will be one of the top fields our students will be going into post-college and, in order to prepare them, we must give them as many opportunities as possible.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
Follow us on Twitter @NDPMA
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor NDPMA's Catholic identity and manages its educational program. Notre Dame is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.