Are Modern Learning Environments Preparing our Children for the Workforce?
Peter Slaney
Principal
Manukau Christian School
In a recent conversation with a colleague I was told that the traditional schools no longer serve the needs of students because they do not prepare students for the 21st century workforce. The unstated claim was that the student-centred classrooms and modern learning environments that are currently in vogue are doing a much better job of preparing them. Is this the case?
A good starting place will be to determine what qualities and skills employers are actually hoping to find in their new graduate employees and then work backwards from there.
Attributes sought by employers according to national Association of Colleges and Employers provides the following breakdown, and this is fairly consistent with what other agencies say.
% OF RESPONDENTS | |
Leadership
|
80.1%
|
Ability to work in a team
|
78.9%
|
Communication skills (written)
|
70.2%
|
Problem-solving skills
|
70.2%
|
Communication skills (verbal)
|
68.9%
|
Strong work ethic
|
68.9%
|
Initiative
|
65.8%
|
Analytical/quantitative skills
|
62.7%
|
Flexibility/adaptability
|
60.9%
|
Technical skills
|
59.6%
|
Interpersonal skills (relates well to others)
|
58.4%
|
Computer skills
|
55.3%
|
Detail-oriented
|
52.8%
|
Organizational ability
|
48.4%
|
Friendly/outgoing personality
|
35.4%
|
Strategic planning skills
|
26.7%
|
Creativity
|
23.6%
|
Tactfulness
|
20.5%
|
Entrepreneurial skills/risk-taker
|
18.6%
|
Source: Job Outlook 2016, National Association of Colleges and Employers
Source: Job Outlook 2016, National Association of Colleges and Employers accessed 17th April, 2018.
Note the high rankings of written communication skills and a strong work ethic. Schools are busying themselves creating break-out spaces where student-centered learning can most creatively express itself and students themselves are learning the fanciful art of picking and choosing which topics interest them most and figuring out which methods they might best employ to engage with their topic of choice and express their acquired (sorry-constructed) knowledge. I think it is called ‘agency’.
Implicitly they are learning that the most important determinant in the learning process is their choice of where and how to learn. They are at the centre of the process and they determine the learning requirements, the pace at which they work and the type of evidence that will be produced to show that they have learnt. It pretty much goes without saying that they will be online for most of or all of the learning exercise and there is a high probability that while engaging with their chosen topic they will be multi-tasking, surveying other online items of interest and keeping in touch socially with friends. Such is the fluidity of the new digital world order.
How is this student-centered approach going to teach the students how to do a solid day’s work? Employers I talk to tell me they just want to find an employee who can work for an hour without having to check his or her phone. Employers want an employee who is reliable, task-focused and who realises that starting at the bottom is the norm, not the exception. But why would a graduate think like this when they have been positioned at the centre throughout their ideologically unfortunate education?
Children at the centre of their educational experiences are children who develop – no, are taught to adopt – an entitlement mentality towards life. They are consumers who ‘deserve’ the best treatment and who are ‘owed’ good outcomes by their employer, their family and by society. There is little wonder they see no problem with checking Instagram and Facebook during the working day and being paid for so doing.
There is an assumption that leaders of small schools often make. If the other schools are doing it, especially the big schools, then we had better do it also, otherwise we will fall behind the pace and lose the confidence of our parents and students. Sometimes nobody stops to ask whether the Emperor is actually wearing any clothes? There is also a disturbing lack of discernment shown by Christian school leaders who seem to not be able to recognise the thrust of humanism even as it stabs them in the heart of their school’s identity. Child-centered and Christ-centered education are essentially opposites. They are diametrically opposed and this is not semantics. The darkening of our worldview glasses has led to some critical errors of judgment.
The out-of-vogue traditional classroom trains students to listen. In so doing they also learn respect. They learn task-commitment. They learn that whether they feel like writing an essay or preparing a practical report, this is what is required and therefore this is what they need to commit to. This is irrespective of whether it suits their learning style or not and whether it ticks their preference box for that time slot of their day. What a quaint idea, to actually tell students how they will learn and what they will do and expect them to actually follow instructions! It is almost as if teachers were trained professionals and students were children who need to acquire knowledge! Surely not!
And then there is the topic of written communication skills. 7th December 2016 John Gerritsen from Radio New Zealand cheerfully pronounced that NZ teenagers’ scores in international tests of maths, science and reading have reached their lowest level since testing began in 2000 [https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/319783/nz-scores-drop-but-rankings-rise-in-international-test].
In an environment where employers highly value written communication skills, schools seem to be dumbing down their teaching. Why would they do that? Maybe it stems from an ideological notion that students will learn more capably when they are happy and comfortable and when they are able to choose the sort of learning activities with which they will engage? See ‘Reimagining the Modern Classroom’ by Glatter, Deruy and Wong, Sept 2nd 2016 https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/reimagining-the-modern-classroom/498224/ for more details on this.
Now, let’s not knock choice in education as it is a key element of student motivation, used by all good teachers. However, choosing which topic to write a research project on is one thing, choosing whether to write a project or construct a virtual 3-D model instead is altogether different. One will give additional practice at literary skills. The other almost certainly will not. At the heart of this educational delusion is a flawed pedagogy that proceeds from an evolutionary, humanistic worldview. If humans have evolved from slime over time to reach our current apex, continual improvement is almost a given. Just stick a bunch of teenage humans in a tin can with some IT equipment and watch them learn. Unfortunately, human nature is simply not quite that good!
Obduracy reigns and without the authority figure of a teacher to set some boundaries and provide guidelines, learning will be a fairly low priority. The Emperor’s new clothes look great though, don’t they? Everybody is talking about them, so don’t you miss out! Just wait until the big school next door gasps at the Emperor’s exposed rear end and then be ready to move fast. The experiment will end. Walls will be reintroduced to learning spaces and teachers will be given pride of place in front of classes where students will sit still and listen to instructions. Am I kidding? I sure hope not.
It is not all bad, what is happening in modern learning environments near you. It is not all bad. There is innovation and there are creative, exciting ideas. There are many, many wonderful professionals who care deeply about students, and flawed systems will still produce good results for them.
However, don’t write off the traditional schools which have stood their ground in the face of an incoming tide of humanistic ideology and have continued to provide quality education, relevant education, education which prepares students to contribute to a society in which they are not the centre and which cares little for their favourite styles or their self-esteem.
The tide will ebb and school leaders will start to reinvent the wheel once again, and it will be called ‘new’ and ‘innovative’ and everybody will have forgotten that the Emperor ever had a particularly innovative and imaginative clothes designer back in the early 21st century.
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