We have all had those moments of clarity where ideas, thoughts and solutions to our life’s biggest problems seem to pop into our heads in a continuous stream that cannot be ignored. How nice it would be if we could actually control these events and have them happen at will! Most people would pretty much agree that this “Eureka Moment” (EM) are random and completely beyond human control. How about if I present a case for it being very much in our control, but requires a set of circumstances to be present for that EM to occur?
The reason I am talking about this is because EMs are skillfully crafted moments that can be purposefully trained. We need to have learners who are able to access the full range of their brain power to stimulate critical, logical and intuitive thinking. This, I believe, is a requisite for new people with new ways of thinking that in turn enable the development of new ideas that could quite possibly transform current approaches to living on this planet.
My proposition is that we are not planning in the correct way to reach those EMs. More accurately, we are focusing on the wrong things when we even do plan. I remember this scene in the movie, Men in Black. The hero and a bunch of agents are asked to complete a test on a piece of paper. They are forced to sit in an almost completely enclosed chair that blocks arm movements, which makes it impossible to write. There is a fixed, immovable table in the center, out of reach of anyone sitting on the chair. The chair can be ripped off its base. Whilst the agents try to wriggle around to write on the document, the hero rips the chair off its base, moves it to the table, leans forward and easily completes the test.
The focus of the agents was wrong because they were in the box and yes, I know it is the world’s greatest cliché! This is the famous box that we all seem to be perpetually stuck in. Almost 100% of the time, we stay in the box because our focus and planning are wrong. Let’s get to how we might shift the focus and planning.
My first prerequisite comes from this saying, “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.”
This means that when you repeatedly do something, you will gradually learn more and more about it. The many ways of doing things and the expected results – maybe, could be, probably, logically, surely. Now, when you repeat your actions and unexpected things happen… aha… now you will learn. If you monotonously do the same thing, you will become an expert at performing that sequence, but you learn nothing new. It implies that you need to make mistakes in order to enable true learning, something that most education systems and workplaces seem to have forgotten. In fact, current learners and employees are punished for mistakes in a way that makes them never ever want to take the risk again.
Prerequisite number 2 is the forethought for Planned Discovery
Learning occurs during novel experiences, or at least that is the way it should be. When you are confronted with an experience that is a surprise, and one that you did not prepare for, then your curiosity is aroused. If you had expected a set outcome from your actions, and you instead get an outcome that is different, you would want to know what changed. Somehow or the other, your perceptions and your world views have to be altered because you realise that somewhere along the line in your thought processes, an error exists. It could be your factual knowledge, assumptions, variables not accounted for and the host of details that have a causal effect on your perception of the world, but the conclusion is that something needs changing.
You might also have some wrong learning systems, and insist that the outside world is wrong and you always right. You might dismiss the occurrence as a fluke or an accident, and only search for answers that reinforce your own knowledge and ways of thinking – a common habit among learners and human beings.
The implication here is that learners have to start learning by experiencing when and where to apply what types of rules for learning. Most importantly, students can accelerate their learning by participating in Planned Discovery - actively seeking out encounters where they are likely to learn and in the process of doing this; learn to get rid of the habit of looking for knowledge that reinforces preconceived notions about ways of thinking.
Prerequisite number 3 is that “Inexperienced Decision Making is the weakest link, so build experience” to achieve EM
Charles Darwin said "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" and this is quite probably the most dangerous aspect of ignorance.
Look back at work you have done with a team of people, and those that were actually completed and met expected outcomes. How long did it take from planning, up to achieving deliverable outcomes? Consider now repeating the project with all parameters remaining the same, the exception now being experience levels and awareness of previous mistakes. What do you think the timeline will be now?
Research shows that the new timeline would be on the order of quarter to half the previous time.
If the only difference during that the second time was that you had mastered the intricacies of the project, this would suggest that the obstacle to your deliverables was what you didn’t know. It does not mean that you spent all the extra time trying to learn stuff. You probably spent it trying to find a way forward, or being involved in discussions with various experts, in order to get more information. You also probably took wrong turnings, that you would not have taken had you only known.
So it’s not really learning that’s the weakest link – its inexperienced decision making and ignorance. More accurately, it’s inexperience about specific aspects of the problem at hand. Inexperience is the greatest obstacle.
Inexperience applies along multiple lines of reasoning. You can be inexperienced with the particular technologies, inexperienced with the ways in which you could address the problem or opportunity, inexperienced with a better way of articulating the problem – a better model – that would make the solution obvious, inexperienced with people in the team – their aspirations or fears, their motivation, their relationships with one another and out into to the wider organisation – there are a host of other factors that could affect delivery of expected outcomes.
Prerequisite number 4 is the skill of Creative Thinking - aka analytical thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, logical thinking and thinking of all sorts.
Obviously, all humans think, unless they have been programmed and conditioned to not think; and to question everything. This must sound very familiar to many of you, no? Thinking and creativity are closely related, thinking being a prerequisite to creative thinking, creativity for short. The dilemma is, education is never easily “administered” where creativity is allowed. Could you imagine a school where lesson plans are ignored, and where learners are allowed to explore tangents that they go off on, or where even one where learners are allowed more authority than teachers!? What a nightmare scene! Yet, without this nightmare scene, Creative Thinking skills will never develop.
I have this poetic bit of a paragraph that was constructed to try painting a picture of the kind of students that we need to have so that we have EM’s exploding throughout the day in our schools.
“To realize that we are shaped by education, that learning leads to thought and self-reflection, understanding and knowledge and wisdom, and to see that skills in critical thinking lead to creative solutions; thus strengthening our minds and giving us sound judgment and character to see clearly. Our student is a Scientist who is able to interpret a poem, a Poet who sees rhyme in the Scientific Method and a Philosopher who understands there are no truths, only perspectives.”
Eureka Moments are built on the starting blocks described above, yet these are the very attributes that are seldom present in most education systems. I think that administrators and many stakeholders will even now, argue against changes being made because people have been conditioned to stay in comfort zones and to not rock the boat when the sea is still reasonably calm.
I must also say that stakeholders, who want change, have to create a storm if they want that change. Don’t sit at home and send letters and emails complaining about the state of affairs – go out and do something about it! Develop plans for actions that foster innovative changes with measureable outcomes. These just might motivate “Higher Powers” to start engaging with stakeholders for the transformation of our education system.
Plan for a Eureka Moment, and when inspiration strikes, JUST DO IT!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Schools without Borders, Students without Limits
Taking off from where we left off the last time – The Carrot and The Stick – I would like to now talk about the opposite end of the coin. Remember that the core issues discussed last time were Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose – and how current education systems are ignoring what science knows and has proven.
Next big proposal - Would any rational government consider letting schools run completely on their own without a time table or a fixed schedule? No bells ringing even! What!? Am I crazy!? That would demolish life as we know it. Yet, this is precisely what is needed. In fact a former Director General of the Ministry of Education, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid, implemented this concept in Sekolah Menengah Jalan Bayam in Kelantan. This was pilot tested in the mid nineteen nineties and the school quickly rose to become one of the top schools in Malaysia. Unfortunately, once the Headmaster who was the champion of the project left, the school reverted to its old ways.
The earth is made up of countries. Countries are built upon society, which in turn is built upon communities and which in the end, starts with a single individual. Our students and young people are individuals and the last thing they need is an education system that lumps everyone into a single herd of animals, taught in one way and at the same pace, and too bad if you get left behind. We are forced into a linear education system at a time when non- linear thinking is valued and wanted. Again, what we know society demands is not what we supply to our students. What science knows is what we ignore, and even instead apply opposite principles.
So, what is education?
School systems are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. We actually support a school system where everything is divided into 40 minute sessions and students must also start and stop accordingly. Never mind the thoughts and the paths a student might be on, stop all brain processes and throw the switch that moves him to a new subject. Follow the herd! Let the blind lead the blind and never anyone mind!
We have to eliminate this existing perception that a hierarchy exists among subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces assumptions that made sense in the industrial age and offends the principle of multidisciplinary diversity. The arts, sciences, maths, humanities, physical education, languages, dance and drama all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education and development
Eleven years on and things have only got worse. A former professor of arts education at the University of Warwick in the UK, Sir Ken Robinson, argues this case in his new book, The Element. Our approaches to education are "stifling some of the most important capacities that young people now need to make their way in the increasingly demanding world of the 21st century - the powers of creative thinking", he says.
"All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think," he says. "Most students never get to explore the full range of their abilities and interests ... Education is the system that's supposed to develop our natural abilities and enable us to make our way in the world. Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn."
Robinson, who now earns his living as a speaker on creativity, does not blame the teachers. "It's the system - it's too linear," he says. Schools are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. "If you live in a world where every lesson is 40 minutes, you immediately interrupt the flow of creativity," he says. "We need to eliminate the existing hierarchy of subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces outmoded assumptions of industrialism and offends the principle of diversity. The arts, sciences, humanities, physical education, languages and maths all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education."
Let’s make a case for this
Multidisciplinary approach
Today’s Learning Spaces are centered on the development and exchange of knowledge and information, and Learners who are successful are those who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them. Creativity, adaptability, critical reasoning, and collaboration are highly valued skills. When it comes to fostering those skills in the classroom, interdisciplinary study is an extremely effective approach, helping students develop multifaceted expertise and grasp the important role that collaboration and teamwork can play in the real world.
Interdisciplinary studies bring together diverse disciplines in a comprehensive manner, enabling students to develop a meaningful understanding of the complex associations and influences within a topic. As a result of this approach, which is often driven by project and research skills, schools become more interesting and productive for learners.
"The Logic of Interdisciplinary Studies," a 1997 research report by Rosenstock, found broad consensus as to what the report called "positive educational outcomes" for students in a multidisciplinary studies program:
• Understanding and application of general concepts.
• Development of multiple perspectives as well as a global values system.
• Increased motivation, confidence and tenacity to work at problem solving processes
• Ethical Decision making through critical and creative thinking, and creating new knowledge.
• Ability to identify, assess, and solve novel problems.
To ensure ongoing progress and monitor quality, a constructive feedback system is critical for any multidisciplinary program based on real world learning. It's essential, Rosenstock emphasizes, that a learner’s work is evaluated by fellow students, teachers and community, as well as industry professionals. That way, he says, "you build into the school a system, a cycle of improvement."
After all, our daily life and work are not stratified into "the math part, the science part, the history part, and the English part," Rosenstock points out. "Kids don't experience the world that way. We all live in environments that are a product of multidisciplinary processes coming together to present a whole.
Creativity in the classroom
Despite all the money, initiatives and trendsetting, the concept of creativity is still not filtering down into the classroom, says Teresa Cremin, professor of education at the Open University UK, and an expert on creativity in primary schools.
She believes many teachers still think being creative means they have to be flamboyant and extrovert. While many schools are creative, many others pay lip service to the creativity agenda, she argues.
This might mean a day off the curriculum to do "the arts" after pupils have sat for tests. It's a myth to call this creative learning, she says. Creativity must be embedded into everyday teaching and learning. "Many schools haven't got a handle on the language of creativity and are reticent about teaching more creatively," she says. "They are worried they won't achieve standards in other things."
She agrees with much of Ken Robinson's argument. "If you have a school system which rewards conformity and avoids risk-taking, then youngsters will be unable to cope with the 21st century world unfolding before them."
Anna Craft, a professor of education at the University of Exeter and a government adviser on creativity, says: "There is an enormous willingness to embrace creativity in the classroom, but an increasing lethargy in the system too." Robinson is right, she says; it's not that we need to "tweak the recipe - we need a NEW recipe".
Bringing this about might take a mass protest of pupils walking out of school because it's just too irrelevant, she says. But in the end change has got to happen and, she says, Robinson's book can "do nothing but good in getting the debate loud and clear".
Real World Learning
Research based learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which learners explore meaningful problems and challenges, simultaneously developing multi disciplinary skills while needing to solve problems in a collaborative and inclusive manner
Research based learning is engaged learning. It inspires learners to obtain a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the problem they re researching. Multiple Intelligence research also indicates that learners are more likely to retain knowledge gained through this approach far more readily than through traditional textbook-centered learning. In addition, learners develop independence, confidence and self-motivation and direction as they move through team based research work.
In research based evaluations, learners are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on a meaningless grade defined by exams, essays, and written reports. This gives their work meaning and purpose. Learners quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life, often global, challenges - and quickly find direction and paths suited to their talents and skills
Research based learning is also an effective way to integrate technology into the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate technology and the Internet, in the form of Virtual Worlds and Experimentation, Collaborative Internet Platforms (COHERE), Interactive Whiteboards (fats becoming obsolete themselves), global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital and video cameras, PDAs and associated software.
Teamwork and Living Skills Development
It's not enough to simply fill learners' brains with facts. A sustainable education demands that character development is emphasised as well. Social and emotional skills are a result of character development. This is essential in helping learners to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently and make responsible decisions.
Research shows that high levels of social and emotional skills lead to lowered levels of aggression among children and high academic achievements. Learners who demonstrate respect for people in their schooling environments and accept globally held beliefs and religions as a matter of global diversity are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior.
Educators must lay the groundwork for successful development of social skills and talents by establishing an environment of trust and respect in the classroom. Empathy is key. Before learners can be expected to unite to achieve academic goals, they must be taught what teamwork means and how it is applied in the real world. This experience provides them with strategies and tools for cooperative learning and working in their personal futures.
Dynamic curriculum
In fact, the entire notion of "subjects" needs to be questioned, Sir Ken Robinson says. "The idea of separate subjects that have nothing in common offends the principle of dynamism. School systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines ... which makes possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."
In December, the UK Rose review, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation, also recommended moving away from the idea of subjects. Sir Jim Rose said a "bloated" curriculum was leaving children with shallow knowledge and understanding. The review proposed half a dozen cross-curricular themes instead: understanding the global language, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; science and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical education and wellbeing; and understanding the arts and design.
Robinson believes the curriculum should be much more personalised. "Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests." Why are we so fixated by age groups, he asks? Let a 10-year-old learn with their younger and older peers. Let’s organise classrooms according to ability.
We put too high a premium on knowing the "single right answer", Robinson claims. But he says he is not in principle opposed to standardised tests, such as The SATs. Used in the right way, they can provide essential data to support and improve education. The problem comes when these tests become more than simply a tool of education and turn into the focus of it, he argues.
All of this prevents the next generation finding its "element". School is "the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together". This "element" is essential to our wellbeing, our ultimate success and the effectiveness of our education system.
Robinson suggests the education system needs to be not just reformed, but transformed - and urgently. In times of economic crisis, we need to think more creatively than ever, he says. "Just about everywhere, the problems are getting worse."
Should we stay as we are, making minute changes as we move along, our education system will quickly become irrelevant. Internet 1.0 took us by surprise, and we are languishing in Internet 2.0 and are now allowing Internet 3.0 to take us by “surprise”, albeit a fully informed surprise where we all know the potentials and possibilities that will materialise now and in the very near future.
Do we have the courage and the political will, the tenacity and enough foresight and concern for the relevance of Malaysia in the now and the future, to develop a brand new education system that will ensure our sustainability?
Champions who believe in this cause - step forward and be seen, be heard and be counted; for nothing short of a rebellious, unflinching, apolitical 1 School in 1 Session, 21st century system is needed to carry Malaysia forward!
Next big proposal - Would any rational government consider letting schools run completely on their own without a time table or a fixed schedule? No bells ringing even! What!? Am I crazy!? That would demolish life as we know it. Yet, this is precisely what is needed. In fact a former Director General of the Ministry of Education, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid, implemented this concept in Sekolah Menengah Jalan Bayam in Kelantan. This was pilot tested in the mid nineteen nineties and the school quickly rose to become one of the top schools in Malaysia. Unfortunately, once the Headmaster who was the champion of the project left, the school reverted to its old ways.
The earth is made up of countries. Countries are built upon society, which in turn is built upon communities and which in the end, starts with a single individual. Our students and young people are individuals and the last thing they need is an education system that lumps everyone into a single herd of animals, taught in one way and at the same pace, and too bad if you get left behind. We are forced into a linear education system at a time when non- linear thinking is valued and wanted. Again, what we know society demands is not what we supply to our students. What science knows is what we ignore, and even instead apply opposite principles.
So, what is education?
School systems are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. We actually support a school system where everything is divided into 40 minute sessions and students must also start and stop accordingly. Never mind the thoughts and the paths a student might be on, stop all brain processes and throw the switch that moves him to a new subject. Follow the herd! Let the blind lead the blind and never anyone mind!
We have to eliminate this existing perception that a hierarchy exists among subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces assumptions that made sense in the industrial age and offends the principle of multidisciplinary diversity. The arts, sciences, maths, humanities, physical education, languages, dance and drama all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education and development
Eleven years on and things have only got worse. A former professor of arts education at the University of Warwick in the UK, Sir Ken Robinson, argues this case in his new book, The Element. Our approaches to education are "stifling some of the most important capacities that young people now need to make their way in the increasingly demanding world of the 21st century - the powers of creative thinking", he says.
"All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think," he says. "Most students never get to explore the full range of their abilities and interests ... Education is the system that's supposed to develop our natural abilities and enable us to make our way in the world. Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn."
Robinson, who now earns his living as a speaker on creativity, does not blame the teachers. "It's the system - it's too linear," he says. Schools are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. "If you live in a world where every lesson is 40 minutes, you immediately interrupt the flow of creativity," he says. "We need to eliminate the existing hierarchy of subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces outmoded assumptions of industrialism and offends the principle of diversity. The arts, sciences, humanities, physical education, languages and maths all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education."
Let’s make a case for this
Multidisciplinary approach
Today’s Learning Spaces are centered on the development and exchange of knowledge and information, and Learners who are successful are those who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them. Creativity, adaptability, critical reasoning, and collaboration are highly valued skills. When it comes to fostering those skills in the classroom, interdisciplinary study is an extremely effective approach, helping students develop multifaceted expertise and grasp the important role that collaboration and teamwork can play in the real world.
Interdisciplinary studies bring together diverse disciplines in a comprehensive manner, enabling students to develop a meaningful understanding of the complex associations and influences within a topic. As a result of this approach, which is often driven by project and research skills, schools become more interesting and productive for learners.
"The Logic of Interdisciplinary Studies," a 1997 research report by Rosenstock, found broad consensus as to what the report called "positive educational outcomes" for students in a multidisciplinary studies program:
• Understanding and application of general concepts.
• Development of multiple perspectives as well as a global values system.
• Increased motivation, confidence and tenacity to work at problem solving processes
• Ethical Decision making through critical and creative thinking, and creating new knowledge.
• Ability to identify, assess, and solve novel problems.
To ensure ongoing progress and monitor quality, a constructive feedback system is critical for any multidisciplinary program based on real world learning. It's essential, Rosenstock emphasizes, that a learner’s work is evaluated by fellow students, teachers and community, as well as industry professionals. That way, he says, "you build into the school a system, a cycle of improvement."
After all, our daily life and work are not stratified into "the math part, the science part, the history part, and the English part," Rosenstock points out. "Kids don't experience the world that way. We all live in environments that are a product of multidisciplinary processes coming together to present a whole.
Creativity in the classroom
Despite all the money, initiatives and trendsetting, the concept of creativity is still not filtering down into the classroom, says Teresa Cremin, professor of education at the Open University UK, and an expert on creativity in primary schools.
She believes many teachers still think being creative means they have to be flamboyant and extrovert. While many schools are creative, many others pay lip service to the creativity agenda, she argues.
This might mean a day off the curriculum to do "the arts" after pupils have sat for tests. It's a myth to call this creative learning, she says. Creativity must be embedded into everyday teaching and learning. "Many schools haven't got a handle on the language of creativity and are reticent about teaching more creatively," she says. "They are worried they won't achieve standards in other things."
She agrees with much of Ken Robinson's argument. "If you have a school system which rewards conformity and avoids risk-taking, then youngsters will be unable to cope with the 21st century world unfolding before them."
Anna Craft, a professor of education at the University of Exeter and a government adviser on creativity, says: "There is an enormous willingness to embrace creativity in the classroom, but an increasing lethargy in the system too." Robinson is right, she says; it's not that we need to "tweak the recipe - we need a NEW recipe".
Bringing this about might take a mass protest of pupils walking out of school because it's just too irrelevant, she says. But in the end change has got to happen and, she says, Robinson's book can "do nothing but good in getting the debate loud and clear".
Real World Learning
Research based learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which learners explore meaningful problems and challenges, simultaneously developing multi disciplinary skills while needing to solve problems in a collaborative and inclusive manner
Research based learning is engaged learning. It inspires learners to obtain a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the problem they re researching. Multiple Intelligence research also indicates that learners are more likely to retain knowledge gained through this approach far more readily than through traditional textbook-centered learning. In addition, learners develop independence, confidence and self-motivation and direction as they move through team based research work.
In research based evaluations, learners are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on a meaningless grade defined by exams, essays, and written reports. This gives their work meaning and purpose. Learners quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life, often global, challenges - and quickly find direction and paths suited to their talents and skills
Research based learning is also an effective way to integrate technology into the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate technology and the Internet, in the form of Virtual Worlds and Experimentation, Collaborative Internet Platforms (COHERE), Interactive Whiteboards (fats becoming obsolete themselves), global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital and video cameras, PDAs and associated software.
Teamwork and Living Skills Development
It's not enough to simply fill learners' brains with facts. A sustainable education demands that character development is emphasised as well. Social and emotional skills are a result of character development. This is essential in helping learners to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently and make responsible decisions.
Research shows that high levels of social and emotional skills lead to lowered levels of aggression among children and high academic achievements. Learners who demonstrate respect for people in their schooling environments and accept globally held beliefs and religions as a matter of global diversity are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior.
Educators must lay the groundwork for successful development of social skills and talents by establishing an environment of trust and respect in the classroom. Empathy is key. Before learners can be expected to unite to achieve academic goals, they must be taught what teamwork means and how it is applied in the real world. This experience provides them with strategies and tools for cooperative learning and working in their personal futures.
Dynamic curriculum
In fact, the entire notion of "subjects" needs to be questioned, Sir Ken Robinson says. "The idea of separate subjects that have nothing in common offends the principle of dynamism. School systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines ... which makes possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."
In December, the UK Rose review, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation, also recommended moving away from the idea of subjects. Sir Jim Rose said a "bloated" curriculum was leaving children with shallow knowledge and understanding. The review proposed half a dozen cross-curricular themes instead: understanding the global language, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; science and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical education and wellbeing; and understanding the arts and design.
Robinson believes the curriculum should be much more personalised. "Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests." Why are we so fixated by age groups, he asks? Let a 10-year-old learn with their younger and older peers. Let’s organise classrooms according to ability.
We put too high a premium on knowing the "single right answer", Robinson claims. But he says he is not in principle opposed to standardised tests, such as The SATs. Used in the right way, they can provide essential data to support and improve education. The problem comes when these tests become more than simply a tool of education and turn into the focus of it, he argues.
All of this prevents the next generation finding its "element". School is "the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together". This "element" is essential to our wellbeing, our ultimate success and the effectiveness of our education system.
Robinson suggests the education system needs to be not just reformed, but transformed - and urgently. In times of economic crisis, we need to think more creatively than ever, he says. "Just about everywhere, the problems are getting worse."
Should we stay as we are, making minute changes as we move along, our education system will quickly become irrelevant. Internet 1.0 took us by surprise, and we are languishing in Internet 2.0 and are now allowing Internet 3.0 to take us by “surprise”, albeit a fully informed surprise where we all know the potentials and possibilities that will materialise now and in the very near future.
Do we have the courage and the political will, the tenacity and enough foresight and concern for the relevance of Malaysia in the now and the future, to develop a brand new education system that will ensure our sustainability?
Champions who believe in this cause - step forward and be seen, be heard and be counted; for nothing short of a rebellious, unflinching, apolitical 1 School in 1 Session, 21st century system is needed to carry Malaysia forward!
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