Global Trend
Global
Megatrends 2030, identifies four crucial trends that’s going to globally
transform our lives by 2030. These are :
- . Individual Empowerment
- . Diffusion of Power
- . Demographic Patterns
- . Growing food, water and energy nexus.
Individual
empowerment and diffusion of power will transform the lives of individuals on a
global basis. It is envisaged the world population will increase from 7.1
billion (2012) to 8.3 billion by 2030. In the next 15 to 20 years, the world
will see an increase in the middle class population. This means that this group
of people will be the driver of the wold economy. However, at the same time
they will claim better health, living conditions and better and higher standard
of education for their children, putting a huge demand on the available
resources. “Individual empowerment is the most important megatrend because it
is the cause and effect of most other trends. “(Global Trends 2030, 2012).
The global
economies will see a shift. Countries like China and India will be in the
forefront of global economy. It is likely, that United States’ economy will
fall short compared to China’s a few years before 2030. Countries with changing
and increasing economies will need to maintain this by being innovative and
show entrepreneurship. This will also
apply to those countries whose middle class would be working towards improving
their own economy. New Zealand being a
developed nation, will want to be on the forefront of improving its own economy
to meet the demands of the 21st Century.
Question is how does one become
innovative and show entrepreneurship.
For New
Zealand to be the forerunner in the global economy, it needs to scrutinise its
education system. Most schools in New Zealand are still stuck in the education
system of industrial age. We as teachers
need to be more vigilant in the way we educate students of this era. Students
of today are our investments for the future. These students need the skills to
survive in the 21st century.
Core
Education describes five key areas of change. These are
1. Cultural
2. Technology
3. Structural
4. Economic
5. Process
Embedded
within each change are two trends as each change provides a context to see how
these trends may develop in the future.
The diagram
on “10 trends 2015” has been adopted from the Core Education’s website.
For me, the
two areas, that I think, are shaping New Zealand Education are Cultural and
Economic changes as shown above.
Trend 1: Cultural Change ( Learning Agency)
The idea of
learner agency has been around for a very long time (10 trends 2015, Core
education). Learner agency is regarded as, when learners have the power to make
decisions about their learning. Here the learner is more active and takes
initiative in their learning.
In the past,
most of our schools had the approach of “one size fits all” type of education.
Individual needs of students in the classrooms were neglected. Some students
lacked motivation as they found this type of delivery of learning material not
to their liking. Students who became active participants in their learning and
were involved in decision making about their learning showed greater agency.
Core education website for 10 trends for 2015, outlines three
important features of learner agency.
a. Agency requires self- regulation
b. Agency is interdependent
c.
Agency
requires learners to be aware of the responsibility of one’s own actions on
others and the environment.
What are the implications ?
Things are
rapidly changing in this 21st century. With a blink of an eye
technology changes, vocations vanish and new ones come up. At this rate, it is
difficult for individuals to keep up with the change. So, for our learners to
be functional in this rapidly changing world, they will need to be resilient
and adapt to change when they are out in the workforce. We as classroom
teachers need to encourage students to be agentic in their learning allowing,
them to easily adapt to changes.
For me as an
educator, I need to start working on individualised plan for the students. To
some extent, we already do this in class because some students find the
required learning beyond their means. So they get either put in groups of two
or three and taught, whilst others work on their own, learning what they think
is relevant
Trend 2: Economic Change ( Innovation
and Entrepreneurship) .
Individuals,
communities and countries who are willing to be innovative and come up with new
ways of doing things are the ones who will be successful in the 21st
century. With the advent of exponential growth in technology, massive demand on
earth resources and globalisation are going to be the drivers for this trend.
To be able to sustain this onslaught of 21st century demands,
workers will requires new set of skills and temperament.
New Zealand
school curriculum identifies “Entrepreneurship” as the future focused idea as
this is the foundation of developing a ‘knowledge economy’.
Core
education in 10 trends 2015 mentions that there is a need for more innovators
and entrepreneurs in order to sustain a healthy level of growth.
How do we achieve this?
As an
educator in the 21st century, I feel I need to provide opportunities
in class for students to be entrepreneurs and innovators where risk taking and
failing will be taken as a positive.
Currently,
with the demands of completing NCEA curriculum in schools, it doesn’t leave
much room to be innovative in classroom. Students are required to complete
internal assessments and then they need to be readied for the external exams
within a certain time. If we as educators are going to employ the two trends
mentioned above in preparing our students to be sustainable in this fast paced
world, we need to examine our assessment system which puts huge pressure on
teachers to teach the way they teach now.
Report from ERO mentions three
issues that schools are lacking at. They are:
“One: The need to shift the focus to
student-centred learning.
Two: The need to knowledgeably implement a
responsive and rich curriculum.
Three: The need to use assessment information to
know about, and plan for, students’ learning.”
Bibliography
Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S.,
& Hipkins, R. (2012).Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching: A New Zealand
perspective.Wellington: Ministry of Education. Retrieved 5 May
2015, from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306
Education Review Office (2012).The three most pressing issues for
New Zealand’s education system, revealed in latest ERO report - Education
Review Office. Retrieved 5 May 2015, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Release...
KPMG Australia. (2014, May 22).Future State 2030 - Global Megatrends. Retrieved fromhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im5SwtapHl8
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