Times are changing and education systems need to evolve as technology and the job market have. This means schools need to start prioritising the teaching of non-cognitive skills, values like responsibility, initiative, perseverance and adaptability. These skills help students gain success in academics and future workplaces and also encourages social and emotional development. These future-focused skills go beyond the current models of standards and tests and have the potential to prepare students for a job market that does not exist yet.
What Is Future-Focused Learning?
Future-focused learning helps prepare students across all curriculum areas and learning stages with skills and capabilities. This ensures that students thrive in a rapidly changing and interconnected world. This also connects students and engaged their sense of curiosity, helping them make meaning of the world. Future-focused teachers know and understand the needs and talents of students and create study material accordingly. They are collaborative, flexible, reflective and use a diverse range of effective teaching strategies to inspire learning in their students.
In a future-focused environment, students are motivated to be the leaders of their learnings. They collaborate and use critical and creative thinking to solve problems, growing as active and informed global citizens. Global Indian International Schools have been striving to create contemporary learning spaces for many years and continue to evolve in meeting the needs of their students.
Future-Focused Attributes
Here are some attributes of future-focused schools that you need to consider before you select a school for your child.
- Extensive Use Of Technology
State-of-the-art technology is used to engage learners, families and communities in co-shaping education to address student’s needs, strengths, interests and aspirations. With such advanced technology available for students, they can access their study and reference materials anywhere, anytime. It also helps support the assessment and evaluation process, making them dynamic and responsive.
- Personalised Learning
Future-focused schools create curriculums around the students and their needs. This learning is flexible and extensive in a way that prepares students for critical and creative thinking for roles in the workforce yet to be created. There are also partitions that can be opened and closed to meet specific learning styles and needs.
- Knowledge-Building Environment
Unlike the norm of using standards and tests as proof of knowledge, future-focused schools create an environment where learners and teachers work together for education. This builds a culture of continuous learning for teachers and students alike, making sure that the school environment is focused on knowledge-building.
Today’s students will be the future of this country in the next 10-15 years and they need preparation for that life. For this, schools have started employing tools of a growing body of knowledge and skills developed by futurists. This evolution is not logical and linear, but a complex interaction of millions of decisions to explore available options. In a future-focused school, students will actively engage with the future rather than wait for it to happen. Future thinking reminds us that we always have choices and to make those choices, we need a comprehensive future-focused education system.
