Knowledge and the Purpose of Education 

21st Century Learning...Key Competencies...Student Agency...Ubiquity...

These are just some of the many buzz words being bandied around in education at the moment. 

The problem is that professional discourse about the changes needed to meet the demands of 21st century learning are often crammed in between leadership meetings, performance reviews, and extracurricular activities, thus leaving very little time for teachers to be able to ponder the ideas that have been discussed, let alone affording them the time and opportunity to fully explore them. 

We are living in an era where information is freely and readily available. Almost everyone in the developed world has the means to access information. Once a person has read/watch/listened to the information and understood it, the information then becomes knowledge. For example, I know that the capital city of Kazakhstan is Astana. But what use is this knowledge to me unless the question comes up at a quiz night or I, for some reason, need to visit the city? Recently I read a fabulous book Catching the Knowledge Wave: The Knowledge Society and the Future of Education by Jane Gilbert. In this book, the author identifies how access to information has actually changed the meaning of knowledge in the 21st century.

During the industrial age, knowledge was something that was taught in schools. In this instance the teacher was the expert, and the students' role was to listen and learn from the expert. With the advent of digital technology, the world is now more connected than ever and teachers are no longer the experts in the classroom. Students - as a direct result of their interactions with digital technologies - have a heightened sense of awareness that they are more knowledgeable than their teachers in some areas. So how has this changed the definition of knowledge?

These days in not what you know that gets you ahead, it what you can do with that knowledge. Jane Gilbert explains that the benefits of knowledge are most obvious when when knowledge manifests itself in the form a verb as opposed to a noun, and this is certainly evident from the success of the 9 young entrepreneurs mentioned in the article 9 Amazing (Very) Young Entrepreneurs   http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5051-young-entrepreneurs.html

So how does a change in the definition of knowledge impact on the purpose of education? For me, the most obvious change has to be in the relationship between the teacher and the students. If the teacher is no longer the definitive expert on everything that the students are expected to learn, then the teacher has permission to be a learner alongside the students. For all intents and purpose this should be the key to creating time, space, and opportunity for teachers to explore some of the pedagogy and ideas uncovered during the course of their professional learning conversations. It is, however, perhaps the greatest barrier to overcome as we seek to transform ourselves into more robust future-focused teaching and learning institutions. The industrial age was based on a top down managerial structure, whereas some of today's most successful businesses work within a collaborative, flat management structure. It is imperative that teachers are encouraged and supported to transition from being 'the sage on the stage' to working in collaboration with their students.

The second most significant change has to be in content that students are taught. The most important question that should precede any teacher's planning is Why do my students need to know this? How is this going to help them in the future? Countless experts on 21st century learning, including Mark Treeadwell, Jane Gilbert, and Dr. Tony Wagner, have reiterated this message. Asking these questions ahead of lesson planning is a useful means of ensuring that teachers are making the most of their classroom contact time. The New Zealand Curriculum document outlines a clear vision for future-focused teaching and learning in which the key competencies are of the utmost importance. We need to ensure that the key competencies are the main focus of targeted teaching efforts as these are what will help our students to thrive in the 21st century, where problem solving, creativity, and ingenuity are the keys to success.

As a fellow educator trying to get to grips with the changes and demands in education, I urge teachers to lead by example. Be brave. Be risk takers. Be innovative. And most importantly of all, make time to celebrate the small steps and successes along the way. We don't have to change overnight, but we do have to change.