CTRL + ALT + LEARN: The Human Reset in Education

It seems that when humans are faced with a big change, like the advent of AI, they respond in one of the two ways.  Some get out their paper notebooks and worksheets and retreat to what is familiar and tactile. Others look for the opportunity to leapfrog old practices that they have wanted to jettison for a while but were not brave enough to do so. In education, we have been saying for many years that traditional high stakes tests focused on regurgitating content knowledge should be replaced by more authentic forms of assessment that promote deeper learning that can be applied to novel situations. When motivated by meaningful interdisciplinary, real-world problems, learners are not only more motivated to learn but begin to ask their own deep questions.

Addressing the Implementation Gap

Although educators and school leaders know this is what our learners need, there is a massive implementation gap in most schools. How do we break the old habits of the teachers doing all of the deep thinking, leaving learners to be passive receptacles? At NEASC, we are supporting schools with a Framework for High-Quality Learning which encourages schools to articulate and connect with their highest aspirations for its learners, with a clear set of uniquely human learner competencies, and ultimately to the daily practices of all teachers. These steps build coherence in the learning community, and we are seeing amazing results for the schools who embrace it.

This year we are partnering with Melbourne University, Melbourne Metrics, to empower schools in India to begin to measure the most critical human competencies, such as the Learner Agency.  Together, we envision a world where research-based approaches showing growth in these competencies will augment, if not replace traditional test scores. 

During this time of disruptive change, we are hopeful that schools will take the opportunity to leap ahead rather than fall back on tradition.  That doesn’t mean that we start from scratch and throw out the best of education.  But as described in Bold Moves by Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Marie Hubley Alcock, we must be brutally clear about which pedagogies, curriculum, structures and assessment practices are “antiquated” and should be stopped, which are “classical” and should be retained and which are “contemporary” which we should do more of.

Conclusion

School communities that are brave enough to question their practices, look for honest feedback and work together to build the next version of themselves will thrive now and into the future. NEASC is proud to partner with schools who are doing this work to benefit all learners.

PS: This article was written the old-fashioned way with no AI assistance.

Excerpts from this article will be featured in a NEASC blog post.