-Jessica Cavallaro The agile classroom is built on the foundation of people, process, collaboration and problem-solving through practice of 21st century skills OUR CURRENT EDUCATION SYSTEM WAS designed during the first industrial revolution (1760-1820). In that era, the general public was largely uneducated, unable to read and knowledge was in short supply. If you wanted to learn about the world, history, math and science, someone needed to collate that information and present it to you. With knowledge stuffed into books, which were not readily available to most, lessons needed to be memorised to hold forever. Accessing information wasn’t easy and most people didn’t have the time. Knowledge needed to be memorised to be applied later. Time in school was short and therefore, pacing of the curriculum needed to be controlled. The teacher’s job was to control the flow of information with students learning passively, expected to absorb as much as possible because tomorrow they might have to start working. The needs of contemporary students are radically different from those of past generations. Through leaps in technology, we have access to all human history at our fingertips. We can look up random facts, dates, and unrelated trivia. High-performing artificial intelligence (AI) can do the rote jobs that bore us, and is quickly taking over more complex tasks. What was considered ‘educated’ in the past — memorisation and rote execution of tasks — is not what students need to navigate an increasingly ambiguous and complex future. Evolution that has transformed every segment of society has largely by-passed education. Generally speaking, schools still function as they did in the past. In any country, you can walk into classrooms where students are at desks, passively taking notes. Students are still taking recall-based standardised tests as a measurement of ‘education’. Not much has changed in this sphere even though so much has changed in the world. Several paradigm shifts have occurred in the past few decades. We are experiencing a technological revolution moving at hyperspeed in the past few years. The majority of the world is online, with people working in diverse teams in different time zones. The change is not just in the way we work. Work that needs to be completed has changed as well. With AI growing more intelligent, jobs that can be completed by following directions or through rote memorisation are being automated. The Dell Corporation estimates that 85 percent of the jobs that our students will do have not even been created yet. To truly prepare students for the uncertain future, we need to focus on keeping up with the evolving landscape. This means equipping children with skills that are transferable, flexible, and adaptive. For children spending 12 years in school, it is our responsibility to provide them with the tools necessary to succeed in the world that awaits them. As teachers, we must be ready to answer their questions to keep our students engaged. Therefore, we must shift our focus. Content is important, but it is not the most…
