Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Pivots


Lot of chat in the media at the moment about using the pandemic as a pivot point, or opportunity to change things for many of our established institutions, education is a prime example. Questions about examinations as a measure of achievement, full-time attendance, remote learning, equipment etc. are all being shaken up as a result of schools trying to cope with pupils not being able to attend school or take exams in the time honored tradition. I'm not entirely sure what pivots we could practically make but in terms of turning out people who are "match fit" for the workplace of the future (if we could agree that's our main goal) then a few ideas would include..

- "Work from home" days every week for A-Level+ students (because that's how work is going to be)
- Teach the organisation and structural skills needed to manage workloads unsupervised
- Teach critical thinking skills to protect kids from "fake news" and scams, particularly on social-media
- Layer in some psychology, like how to debate in a civil fashion (sans "cancel culture"), motivation etc.
- More short work-placements pre-University, preferably paid, ideally sign firms up to schemes w/tech
- More practical project work that include (serious) technology components (i.e. not just writing an essay)
- At least one compulsory STEM subject up to end of A-Level

 

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