In my previous blog I mentioned that I wanted to dig a little deeper into a couple of the key players mentioned in a story that I had read about, who spoke at a forum about the future of BC Education.
The author of the news article singled out two of the key speakers for their stances on the state of global education, and I was curious to know more about why the Ministry of Education would invite them to speak. What was the tie in?
Andreas Schleicher:
· Educational Surveyor and Statistician
· Director of Education and Skills for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In nutshell the German born Schleicher heads up the OECD in Paris and they are responsible for creating and delivering a test that is designed to assess a 15 year old student’s ability in reading, math and science. During his Ted Global talk in 2012, Schleicher claimed the test is not simply meant see what students can reproduce from their studies, but rather to extrapolate from what they know, and see how they apply that knowledge in novel situations. The PISA is administered every three years, and was written by over 28-million teens worldwide.
Yong Zhao:
· Educational Expert, Author, Scholar & Speaker
· Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership at the University of Oregon
Like Schleicher, Zhao is an advocate for Global Education and reforms to the current systems of education in many countries around the world. Unlike Schleicher however, Professor Zhao is not in favour of standardized testing. In an interview done last month with the New York State Association of Independent Schools, he said “Good assessment cannot be standardized, because each student is different, learns at different rates in different ways.” Zhao also suggested that educational leaders need to “stop trying to fix the past, and personalize education, abandoning traditional education. “ He went as far as saying that the “boutique education” being offered at progressive, non-traditional institutions like High Tech High in California, need to go from being the outliers, to being the norm.
Interesting that two educational experts with very different methods, yet similar goals were invited to speak to leaders from across our province about what BC schools should do in the future. Both see the path to success in different lights, but both are on the same page that new graduates to be equipped with skills and abilities that will make them innovative, inventive, creative and indispensable in the future. It is good to see the province consult experts from outside our nation to help give our educational reforms a more global perspective and inject some fresh new ideas into a system that dramatically needs to be overhauled.
I will leave you with my two favourite quotes from each man, and some visuals of what each envisions as effective schools and school systems.
“The test of truth in life is not whether we can remember what we learned in school, but whether we are prepared for change.” - Andreas Schleicher
“Education doesn’t need to adapt, it needs to transform.” - Yong Zhao
The author of the news article singled out two of the key speakers for their stances on the state of global education, and I was curious to know more about why the Ministry of Education would invite them to speak. What was the tie in?
Andreas Schleicher:
· Educational Surveyor and Statistician
· Director of Education and Skills for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In nutshell the German born Schleicher heads up the OECD in Paris and they are responsible for creating and delivering a test that is designed to assess a 15 year old student’s ability in reading, math and science. During his Ted Global talk in 2012, Schleicher claimed the test is not simply meant see what students can reproduce from their studies, but rather to extrapolate from what they know, and see how they apply that knowledge in novel situations. The PISA is administered every three years, and was written by over 28-million teens worldwide.
Yong Zhao:
· Educational Expert, Author, Scholar & Speaker
· Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership at the University of Oregon
Like Schleicher, Zhao is an advocate for Global Education and reforms to the current systems of education in many countries around the world. Unlike Schleicher however, Professor Zhao is not in favour of standardized testing. In an interview done last month with the New York State Association of Independent Schools, he said “Good assessment cannot be standardized, because each student is different, learns at different rates in different ways.” Zhao also suggested that educational leaders need to “stop trying to fix the past, and personalize education, abandoning traditional education. “ He went as far as saying that the “boutique education” being offered at progressive, non-traditional institutions like High Tech High in California, need to go from being the outliers, to being the norm.
Interesting that two educational experts with very different methods, yet similar goals were invited to speak to leaders from across our province about what BC schools should do in the future. Both see the path to success in different lights, but both are on the same page that new graduates to be equipped with skills and abilities that will make them innovative, inventive, creative and indispensable in the future. It is good to see the province consult experts from outside our nation to help give our educational reforms a more global perspective and inject some fresh new ideas into a system that dramatically needs to be overhauled.
I will leave you with my two favourite quotes from each man, and some visuals of what each envisions as effective schools and school systems.
“The test of truth in life is not whether we can remember what we learned in school, but whether we are prepared for change.” - Andreas Schleicher
“Education doesn’t need to adapt, it needs to transform.” - Yong Zhao