The Future of Education: More Students, More Teachers?

How can we prepare students for an increasingly competitive workforce?

In the rapidly changing world of the 21st century, education faces many new challenges. How can schools keep up with the latest technology? What is the best way to teach global citizenship? And how can we prepare students for an increasingly competitive workforce? These are just some of the questions that educators and policymakers are grappling with as they try to chart the future of education.

The way we learn has changed drastically in the last century and there is no reason to believe that this process will stop. Although it is impossible to predict exactly what the future of education will look like, we can make some educated guesses based on the current trends. It is likely that education will become more individualized, technology-based, and focused on real-world applications.

Many people seem to understand that standardized testing is not effective for all students.

As parents and other stakeholders in the educational community evaluate the ways that students are assessed, it stands to reason that they will demand new ways for students to be tested. Many people seem to understand that standardized testing is not effective for all students. It is also evident that there are many biases present in standardized testing. These biases impact some students negatively as they can’t access the questions because they may not understand the scenarios or questions. You also have students who get very nervous when it is time for test taking, or test anxiety. This means that these students may not be able to do their best or complete the test at all due to their nervousness.

In the future of education, it would be beneficial for all students to have assessments that truly measure what a student understands over a period of time instead of standardized testing. This could take the form of smaller assessments that are aligned with the curricula that students complete over the course of a period of time. The most important part of assessment is that it is customized to meet student needs and truly assesses student understanding.

The way the system is set up now students master standards without actually being able to apply the information in real world situations.

The way that our school system is set up it is based on students mastering a number of standards. A cut score is predetermined for standardized testing in an effort to determine that students have mastered those standards. Many times, students can master these standards without actually being able to find and analyze information in new situations. Simply put, they can learn a large amount of material without being able to actually use the information in real world settings.

One way to remedy this would be to offer students courses that are designed in order for them to learn real world skills while applying the traditional concepts of math, science, language arts, etc. An example of this would be to have students select relatively early a career path and the students core content would be infused through the teaching that they would need to prepare them for that role.

For example, if a student thinks that they want to be an engineer as their career path they would take their engineering courses and, in that course, they would take the math, science, language arts and history courses that they will need. This will make the learning much more personalized, and students would be much more engaged each day.

It would be much more effective if families could choose the pathway to learning that they would like for their child.

Education in the future must find a way to be delivered in a variety of ways. It needs to be more mobile and more flexible to meet the needs of students and their families. Right now, the educational system is locked into a calendar for the year and a daily schedule. This doesn’t work for all students or all families.

It would be much more effective if families could choose the pathway to learning that they would like for their child. It is important to note that all school systems offer options for children who are ill or need access to learning while they are dealing with a long-term medical concern. There is also an option for students who need to be removed from the standard educational setting due to their behavioral challenges. However there needs to be an option for families and students who don’t fall into those categories.

Whether school systems can offer learning apps, virtual learning or blended learning there should be options for Parents whose students need more of a challenge or for those who find that the traditional school setting not to be a good fit. Some Parents may choose to have their child go to the school building for certain classes and complete other classes virtually in order to get the best education possible for their child.

School systems will need to find a way to provide a variety of options in the future. This can be done if they can use technology to leverage these options, this way the options can be provided without the need for additional staff.

The future of education will need to look drastically different than it does now. It will need to find new ways to assess students so that the assessments truly gauge what students can do and understand. The curriculum needs to be structured in a way where it gives students real world opportunities in their learning. It will need to a provide a variety of pathways to learning that meets the needs for all students and families. This will be the type of education that any child and any family would want to be a part of.