Webinar: 21st Century Schooling

What did we learn? Below is a summary of the panel’s reflections: 

1. Schooling is not broken, but it can be improved

Our schools and teachers do an incredible job in increasingly difficult circumstances. Though the costs of an independent education have sky-rocketed - which is a problem - traditional schools “do what we do well - and it really really works.” However, schooling hasn’t changed in almost 100 years, and the world is changing very quickly. Many schools are still preparing children, in Peter Hyman’s words, “for the middle of the twentieth century.” Employers are keen for change: the CBI has been complaining since the 1980s that our children leave school without the skills for the modern workplace. Our students learn how to pass tests well but rarely learn to think or learn for themselves (one reason why Sundar Pichai says that Google doesn’t often take students who have achieved all A grades). Advances in the use of IT and in the science of how children learn suggest that much can be improved. 

2. Schooling is currently too stressful 

Rates of anxiety and depression in teenagers have doubled in 30 years. We are in danger of producing “fragile thoroughbreds” instead of resilient and well-rounded young people. 

3. The main culprit is high-stakes assessment

High-stakes assessment is one reason for high levels of teenage anxiety, especially GCSE, which comes at a time when children are highly vulnerable. It is not just the fact that we assess, but how we assess. Why are we encouraging assessment that pits young people against each other, and at which a high percentage of candidates are said to have “failed”. There is a desperate need for novel forms of assessment, which test important skills such as collaboration and creativity. In fact, assessment is the most likely aspect of schooling to change. PISA is bringing in its tests on problem-solving and creative thinking; in the UK, ReThinking Assessment is looking at making significant changes to the UK assessment landscape.    

4. Reforms in schooling should not trash knowledge

Most teachers rightly believe in the value of teaching traditional knowledge. You can’t think well unless you know things, and it is not true that if something is on Google, you don't need to know it. 

5. Schools will increasingly encompass and value the whole person

The school of the future will re-prioritise the education of the whole child. It may look like innovation but in some ways is very old; the Ancients recognised the importance of character education in some ways better than we do. Rather than valuing academic achievement alone, schools will look to advance soft skills (such as creativity, resilience, making good social connections, learning how to fail etc) and self-knowledge. The Harvard Human Flourishing Programme is a good model of what might be coming. Recent research has shown how convincingly that such skills can actually be taught rather than be merely picked up from the environment. UK schools are well positioned to capitalise on this global re-prioritisation, which is being accelerated by advances in AI and automation. 

6. The future is bright 

Innovation is already happening: the pace of change is necessarily slow in education because children’s education should never be disrupted too radically. It should always be research-led so as not to fall prey to educational fads. Finland successfully carried out a total root-and-branch reform of its education. Eton, like many schools, has successfully piloted and rolled out a model of hybrid learning involving online lectures and independent research. Concept Education is launching an affordable boarding school that is adopting an innovative new education model borne out of what has been learned from the experience lockdown. Lexicon is launching a network of schools for the UK high street grounded in student-led project-based-learning, and inspired by Acton’s model in the US. They are just two of many schools in the UK, and across the world, that are answering the questions raised above in real entrepreneurial terms.