21st Century Learning and Teaching

Behavior changes in people doesn't just happen from one day to the next. Changes in this area takes time - and often, the motto: "You can´t teach an old dog new tricks" applies. Nevertheless - the situation is not hopeless and people are capable of change and are often willing to do so. You are likely to achieve the desired success, if you consider the following four "change levers":

Attitude & Motivation

Knowledge & Skills

Structures & Processes

Role Models & Culture

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=change

Being Conscious About Our Unconscious Biases

I attended a very interesting workshop a few weeks ago on the topic of “Unconscious Bias” facilitated by Smita Tharoor. I was interested in this topic because I explored the intersection of critical thinking and leadership a few years ago. This was a good opportunity to get back to the topic and add to my understanding.

What is Unconscious Bias
The term ‘cognitive bias’ was coined by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman in 1972 which quite simply means “our tendency to filter information, process facts and arrive at judgments based on our past experiences, likes/dislikes and automatic influences.”

How do these biases show up in Leadership?
A lot of leadership is about taking decisions involving group of people. Instinctive leaders often tend to decide quickly based on limited information or experience they have at hand. The result is that they end up taking wrong decisions (which may have worked for them in past but may not work in a different context), or discriminating with people of a certain color, race, sex or nationality based on their past experiences with similar people.  At work, biases (or the perception of bias) is the biggest contributor to people disengagement and cost of disengagement is huge. Lack of critical thinking also leads to short-termism where decisions are taken for immediate gains and solutions of today become thorny problems of tomorrow.

==============================================

Look for the contrary. It helps playing a devil’s advocate and taking a contrarian view of things. It not only challenges others to think harder but also helps you in really understanding if they are just defending their own biases.

==============================================

In common parlance, a devil's advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position they do not necessarily agree with (or simply an alternative position from the accepted norm), for the sake of debate or to explore the thought further.

==============================================

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=LeaderShip

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Devil%27s+advocate

During this time of significant educational change, we are forced to ask ourselves, what is the role of the teacher?

Teachers continue to be central to learning, but the role is changing significantly. Our children still need to develop real skills and real knowledge, but they also need to be self-reliant, resilient, and fully capable of re-inventing themselves. This means students must learn how to self-direct their learning.

So if students are self-directing their learning, what's the role of the teacher?

Teachers build the curriculum/lessons with the individual student based on his/her needs and interests rather than move through a fixed curriculum en masse.

Teachers provide the experiences and tools to access new knowledge in specific areas of interest as facilitators of individual pathways, rather than being a provider of the content or expert in one or every area,Teachers become experts in how people learn, not only in teaching.

Teachers support a community of learners in teams, possibly of multiple ages, rather than alone in classrooms with fixed grades of students.

Teachers have more autonomy over their daily schedule, and can be flexible to adjust their schedules to support student needs.

Teachers provide opportunities for real-world, connected, practical learning rather than isolated academics.
These are the types of changes in the teacher's role that are fundamental to developing students who are capable of independent learning and reinvention in a rapidly changing world.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/so-whats-the-change-for-teachers-in-21st-century-education/

Digitalisierung braucht Veränderungsbereitschaft

Der Begriff DIGITALISIERUNG polarisiert wie kaum ein anderer. Für die einen bietet sie enorme Chancen und für die anderen stellt sie ein großes Risiko dar. Neue Technologien sind der Hauptdarsteller der Digitalen Transformation, sie ermöglichen neue und/oder beschleunigen bestehende Geschäftsmodelle.

Die Bedürfnispyramide gewinnt im digitalen Zeitalter eine völlig neue Bedeutung. Die digitale Transformation treibt den sonst eher sicherheitsbedürftigen Menschen zur Pflichtveränderung mit ungewissem Ausgang.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/unlearning-the-old-relearning-learning-to-learn-howto/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/luxembourg-education-interviews-1-the-luxembourg-edu-system/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/so-whats-the-change-for-teachers-in-21st-century-education/

“But we’ve always done it that way” is the comfortable, regular, and normal barrier to enacting change.

And, our reluctance to change — in our personal and our professional lives — not only limits progress, it also prizes old ways of doing and being that, by design, were exclusive. When we rely on the ways we have always done it, likely we are also relying on our past efforts, and history on many fronts tells us that our past efforts weren’t the most inclusive or equitable.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2017/06/02/still-following-we-have-always-done-it-this-way-or-already-on-growth-mindset/

Advice from a CEO who grew a $20 million community bank into a $4 billion company.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=LeaderShip

Change Management is a process that should be included in the planning and delivery of a project from the very beginning. The full impact of change is often not taken into consideration in the development of project plans and this is a mistake.

Other times one needs to drive a behavioural changethat results in a project team being formed (Safety/Hygiene etc)