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Looking globally: the future of education
Looking globally: the future of education

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

4 What needs to change?

You have studied many different ideas in this course, all with the purpose of helping you think about what education for the next generation will look like and what steps will need to be taken soon to begin to achieve that.

Activity 4 An education system fit for the next generation

Timing: Allow approximately 60 minutes

To complete this reflective activity designed to maximise your learning from this course, you will need to return to the mind map you created in Week 1 Activity 7, and then follow these steps:

  1. Either create a new mind map or add to your original one with ideas that you now have about what needs to change in the educational system you are most familiar with to prepare the next generation of children for the possible futures they may face.
  2. Add a second layer to your mind map (in a different colour) giving your reasons why you think these changes are necessary.
  3. Now create a third layer of ideas in your mind map (in a third colour) recording the changes that must be made to the education system you know best so that it more closely resembles an education system you feel is ‘fit’ for the next generation.

In your final activity for this course you will bring together the thinking you have done over the last three activities to help you articulate your own personal values for education.

Activity 5 Bringing your ideas together

Timing: Allow approximately 60 minutes

In the course forum [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   write a summative statement of about 200 words starting: ‘The values that I hold about education are … ’

In this instance, a value reflects the worth or importance a person attaches to something; our values are often reflected in the way we live our lives or act in our professional career.

To answer the question, think about the ideas and values that have been discussed that you see as important enough that you would be uncomfortable working in a system that did not accommodate them. They may, for example, be that an education system should do one of the following:

  • prepare young people for economic success in their lives and careers, from the human capital model
  • give every young person, regardless of gender, religion or ability, the right to a quality education, from the rights model
  • prepare young people to have the ability to choose what sustainable success looks like for them in their lives, from the ideas on demographic issues and the capabilities model.

Remember that you need to add at least 3 posts to the forum in order to gain your badge.

Please note: we may wish to reuse your course forum contributions, anonymously, in future sessions of this course. If you wish to opt out of this, email WELS-ECYS-Masters@open.ac.uk.