Preparing Learners for Unknown Futures: What Should Their (Quality) Teachers Know and Be Able to Do?

Abstract

What does it meant to teach? What does it mean to learn?...not just for the here and now but also for a murky and far distant tomorrow we cannot yet envisage or fathom? It certainly is commonplace across the world, to talk about preparing teachers for the 21st century or teaching 21st century skills and competences. But what might be competences or knowledges that are fundamental and enduring, such that they can serve society long beyond the 21st century? In what ways might we need to think differently about what we now define as learning or worthwhile knowing? And consequently, what would we need to teach—and how—to prepare young people for the unknown, but inevitable, future? In this presentation, I will first talk about dominant modes of teaching and typical perceptions of learning that remain entrenched despite education reform that is and has been ongoing around the world. I then suggest five domains of knowledge that can help us think anew—renew—knowledge and competences for teachers as well as learners, and can potentially, in turn, enable us to reimagine teaching and learning. I will then hone in on teacher preparation, given wide acceptance that teachers are essential to student achievement and that quality teachers produce quality outcomes. Many current reform efforts in education are focused on teachers—their preparation, re-tooling and upgrading, professional development, and assessment. Given different ways of thinking about teaching and learning, how should teacher preparation and schools of education change? I turn to an international study of seven high performing systems to offer key lessons for reforming the teaching profession in ways that can support, nurture and sustain the creative, thinking, agentic professionals we need, not just for the 21st century but for the 31st and beyond into the future.