As I prepare for interviews at international schools, I reflect on my practice from an existential perspective. For example, a few weeks ago I was contemplating why does a Grade 5 student learn? I had a bunch of thoughts about this, but the one that mattered most was how I chose to see it, which is:
Students go to school to learn new and wonderful things and to be loved and accepted by their peers and teachers.
I say it matters most because as teachers, how we see our students matters more than any other aspect of education. I would argue that seeing our students this way will lead them to trust us to help them become whatever they want to become. I think that all of our students just want to be seen, and heard – moreover, they want to be useful.
This got me thinking about what skills will students need when they leave school? Who determines this skills? What research have they done about these skills? What research have curriculum creators such as the IB or the ICA done to support their own curriculum setting? Is their research peer-reviewed and so on? To be honest I have more questions than answers. However, I have begun my own research which led me to a paper from the OECD (2019), which then led me to develop this summary document of skills we will need in 2030.
