For the second year, Indiana executives have said that educational outcomes – especially in K-12 – have to improve for the state to grow economically. They call for an “accountable” education system that will address problems they see in their current employees, a system that teaches “how to think through problems” and “work together” as well as “what the requirements of the 21st Century workforce are.”
Business writer Daniel Pink suggests that the U.S. economy is moving into a new era, in which survival will depend on being able to do something that automation can’t do faster, that overseas labor — from factory workers to software developers — can’t do cheaper, and that touches consumers’ desire for products beyond the functional and affordable items now readily available.
We see evidence of these changes in Indiana. They are leading, Pink says, to a future that will belong to those trained to use their whole minds, both their logical, analytical abilities and their human capacities for imagination, empathy, and discerning purpose in life. They will design not just new products, but also new business processes. They will be managers and team leaders who can synthesize “big pictures” of how resources and people best work together.
Such “big picture” ideas must have transparent and broadly beneficial motives if they are to be trusted and followed. Education preparing workers for such a “conceptual age” will make instilling integrity, honesty, and caring about the good of others a primary goal. In light of the recent financial disasters on Wall Street, it reasons that business must also learn to be held accountable. Perhaps we are moving into an era where accountability is a mutual expectation between business and education.
How else will education change to prepare our children for this future?
Education must start with babies and toddlers, who have the capacity to learn words, patterns, colors, even counting and letters. Currently, too many Hoosier children arrive at kindergarten without these basic skills and are under prepared to learn.
Education must understand and work with different children’s ways of learning, be it through visual cues, reading, hearing, or movement, in order to fully engage them in learning. Assessment of learning must also change dramatically. Current assessment instruments — predominantly standardized tests — have a narrow focus on left-brain dominant thinking and neglect other important intelligence areas. To full engage all learners, we simply must teach and assess in new ways.
Some great examples of inclusive education can be witnessed at the Warren Township, Lawrence Townships and St. Mary’s early childhood centers here in Indianapolis. Butler has worked with these schools to incorporate world-respected Reggio Emilia early learning concepts, and will help bring a public exhibition on this method to Indianapolis in 2009.
Children today grow up communicating and gathering information through electronic and online resources. Educators miss a great opportunity to engage students if they resist using this technology in the classroom. In recent years, Butler’s College of Education has integrated curriculum on digital teaching resources into its introductory learning theory courses and has worked with teachers in several Indiana school districts to increase their technology comfort level.
One of our students used her combined knowledge of new technology and educational trends to compile a searchable database of “Best Practice” work instructions for a quality control service. That database helps guide field inspectors for the company’s more than 30 offices nationwide.
This points out another educational and business shift to consider. Many “State of Our Business” survey respondents said they want to improve the state educational system by offering internships and professional mentoring. But are the executives looking beyond the narrow boundaries of a student’s major to select their interns and employees?
While Butler actively seeks experiential learning opportunities in which students can apply their knowledge in real world settings, we do not see internships as grooming employees to specific corporate expectations. In a world where a third of our graduates might well work at jobs that don’t yet exist, we are committed to helping students develop the full range of their human talents, their minds, their aesthetic sensibilities and their capacity to relate to and serve others.
Individuals given the freedom to break out of disciplinary silos and linear “one-right-answer” thinking, who can bring together human resources as well as data to synthesize fresh, big picture applications, will be the leaders in the next era of the American and Indiana economies.
BACK TO MEDIA COVERAGE
