Future of Learning Top Reads for week of Feb 8 2021
“What Do We Know About the Implementation and Outcomes of Personalized, Competency-Based Learning? A Synthesis of Research from 2000 to 2019,” by the Aurora Institute, on the CompetencyWorks blog
“Assessment of student learning—one key element of CBE [competency based education]—was noticeably absent from most of the studies reviewed. The absence of this element is striking considering that determining competence is fundamentally an assessment decision. One hypothesis as to why more studies did not describe CBE with reference to assessment is that schools and teachers may not see assessment as part of the initial wave of implementing personalized, competency-based practices. Assessment may not be the primary focus of change efforts at the beginning of the work such that teachers continue to use previously established assessments to evaluate student competency.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
This is mind-boggling.
You cannot have competency-based education without designing backwards from assessments.
And competency-based (and its cousin mastery-based) learning will be essential to the future of learning.
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“How Digital Credentials Will Diminish Degrees,” by Ryan Craig, in the Gap Letter
“As evidenced by paper diplomas and transcripts, degrees remain resolutely analog. They track skills and capabilities in the same way an analog watch tracks time. As the hands sweep across the face of the watch, a watch isn’t measuring time. Rather, the movement is an analogy for the passage of time. In contrast, digital technology, if not actually measuring, articulates and encodes in discrete digits so that the information is easily assessed and transmitted.
“Digital credentials usually relate to a specific, tangible skill. Most have three key elements: portability, security, and metadata supporting the skill statement.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
Digital credentials strike us as inevitable—the questions is not if, but when.
Are you also betting on digital credentials? If so, what is your plan for pre-empting that disruption?
Or are you betting against digital credentials? In which case, what is your alternative vision of the future?
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“Your Next Boss: More Harmony, Less Authority,” by Kathryn Dill, in the Wall Street Journal
“This boss is a coach, not a dictator; a mentor, but not necessarily because of experience with sales or programming. Where previous leaders may have sought to stand out, these managers excel at fostering collaboration. It is possible they will be younger than you are, with less industry experience. […]
“The changing job description of a boss and increased expectations from workers means a different type of employee will be considered management material. Those with highly developed social abilities, including ‘the capacity to interact with an unfamiliar person effectively, good listening skills, real-time processing skills,’ will pull ahead, says Mr. Fuller. ‘Over time, this keeps gaining share relative to technical skills.’
“That means that how managers learn will need to change, too. Ms. Groeneveld says that while management training has traditionally focused on educating leaders to run the business, increasingly it needs to be geared toward training executives to manage through, and in some cases drive, rapid change.
“ ‘Everybody has a different level of comfort when it comes to undergoing change,’ says Ms. Groeneveld. Managers will need to ask themselves, ‘What can I do as a leader to make it a more or less positive experience?’ she says. ‘The tools it takes to achieve that are often the tools of a coach and less the tools of a commander’.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
As usual, what got you here won’t get you there.
A great teacher won’t necessarily make a great Department Chair or Assistant Head of School or Head of School.
That is, unless they can learn to evolve from being a great individual contributor to being a keen coach of others.
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