Author: Dr. Manisha Mehta, Head of IB Diploma Program, GD Goenka World School.
The world is constantly transforming and the young generation is going to usher in a new era of change. There is a need to develop a learning attitude in them so that they can adapt to change as technology and science progress. A particular subject content or knowledge is bound to become obsolete with the passage of time but the skill sets we instil in children will remain with them and endure in the future.
The problem-solving skills, reasoning skills,interpretation skills, creative skills, social skills, and self management skills are definitely more important than the knowledge and content of subjects in sustaining success in one’s life. It is the emotional intelligence – developed through self-awareness, empathy, handling of relationships, self- motivation, and resilience that helps children remain afloat all through their life, enabling them to lead a balanced and successful one, whereas the intelligence quotient may be just important for clearing an exam, wriggling out of a bad situation.
To develop skillsets in students we need to engage in more interdisciplinary activities. Engage with real-world problems and not just confine to individual subjects.For example, the IBDP students organized a Ted Exevent during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 10 renowned speakers and over 200 participants which resulted in the can explore. We change our education to more context-driven and skill-based learning. The assessment system also requires an overhaul. In the last few years, the assessment methodology changed from face-to-face to online and the assessment for cheating and not for learning was the result.
Developing better proctoring and using artificial intelligence and specially designed software to avoid cheating/malpractice were tried. No viva voce after exams were done to check authenticity. Developing robust methods to cater to online assessment methods will take time. During Covid, different methodologies were adopted by different schools like open book exams, individual assessments, and multiple question
papers. Thus, trying to vary the formats of assessments keeps students studying throughout the year and assessors also gain a critical understanding of their learning style.
The Educational Objectives that should be given more weightage are creativity and evaluation skills which are developing higher-order thinking skills. More emphasis on case studies and transferring skills to a newer real life situation needs to be done. Students need to be assessed for their learning holistically by assigning weights to short-term and long-term tasks and to project and case-based learning to supplement the usual written tests/exams. We need to learn to look at assessments as a process for improving the quality of our teaching.
