International Baccalaureate Organisation Chief Examiners Meeting 2007 Before

International Baccalaureate Organisation Chief Examiners’ Meeting 2007 “Before the lights begin to dim…” where have all the storytellers gone? ” John Abbott President, The 21 st Century Learning Initiative Supporting documentation for this discussion can be downloaded from the Initiative’s Website : www. 21 learn. org Email: mail@21 learn. org UK contacts: jabbott@rmplc. co. uk Telephone: +44 (0) 1225 333376 Fax: +44 (0) 1225 339133 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org The Angel Hotel, Cardiff 20 th October 2007 1

“If civilisation is to survive it must live on the interest, not the capital, of nature. Ecological markers suggest that in the early 1960’s, humans were using 70% of nature’s yearly output; by the early 1980’s we’d reached 100%; and in 1999 we were at 125%. Ronald Wright A Short History of Progress 2004 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 2

To remain a pupil is to serve your teacher badly. Friedrich Nietzche 1844 - 1900 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 3

“How the well-being of British children compares” Unicef used six categories to judge young people in 21 countries Dimensions of child well -being Average ranking position (all dimensions) The Independent 14/02/07 Dimension 1 poverty and inequality Dimension 2 Health and safety Dimension 3 Education Dimension 4 Family and friendships Dimension 5 Sex, Drink, drugs Dimension 6 Happiness Netherlands 4. 2 10 2 6 3 3 1 Sweden 5. 0 1 1 5 15 1 7 Denmark 7. 2 4 4 8 9 6 12 Finland 7. 5 3 3 4 17 7 11 Spain 8. 0 12 6 15 8 5 2 Switzerland 8. 3 5 9 14 4 12 6 Norway 8. 7 2 8 11 10 13 8 Italy 10. 0 14 5 20 1 10 10 Ireland 10. 2 19 19 7 7 4 5 Belgium 10. 7 7 16 1 5 19 16 Germany 11. 2 13 11 10 13 11 9 Canada 11. 8 6 13 2 18 17 15 Greece 11. 8 15 18 16 11 8 3 Poland 12. 3 21 15 3 14 2 19 Czech republic 12. 5 11 10 9 19 9 17 France 13. 0 9 7 18 12 14 18 Portugal 13. 7 16 14 21 2 15 14 Austria 13. 8 8 20 19 16 16 4 Hungry 14. 5 20 17 13 6 18 13 United States 18. 0 17 21 12 20 20 - United Kingdom 18. 2 18 12 17 21 21 20 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 4

“Affluenza” by Oliver James, Vermillion 2007 Definition: “Affluenza, a contagious middle-class virus causing depression, anxiety, addiction and enui” An epidemic of ‘affluenza’ is sweeping through the Englishspeaking world — an obsessive, envious, keeping-up-withthe-Jones — that makes us twice as prone to depression, anxiety and addictions than people in other developed nations. And now we are infecting the rest of the word with this virulent virus. In this colourful and eloquent account, James reveals how issues like consumerism, raising children, appearances, property fever and the battle of the sexes vary across societies with different governments, values, beliefs and traditions. And in doing so, leads us to an unavoidable and potentially life-changing conclusion: that to ensure our mental health we can and must pursue our needs rather than our wants. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 5

Half of the 5 -year-olds starting school lack the speaking and listening skills needed to cope in the classroom. . . "A cultural change means that parents no longer believed conversation was essential to their children's development, " said Alan Wells, Director of the Basic Skills Agency. Describing family communication as "the daily grunt", Mr. Wells went on to say, "There is an ethos (among parents) which says 'don't worry, schools will do it all for you'". The Independent 4 th March 2003 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 6

You can't bring up children to be intelligent in a world that is not intelligible to them. Streets that are unsafe for children to play in are as much a measure of failed educational policy as are burnt out teachers and decaying classrooms. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 7

The human race is the planet’s pre-eminent learning species – it is our brains that give us our superiority, not our muscles. Why, therefore, do we have a “crisis” in education? What has gone wrong? In our search for new ideas, what lessons from our past might we have forgotten? The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 8

The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 9

“Learning is a consequence of thinking” The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 10

Purpose Statement The 21 st Century Learning Initiative's essential purpose is to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning that draw upon a range of insights into the human brain, the functioning of human societies, and learning as a self-organizing activity. We believe this will release human potential in ways that nurture and form democratic communities worldwide, and will help reclaim and sustain a world supportive of human endeavour. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 11

“Learning about Human Learning” — The emergence of a new Synthesis Drawn from several disciplines 1) Philosophy, and later pedagogy 2) Evolutionary Theory 3) Psychology (Behaviourism) 4) Cognitive Science (Metacognition) 5) Neurobiology 6) Evolutionary Psychology 7) Values (philosophy, purpose); Nature via Nurture The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 12

Our bodies and minds are not of recent origin. They are the direct consequence of millions of years of surviving in Africa and adapting to the dramatic changes this continent has seen in the course of the last five million years. Africa has shaped not only our physical bodies, but the societies within which we live. The way we interact today at a social and cultural level is in many ways the result of organisational skills developed by our hominid ancestors in Africa over millions of years. Cradle of Humankind Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee R. Berger, South Africa, 2002 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 13

The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 14

Are teenagers Necessary? Modern society seems to have moved, without skipping a beat, from blaming our parents for the ills of society, to blaming our children. For most of our history, the labours of young people in their teens was too important to be sacrificed – ‘schooling’ for teenagers remained a minority activity until well into the twentieth century. In fact teenagers can be seen to be an invention of the Machine Age. It was Roosevelt’s solution to the Depression years to take teenagers out of the jobs that could be done by formerly unemployed family men by requiring all early teenagers to attend High School. “But, for very many youngsters, High School, which virtually defines the rise of the teenagers, is hardly an exalted place”. “The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager” Thomas Hine, page 1 -9 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 15

Adolescence and Apprenticeship forms of learning Thomas Hine writing in 1999 on the rise and fall of the American teenager noted, “the principle reason high schools now enroll nearly all teenagers is that we can’t imagine what else to do with them. ” That is a shocking conclusion by a man who spent years studying the issue. Modern society, by being so concerned for the well being of adults tries desperately to ignore the adolescents’ need to explore and do things for themselves, by giving them ever more to do in school. It is as if modern society is trying to outlaw adolescence by over schooling children. That is not education. There is a frightening manmade hole in the desirable experience for adolescence - there are simply not enough opportunities for them to learn from doing things for themselves in a modern society. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 16

Crazy by Design We have suspected that there is something going on in the brain of the adolescent, apparently involuntarily, that is forcing apart the child/parent relationship. What neurologists are discovering challenges the conventional belief held until only a year or so ago, that brain formation is largely completed by the age of twelve. Adolescence is a period of profound structural change, in fact “the changes taking place in the brain during adolescence are so profound, they may rival early childhood as a critical period of development”, wrote Barbara Strauch in 2003. “The teenage brain, far from being readymade, undergoes a period of surprisingly complex and crucial development. ” The adolescent brain, she suggests, “is crazy by design. ” The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 17

DON'T FENCE ME IN (Cole Porter) Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies, Don't fence me in Let me ride through the wide open country that I love, Don't fence me in Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees Send me off forever but I ask you please, Don't fence me in Just turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle Underneath the western skies On my Cayuse, let me wander over yonder Till I see the mountains rise I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences And gaze at the moon till I lose my senses And I can't look at hovels and I can't stand fences Don't fence me in, no Pop, oh don't you fence me in The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 18

Adolescence From the earliest of times the progression from dependent child to autonomous adult has been an issue of critical importance to all societies. The adolescent brain, being “crazy by design, ” could be a critical evolutionary adaptation that has built up over countless generations, and is essential to our species’ survival. It is adolescence that drives human development by forcing young people in every generation to think beyond their own self-imposed limitations and exceed their parents’ aspirations. These neurological changes in the young brain as it transforms itself means that adolescents have evolved to be apprentice-like learners, not pupils sitting at desks awaiting instruction. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 19

The Journey of Man: a genetic odyssey “Today we are in many ways the same Palaeolithic species that left Africa only 2, 000 generations ago, with the same drive and foibles”. Spencer Wells (2002) - There were no modern humans living outside central Africa until at least 60, 000 years ago - Grandmothers (and the menopause) facilitated the learning skills of young children when parents were working - Our distant ancestors reached India 50, 000 years ago, Thailand 40, 000 years ago, northern Europe 25, 000 years ago and Tierra del Fuego 10, 000 years ago. … They were “traveling” at a speed of about 3 or 4 miles in every generation; life was a constant struggle, but there were always ‘pastures new’ beyond the next mountains. (The oldest remains in Jericho are over 8, 500 years old). There were possibly 10 million humans when settled agriculture started 10, 000 years ago, 400 million two hundred years ago; there are now 6. 5 billion Before the Dawn; recovering the lost history of our ancestors Nicholas Wade, 2006 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 20

Cognitive Apprenticeship 1. Modeling 2. Scaffolding 3. Fading 4. Discussion. . . a way of "going beyond what comes naturally". A form of intellectual weaning that balances the rate of physical maturation. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 21

Tell me, and I forget; show me, and I remember; let me do and I understand. Chinese Proverb The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 22

Upside Down and Inside Out A possible description of the assumption we have inherited about systems of learning, namely, that older students should be taken more seriously than younger students and that the only learning that really matters is that which is formal. This presentation will call for these assumptions to be reversed in the light of modern understanding about how humans learn. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 23

Intellectual Weaning (“Do it yourself”) Subsidiarity: It is wrong for a superior body to retain the right to make decisions that an inferior body is already able to make for itself. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 24

“Much to my surprise I can’t really fault your theory. You are probably educationally right; certainly your argument is ethically correct. But the system you’re arguing for would require very good teachers. We’re not convinced that there will ever be enough good teachers. So, instead, we’re going for a teacher-proof system of organising schools ─ that way we can get a uniform standard. ” Verbatim report of conclusions of presentation made to the Policy Unit at downing Street in March 1996 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 25

Opening Minds ─ Unlocking Futures? “We are not blind! We are men and women with eyes and brains… and we don’t have to be driven hither and thither by the blind workings of The Market, or of History, or of Progress, or of any other abstraction. ” Fritz Schumacher “Small is Beautiful; Economics as if People Mattered, 1973 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 26

There aren’t any great people out there anymore – there’s only us. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 27

Five Minds for the Future • • • The Disciplinary Mind The Synthesizing Mind The Creating Mind The Respectful Mind The Ethical Mind Howard Gardner, 2006 The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 28

"This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities. "We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realising that. This enables us to do something, and enables us to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end result, but that is the difference between the master builder, and the worker. "We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not Messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. " The last prayer of Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of San Salvador, just before he was murdered on the steps if his cathedral. The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 29

For further information: Web www. 21 learn. org Email@21 learn. org The 21 st Century Learning Initiative www. 21 learn. org 30