21 - Colegio NUEVA GRANADA

Colegio NUEVA GRANADA December 2012
20
eEducation helps to bridge the gap between the past and the future.
However, with the exponential increase of information in
the XXI century, we are uncertain as to what the future will be like
in a fast paced changing world, and therefore, how to best prepare
our students. How do we prepare people for careers that do not yet
exist? What we do know is that the fast proliferation of information
implies that learning is no longer from Kinder to 12th grade.
Today, learning needs to be life-long. In Postman’s (1985) words,
this leaves us with two major schooling problems: an engineering
problem and a metaphysical problem.
The engineering problem is a pedagogical one and it refers to how
people learn and how we should teach. Today, when there is no
time for improvisation, we are lucky to have a wealth of knowledge
regarding instructional strategies that are research-based
and best practice. Two state-of-the-art examples, just to mention a
few, are Pickering, Pollock, and Marzano’s (2001) Nine Instructional
Strategies and the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (Pearson
and Gallagher, 1983). Nevertheless, the digital revolution has challenged
the way we teach and learn, and furthermore, what it
means to be literate. Nowadays, digital media is fundamental for
participation in society. It is also a fact that computers are creating
the new job market. The division of labor is currently determined
by what is being done by humans and which by machines. The
good news about the use of technology in education is that it is
a powerful tool that makes Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
by: Liliana Borrero
Schools of Excellence Coordinator
Marzano, R.J., Pickering, D.J. y Pollock, J.E. (2001) Classroom
Instruction that Works. Alexandria, ASCD.
Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C. (1983). The instruction of reading
comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8,
317–344.
Perkins, D. (2012). Professor and presenter at The Future of
Learning, Summer Institute (Harvard Graduate School of
Education).
Postman, N. (1985). The End of Education: Redefining the Value
of School. Knopf.
a more feasible reality. Technology allows us to differentiate and
individualize teaching so that all students can have equitable and
challenging opportunities to access the curriculum and achieve
learning expectations.
The metaphysical problem refers to the mission of education. This
problem inexorably leads us to try and answer the essential question
of: What is worth learning? Experts in the field of education
have attempted to answer this by determining what is worth
learning in the 21st century. The most salient 21st century skills are:
creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, problem
solving, learning to learn, systems thinking, and leadership. “These
are life worthy skills because they are learnings that are likely to
matter to the lives learners are likely to live” (Perkins, 2012).
Schools of Excellence is AdvancED’s new protocol for top-performing
schools. This protocol is based on five standards and a total of
thirty- three quality indicators that are reflective of current pedagogy
and best practice. CNG’s adoption of the Schools of Excellence
protocol will allow us to tackle the two schooling problems mentioned
above. The robust standards shed light as to how teaching
and learning look like in effective school systems, and also, provide
a framework to determine what matters most for student learning.
Schools of Excellence will let us learn from the past and honored
tradition, so that we can best inform the visionary future of
our students beyond the walls of CNG.
schools of
excellence
the future of learning