Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

With the rise of the global economy comes a constant flow ofmoney, goods and services between cities and across borders.International mobility and migration are redefining populationsand diversifying communities while telecommunications, media,and the internet continue to revolutionize how we perceive theworld, consume information and interact with others. Takentogether, this creates a dynamic culture of complexity that thechildren of today must learn to navigate if they are to succeed.Education must leverage diversity and differences amongindividuals into opportunities for greater achievement. Its challengeis to adjust existing structures to better serve students ofunique cultural backgrounds, talents, and intelligences. A successfuleducation system in the future will be defined by howwell it handles diversity and promotes all students to participateand thrive.At the core of this challenge is the transition from a monolithic,institutional definition of education to a more holisticunderstanding of learning. Today’s classrooms must evolveand expand into more comprehensive and adaptable learningenvironments, reaching more students more effectively. Furthermore,classrooms must be seen as only one of many venuesfor learning. Doing so will only increase the value education candeliver amid this emerging cultural and economic landscape.Education cannot afford to become complacent nor remainstatic.Discrete skills such as reading, writing and arithmetic mustnow be complimented by fuzzy competencies such as the abilityto deal with uncertainty, communicate across cultures, andintegrate disparate kinds of expertise. Students must learn tonavigate faster-paced and more fluid work environments, wherecreative problem solving and flexibility are not only valued buthighly rewarded.The dynamics of change and diversification have complicatedthe pathways to employment and success in life. In thelast century, education was developed to meet students’ curricularneeds for the industrial age. Now that we have entereda new era, education systems have not yet to fully adapted tothe pressures of the new economy and an emerging, more challengingmarket.143