Too often, education systems emphasize compliance and competition instead of mastery and collaboration. What would happen if education was focused more often on meaningful problem solving and relevant contribution?
Most of our current education systems were designed during the Industrial Era. Education that emphasized compliance and competition supported the needs of industry. These systems no longer serve us, yet they remain widespread. Consider any school where students must obey teachers for six hours or where students are ranked, publicly, according to achievement on exams.
Within this outdated education system, too many people struggle to find meaning and relevance, which leads to lower engagement in learning. People do not learn enough about the things that really matter to them. We know that the industrial education system is ineffective whenever we hear that organizations struggle to find people who are prepared to contribute. We know that the industrial education system is ineffective whenever we hear people say that they struggled at school.
People want to learn and to develop their unique talents. People want to contribute to meaningful projects and to solve relevant problems. We can re-orient our education system toward meaning and relevance by applying principles of mastery, collaboration, and project-based learning.
We can make education more meaningful and relevant by addressing real problems and engaging in real projects. Problems don’t have to be big to be relevant. If someone wants to participate in a project, then that’s enough relevance to start. Problem solving is a habit. When someone solves a problem, they are likely to seek a more challenging one.
Education should not treat any problem as “too big”. To do so is to abandon relevance and lose student engagement before we start. When all problems are up for grabs, and there is a broader operating system that makes it possible to solve big problems, then a whole new class of educational experiences can open up.
At the same time, it is insufficient only to change what we teach. We must also address the way that educational content is delivered. Self-advancement and relationships are inherently meaningful and relevant to learners. That’s why education systems emphasizing mastery and collaboration over compliance and competition are more meaningful and relevant to students.
If we want to move away from compliance and toward mastery, then we can’t settle for insisting that students obey teachers, or sit through lectures. We can’t turn to online surveillance practices like making sure that a video played in a student’s web browser. Instead, we must create relevant projects, experiences, and spaces where students have meaningful experiences.