Education for the Future

Pedagogijska istraživanja, 2013

Proper planning of education in the light of the challenges of the future is not a simple task. education planned for those who are born in 2010 should enable them to have successful careers perhaps as far in the future as 2080. Short-term strategies thus initially fail. even more so as there is no strategy for the development of the country itself. The events of the second half of the 20 th century and the beginning of the 21 st century have utterly changed the assumptions for planning successful education for the following period. There are two segments of education that should be distinguished-formal education and lifelong learning. The notion of lifelong learning should primarily include education for performing new tasks that never existed during the period of formal education, such as the introduction of computers or microelectronics in the previous period. Reorganisation of the entire education system from the nursery school to doctoral studies is a far more difficult pursuit. In the area of formal education we should carry out maximal generalisation. Generalisation refers to a synthesiological and fully comprehensive approach with the aim of carrying out the identifying functions. These considerations are based on the results of my own research during the last quarter of the century. education is seen as an information system for which we should define a system of aims (non-existent) and determine an entry into that system. A particular problem with education as this system's environment and a base of a successful career is the fact that the world is becoming ever more virtual, cyber-oriented, extremely information-determined, robotical and avatarised. A sophisticated educational pyramid comprising seven levels is offered as an entry into the system of education. The first three levels, essential and invariable, are mathematics, physics and chemistry. A complete transformation is introduced on the fourth level, called general techniques, where biology is one of the essential although not sufficient conditions for successful teaching. The concept of general techniques requires the introduction of archaeology of nature (natural science) and archaeology of culture. everyone should be learning the materials the generalisation of which would benefit from a new systematisation and the study of production procedures irrespective of material type. A systematic theory is a powerful tool in this instance. everyone should be familiar with 6 basic techniques. The concept of general techniques development from the Big Bang to infinity significantly contributes to the predictions. The concept of humane cultural studies is explained. What is asked for is teaching from the perspective of transcendental human needs.

Let us have a glimpse of what has happened during the last 75 years in the most important branches of human activity. Life expectancy has increased from less than 45 to almost 80 . Medics are routinely making transplants of heart and other organs, several diseases have been eradicated by methods of genetic engineering (eradication of malaria, which used to cause 3 million deaths yearly, is due in near future). The power and ranges of weapons have increased thousands of times, creating a situation in which another world war is impossible, since the use of means of mass destruction on a global scale will cause the annihilation of the planet Earth.

Some Thoughts on Education for the Future, 2023

Education is undergoing a historic transformation. Throughout history, access to higher education has changed from being a privilege of birth or talent (elite phase) to becoming a property of those with specific qualifications (expert phase). Nowadays, a higher education diploma is required for most occupations, both now and in the future, while the boundaries of common knowledge continue expanding (universal phase). Nowadays, educators overwhelmingly recognize that new generations will need to rely on multidisciplinary knowledge to comprehend solutions to real problems. Furthermore, it is not sufficient to develop the motivational and self-guiding capacity of individuals. The collective future requires embedding an attitude amenable to knowledge sharing. The advances in information technology have brought us a plethora of means for accessing, classifying, storing, and displaying virtually any portion of the knowledge treasures, at the speed of magnetic waves. The digital myriad has soon enfolded the education sector along with the rest of the socio-economic domains. Technical barriers that obstruct the implementation of trends such as Problem/Project/Team-based Learning, Massive Open Online Courses, and Authentic Assessments have literally disappeared.

2019

The anthropological transformation we are undergoing shows the urgency of rethinking teaching and training, underlining the substantial inadequacy of our schools and universities in dealing with hypercomplexity, with the global extension of all political, social and cultural processes, with their indeterminateness, interdependence and interconnection. The idea that educational processes are questions of a purely technical and/or technological nature, solely a problem of skills and know-how, is a "great mistake" of the hypertechnological society, based on the illusion of being able to measure, simplify and quantify everything, to eliminate error and unpredictability, to achieve total control and rationality. It is necessary to rethink education radically because the extraordinary scientific discoveries and the dynamics of the new technologies have completely overturned the complex interaction between biological and cultural evolution, doing away with the borders between the natural and the artificial, leading us not towards simplification, but in quite the opposite direction. 1. The Tyranny of Concreteness In the field of social research, many academicians, like the writer of this article, give lectures from time to time in classes organized for managers, executives, public administrators, institutional figures, scholastic directors and teachers. Taking into account the subtle differences and peculiarities in each case, one cannot help remarking that all of these professional figures appear to have one thing in common. Along with their curiosity for new potentials, trends and updates, nearly all of them seem to be obsessed with "concreteness", for the "how to do", limiting their interest exclusively to "the solutions". There are also, of course, exceptions to this phenomenon, but exceptions they nevertheless remain; in general, the requests are for "concreteness" and "facts", as though continually repeating these demands could in some way prove reassuring. Yet at a certain point, it begins to dawn on them-on us-that there is a strategic value to analysis and praxis, whatever the field: to thought, to thinking, to theory and theories, to a different way of looking at reality. To a different approach to the issues, and in general, to the unpredictability of social and human relations, to the complex and systemic relationship between people. Even so, we seem not to have grasped the concept that if we continue to carry on as we always have, using the same procedures, laboring under the illusion of achieving total predictability and control, it will never be possible to bring about any kind of change, and coping with risk, uncertainty and vulnerability will become ever more difficult. What, then, has become of the CADMUS

Futures, 1974

2020

A rapid change in technology is creating pressure on education to meet employment needs. Two overarching points are discussed in this article: first, rather than fearing the robotization of humans we should humanize technology to serve humanity and second, any educational reform must be contextualized: in particular social and cultural traditions, values and worldviews, considering the population size, demographics and special developmental challenges, instead of introducing “one size-fits-all” models. It concludes with thoughts about the current Coronavirus crisis and what it tells us about current global leadership, modes of governance, and the nature of education. The question is raised whether emphasis should be on activism or science. Are we better off with building minds or building skills in response to technological advances? The current crisis levels the global field of political and military dominance since the virus crosses borders and transcends dominance. The people are...

In face of the epochal and lasting changes with regard to earth’s ecosystem, among other things, both the modern understanding of an open future and the intergenerational fabric of society is put into question—and with it our understanding of education. By assessing the basic problem of any emergency pedagogy for the endangered future, this paper is pointing out that these developments will have to lead to a fundamentally different way of thinking about education. Especially in view of the urgency needed because of the limited time left to prevent the worst consequences of human impact on our habitat, it is questionable whether the time frame of education and the modern emphasis on emancipation can be fitted into that.

The Love of Knowledge, the growing curiosity in learning always, the prize of insight, the "aha!", the reward of persistent inquiry, the discovery of the body, its changes and reactions, the admiration of light, sun, flowers, colors, and greenery, the movements of tiny or potent animals. The Knowledge of Tradition, where we came from, the parents, the grandparents, the locals. Those who know how to plant, those who sing, who weave and those who build and build. Those of the offices or of the trips, of the stores, warehouses or supermarkets. Those who plant and sing, those who advocate and play football, those who work in three jobs: barber shop, taxi, and internet sales, microentrepreneurs. The discoveries of the origins, the stars, the suns, stars that no longer sparkle in our night. The origin of the planet, terrestrial life, species and a species that has come to be known over time. Gradually, a little of the vastness that only by announcing itself already stimulates us to unravel more, to draw new scenarios, to search for ways to inquire as children and to be practical as they are when they are free to experiment. Belonging to the evolution of life and the history of the world. The people, the nations, the

In recent years there has been much discussion around the essential inadequacy of the dominant educational regime in preparing children to meet the challenges of an uncertain future. Critiques offered by many scholars (e.g. Ivan Illich, Neil Postman, Joe Kincheloe, J.T. Gatto, and Matt Hern) have exposed the historical roots of the entrenched system and elucidated the ways in which it is radically out of sync with contemporary social systems; furthermore, the media has noticed that