Should Happiness be the Aim of Education?
If you ask education experts what the purpose of education is, three main goals tend to stand out: 1) to prepare individuals to be active citizens in their communities and foster social cohesion; 2) to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills necessary for the economy and, ultimately, to a society’s development; 3) to […]
Career Guidance: Empowering Those With Special Needs
It is necessary for modern societies to embrace and include their special needs citizens. In line with Qatar National Vision 2030, the empowerment and integration of people with special abilities in society are currently one of Qatar’s main socio-educational priorities. This is achieved through the development of specific programs that cater to their needs, protect their rights, […]
How Museums can Contribute to a Journey of Discovery and Learning
If men were angels, wrote James Madison, no government would be necessary. To which I would add: If schools were perfect, no museums would be necessary. Regrettably, our educational system is less than perfect, and museums play a crucial role in the education of the communities they serve. As you read this, construction continues […]
Imagine a World where Students are Taught to be Citizens First
lbert Einstein wrote, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” In the early 1970’s, I joined my fellow Chicago educators in establishing a co-op school called Ujima for our children. The term ‘Ujima’ is a key principle of Kwanzaa, […]
Can Innovations Help Leapfrog Progress in Education?
Innovative is the new normal. Every sector, from banking to transportation is seeing rapid change as new technologies, connections, and ideas modernize and revolutionize our day-to-day lives. Education is no exception: the way we learn is changing, from collaborative multi-grade projects in elementary school to vocational training in high schools to online tutorial videos for […]
Imagine if Learning Were Creating — Computational Thinking in Primary School
Imagine a learning environment designed to prepare our children, from their first introduction to school, to be inventors, designers and creative thinkers using all the tools at their disposal, including computers. How do we create such an environment? What ideas, models and tools would promote this type of learning? For students, but also for […]
Preparing Today’s Youth for Today’s Challenges
Please, stop telling young people they are the future. The scene could have been any school assembly at any school in the world. A group of restless young people listening to a suited speaker explaining how they are the future. How some day, they will “change the world.” If they just work hard enough, […]
Power Skills: Preparing Students for the Future of Work
\ In a global study carried out by McKinsey & Company, 72% of deans and university leaders said they prepare their graduates for the workforce. In contrast, only 42% of employers and 44% of students thought the same (Mourshed et al. 2013). The mismatch between universities and the world of work is real and it […]
Bringing the Scientific Method to the Classroom
Context Hundreds of millions of children are in schools and are not learning much. There are lots of plausible reasons for that: failed policies, resource shortages and substandard management being some of them. But what about what actually happens inside the classroom – the actual 40-minute experience an 8th grade child has in her Science […]
Unlocking the Educational Potential of the 3.5 Billion Still Offline
There are still 3.5 billion offline in the world today, 75% of which are distributed in just 20 countries, most of them disproportionately rural, female, poor and illiterate. The problem is, these countries with the least internet access are the same ones with the least access to quality education in general, including fewer qualified […]