Fostering Entrepreneurship in Schools
Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made? is a question prominently placed on the website of my bank. Whenever I need to make any online payments, my head is literally forced to scroll over it. By asking this question my bank follows suit in mythicizing the entrepreneur. I assume it wants to come across as an instance that […]
Ten Ideas to Fight Summer Boredom
To some, such as American musician Brian Wilson, “summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.” To children freshly released from schools, summertime could also mean chronic boredom, interrupted only by a few days of camp here and there. What do they do with the […]
How Chengdu Schools Do Innovation
Sichuan province’s capital Chengdu is a sprawling flat city of ten million ringed in by misty mountains and lotus blossom ponds. It is a two and a half hour flight southwest of Beijing, and it sits on the edge of Chinese civilization, the entry point into the mystic mountains of Tibet and beyond. For thousands […]
Ten Common Myths about Educational Innovations
As we read articles or attend conferences about educational innovation, we find sayings loaded with assumptions which may have been circulating for years without being further examined. Let me start with my top ten list, as an instructional designer and educational technologist, and I hope this can sparkle some thoughts about similar myths you might […]
What Effective Teachers and Successful Entrepreneurs Have in Common
Starting a company is not easy. Building something out of nothing requires effort, grit, and resilience. Successful entrepreneurs have a thick skin, are able to turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’, and can see a golden opportunity in something that others consider a dead-end. It is accepted without question that success as an entrepreneur comes […]
China’s New Normal Requires a New Education
This article is adapted from a special address given by Dr. Yong Zhao at the Xinhuanet Thinker Conference in December 2014. Read the original address in Chinese. Innovation is the new fuel for China’s future growth. The world’s second largest economy is in great need of innovative talents, and thus an innovative education system. The most […]
Alice Albright “We can’t afford not to invest in education”
To some, the billions of dollars in aid the international community spends to improve education in developing countries seems like a staggeringly expensive commitment of resources, even when spread over millions of children who benefit from this critical support for many years ahead. But from a different perspective, it’s quite an economical investment, much less […]
Tony Wagner: “How Do We Develop Young People to Become Innovators?”
In the past, our country has produced innovators more by accident than by design. Rarely do entrepreneurs or innovators talk about how their schooling or their places of work — or even their parents — developed their talents or encouraged their aspirations. Three of the most innovative entrepreneurs of the last half century — Edwin […]
Make Sustainable Development an Integral Part of Curriculum
This is article 3 of 4 in our special focus on education’s impact on development and why the new development goals must go further to ensure that all children have access to quality basic and secondary education. This special focus is co-produced by Global Partnership for Education. The phrase “Education for Sustainable Development” was coined by […]
Scott Isbrandt: “We would like to see youth in Mali gain entrepreneurial skills”
The Mali Support to Youth Entrepreneurs Project (known also by its French name Projet d’Appui aux Jeunes Entrepreneurs or PAJE-Nièta) accompanies out-of-school youth on the path to becoming more educated, economically productive, and civically engaged in their communities. The PAJE-Nièta program aims to provide 12,000 rural out-of-school youths with improved basic education, work readiness and […]