Why educators must change approach: Here’s how Laiser Hill Academy is doing it
Sponsored by Laiser Hill Academy
By Manraj Pallan
Illustrious British physicist and author, Stephen Hawking, once stated: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.… However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”
Education is going through a seismic shift. I do not mean just the curriculum or the incorporation of technology and AI. It’s the thought process of today’s learner, who is either a Gen Alpha or Gen Z. They are hardwired differently.
As a parent or an educational institution dealing with either, we have to start retooling, if we haven't already started.
According to a Stanford researcher, the current teenager thinks digital only (out with the text book). This generation has no memory of a world without internet and smart phones. This is also the first generation that is fully socialised on social media. Family values, school values and societal values play second place to the ‘social networks’ and whatever friends say or do about anything and everything. These are their big ‘influencers’.
As teachers, we must therefore start thinking of ourselves as ‘influencers’ and deliver the curriculum with an intention to influence the thought process. In this model, the learner must be allowed to access information and be interested in the process. A classroom has to be dynamic with information flowing back and forth.
A good learning environment is only possible when a list of expected learning points is handed to the learner before the actual lesson, with an opportunity to research with the use of Chat GPT or any other AI application.
The primary aim of any teaching pedagogy is to ensure the learner has a meaningful learning experience. This is what we aim for in our classroom learning at Laiser Hill Academy. A paradigm shift in the approach to teaching is core to a better learning outcome for the Gen Alpha and Gen Z.
Gen Zs have a strong entrepreneurial spirt and are less likely to settle in traditional jobs, preferring to be flexible and move from one engagement to another. Analysts say that they will be ready to risk dropping a job solely because they do not like it, even if they don’t have a Plan B yet. To some of us this may feel reckless, but the reality is that Gen Z do not see it as such. Given that it is predicated that the job market will probably lose or change 80 percent of the current career roles, the Gen Zs’ way is probably the right approach, and may therefore not be as reckless as it appears to us – the older generation.
Learning in a school must be crafted with flexibility in mind. This goes against the grain of a traditional educational institution. However, if you think of the learner as your ‘partner’, then it is not very difficult to achieve this flexibility. This is not to say that the core skills must not be empathised. Communication through the mastery of language skills, and the teaching of Mathematics and Sciences, cannot be sacrificed at the altar of flexibility. Our children in Kenya must be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with any of their contemporaries globally. Exposure to the world stage in every field is an absolute must.
Even as we plot the way forward for a Gen Z and Alpha, we must never lose sight of the fact that our learner is a child who has the same emotional and mental struggles as any other generation before them. Actually, they may not think it, but their problems are more, simply because they have access to additional information and have wider choices.
Support for mental health and the drive to push for the value system makes an educational institution’s role much broader than just delivering a curriculum and making a learner get good marks.
Once again, I would place my emphasis on ‘re-tooling’ a teacher in the classroom as the key to the success of delivering in a school. The British curriculum and other international curriculums made this transition way back in the 1980s and 1990s. In Kenya, we have made a paradigm shift in the CBE programme, which in theory, at least is more aligned to the other international systems.
At Laiser Hill Academy, we offer both the International IGCSE and International A levels. We would like to urge parents to have faith in the school’s capacity to ensure that a learner is able to get a meaningful learning experience; because as teachers and administrators, we are very conscious of the fact that our learner thinks differently.
Watch this video:
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Manraj Pallan is the Director of Laiser Hill Academy
