How is a school for the future?

To cope with an increasingly technological, uncertain and volatile world, students need to develop socio-emotional and highly complex skills

If the function of the school is to prepare students to face the challenges of their time, the school for the future must train students for an increasingly complex, ambiguous, volatile and uncertain world. “In addition to these characteristics, this world is also very connected, automation and technological transformations happen at an exponential speed and the question of sustainability is present”, says Leticia Lyle, director of Camino Education and pedagogical director of Camino School. "In this scenario, we think about the skills and competences that today's students will need to develop in order to live well in this new reality." According to her, imagining this school for the future is, in fact, considering that this moment has already arrived, since we are in the first quartile of the 21st century.

The school designed to meet the demands of the 21st century has some very striking differences in relation to those we know in the 20th century, centered on the figure of the teacher, excessively contented and with many lectures. “This model was essential for the transmission of knowledge, since the information was not as available and accessible as it is today. But this pattern is beginning to change and the relevance today is much more in the relationship and engagement of students with learning than in access to content, which is in the palm of our hand ”, explains the director.

Another important change, according to her, concerns the role of the school in promoting access to education, which passes from the privilege of the few to the universalization of education. This transformation, in turn, leads to a reflection on equity – how to ensure that people from different places, with different cultural and educational backgrounds, can reach the same point of arrival. It also shows the school's need to be heterogeneous, multicultural and adapt to accommodate different student profiles and work with diversity, in addition to providing an education that, at the same time, enables face-to-face and remote access.

Leticia considers that all these factors are reflected in the training that the school for the future should provide, focused on preparing students no longer for simple tasks that require low complexity skills, such as observing, describing, listing, etc., but highly complex activities , which involve creativity, critical thinking and well-developed socio-emotional skills. This is done with active learning.

Socio-emotional skills and student development

These competences relate to the ability to make responsible and ethical decisions, to know each other, to relate positively to others, to achieve one's own goals and to consider the common good. “Another aspect that we perceive in the 21st century school is that these socio-emotional competences and skills are inseparable from the learning process. Therefore, knowing how to do this emotional management is essential to achieve cognitive development ”, says the educator.

She points out that socio-emotional skills also allow students to develop their life projects. “They make it possible for them to understand their strengths, skills and challenges and make plans. This has a lot to do with the skills we need to learn throughout life in this increasingly complex and technological world. "