Relevant Pedagogy

From Kindergarten to Career: The Educational Continuum Must Change

Something fundamental is creaking in our socio-educational “production line” if a junior engineer lacks the vital skills for working in high tech, and students start their academic degree without basic learning tools and habits. What is the desired outcome of the educational process, and how do we achieve it? Relevant pedagogy must be at the forefront of this discussion to ensure our educational system remains effective.

Do you send children to educational institutions? Do you or have you ever studied in academia? Did you ever ask yourself what is the desired “outcome” of each such system? And what of the entire educational continuum – from the first meeting with the preschool teacher to the academic degree and job interview? How much do we as a country, a society, and a market even think about this entire complex, try to challenge it, and adapt it to the tectonic shifts taking place out there? Well, not enough.

The educational continuum from kindergarten to academia is meant to train the younger generation to function in a modern society and a dynamic job market with lifelong learning,” says Prof. Ami Moyal, president of Afeka - The Academic College of Engineering in Tel Aviv. He especially highlights the skill component. “Nowadays, teaching self-learning abilities is more important than adding knowledge that’s available online anyway, certainly with tools such as ChatGPT. And certainly among engineers, who work in a constantly-changing field. The world is moving at an exponential rate, and it is clear that the educational continuum can’t afford to rest on its laurels. Otherwise, it isn’t fulfilling its duty.”

Prof. Moyal, formerly the CEO of a speech recognition startup, chooses to attack the issue not just from the standpoint of academia, its needs and outcomes, but from a broad national standpoint: “In order to achieve a relevant and optimal educational continuum at the level of the student, it is important for the education system, academia, the market, and society to operate under a broad national perspective and agreement. An essential component of this is an agreed-upon figure of an alumnus at every level of the continuum, including all the vital skills – knowledge, proficiencies, and values.”

Relevant Pedagogy: Reshaping Education for the Future

Dadi Perlmutter, a technological and social entrepreneur and former senior VP at Intel, pinpoints three critical stops on the educational continuum – stops that, should they provide a shaky foundation, the entire structure will be difficult to stabilize. It starts in grades 1-3 and even preschool, when children acquire basic tools, some of them mechanical, through their native inquisitiveness and curiosity. The next stop is middle school, preferably as early as grades 5-6, when science and technology education begins and one chooses a specialization. It turns out that many, especially girls, begin to lose their way here, developing an aversion to science and numbers. Thus, the Committee for Increasing Human Capital in High Tech, [formerly?] chaired by Perlmutter, has recommended a significant increase in STR (Science and Technology Reserves) classrooms at middle school age, especially in the periphery and Arab society.

The third stop is unique to Israel: military service, when the young person leaves the hothouse environment to deal with life, and not necessarily in a technological unit. Perlmutter remembers how he, and later his son, were altered by combat service that included responsibility for others (“that they don’t just know how to charge ahead, but also have a fridge at home”) – a managerial and professional advantage second to none. Thus, the committee recommended civil technological service for populations that don’t serve in the military, towards their integration in society and employment without the benefit of the “melting pot”, and to address national missions (also perhaps as a creative solution for sharing the burden).

In this regard, Prof. Moyal brings up an interesting point: a high proportion of high tech professionals were members of youth movements. “There’s something in informal, extramural activities that develops skills such as leadership, responsibility, and a multidisciplinary perspective.”

As to the final link in the chain, Perlmutter believes that academia must also change – both in its pedagogy, which must teach how to learn and become more practical and experience-based; and in allowing to complete specific content realms through academia even long after graduation. “There are frameworks for knowledge enrichment and accreditations, but there is nothing structured that could break the linear path of basic studies –> advanced studies –> job. Which is a path that could render many workers irrelevant within a decade.”

No Wham, No Bam

Afeka has done extensive work, in collaboration with academia and industry experts, to formulate the desired figure of the engineering alumnus. This figure includes knowledge, skills, values, and even motivations that must be cultivated to enable alumni to enter the industry as prepared as possible. And while skill assessment has yet to be cracked, Prof. Moyal envisions reliable AI tools that will solve this, too. “The desire is to see progress in the level of skills that the student acquires from one semester to the next. One day, as the need grows and evaluation methods develop, academic certificates will be accompanied by ‘skill evaluation certificates’. Perhaps it will even be part of admission requirements, just as certain study programs nowadays require a skill evaluation interview. If I could, I’d like to evaluate a certain passion and perseverance as a predictor of academic success. That way, in addition to SATs and skills, we’ll also factor in attitudes, which have become part of the required skills.”

Prof. Moyal suggests to expand this methodology on a national level and to the entire educational continuum, likewise starting with an agreed-upon definition of the desire figure of the alumni. The vision is to appoint a national council on science and technology education with representatives from all systems along the continuum, who will set guidelines and vital skills to be developed at each age. A similar model can and should be enacted at the level of localities – creating a local ecosystem of municipality, education department, industry, cultural organizations, and nonprofits, who together will change the learning process and learning experience. “If the city has a development center, a science museum, or organizations that provide quality nonformal education, they should be part of the educational process. There’s no reason why pupils and students should continue to sit passively at lectures for hours on end.”

This process is neither simple nor one-time. “It’s not wham-bam, because there’s no wham – it requires time, adopting technologies, harnessing motivation, and changing the mindsets of teachers, lecturers, and principals; and there’s scertainly no bam – the dynamic reality requires to constantly assimilate new skills and relevant pedagogy to achieve up-to-date learning outcomes.” However, Prof. Moyal is convinced that this is both crucial and possible. “The future economy is STEM-oriented (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). The vast majority of projects are multidisciplinary. Without a national perspective, the educational continuum risks becoming irrelevant, which would sooner or later leave us behind.”