Vladimir
Spivakovsky

Reform of education. What’s this? Algorithm…

a) how to plug holes?
b) on the adoption of new by-laws?
c) on the desire to be the best in the world?

Only the third option gives a solution to the first two.

I always tell my students: Aim at the moon, because even if you do not get into it, you’ll be spinning among the stars. You can, of course, aim at the bin, and even get into it. But will you like this new environment?

So that’s it. If we follow only in the wake of the current model of education, then in five years we will be lagging behind, with the same old holes. Therefore, it is necessary to reform education with anticipation, crucially, to make the whole world envy, even if some people say that it is impossible.

Recently I conducted a master class «The Future of Education» in Zhitomir, where I was told that they cannot do anything in the provinces. I listened and listened, and then I said: Sergey Pavlovich Korolev was born here in your province and he launched the world’s first satellite into space! And you say that the province is hopeless.

In order to become the best, you don`t need much, just to answer correctly the following seven fundamental questions:

What to teach.
How to teach.
Who should teach.
Where to teach.
Why to each.
How much it should cost.
And what result will there be in the end.
Content — «what to teach». First of all, we need to re-create the set of studied subjects (sciences and practices). We should make it different, more modern in comparison with the medieval, from where it came to us, and has been practically unchanged for so long time. It is necessary to have different knowledge, adequate to the coming Information Age.
Such a new matrix of subjects, by the way, has already been created and is completely ready for use, as it is modern, understandable and even abroad people became interested in it and started to use it.

There are ten main sections, six topics in each, covering all the basic eruditions and competencies that people and their future employers need.

It is similar to the periodic table. After all, before Mendeleyev there were some chemical elements with their valences. But at that time, «before the table» manipulation with substances was called alchemy.

The current situation with education is almost the same. Until this period, unfortunately, education was not systemic. It was more like alchy-education, like alchemy. Randomly remembered knowledge, with random techniques, often with random teachers, aimed at random goals resulted in nothing more than random, unpredictable results.

These results of this education system are known — 80% of defect. If plants produced so many defective articles, they would go bankrupt in one day … Perhaps, education has come to its collapse for this reason, not only because of lack of money or textbooks.

Until the training is «chaotic,» it will be like alchemy. And only when a new matrix of competences-knowledge-skills is re-created, it will become clear to all «what to teach», what content should be there. And then the efficiency of the education system will increase dramatically, from 20% to 80%. Education will receive the main missing link — predictability.
Technologies «how to teach.» Well, of course, not only in the format «chalk-duster-board-subject-lesson-homework-assessment-pedagogical council», and not even just computers. There should be mixed technologies. They should include interactive, thematic cases, competitiveness, increased motivation and focus on the final result.
There are enough new technologies that have been developed (over 20). They vary from «inverted class» and «student-doublers» to remote and individual homeschooling. Modern technology allows you to build individual pace of learning, the amount of material and motivation for each child.
Personnel — «who should teach». We need not be exactly the teacher. Until now the teacher was the only source of information, and now there are many sources. It means the teacher has gradually turned into a navigator-coach who knows how to handle information and its avalanche flows. Coaches know how to catch from these flows something that is important-needed-priority, and filter out what is not needed.
They will not teach «instructively (do it once, do it again)», but they will participate in the knowledge and life navigation of their mentees through all sorts of unknown labyrinths.

Disputes about how to call them: tutors, coaches, navigators or trainers are not so important. It seems that sports model is the most attractive, where trainers are called coaches, because they care not only how to «hit the ball», but also how to communicate with others, resolve conflicts, overcome stress and defeat, strive for victory, look for winning ways and generally build your life.

Where to teach? In different places. In addition to school you should teach on the Internet, in the society, in unexpected places, on short-term courses.
Why teach? That is, what result should be expected at the end of study? After all, the end result is not only the Certificate or external independent testing, but a set of important competences, such as ingenuity, communication skills, information processing, decision making, ideas generation, memory, team work, fundamental knowledge, commitment, concentration, depth and breadth of knowledge and the ability to apply it in practice.
Of course, every student does not have to have all the competencies at once, but they can choose any five from the list of «100» and improve them or change them as the children grow and become adult. Ways of evaluating these competencies also exist, so this will be a breakthrough in education technologies at the world level too.
How much? Everyone wants to know how much it will cost and who should pay for a good education? In a fair way, this should be done by the state from our taxes. But if it fails (does not want, can not …), then it is necessary to dip into the pocket of all the customers of the education system.
You can ask — who are these customers? Here they are. There are seven of them — the state, parents, universities, business, banks / foundations, communities and science. Each of them will then receive the graduates in the form of «finished products or semi-finished products».

The algorithm is as follows. Each of the customers should formulate what they want to see in the graduate — as a «finished product», so as not to be disappointed in the end. And after that you need to calculate the estimate — how much it will cost. And when the overall balance comes together and each of the customers contributes their part of the payment for their «order», then the budget will be formed.

If the balance does not converge, or one of the customers does not have money for their part of the education system, then they shouldn`t complain that the child was not taught something from the list that the customer needs.

Result. And here is the seventh question, which makes you shiver: what result will there be at the end of the path. The answer is simple: this is the cost / performance ratio. If today the efficiency of the education system is only 20% and 80% is «defective», then, when the proposed strategic plan is introduced, the proportion will become inverse.

And this will lead not only to the fact that graduates of schools and universities will be more competent, but also to a sharp surge of the country’s economy, its business activity and, if lucky, to the prosperity of the state, which will come from its almost perfect education system.

It’s not enough just to talk about the importance of human capital and about investing in human resources. It is necessary to create this human capital vigorously, correctly evaluate and effectively use it. Then it will be expensive, but otherwise why do you need to invest so much in education?

Another thing is that this possibility arises only when we upgrade education substantially and shift from alchemy to chemistry. That is, we create a new filigree matrix of knowledge and skillfully answer those seven fundamental questions.

This will be the long-awaited breakthrough and a real reform of the educational system. Otherwise, why should we spend so much effort and money?