How are we teaching 21st century skills and mindsets in Higher Education?
A study tour to Helsinki, Finland and the Schumacher Institute, UK: part 2
We need institutions of education and learning to be growing creative, civically minded and capable people. Are Universities adjusting their sails to the prevailing winds to meet our needs?
Human-centred design could be used to innovate how education is delivered and offer a method of learning by thinking and doing, questions and dialogue, synthesis and creativity.
I almost failed English in year 12. So I was lucky to make my way to University. Once there, however, I was fortunate to find my passion for learning. The self-directed and universal nature of learning suited me. But having had eight employment arrangements in six years (startup industries, self-employed and career transitions), I can not say that Uni alone made me ready for work. Additional learning about creative confidence, resilience and collaboration has been key to finding good work.
I recently went to Finland to research how human-centred design uses science of learning and the creativity of design to develop effective learning pedagogies, including Higher Education. After reflecting on this trip and my design practice, I continue to realise the untapped potential of creativity and innovation to improve the quality of higher education.
How are we teaching creativity and collaboration in higher education?
Essentially, universities are a community of scholars, teaching and generating knowledge. But today, knowledge alone is not enough. Research by Deloitte says that while knowledge is important, so is our heart. In the next decade, more than 80% of new jobs will be for knowledge workers and two-thirds of those will be strongly reliant on soft skills, such as communication, creativity and collaboration. The Harvard Business Review writes that employers want people with high EQ, resilience and integrity, yet these are attributes rarely nurtured by Universities.
John Dewy said that without the head-hand-heart connection, we are diminished as human beings. Soft skills are not lower order skills, they are fundamental qualities of creative, capable and compassionate humans. And we need as many people with these qualities as possible as our society continues to experience accelerating change.
How are we teaching creativity and collaboration in higher education?
My current Master of Design Futures program is 100% online, which makes it accessible to anyone in the world. I am gaining more awareness about the field of design and building my reflective practice. Also, the leadership and self-directed component enables me to pursue my goals within the program. It’s a professional degree, intended for people who have been practicing design for five plus years, so people are expected to apply the learning in their own practice. But what I find most challenging about the study is the solitary nature of online learning. Design practice is inherently collaborative — we learn by dialogue with others, sketching and making things, reflecting and making mistakes — all of which is difficult in isolation.
RMIT is not alone — Massive Online Open Courses are changing how education is delivered around the world.
Is online learning delivering a better quality education?
The global experiment of online education is still being tested.
I met with Akseli Huhtanen, learning designer at Fitech (Network University) in Helsinki, to talk about e-learning design. The key challenge Akseli experiences is shifting the perspective of academic away from the “sage on the stage” approach, to an approach that starts with the motivation, goals and cognitive behaviour of learners.
We spoke about how the old discipline of instructional design starts with goals and content, resulting in different methods and technologies to deliver content. This mechanical approach fails to take account of the culture of learning and motivation of students. A modern and rigorous approach to learning design, says Akseli, will starts with the science and principles of human memory, attention, and motivation as a way to design effective learning.
Which brings me back to online learning: can a teacher ensure their students are sufficiently motivated if that teacher does not have time or proximity to build rapport with students and truly understand their various levels of interest, motivation and competence? Yes, we can approximate the audience, but if we are aiming for teachers to facilitate learning, then is not empathy, and understanding group needs and potential, an important part of learning and teaching practice?
Relatedly, can we teach soft skills, such as collaboration and creativity, via online learning without face to face processes, such as studios, sharing ideas and working together? While we can teach ourselves a great deal through practice, reflection and reading, it is hard to see a replacement for learning with peers and mentors.
Early signals of innovation in Higher Education
I spoke to Laura Sivula, program director of the Information Technology Program at Aalto University, about her projects at Aatlo University. One interesting approach at Aalto University is a new thesis model that brings together a multi-disciplinary student group to work on their respective Master thesis in connection with a shared subject, industry project or grant — essentially, inter-disciplinary research by thesis.
Laura also runs the Teaching Lab, focused on innovation in teaching and learning for professors. Their mandate is to ensure that learning improves work-life relevance — meaning that Uni should prepare people for post-graduation life. “Employers today are not prepared to hire someone who has only been thinking for three years,” says Laura.
Back at RMIT, a positive development is research by practice, a way for people to do their own work or practice as a way into research. Within the research field, practice research symposiums allow for cross disciplinary pollination, allowing a good forum of connectivity.
These are all good developments. But it seems we are far from the potential of how design and education might properly foster soft and technical skills and help people understand themselves and how to work across contexts.
Learning design as a creative, intentional pursuit, is more than only a science
Design sits between science and art; requiring both critical thinking and creativity (Cross, 2006).
As a science, learning design offers a rigorous, systematic, evidence driven approach to maximise learning. But design is not limited to design science; design is also an intentional endeavour to create experiences and ideas for people. This influential and normative project means designers are also artists, working across ontologies, designing experiences and solutions that affirm our human potential and place in the world. In a learning and education context, this means design carries a responsibility of not only enabling learning outcomes but shaping the bigger human story within education.
While the structure and content being designed must rest on strong logic and science for robustness, the success and value of the project also rests on pursuit of worthy values, meaningfulness and beauty for humans we are designing for. In this perspective, education and learning design is not only about maximising learning, but about reflecting on the values and intention of education within society. In this frame, learning design is not only of instrumental value but also of intrinsic importance in shaping the intention of education and its value to society and learners.
There seems to be a tension between skill development (i.e., vocational ed) and liberal education (critical reflection on self and society) — we need both. When designing our learning programs, we have the opportunity to not only build skills, but shape lives.
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A side note about how Finland might inspire institutional innovation for Australia
Finland is a global leader in education models and outcomes, has a policy of carbon neutrality by 2035 and a strong history of design. People travel from around the world to tour schools in Finland; it’s a lighthouse in the global education world.
All this is impressive for a small country of only 5 million people, extending into the the Arctic region. Despite only 102 years of independence (the country was occupied by Sweden for about 500 years and then Russia for about 100 years), the country is among the most happy in the world.
The first thing to note is that Finland, like other Nordic countries, has built a socially egalitarian and prosperous economic model, built on trust, civic responsibility and participation, that enables more people to reach their potential. Indeed, the Nordic countries are home to the highest rate of millionaires per capita in the world, despite a strong system of redistribution.
A strong and effective public sector is a proud part of this effective model.
When talking to educators they were proud that all schools, including higher education, is free. Anyone can gain further education or retrain anytime — because education is good for everyone. Teachers can innovate, as long as they meet standards, without risk of losing funding.
Civic life is strong. For example, visiting the public library, I saw the city’s participatory design project for people to have their say in the development of Helsinki. Sitra, a public innovation fund, fosters public participation in shaping the country’s development towards sustainable wellbeing.
A strong public system cares for everyone. On the first day there I went to the sauna and met an American student who had brain cancer and was receiving treatment in Finland — had she returned to the US she would be without any health care.
A country that does not protect and support vulnerable people is a system that can drive people to do things that are against the society they live in for their own or family’s survival. Such is the story of Brittany Kaiser, who went from working for the Obama campaign to a job in personality profiling communications agency, Cambridge Analytica, to influence public perception in support of the Trump and Brexit campaigns — so that she could support her parents’ health care costs.
We need to participate in redesigning our systems. Taking inspiration from the Nordics, Australia should lead responsible innovation and reform towards new models for wellbeing and sustainable prosperity.
References
Cross, N 2006, “Designerly Ways of Knowing.” London: Springer-verlag.
Deloitte 2019, The path to prosperity: Why the future of work is human, viewed 15 January 2020, https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/building-lucky-country/articles/path-prosperity-future-work.html
Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas & Frankiewicz, B 2019, “Does Higher Education Still Prepare People for Jobs?”
Harvard Business Review, viewed on 16 January 2020, https://hbr.org/2019/01/does-higher-education-still-prepare-people-for-jobs
Kruger, C & Cross, N 2006, “Solution driven versus problem driven design: strategies and outcomes,” Delft: Elsevier Ltd
Ryan, R, M., & Deci, E, L 2000, “Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being”, American Psychologist, vol. 55(1), pp. 68–78.
