Fifteen years into the 21st century we can look around and see that most of our schools have not arrived there yet. Educators world over still face the challenge to reinvent schools for the 21st century - for the sake of our children, our students and the welfare of our world.
This requires a fundamental paradigm shift, which most often is not that easy. The problem stems from the fact that whenever any of us thinks of education, we usually think of what we knew as school - the way it has always been. That is how parents, policy makers, politicians and many students think of school – a place where teachers transmit knowledge (and sometimes skills) to students, in order to pursue a process to grant them a degree/certificate to make them college/career ready. Sometimes the process is reduced to what the Wizard of Oz offered the Scarecrow :
On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who see the present century as a century of expeditious technological advancement. The gargantuan chasm between the last century and now, coupled with the proliferation of technology use in almost every realm of human endeavor has enthralled one and all. On the flip-side, ideas for the improvement of a field or discipline are being dominated by platitudinous approaches to incorporate technology in them, which is rather restrictive, in our opinion.
Educators are no different, finding almost inexhaustible uses of technology and calling for its widespread use. There has been a lot of talk about 21st Century Education in context of proliferation of technology. Our view is that although technology has its place in education, much like in everything else, these developments do not define education in the 21st Century. To fully cope up with the demands, or the expected challenges, we must define and prioritize our goals for education. It is the author's view that our focus should be in reforming systems of education in terms of their paradigms, and incorporating technology where necessary, rather than putting all our eggs in the technology basket.
Paradigms
Almost every country in the world is striving to reform their systems of education, and many of them with the intention to move on and away from overly deterministic factory-modeled school systems. Those systems whose overarching goals are centered around producing a younger workforce to take their place in the economies of tomorrow, rather than on educating a new generation that will inherit the earth. Educators broadly agree that a factory-modeled school system of standards, and production line mentality was always insufficient to educate our younger generations, but it served its purpose then. In the 21st Century, it has the potential to have severe damaging consequences, and hence it must be radically transformed, or even scrapped.
Efforts in curricular reform may cause paradigm shifts away from analytic or fragmented approaches. You might find a curriculum that is more integrated where the main goal is not information transfer, but create learning experiences where children might be even asked to create/generate knowledge.
Other required paradigmatic changes will transform the way we look at students’ intelligence and capabilities, moving on from the archaic modelling of intelligence in terms of logical or linguistic ability. Brilliant contributions from the likes of Howard Gardner have shown that our traditional view of intelligence is not only defective, but completely wrong, and has sacrificed countless hopes and aspirations on the altar of "intelligence".
Models of student discipline away from corporal punishments and towards positive discipline, rooted in the well-being of the student are already widely being adopted worldwide.
Assessment models are increasingly moving away from standardized testing, and towards more authentic forms of assessment OF learning, as well as more useful forms of assessment, such as that FOR learning, and AS learning. Perhaps teachers will be using alternative assessments. Instead of a pencil-and-paper quiz, students might be asked to participate in more authentic assessments. Rather than write a book report, students might be found role-playing the part of famous people or literary characters, as they would interact, for example, at a dinner party. Their writing and their thinking may be judged over a long period of time through a portfolio. However, there is still resistance, especially in public systems of education, because standardized testing is construed as being easier to implement and analyze.
A good education system should get its paradigms right, in terms of goals and objectives. We hold the view that a good 21st Century school should emphasize character-building, have learner-centric approaches in teaching methodology and choice of subjects, and a learning environment that reinforces learners’ talents and dispositions, with focus on knowledge, skills, understanding, attitudes and beliefs, and transformative action as opposed to merely knowledge acquisition. Here we share some ideas, by all means not exhaustive, on what could be done in each of the four areas:
- Knowledge: Learners should create new knowledge, validate existing information before committing it to their knowledge base, as well as work to transform knowledge into wisdom. One of the key things Islamic schools should strive for is to re-establish the theocentric world-view back into the various branches of knowledge.
- Skills: As for the 21st Century skill set, there are several lists depending on whom you ask, and almost all of them have the so-called 4Cs, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Cooperation. One of the popular list is the seven survival skills advocated by Tony Wagner in his book, The Global Achievement Gap which includes Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence, Agility and Adaptability, Initiative and Entrepreneurialism, Effective Oral and Written Communication, Accessing and Analyzing Information, Curiosity and Imagination
- Character: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a best-selling 2003 book on the Enron scandal, which had disastrous consequences, by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind (which was also made into a documentary). The essential hypothesis of this book, and several others, is to highlight how knowledge and skills is not enough, but integrity and moral fiber is an irreplaceable trait for success. This argument, of emphasis on character, is furthered by the works of leading educators of our time, such as Howard Gardner, in his book Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed: Educating for the Virtues in the Twenty-first Century. The corresponding traits in Islamic Education are إيمان Iman (for Truth), إحسان Ihsan (for Goodness) and إسلام Islam(for the approach to Goodness). The idea being all the knowledge and skills in the world, without good character, will ultimately lead to failure.
- Action: A famous quote of Pablo Picasso is that “Action is the foundational key to all success” The Qur'anic emphasis to positive action is almost inseparable to the faith of all believers. Learners in our schools should translate their knowledge, skills and character into action, that brings about a change in themselves, their families, neighborhoods, communities, nations and the world at large.
Facilities
A 21st Century education institution may try to incorporate the know-how from various researches in terms of class-room set up, display etc., from minor revisions to radically different designs. For example, as opposed to students sitting in rows, arrangements that foster collaboration, such as clusters of desks would be more akin to a 21st Century learning environment. Space within a learning environment from group discussion, collaboration, communication and cooperation is certainly more appropriate.
A clean and green learning environment, as opposed to artificial, air-conditioned classrooms would be a better option wherever possible.
And then there is technology. Interactive, animated, attractive multimedia environments, available round the clock, suited for self-paced learning and simulations, at the same time providing the power to communicate across large distances, and across borders.
There is no doubt that technology has its place in contemporary education systems, although, we must reinforce that the role is small, in context of a broad paradigmatic overhaul. 21st-century skills are far more than just technology skills put to use in the classroom. This is real world learning that will equip children with the skills to flourish in careers that we cannot even imagine right now. Learning that is not only about skills, but also about strength of character, to live in harmony in a new society, hopefully in a clean and green world, whereby we can reverse the damage to it that has already been done by our exploitative policies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, bringing Islamic schools into the 21st century requires a fundamental paradigm shift. The focus should be on reforming the system of education in terms of its paradigms and incorporating technology where necessary, rather than putting all our eggs in the technology basket. A good 21st-century school should emphasize character-building, have learner-centric approaches in teaching methodology and choice of subjects, and a learning environment that reinforces learners’ talents and dispositions. The four areas that Islamic schools should focus on are knowledge, skills, character, and action. Facilities should also be taken into consideration, incorporating the know-how from various researches in terms of class-room set up, display, and space. Finally, education paradigms should be mosaic, taking into consideration the culture where the school is located and remaining focused on what is best for the children being instructed.
