This document discusses reforms needed in the Russian school system to better prepare students for the future. It argues that the current system is outdated and will not enable Russia to compete globally in the 21st century. It recommends focusing on teaching skills like learning agility, communication, creativity and technology literacy that will be important for the jobs and society of 2025. These include skills for acquiring and managing large amounts of information, effective communication, managing individual creativity, and continuous re-learning abilities. Schools should shift from a subject-based to skill-based curriculum focused on developing these future skills starting in first grade. Pilot programs and networking of innovators can help implement these recommended reforms.

1. What should
we teach to first-graders
so they will thank us?
CLASS 2020:
Pavel Luksha
pavel.luksha@gmail.com
Presented to the Forum
the Future of Educati
November 2
Bekasovo, Ru

2. School: A Weak Link
in the Russian Society
• School system is one of the most
undervalued institutions by the Russian
society and the government
• Poor quality of existing school system
and relative under-investment in
education will lead to Russia’s strategic
decline in the 21st century.
• The success of individuals who start
their formal education now will only be
possible if radical transformation of
education occurs

3. Problems of the Modern School
• Poor quality / obsolescence of
education programs
• Poor quality / lack of education
facilities
• Poor quality of teacher preparation
and professional development
• Poor quality of student interaction
“School for Life”, “School of Life”
OR “School AGAINST Life”?

4. Why So: The Path Dependency
• The USSR Legacy
– The model of ‘sieged fortress’: ‘the best in the world’
education system supported primarily supported the
defence industry complex
– The isolationism policy in science and culture: locally
knowledgeable, globally ignorant
– Bureaucracy (!)
• The degradation of the social basis in 1990-2000s
– The erosion of high quality human resources +
degradation of teacher professional education &
development system
– The absence of requests from the society and the
government
– Resources are provided to schools on the‘residual’
basis

5. And Meanwhile…
Country territories proportional to expenditures on education
Source: University of Sheffield

6. And Meanwhile…
Source: (Kurzweil, 2008)

7. And Meanwhile…

8. ‘Catching Up’ Doesn’t Work
• School education in Russia is
strategically degraded in terms
of ideology and practice
• Recent educational reforms
(EGE*) are ‘preparations for
the last war”
• Increased financing doesn’t
solve the problem (the limited
‘absorbing capacity’ of
institutions)
* EGE = Unified State Examination (simalar to SAT)

9. The Future is Already Here:
Class-2020
• Will become
economically and
politically active by 2025
• Will shape the mid-21st
century world
• Will go to school in 2008
QUESTION: What should be taught to these
first graders so they will thank us?

10. Targeting the Future
• When the hockey
player Wayne Gretzky
was asked: “How do
you play so fast?” he
answered: “I skate to
where the puck is
going to be, not where
it has been.”

11. Education Pragmatics
School 2008-2020 Society 2025
Demands:
- economy
- science / technology
- culture / arts
- government
?
Demands for today’s education system
are shaped in the future

12. What Do We Know about the Future:
Some of the Trends
• Globalization
• Asia (!)
• Ultrafast change of
technologies
• Hyper-competition
• Internet
• Social self-organization

13. Economy 2025
• Global competition of labor force and
producers
• Replacement of traditional natural
resource economies by environmentally
sustainable technologies (oil&gas will
count less and less)
• Further increased significance of
intellectual and creative jobs, flexibility
and re-learning ability
The high quality human capital will be the
only sustainable competitive advantage of any
country!

14. Informational Environment 2025
• Digitalization of intellectual and
cultural human heritage
• Constantly amended shared
knowledge libraries (wiki-
technologies)
• Development of virtual
communication environments
• Distributed work environments
with virtual presence
• Integrated ‘computer-human’
system (‘computer
dissappearance’)
• Internet of Things!
Tendencies in Education
•“Module” learning
•Continuous learning all
lifetime
•On-line education (eLearning)
as the main learning form:
•virtual learning environment
(virtual boards, classrooms,
exhibits…)
•virtual learning groups
•“distributed” schools
Source: Russia ICT Foresight 2007

15. Hyper-competition in Business:
Current Dynamics
• Fortune 500 of 1994 observed in 2004
– 153 companies went bankrupt, 130 companies have
been reorganized (and changed the key business)
• Situation changes faster than we want it to:
– The average company lifespan went from 14 to 10
years
– 72% of top-managers believe that main competitors
of their company will be different in 5 years
Source: (Zook, 2007)
Response of successful organizations:
development of dynamic capabilities

16. Dynamic Capabilities
• The “ability to integrate, build, and
reconfigure internal and external
competences to address rapidly
changing environments“
• Three types of dynamic capabilities
for organizations:
– Effective communication processes
– Effective internal learning and innovation
creation systems
– Effective and fast re-learning /
re-organization processes
• Organization demands to employees:
– Effective communication skills
– Learning / re-learning skills
– Creativity / innovativeness
Source: (Teece et al., 1997;
Eisenhardt&Martin 2000)

17. What Should a School Teach?
• Basic intellectual
skills (reading,
writing, counting)
• “World view”,
common cultural
basis
• Prepare to choose
one profession
(in addition will need)
• Basic skills:
– Work with large volumes
of information
– Communication skills
– Creativity
– Re-learning skills
• “Module” skills
School 2020School 1908-2008

18. Basic Human Skills in 2025
• Work with large volume of information (“man is a
knowledge pool” system)
– Skill of acquiring information
– Mindmapping skills
– Pattern recognition skills
• Communication skills (95% of all workload will
involve communication with other people):
– Structured “ecological” communication leading to positive
change (G. Bateson, …)
– Non-verbal communication skills (70-80% of information in
human communication)
– Creation of proto-artificial intellect: development of human-
computer communication interface

19. Basic Skills… (2)
• Creativity
– manageable individual creativity (Disney’s methods,
TRIZ, …)
– creative group methods: think tank technologies,
‘knowledge reactors’ etc.
• Re-learning skills
– development of ‘learn to learn’ ability (learning-2, -
3 by G. Bateson)
– Prerequisite of continuous learning over all life
according to education process logics

20. Changes in School Education Programs
• ‘Through’ development of the Skills of the Future in
school process (from first to last grade)
• Change in emphasis of teaching, in methods of
information delivery, in student involvement formats,
methods of appraisal, etc.
• Gradual shift from subject-oriented to skill-oriented
courses (mathematics, literature, logics, programming,
etc.)
• Increase in individual and group project-based study and
creativity-focused study
• Early development of computer competences: active use
of Internet and programming in school education

21. What Can Be Done Right Now?
• Study and implementation of
‘future skills’ development
methods by educational
innovators
• Creation of innovator network
to launch pilot projects
(with active use of Internet
environment)
• Shared knowledge database (wiki)
• Prerequisites for establishing new
educational standards