Week 30: Trends influencing New Zealand

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Step 1 (What): 
The trend of ‘heightened demand for career readiness’ has captured my attention.  I find this interesting because as we go into the future we do not know what careers we are getting students ready for.  This is so different to when I first left school.  I offered to work in hair salons for free to gain experience and this made me more employable than my school qualifications.  I believe it is like this in many industries. Once a degree is completed you hold a qualification but have minimal experience.  Experience seems to be the most employable asset. 
The importance on this trend has a flow on affect.  Students at high school need to be ready for careers.  Students in intermediate need to be ready for high school.  Students in primary school need to be ready for intermediate.  What experiences do primary school students need to prepare them for careers in the future and help them develop these skills further in intermediate and high school.
Step 2 (So What):
Daggett’s (2014) statistical data on skills needed in the labour markets show that the demand for high skill levels are increasing, while middle level is decreasing.  Entry level or low-level jobs are increasing but require higher reading ability to understand technical material (Daggett, 2014).  Now that computers are doing what use to be our low skill level jobs, the new low skill level expectations are higher than before.

Currently our school system is failing.  All school systems need to complement and work together for students to develop the 21st century skills needed for today and the future.  Perhaps our primary school needs to form a relationship with the local intermediate and high school and create a plan on how we can collaborate in preparing our students for careers in the future.

This trend needs to be acknowledged by the government for formal changes across all levels of school to make change.  The new digital technologies curriculum is a step in the right direction.  Professional development will be needed for all teaching staff to be able to implement 21st century skills (Daggett, 2014). 

Step 3 (Now What):The government has created a digital technologies aspect of the curriculum which acknowledges 21 century skills.  Professional development has been offered for tech savvy teachers to go back to their schools and share knowledge with colleagues.  This is a great start, however, perhaps the tech savvy teachers do not need as much professional development.  It needs to be available to all staff. 
The limitations are the affordability of new digital technologies for students to be exposed to.  More money is going to be needed to fund the new curriculum.  Students cannot benefit from this new curriculum while watching someone else.

Teachers are going to need to embrace the new curriculum and take a risk and learn alongside their students.  Teachers who are not confident with technology might not teach it in their classrooms.  Who is accountable for this? Are we measuring students learning in this area?


References

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf



Comments

  1. Unknown28 June 2018 at 07:16

    Hi Kelly,
    Interesting thought provoking. I especially like the bit about teachers not confident with technology. My school has embraced technology and everything is online. I am having to learn how to use it and am very glad I can sit down with my HOD and colleagues in my department and learn how to use the technology. I wish my students knew that with the advent of smart computers low entry jobs may be the first to go. Perhaps they will need to be extra special in order to make it out there is the real world.

    ReplyDelete

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