E-Book: Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined

The risk of children falling behind Existing inequalities in children’s physical and mental health, educational attainment and living conditions will worsen as a result of the crisis. A recent Teach First survey showed that only 2% of teachers working in the most disadvantaged schools believe their pupils have adequate access to online learning and are therefore at risk of falling behind. Children from better-off families are spending 30% more time on home learning than those from poorer families.

Teachers to the fore Teachers have invested significant time and resourcing into moving their conventional lessons to online platforms, demonstrating creativity and adaptability in the process. Teachers are an untapped source of innovation in schools and should be recognized for their work. For example, Nesta’s Classroom Changemakers Award identified 15 teachers in the UK who are building their students’ creativity and problem-solving skills through their math and computing classes. This approach can be extended across the entire curriculum.

Motivating students in this new era What motivates students to persist in their learning? Student choice, agency and autonomy are crucial to prepare them for life-long learning.

What evidence is there that technology will improve educational outcomes? As Rose Luckin, Professor at University College London, says, “there are many reasons to worry about the prospect of scaled remote learning”. How best to measure what works and why is just one aspect of our current work at Nesta as we test and learn what has been effective during the pandemic, where the biggest online learning experiment is in progress.

Purpose of education Preparing students for the workforce is not enough. Education should shape better citizens to sustain themselves, others and the planet. It should help learners to develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes they need to adapt to a fast-changing world. Nesta is calling for a broader, fairer and smarter education system which makes better use of technology, people, data and evidence. The most important challenge here is to create equal access to any new system for the entire student population. | 139