Are Ireland’s schools preparing students for work and business?

The future of work is up for grabs. Last month Uber cab drivers in the UK won a battle to be recognised as employees rather than self-employed contractors.

This may be just the prologue to a bigger battle. Self-driving cars are on the way; say goodbye to driving jobs. 3-D printers are starting to build homes; the construction industry is at risk.

It’s not all bad news: 10 years ago there were many jobs that didn’t exist, including data scientist and app developer. In 10 years’ time there will be another slew of jobs we could never have dreamed of.

All of this change poses major challenges for Irish and global education systems. While there is a debate to be had about workers’ rights and the role of technology, right now we need to prepare young people to be flexible, adaptable and creative problem-solvers and team players. Ultimately students need to be active participants in their own learning. So, are Ireland’s schools moving fast enough to prepare students for work and business?

"Over my 26-year involvement with this school I have seen teaching and learning change beyond all recognition," says Patricia Gordon, principal of Stratford College in Dublin. "All the leading educational thinkers agree that students need to navigate a fast changing world. They have identified six key skills as central to this: managing information and thinking, managing myself, working with others, communicating, being creative and staying well. [THIS] has influenced teaching and learning methodologies at all levels of secondary education."

Today the teacher needs to be more of a facilitator in the modern classroom, not the “sage” of old.

“We have moved from being masters of content to focusing on the science of learning,” says Gordon. “Teaching methods are dynamic, engaging and more focused on skills than content. Peer to peer learning and assessment is also a huge area. I believe the most crucial characteristic for students is resilience, the ability to persevere and to work hard in the face of life’s challenges and uncertainty.”

Gordon also says we need to see a different approach to work experience.

“Instead of young students being immersed in a work environment where we hope they will pick up something we need to move towards an approach which engages both industry and schools.”

Stratford is linking with Sky Careers, Google, third-level colleges and institutions and other high-tech industries to help their students secure work experience.

Seán Gallagher is deputy director of the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST). He is in charge of ICT and his unit advises schools on how technology can be embedded in teaching and learning.

"When I was in school the only reference was Encyclopaedia Brittanica; now students can research any topic online. They can use Google Treks to explore the sights and sounds of Nepal or the Congo; this is not text-heavy and they're not passively absorbing someone else's narrative."

There are risks and opportunities. Much of what passes for information on the internet is partisan, inaccurate and low-quality, so young people need to learn critical research skills to understand whether their information comes from a reliable source. On the other hand, they can take control of their own learning in ways that would have been unimaginable to us just a decade ago.

“If a student is doing a local history project they can use their phone or tablet to capture their own images, annotate them with labels and bring readers attention to certain parts of the image,” says Gallagher. “They can record interviews on their device. Here they are creating their own knowledge, and tech tools like Scribble are valuable for that.”

The EU-backed Joint Research Centre in Seville found that expensive technological innovations imposed on schools by the state were less than successful, whereas Gallagher says that particular model used in Ireland, where schools can apply to be “digital schools of distinction”, is a bottom-up approach requiring buy-in from the entire school community – and it’s proving to be effective.

Disruption, instead of being seen as a negative, offers opportunities to change how we teach. Over the past few years the Dublin Institute of Technology has been moving to a new campus at Grangegorman, and it has given the college a chance to think afresh about teaching and learning.

Kieran Corcoran, head of the school of creative arts at DIT, says that they have had the chance to reimagine studios for fine art, visual communications, interior and furniture design.

“Flexibility is the key to innovation, including in higher education. With the development of more and more online resources, the role of the tutor is now more about curating material, pointing students to the best sources and helping them to develop their own critical understanding. Work tables and chairs are all on wheels, so studio spaces can be reconfigured to allow for different activities such as group work, tutorials, formal lecturers and conferences.”

This allows students from different disciplines to work alongside and learn from each other. There are lessons for second-level here. “Real innovation in the teaching environment happens when people interact to share their knowledge and ideas, formally and informally,” says Corcoran.

We need to change our mindset, says Seán Gallagher. “Technology should be firmly embedded in all subjects, not just the science and technology subjects. That said, there are a variety of teaching styles in the education system and they all have their place. I don’t think the vision is for technology to be dominant.

“Teachers still have to be able to talk to their class, explain concepts, watch for body language and glazed eyes, and know when you are losing some of them and make changes. Technology won’t do that for us.”

Bye bye chalk and talk – innovations in learning

There are many interesting and innovative projects, tools and apps which are helping young people learn in new ways. Sean Gallagher of the Professional Development Service for Teachers says these include:

Fis: Fis stands for film in schools, but it's also the Irish word for vision. This is an initiative of the PDST where primary school children produce short films. They work together in teams and, on the way, learn problem-solving skills.

Digital champion award for post-primary schools: a team of students is nominated to become champions for ICT and technology. They support teachers and fellow students but can also help local industry with their own online presence.

ePortfolios: We don't always look back on our learning journey, but eportfolios allow students to look back at their work over the years, and how they have progressed.

Edpuzzle: The days of a teacher popping on a video are over. Edpuzzle allows them show any video, whether from YouTube, Khan Academy or perhaps the National Geographic, and stop it at key moments to ask the students questions. This allows teachers to see whether they are actually absorbing the information.

Kahoot: This builds quizzes for pupils and helps teachers to figure out what knowledge they are taking in as well as to reflect on their own teaching practice.