The future of schools, imagined by students
Future of schools, imagined by students
Using futures-thinking to explore the world ahead
Dubai is a hub of futures-thinking – from its Museum of the Future to Expo 2020. It is also part of a nation driving improvements in its education system with schools at the heart.
So, to explore the future of schooling further, we headed to the Dubai Future Foundation to host two events with the Centre for Future Studies at the University of Dubai.
First, we conducted a futures-thinking workshop with 14 to 18-year-olds. Then, we brought together government leaders, teachers, and wider stakeholders for a discussion with those student voices front and centre.
As we prepare for the UN Summit of the Future in September, where we aim to highlight the voices of those embedded in schools and their essential roles in shaping our societies, here are the key points from our student workshop that offer a perspective from the UAE.
Dubai is a hub of futures-thinking – from its Museum of the Future to Expo 2020. It is also part of a nation driving improvements in its education system with schools at the heart.
So, to explore the future of schooling further, we headed to the Dubai Future Foundation to host two events with the Centre for Future Studies at the University of Dubai.
First, we conducted a futures-thinking workshop with 14 to 18-year-olds. Then, we brought together government leaders, teachers, and wider stakeholders for a discussion with those student voices front and centre.
As we prepare for the UN Summit of the Future in September, where we aim to highlight the voices of those embedded in schools and their essential roles in shaping our societies, here are the key points from our student workshop that offer a perspective from the UAE.
Some of the students and teachers at the workshop
Some of the students and teachers at the workshop
The role of futures-thinking in education transformation
Futures-thinking, also known as foresight, is a practice that helps us explore and consider various potential future scenarios. Even though we can't know exactly what will happen tomorrow - or in ten, fifty or a hundred years’ time - this approach enables us to imagine different possibilities and prepare for them.
Using futures-thinking principles, people are encouraged to think beyond the usual ideas and consider different possibilities – some probable, some less likely. Futures-thinking exercises explore emerging trends, as well as considering unexpected developments, and acknowledge that the future might be very different from the past.
Do you want AI in your brain?
Our interactive futures-thinking workshop was attended by more than 40 students aged 14 to 18 from a range of different schools across the UAE. Futures-thinking experts Dr. Saeed Aldhaheri and Dr. Fawaz Hazza Abu Sitta from the University of Dubai’s Centre for Futures Studies guided the students through a series of scenario-building activities about possible futures of schooling based on a range of different models. Part of this included understanding what the learners would prefer to see in the future, as well as what they thought might be possible.
Discussions included the impact technology would have on teaching and learning, as well as climate change and globalisation.
"Futures-thinking emphasises the exploration of emerging trends and unexpected developments, with an acknowledgment that tomorrow’s reality might not reflect yesterday’s."
Through a series of collaborative exercises, students explored their preferred futures for education, starting with imagining news headlines in 2040:
- The first school held on Mars by the UAE
- Students in the UAE are able to attend school as holograms
- A dream yesterday, a reality today: visual learner
- Cyber schooling made accessible to everyone
- Do you want AI in your brain?
- UAE’s mixed reality transforms learning experience
- Nanotech breakthrough: breaking through your brain!
Shortly afterwards, the real news headlines featured the story that a Neuralink had successfully carried out the first brain implant of its kind, allowing the person to control their computer and device just by thinking.
Cyber schooling made accessible to everyone
The workshop revealed seven common themes in how young people envisioned the future. The students anticipated:
1. Full technology integration
The inclusion of 3D printing stations and virtual reality field trips as the norm with plenty of experiential learning opportunities. Students described visiting new environments – like Antarctica – through VR, or even experiencing what it would be like to walk in Ancient Egypt.
2. Equity of access
Students imagined equal access to this technology across the globe, including internet connectivity, with immersive experiences bridging the gap between theory and practice for everyone.
3. Personalised pathways
Personalised learning with real-time data analytics to track progress and enable education to be tailored to individual needs and preferences, including flexible assessment matched to learning styles.
4. Environment education as standard
Schooling will be sustainable and net zero will have been achieved. There will be universal environmental education as a central part of the curriculum.
5. A focus on skills for life and employment
Education will focus on employability with hands-on, practical learning with internships to promote job and life readiness.
6. Teachers as guides
Teachers will continue to be central to children's education, but there will be on more emphasis on their role as guides using smart tools to understand students and facilitate learning journeys.
7. Collaboration between different parts of the world
There will be online collaboration between learners from different places, creating global adventures.
Stressing the student voice in system-wide discussions
Next, together with the Centre for Futures Studies, we presented these findings to education system leaders, teachers, education specialists and wider stakeholders. More to come on this in the next instalment of this series.
All contexts are unique and, though many of us will see experiences from other environments reflected in the students' thinking in the UAE, there will be clear differences for different circumstances. You can read the first piece in this series, on our conversations with people around the world about the future of schooling here.
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