On June 23, 2014, Professor Andreas Schleicher, education expert in OECD, gave a speech in Room 318, Yingdong Building, Beijing Normal University. The speech is the 63rd International Education Symposium of IICE. Professor Schleicher’s topic was “What school and teachers can do to prepare students for the 21 century-Lessons from around the world”. The presentation was hosted by Liu Min, and about two hundred participants from IICE and other departments attended the presentation.
Professor Schleicher is an excellent education measurement expert in Germany. He is the project executive and coordinator of PISA and expert of education administration system indicators for OECD. At first, Professor Schleicher pointed out that basic skills were one of the vital elements for development in 21st century. As skills could alter the life, adding its influences towards labor market output and social participation promotes the economic development and has long term impact for the opportunity fair. In the 21st century, there are three basic skills that are important for the individual life. They are way of thinking, way of working and working tool.
What school and teachers can do to prepare students for the 21st century？Professor Schleicher introduced from the following three aspects. Firstly, in terms of learning environment elements in the 21st century, we should: advocate learning-centered, encourage participation and cultivate sense of responsibility; cultivate lifetime and skill-oriented learning way, and replace the education which only focus on the diploma; value the individual differences of students; have a formative appraise and feedback of their study; balance the autonomous right and duty; refuse students’ overload learning; cultivate the students’ sensibility towards demand and the study which is relevant to the employer; confirm that study is social and cooperative behavior; promote the relation of different schools on discipline and activity; Secondly, for teachers in the 21st century, they need to have abundant teaching strategies and the ability to integrate knowledge and teaching method; teachers should have deep understanding towards the teaching process; teachers should get self-learning from teaching practice and experience; teachers need to learn in a highly cooperation way; Teachers need teaching skills as effective teaching tools. Thirdly, as for the management in the 21st century: the management should support, promote the teachers’ development, manage the learning resource strategically and do well in authorizing.
At the end of the lecture, Professor Schleicher enjoyed a discussion with the audiences about the presentation. Professor Liu Baocun gave a present to Professor Schleicher on behalf of IICE of Beijing Normal University.