Economic Development Blog

“Just-in-Time Learning” Needed for the Re-invention of Education in the U.S.

I just had the opportunity to attend a most interesting fundraising breakfast sponsored by Choose DuPage EDC and the DuPage Workforce Board. In addition to the usual great networking, the guest speaker definitely knew how to keep us all awake at such an early hour.

Mr. Tony Wagner is the Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the author of a number of books about what we must do to change our education system for the better: better workers for our businesses, better citizens and better team players.

Tony sums up his extensive research into what he calls “Just-in-Time” Learning; or, “How to ask the right questions to solve the problem.” This method uses Core Competencies in “connecting, critical thinking and collaborating.” Traditional American education, (including No Child Left Behind) is “timeless learning,” relying upon multiple choice testing. Our traditional system teaches the test. That is, “What gets tested is what gets taught.” The result: people that know how to get good grades, but are not very useful in the work place or life.

But, when young people are left to their own devices, they are literally connected: connected online; connected in creating, multitasking and developing relationships. This is the kind of learning succeeding in the rest of the world, but hasn’t truly arrived, yet, in the U.S.

Think about how we work in business today. We collaborate. We respond to each other’s ideas through blogs, email and other media. We learn how to put ideas and solutions together to solve our business problems. We learn how to ask the ‘question.’

For more information, visit Tony’s Change Leadership Group website at http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~clg/; or google Education 2.0 and Education 3.0.

Chris Manheim, CEcD
Chicago Chapter of CoreNet Global
Economic Development Chairman