#ACEL Day Two | Mark McCrindle - Disruptive factors shaping the future of education



A focus on leadership & well-being amidst great challenges and opportunities.

From the programme:

While previously considered a profession that offers a balanced lifestyle, more recently the education sector has gone through a steady professionalisation and a stagnation in the lifestyle benefits it can offer. As the responsibility of teachers continues to grow, and emerging interest in the profession declines, schools and the education sector more broadly must appropriately respond to the current and future needs of educators. In this session Mark will provide a practical, data-driven and engaging guide to these education trends, how these massive shifts are changing the way in which students engage with their education, and teachers engage their students, and why work wellbeing is a non-negotiable for the future and how to achieve it.

Demographic growth and change
  • Australia's 2.2% annual growth rate
  • More people and more students
  • Internal migration
  • Rise of the regions 60% have considered to the regions. 20% looking to actually move to the regions.
  • Aging population leading to structural funding deficits. There aren’t fewer children, the older ages expanding faster.
  • 48% of Australians have at least one parent born overseas.
  • Generational language (tech) gap.

AI, digital change and emerging technology

Views of teachers on AI
71% believe it will increase plagiarism
62% believe it will change assessment
57% believe it will hinder student's ability to write
31% believe it will improve productivity
28% believe it will benefit learning
27% believe it will hinder the ability to write code
59% of teachers see AI as a tool and 41% see it as a threat.

68% teachers said their school supported learning with AI
64% teachers said their school was equipped to deal with AI
59% teachers said their school champions use of AI

What do students use most to learn new skills?
Teachers 50%
Websites 48%
TikTok 42%
Parents 39
YouTube 37%

“The Great Screenage”

We have been attached to screens for years, they have just got smaller and more personalised.

75% Gen Z check device within 3 mins of waking

Prefer voice-controlled tech


Student Mental Health

Asthma is the most prevalent health issue up to 14 years.
16-64 Mental health most prevalent
65+ Arthritis
75% of GenZ often/sometimes feel lonely even though they are more connected than ever.

Community - Diversity and Unity



Holistic Learning for Future Proofing

65% of children will go into careers that don’t exist yet
Great speed, greater scale of transformation. We need to be able to keep learning.
The options generation represents unlimited pathways.


Attracting and retraining the next generation of teachers

Shifting from an industrial view of teaching to an artisan view of teaching.
86% see teacher burnout as one of the biggest disruptors of education.
78% feel burnt out after the pandemic
73% feel overwhelmed by the amount of work they need to achieve in a week.

How likely would you be to recommend a career in teaching?
19% said very likely in 2020 and only 6% said very likely in 2023.

Why teachers consider leaving.
72% were enticed to consider leaving due to a desire for a greater work/life balance
44% ability to work from home
44% greater flexibility
38% better rennummeration
28% better workplace cultures

The key desire for careers that:
  1. Having a purpose and meaning in their work
  2. What aligns with their core values
  3. A workplace of community
  4. Positive impact on those around them
  5. Workplace flexibility
What can we do as leaders?
  1. We need to lead with empathy - Leadership style - collaboration and contribution
  2. Focus on culture - the character and personality of your school. The culture created and depth of people development.
  3. Commit to growth - growth of people. Communication and feedback are wanted more by younger generations.
“The success of a leader is measured not by what they achieve on their tenure, but by what they set in motion.” - Mark McGrindle.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The National, Act and NZ First Coalition and what it means for education

Image
Photo Source Yesterday saw the announcement of a new government which came with a raft of new policies and ministerial appointments. The Minister of Education, as was expected, is National MP Erica Stanford. More interestingly was the number of policies and priorities two parties who only collectively gained 15.5% of the votes managed to get across the line.  The common threads across both Act and NZ First included some good old-fashioned back-to-basics, a focus on compulsory attendance and cracking down on truancy, increased focus on academic achievement and shifting the fees-free policy from the first of uni to the last. To be fair, none of these represent much of a departure from what National was touting anyway.  The interesting and, at times, worrying changes suggest Luxon was willing to let both Act and NZ First foist their ideologies on innocent schools and students for the sake of a "strong and stable" government.  Unsurprisingly Act got Partnership Schools across the
Read more

National, Act and the age of standardisation in education

Image
Chris and David discussing the joy of testing. Whilst we are still awaiting the outcome of special votes, it is pretty safe to assume that we are staring down the barrel of a National / Act Party government that will be bringing a very distinct flavour to the education landscape. Below is an outline of what each party promised for education.  Front and centre is a focus on "back to basics" and what looks like a whole lot more standardisation (from both National and Act) and testing to ensure we are all "teaching the basics brilliantly". Those of us in schools know that standardisation isn't necessarily the answer and testing didn't seem to turn the dial in the past either. That is the trouble when policies are designed to satisfy parent voters who just want their kids back in school and succeeding.  In their 100-day plan, National is promising to do the following in the education space: Require primary and intermediate schools to teach one hour a day each of
Read more

Assessment in the Age of AI - Claire Amos

Image
Below are the slides I shared at NZQA's 'Assessment in the Age of AI' symposium.   This is my brief overview of how we are approaching AI at Albany Senior High School and some of the concerns and some of thoughts I have about the topic.  In short, I am worried we are so damn busy we aren't giving it the attention it needs. I also worry that leaders will try and ignore and/or attempt to ban and that this ignores the fact that Pandora's Box is well and truly opened and this thing is developing faster than we can imagine and is increasingly woven into platforms and tools we already use. We are sitting at a fork in the path where both options lead to a world fundamentally altered by AI and we need to choose whether to work with it or stick our heads in the sand. That decision is going to have a tangible impact on how well our young people are going to be equipped to thrive in the future.  We need to embrace AI, and approach it with curiosity, criticality and care.  One
Read more