This blog post is based on the research conducted by our teaching teams during the Action Learning set of Autumn 2019.
By 2025, Millennials will comprise 75% of the global workforce. The modern learning environment needs to change accordingly, and fast. Find out how we are rising to this challenge, with our Citizens of the World – Cosmopolitan Competencies© programmes.
Millennials and Gen Z are tech-savvy, greatly ambitious, in love with change, multi-taskers and globally connected – mainly due to being immersed in the digital world from a young age.
The team at NIKOLOPOULEIO bring the best of global innovation home to our students, preparing our youth for the future.
Citizens of the World – Cosmopolitan Competencies©
The purpose of our flagship program at NIKOLOPOULEIO is to support our students in achieving global cultural literacy, empowering them to travel, live, and work anywhere in the world, confident in their ability to adapt to the local language and culture, and thrive on the challenge of new environments. The core of our methodology is the use of a number of activities per age group, focusing on action-based scenarios, simulations, play, crafts, inspirational talks and debates- per level-, encouraging students to apply their learning to communicate as they would in the real world. In this way, our students are supported towards achieving both life as well as employability skills, and consequently, through the application of globalised languages and focus, a variety of cosmopolitan competences.
Tech Driving Smart
The 4th industrial Revolution is well and truly here, blurring the boundaries of digital, physical, and biological worlds. Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, robotics, and global connectivity through online apps and platforms, are changing the way we live and work.
Over the years, there have been significant changes in the way education is designed and delivered in different parts of the world. South Korea leads the way in Smart Schools, with ICT driving everything from registration and class content to reports and lunch menus. Tablets replace notebooks in class, recording teacher content so that students can re-listen and reflect at their own pace.
Modern Learning Behaviours
Born after 1998, Gen Z kids and teens are immersed in a highly sophisticated media and computer environment, and will be more Internet savvy and expert than even their Gen Y (Millennial) forerunners. They are all about sharing information and streamlining communication, programmed to seek out answers. Teachers need to quench this thirst for information by keeping them in the loop. Hong Kong and China reformed their traditional learning model to suit these new learners, and are now world leaders in modern education based on innovation and entrepreneurship.
One of their tools is Design Thinking; according to McKinsey, this is an approach to learning, collaboration, and problem solving, designed to foster creativity and practical learning through identifying challenges, gathering information, generating solutions, refining ideas and testing the solutions, only to repeat the loop by informing the identification of new challenges ahead.
Preparing Students How to Learn, Not How to Pass Tests
Our aspiration at NIKOLOPOULEIO is practicing languages in real world situations, giving our students the confidence to go on to study, work and live in countries where those languages are spoken.
We look to the best for inspiration – Finland has one of the top performing education systems in the world. In 2019, the London-based Economist ranked Finland as number one in delivering future-oriented skills through education.
Their focus is on:
* Problem-solving
* Collaboration
* Creativity
* Civic-awareness
* Participation
Finland doesn’t have mandated standardised tests, other than the final National Matriculation Exam. With focus on experiential learning and life skills, there is less emphasis on homework and tests, with reduced competition or comparison among students. If one method fails, teachers are encouraged to consult with colleagues to try something else.
NIKOLOPOULEIO’s Action Learning set approach encourages our teachers to walk the talk, and put our students at the heart of our classes.
Learner-Centred Approach
Organising our lessons today is very different to how we organised our classroom in the past, and successful educators put their learner needs at the core of their planning.
According to the UK Open University Innovation Report, this includes:
* Flexible classrooms, reflecting even on sitting arrangements
* Variety of levels that define the structuring of learning tasks and challenges
* Real-Life Learning, by focusing on activities that are important in everyday life
* Beyond the classroom focus
* Engagement through listening and empathy skills
Our focus is on the learner and their needs, and our philosophy is the framework that guides this approach, supported by our programs, which are unique to NIKOLOPOULEIO:
Cosmopolitan Competencies- Citizens of the World©
Education in the new century should create confident, socially responsible, problem solving global citizens. Our mission at NIKOLOPOULEIO is to connect learners, peers, and instructors to a world of global life skills.
Find out how to sign up to our programs