Seven Skills for Successful Lifelong Learning
Harvard education specialist Tony Wagner believes we must reinvent the education system to promote innovation and drive job growth. In fact, he co-authored the book "Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era."
Wagner contends there are seven essential things students need to be successful lifelong learners. These skills, rather than academic content, should be at the heart of our education system:
Formulate good questions
Communicate in groups and lead by influence
Be agile and adaptable
Take initiative and be entrepreneurial
Effective written and oral communication skills
Know how to access and analyze information
Be creative and imaginative
Wagner’s research found that the most influential teachers ran classrooms that emphasized interdisciplinary learning, real team collaboration, and risk taking. The focus was on creating learning as opposed to consuming knowledge, which cultivated intrinsic motivation in students. These teachers made room for playful exploration and student passions in the classroom, thereby helping their students to develop the purpose that drives them.
Read more in MindShift.
