Hedley Beare, a visionary educational leader, wrote a book titled, Creating the Futures

Schools almost 13 years ago.In the second chapter, From an old world-view to a new he
describes the changes to schooling that five year-old, Angelica will see in her lifetime. Rereading
this chapter has inspired me to mash Beares future predictions and the hopes and dreams being
embodied at Mother Teresa Primary now. Beare makes it explicitly clear that the state of the
present and future world will have unimaginable influence on what we call schooling. He
challenges his readers to conceptualise a brave new world where education and learning work
towards meeting the complex problems of an ever-changing world. Through the words of five yearold Angelica, to her teacher, he states the need for a new world-view.

You need to understand what I am learning to believe, how I think about my future, what my world
view is. You and I both want me to be a success in the world which I enter as an adult and which I
will be responsible for. In future days I will admire you for being able to look forward with me
and to help me define what I need
to learn. (p. 11)

Through the reflections of a

number of educators our school has

Learner Qualities

developed the 5 Learner Qualities.

This framework synthesises, not

the learning qualities and

PA

survive and thrive in the future. It is

Perseveres to
achieve goals

Celebrates the success

of self & others

future happenings (especially in an

daunting.

Displays cooperation

Looks at things from

different points of view

C
FLE

TIVE

Listens to, and considers,

the ideas of others

Takes personal
responsibility

Self evaluates
Can work
independently

Communicates with others

Accepts differences

Displays empathy
& respect

Resolves disputes
peacefully

Speaks & behaves

courteously

to look into the future even more

Asks questions

RE

known futurist, makes the challenge

Uses & transfers

previous knowledge

Displays stillness,
quiet & wonder
Generous with time,
skills & knowledge

PA S S I O N AT E

not our past. Thomas Frey, well

Explores alternatives

OR
A
T
IV

prepares our students for their future

COLLAB

crucial that our present schooling

EA
TI

Uses original responses

& ideas

Actively participates in
the learning process

ever changing political and cultural

interdependent environment) but it is

Thinks or behaves
imaginatively
Takes risks

Cares for equipment

and environment

a brave educator that tries to predict

CR

dispositions that will be essential to

SI

AT E
N
O Enjoys learning

COM

what a student needs to learn, but

The grand mission for colleges (schools) in the future may well be phased as: Preparing humanity
for worlds unknown, preparing our minds for thoughts unthinkable, and preparing our resolve for
struggles unimaginable.
(http://www.futuristspeaker.com/2013/07/preparing-our-minds-for-thoughts-unthinkable-the-futureof-college/)

With these challenges clearly before us we have a mandate to produce students from our
schools who are creative, compassionate, collaborative, passionate and reflective. Our
premise is that these qualities instilled and nurtured, in the students who are in our learning
spaces, will best prepare them for an unimaginable and ever changing world.

Understanding the 5 Learner Qualities in relation to present and future world challenges
Through a very simple internet search, one can draw on a vast and diverse set of data,
which vividly highlights the present and future challenges to humanity (and therefore learning
institutions). In this section I would like to explore five key challenges and the connection with our 5
Learner Qualities.

Being compassionate to the planet and others

Analysing the data from Worldometers (www.worldometers.info) which reflects real time
world statistics in areas such as world population, environment, food, water and energy it becomes
clear that we need to produce compassionate people. People who are compassionate to each
other and planet earth. We live in times where what happens environmentally within the borders of
one country is no longer solely that countrys business. (Beare p.13) Our world population is
expected to reach 8 billion people by 2024 (when our current kindergarten reach 15 years of age)
which may cause urgent international action to limit the size of the worlds population. We have a
present population which contains just under 900 million undernourished people and 1 1/2 billion
overweight people. Our generation and the next will have to tackle this striking imbalance between
the haves and have-nots. That the earths limited resources need to be distributed in much more
compassionate ways. That, now more than ever, we need to cultivate respectful and empathetic
students who will bring into action a much more just world.
A quick data scan of some aspects of the current state of our planet in 2014 shows that 4
million hectares of forest will be lost, 5 million hectares will succumb to soil erosion, 9 million
hectares to desertification and that we will release over 7 million tons of toxic chemicals into the
environment.(www.worldometers.info) If our schools do not produce students who wonder at the
natural world that surrounds them then this devastation will continue with disastrous implications.

In the not to distant future the world could be threatened by green wars unless a compassionate
generation does something to balance up the unequal access to clean water, good topsoil, to
energy sources and the distribution of food.

Being a global collaborator

The capacity to effectively collaborate will be a much desired skill of the future. Our most
recent Australian Curriculum highlights the need for Personal & social capability in particular the
ability in developing empathy for others and understanding relationships, establishing and building
positive relationships, making responsible decisions, working effectively in teams. (General
capabilities in the Australian Curriculum, 2013 p.98) In 21st Century Skills: Learning for life in our
times (2009), Trilling & Fadel highlight that one of the key skills to unlock a lifetime of learning and
creative work is communication and collaboration. A sub skill of working collaboratively is the
demonstrated ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams. It is this diversity that
will be most prominent for the students sitting before us.
The Asia/Pacific will be a strong focus to our students future world. Already the Asia
continent (from India to Japan) accounts for half of the worlds population. Communication,
employment and economics will be a mix of multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-faith
interactions. The ability to listen to and consider the ideas of others and accept differences will be
crucial in a world which will expect diverse teams spanning cultures, languages, geographies and
time zones to solve complex problems and innovate.

Creative people- a must for the future

Recently creativity has become such a buzz word with an amazing amount of literature
and energy focussing on the need for creative thinkers in the future (and the present!). One
significant voice that has influenced me, has been Sir Ken Robinson though his powerful TED talks
and his book Out of our minds: Learning to be Creative. The thrust of his argument summarised in
a recent blog post is, were all born with deep natural capacities for creativity and systems of
mass education tend to suppress them. Secondly, it is increasingly urgent to cultivate these
capacities-for personal, economic and cultural reasons (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sir-kenrobinson/do-schools-kill-creativity_b_2252942.html)
So why will creative thinkers be so prized in the future? The futurists tell us that the
prosperous nations will not rely on physical resources but rather commodities like technical skills,
brain-power, and know-how. They will have a population who can think & behave imaginatively,
explore alternatives and create original responses and ideas. They will be referred to as
knowledge workers. These workers of the future will be expected to be in a continually study or

learning cycle with the possibility of changing jobs seventeen or so times with at least three of
those changes being major. The partner of creative thinking will be resilience to say the least!
An underlying passion in an every-changing landscape

"We are currently preparing students for jobs that dont yet exist . . . using technologies that havent
yet been invented . . .in order to solve problems we dont even know are problems yet. (Richard
Riley)

Following on from creativity will be the underlying drive to continually learn. A deep seated
passion needs to be instilled that will equip our students to embrace a very different employment
scenario. A report from the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (New Ways of Working
Introducing the Workplace of the Future) puts a spotlight on challenges for future work, labour and
workplaces. They highlight four general trends that will characterise the employment of our
students - digitisation, automation, sustainability, and increasing demographic variety in the labour
force. One of the major challenges will be the need for constant adaptation. This future work of
continuous learning and unlearning, companies in constant evolution and a career in endless flux
will demand an internal passion to survive and thrive. The students in our learning spaces need to
experience the intrinsic joy of learning, the development of perseverance and to actively participate
in their learning.
Friedman in his book, The World is Flat, suggests that we should be "learning to learn" this is
nothing new to those of us in education, but it does give it new weight, as he warns that "what we
learn today in school will be outdated by tomorrow, and therefore, the most successful people in
the 'flat world' will be those who can adapt and learn quickly. The greater our curiosity and
passion for learning, the greater chances we will have for success later in life.

Being reflective in a whirlwind of change

The need for reflective and thought-full people is paramount to preparing for the future and
in many ways reflection is the glue which binds the other four Learner Qualities together. Daniel
Pink, explaining his book, A whole new mind, sums up well the reflective aptitudes necessary as
we enter a new age.
It is an age animated by a different form of thinking and a new approach to lifeone that prizes
aptitudes that I call high concept and high touch. High concept involves the capacity to detect
patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative,
and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new. High touch involves the ability to
empathise with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in ones self
and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning.

(http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Excerpt-from-A-Whole-New-Mind-by-Daniel-Pink) Only someone who

can ask questions, look at things from different points of view and self evaluate be in a position to
develop the high concept and high touch aptitudes Pink describes. This reflective stance and
aptitude is not just about thriving in the workplace but its about making personal meaning of our
lives.
The students in our learning spaces are digital natives who have known no life before
Google. ICT and the internet have refashioned our concept about knowledge - what it is, how it is
accessed, how it is produced, who owns it. These students will have unprecedented power through
the internet and to amplify their ability to think, learn, communicate and create. Along with this
power also comes accountability and the need for teachers to develop students to take personal
responsibility for their off-line and on-line worlds. We have a responsibility to produce reflective
learners who are info-savvy, media-fluent and tech-tuned so they in turn become wise and
influential people of their time.

How the 5 Learner Qualities are incorporated in the daily life of our school

In this section I will briefly describe how we at present bring to life the 5 Learner Qualities and
possible future directions. To make this conceptual framework something that is part of the
schools culture (the way we do things around here) we:
1. Have a clearly articulated document which explains the key skills of each Learner Quality and a
support document that highlights the indicators - what you would see students display in our
school community
2. Teachers acknowledge students displaying Learner Quality attributes through Recognition
Cards which are posted home weekly.
3. Our schools Learning Reports (which are shared with parents each semester) clearly display
the qualities recognised by the childs learning studio teacher.

4. Learner Qualities are utilised by staff to reflect on current personal and team strengths and
challenges.
5. Teachers explicitly utilise the language of the 5 Learner Qualities to reinforce present
behaviours and challenge students.