Future focused learning - playing the prediction game.
In education publications and blogs, I am constantly seeing articles that are focused on “pedagogy for the future”. They discuss everything from coding to micro-learning. I believe that all teaching and learning is inherently future focused and there is a danger in trying to predict what the future as educators through these buzzwords. The Oxford English Dictionary defines another buzzword used in education, pedagogy as “The art, occupation, or practice of teaching". In other words, pedagogy is the ‘how’ of teaching. Pedagogy is the art, occupation of practise of shaping learners into citizens of the society of the future. Therefore, the ‘future-focused pedagogy’ is a tautology because pedagogy is already future focused. As teachers we are naturally focused on developing students’ capacities and capabilities. These are the capabilities that will best serve them as adults and future citizens in society. A very real danger as educators is that we are making considerab