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Play, passion, purpose: Tony Wagner at TEDxNYED
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Play, passion, purpose: Tony Wagner at TEDxNYED

Reinventing Education for the 21st Century

In this talk, the speaker discusses the need to reinvent education rather than reform it due to the changing landscape where knowledge is easily accessible. He emphasizes the importance of skills over memorization and highlights essential competencies for students in the modern era.

The Obsolescence of Traditional Education

  • Einstein's perspective on problem formulation being crucial is applied to education, suggesting that schools are not failing but rather outdated and in need of reinvention.
  • Knowledge is likened to a commodity due to its widespread availability, contrasting with traditional education's emphasis on memorization.

Shift Towards Skills-Based Education

  • Emphasis on practical application of knowledge rather than rote memorization is highlighted through examples like changes in scientific knowledge.
  • Discussion on necessary skills for success in a global economy, focusing on adaptability and continuous learning.

Essential Skills for 21st-Century Success

The speaker outlines seven core competencies essential for students to thrive in the 21st century, emphasizing critical thinking, collaboration, adaptability, initiative, communication, information analysis, curiosity, and imagination.

Core Competencies for Modern Students

  • Critical thinking defined as asking pertinent questions emerges as a key skill alongside collaboration and adaptability.
  • Global affirmation of these competencies underscores their universal relevance across diverse contexts.

Challenges in Modern Economy and Education

The speaker delves into challenges faced by recent college graduates despite possessing requisite skills. Economic factors such as consumer spending habits are explored alongside sustainability concerns.

Economic Realities Impacting Employment

  • Analysis of economic downturn reveals issues beyond financial mechanisms impacting job prospects for graduates.

Good Immigration Policy and Education

The speaker discusses the importance of education in fostering innovation by highlighting successful individuals who were college dropouts.

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Innovation

  • College dropouts: Bill Gates, Edwin Land, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bonnie Raitt are mentioned.
  • "What do Bill Gates, Edwin Land, the inventor of Polaroid instant camera, Mark Zuckerburg a Facebook fame, and Bonnie Raitt, the folk singer, all four have in common?"
  • Correction: They were Harvard College dropouts.

Developing Innovators

  • Importance of developing young innovators through different approaches like parenting and mentoring.
  • Exploring ways to enhance young people's innovative capacities.
  • Interviewing a diverse group of innovators and their parents to identify patterns.

Patterns in Parenting and Teaching for Innovation

The speaker delves into the role of parents and teachers in nurturing innovation among young individuals.

Role of Parents and Mentors

  • Discovering patterns in parenting that contribute to fostering innovation.
  • Interviewing innovators' parents to understand parenting patterns.
  • Emphasizing the significance of mentors in the development of innovators.

Outlier Teachers

  • Noticing a pattern where successful teachers are outliers within their educational settings.
  • Observing that exceptional teachers promoting innovation are outliers in their schools.

Cultural Differences Between Schooling and Learning for Innovation

Contrasting traditional schooling culture with the culture required for fostering innovation among students.

Cultural Disparities

  • Highlighting differences between school culture and learning culture for producing innovators.
  • Identifying five central disparities between schooling culture and innovative learning culture.

Importance of Risk-Taking

  • Emphasizing the significance of risk-taking in fostering innovation compared to risk aversion prevalent in traditional schooling systems.
  • Contrasting risk aversion in schools with the necessity for taking risks in innovative environments.

Encouraging Intrinsic Motivation for Learning

Discusses how intrinsic motivation plays a crucial role in driving innovation among young individuals.

Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Incentives

  • Contrasting extrinsic incentives with intrinsic motivation as drivers for innovation among young learners.

Innovative Teaching and Mentoring

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of innovation in teaching and mentoring, emphasizing the need to model innovative values and behaviors for students.

Embracing Innovation

  • Students are driven by a desire to make a difference instilled by parents and teachers.
  • Educators must be innovators in teaching and mentoring, showcasing innovative values and behaviors.
Video description

Tony Wagner recently accepted a position as the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. Prior to this, he was the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. Tony consults widely to schools, districts, and foundations around the country and internationally. His previous work experience includes twelve years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in teacher education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility. Tony is also a frequent speaker at national and international conferences and a widely published author. His work includes numerous articles and five books. Tony's latest, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World, has just been published by Simon & Schuster to rave reviews. His 2008 book, The Global Achievement Gap has been an international best seller and is being translated into Chinese. Tony has also recently collaborated with noted filmmaker Robert Compton to create a 60 minute documentary, "The Finland Phenomenon: Inside The World's Most Surprising School System." Tony earned an M.A.T. and an Ed.D. at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.