The School of the Future… Loading

At present, globalisation and technological advances are producing a change in the way students want to
learn and teachers want to teach. These changes, now in progress, will eventually shape “the school of the
future”.
There are very different opinions and predictions about what schools of the future will be like, but there
are some characteristics all experts agree that schools will have in 20 years from now:
Remote Learning
Students will have the possibility to access “classrooms” from their home computers at the most
convenient time. Adolescents’ circadian rhythm is different from adults’: they need to go to bed late and
wake up late. Remote learning will allow them to take lessons when they are at the height of their
performance time. Or, if they live in a remote area and want a different education from the one they are
getting, or if they don’t have access to education simply because there are no schools near their home,
remote learning will solve the problem.
Personalisation
Education might become personalised to each student’s needs and interests, and if this happens, schools
will provide children and teenagers with the necessary online resources. Lectures will be a thing of the
past, and learning will become more project-based: students will need to cover different subject areas to
develop particular projects, and they will choose what project they want to participate in, according to
what they want to learn. Teachers will assess a final product – the project – they will not test students by
making them repeat isolated facts or information.
Social Skills Development
The school of the future will not ignore the social aspect of education and will require attendance to a
‘real’ school at different times to help students to develop appropriate social skills. They will meet
teachers and classmates face to face to promote a different kind of interaction from the one they will have
in the virtual classroom. Yet, schools will need to have ‘classrooms’ that encourage innovative and
creative learning – classrooms and libraries might look more like coffee shops in the future!
In the future, there might not be blackboards, chalk, and rows of desks, but there will always be students
and teachers. They are both constantly changing because society is constantly changing. We always hope
that change will be for the best – sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. We can only hope that the school of
the future will meet the needs of the future society.
Let’s check! · 3 · Photocopiable © Pearson

Read the ‘Remote Learning’ section and circle the problems this learning type will solve.
fun
memory
heart problems
access to education
social inequality
boring lectures
distance
interaction
classes schedule
3 Read the ‘Personalisation’ section and put a cross (8) next to the ideas that are NOT mentioned.
1. Each student will work with a different teacher.
2. Classes will consider different individual learners’ interests.
3. Students will find the necessary online resources to learn.
4. Learners will study different subjects while they do their projects.
5. Students will have to memorise the answers to do their tests.
4 Read the ‘Social Skills Development’ section and correct the following statements.
1. Students will not have classmates.
2. Students will have face-to-face classes once a week.
3. Students will have only virtual interaction.
4. Classrooms and libraries will keep the same appearance.
5. Students will go to coffee shops to study.
5 According to the author, what will never change about teaching and learning?