McCindle says students don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care.

Mark-McCrindle

Mark McCrindle, a social researcher,  presented at a conference I attended last term. His presentation was full of really interesting data or information on the various mega trends that effect education in general. The presentation is featured below.

In the presentation he outlines community attitudes towards schooling based on recent national research McCrindle Research has conducted which showed that while schools are innovating and increasingly engaging with students, they have yet to effectively communicate these shifts and the reasons for them to parents and the broader community who have a somewhat negative perception of the current practice of the school sector.

This is interesting as most schools would say they do communicate with parents at least through newsletters, emails and verbally. So I’m thinking it’s not only what and why but the how of communicating. Is the current trend towards short visual clips (e.g. You Tube) the way to carry the message to a greater audience and not the traditional newsletter. Our communication and marketing sub committee are looking at differing mediums now to convey messages.

The last part was an overview of the seven emerging trends redefining schools. Please feel free to have a look at these but I’ll comment on only a few:

  • post literate

We are all influenced by words and now increasingly images. This is not that surprising as our brain processes images faster than words. My reflection is perhaps a well-known one that teachers must now use images in the delivery of content to the Gen Z students. This almost sounds like a plea for teachers to use their large interactive whiteboards doesn’t it.

  • post logic

We have more people now than ever creating new learning and information. There are 2 million peer-reviewed articles and 7,780 PHD’s published annually with most only read 4 times. So there is great content available – so why is so little read. McCrindle suggests that learning is now not just logical but also relational. The reflection here is that young people “don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care”. 

To encourage students to use new knowledge we must therefore engage with them as people first, then set a context that is real and relevant to them.

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