ES
Fernando Reimers, an expert in educational innovation from Harvard Graduate School of Education, visited Camilo José Cela University this week, where he held various meetings with teachers and students from the UCJC School of Education and SEK International Schools.
Reimers explained how to educate students to live in a democratic society where they are aware of the great challenges they face – such as sustainability -, how to address them and, at the same time, cultivate a global perspective and be sensitive to the problems and challenges of the world.
The Harvard professor explored the impact of climate change from the perspective of students and teachers and highlighted the importance of environmental awareness in education. Democracy is in decline around the world. The challenge is what schools can do to teach students how to live in a democracy,” stated the rector.
Moreover, among other activities, he actively participated in a colloquium with the second-year primary students of SEK-Santa Isabel to analyse the story The Voices of the Trees, in which the teacher and the children shared their views on this tale and its connection with nature.
Less banning of mobile phones and more education in their use
During his visit, Reimers advocated for freedom and autonomy in learning and, as far as possible, to avoid prohibitions in schools, as he believes that ‘prohibition as a policy tool has its limits, because the education of the future requires that schools have the greatest possible autonomy.’ He was referring to, among other aspects, the use of new technologies such as mobile phones and tablets in the classrooms, a topic constantly under debate in education.
Speaking of autonomy, he also addressed the reinforcement plan in reading comprehension and mathematics planned for the next year after learning about the latest PISA results. For its proper implementation, Fernando Reimers recommended “the greatest possible personalisation with students, specific interventions, tutors and banishing uniform formulas.”
Regarding reading, he advised having well-stocked and varied school libraries, and coding books by difficulty: “There are collections that already do it, red, blue and green level. Every child knows what level they are at and the instruction given by the teacher is to choose a book that is at their level or the next one to challenge them.
In the case of repeating a year, he expressed his disagreement with this measure and with automatic promotion to the next year: These are two extreme responses, both inefficient because they do not solve the problem. Repetition does not solve anything, because fundamentally it is telling the student that a treatment (year) did not serve them the first time and they have to take a second dose, instead of trying to understand why they have been held back.
For this, he offered a possible solution: to provide individualised support to the student. “We struggle to realise that these difficulties in equally helping all children are a product of the system’s own organisation, this almost industrial factory-like organisation, which assumes that they are all the same,” he added.
Global Citizenship and Social Innovation Initiatives
One of the main objectives of the visit was the consolidation of the Advisory Council for the Master’s in Educational Systems Policy and Governance at UCJC, with Fernando Reimers as a prominent member. Aligned with Reimers’ own vision, this master’s offers key training for the evaluation of the local and global impact of a system’s educational policies and the type of leadership that can lead institutions to societal improvement, sustainability, and democracy, through education.
Fernando Reimers also leads the Global Innovation in Education Initiative at Harvard University and has visited UCJC on other occasions to present various lines of research and results, as well as to draw inspiration and reflect with the educational community of SEK Education Group.
SEK Education Group promotes, among other aspects, the learning of Global Citizenship and Social Innovation skills, with which it aims to develop the skills highlighted by Reimers, who also delved into the current challenges of teacher training, especially in the context of artificial intelligence.
