Education researcher Professor Pedro Antonio Noguera advocates for future-oriented teaching and learning to prepare students for an uncertain world
Since the time when hunters took the adolescent members of their tribe on the first hunt, education has been evolving. The knowledge and skills required of a young learner in agrarian societies differ from students in industrial ones. Yet in post-industrial society, in island economies such as ours, and in a globalised and technology-rich world, have our education systems kept pace with the needs of the modern student? And what about the students of the future?
“Education is the key to our future,” said Professor Pedro Antonio Noguera. “That means that our youth need an education that provides them with the problem-solving ability, resourcefulness, creativity, and critical thinking to confront these problems.”
Professor Noguera was speaking at the 2023 UWI/Guardian Life Premium Open Lecture on September 29 at UWI St Augustine’s Daaga Auditorium. In his lecture, titled “Redefining Educational Success: Post-Pandemic Challenges and Opportunities”, the guest speaker, Dean of the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, looked at ways of shaping teaching and learning for future generations.
“When we looked at the students who were not thriving in our schools,” Prof Noguera told the audience of educators, education policymakers, and researchers at the UWI/Guardian Life lecture, “we always saw that basic needs were not being met.”
To redefine success, he said, “we needed a strategy for addressing those needs. If we wanted to see more young people enter adulthood equipped with the skills to support themselves, their families, and contribute to their communities and societies, they needed a different kind of education.”
What does that education look like? Prof Noguera believes that universities must foster creativity and critical thinking. They should, he said, give students the ability to “imagine new possibilities”.
A celebrated author and researcher who specialises in the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, Prof Noguera also advises educational policymakers in the US in New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. He gave a bit of that policy advice to T&T's planners at the lecture, proposing the creation of several schools to meet the needs of students and, by extension, the society.
These included:
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, speaking at the event, said, “Our educational landscape is evolving, the needs of our students, our young citizens, the needs of the nation and the region are changing, and we collectively must transform along with it. We must redefine and rethink our paradigms.”
UWI St Augustine’s Deputy Principal, Professor Indar Ramnarine, spoke on how teaching and learning was forced to evolve during the pandemic. Students, particularly the marginalised, were at a serious disadvantage because they had limited (and sometimes no) access to the necessary tech tools and mental health resources. The campus, he explained, responded with technology training, counselling, and even provided devices for students to attend classes remotely, complete assignments, and take exams.
But the kind of transformation that Prof Noguera is advocating goes beyond meeting the immediate needs of students. He wants future-oriented students with the capability to imagine and shape tomorrow.
Hosted by The UWI St Augustine Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) and Guardian Life of the Caribbean, the UWI/Guardian Life Premium Open Lecture brings internationally renowned educators like Prof Noguera to share their insights and expertise with the region.
They “embrace technology, reimagine their teaching methods, and in doing so have opened the door to a new era of educational opportunities”, said Mr Gregg Mannette, Head of Sales at Guardian Life.
The open lecture is available for viewing on The UWI St Augustine YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/sqrBxA0feP0. For more information on the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, visit https://sta.uwi.edu/cetl/.
