Programme 398, Yong Zhao on Globalisation, Technology, Entrepreneurship & Education (25-4-20)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

On this week's episode I speak to Professor Yong Zhao from the School of Education at the University of Kansas. Among the topics we discuss on the episode are the following:

• We currently have the opportunity to reimagine education without schools: Do we have to do these subjects? Do we have to teach this much?
• A good time to teach global understanding, empathy and competency
• Innovation in education
• The importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset
• The Digital Pencil
• Alternative ways of organising the education of young people
• Difficulty of finding like-minded people in a small school
• Globalisation as the “death of physical distance”
• Globalisation is localisation of global forces
• Implications of globalisation for teachers
• Why everyone should have a local identity and affirm the identities of others
• Your uniqueness can only become valuable when it’s valuable to others
• Why schools encourage people to be independent and selfish rather than interdependent
• Schools as a place to bring about a better society
• Students as job creators versus job hunters
• Enhancing entrepreneurship in students
• Unintended consequences of education policies
• PISA test scores and the illusions of excellence, science, progress.
• His experience of being educated in China
• The impact of technology on education
• To compete with a machine, a person must avoid becoming one!
• Be unique and great in your own way; understand yourself, your talents and virtues.
• "Creative" means identifying problems worth solving
• Empty creativity versus good creativity – the need to have a domain to excel in
• What schools should be for: a place to equalise community resources
• David Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle The Manufactured Crisis.
• David Berliner as a former guest on the podcast
• Diane Ravitch’s blog: https://dianeravitch.net/
• If we want a better life in the future, we need to help our children create a better life for us