Genius Not Required

Significant change is required to reduce overwhelm and improve the learning and well-being of students and their educators.

My oldest sister is a retired teacher who specialized in gifted education, science, and art. As you might imagine, Leonardo da Vinci’s expertise and work inspired many of her lessons and students, which, in turn, inspired me. When we think, today, of the extensive amount of knowledge that da Vinci had in so many different and varied fields, it is astounding: engineering, botany, cartography, mathematics, physics, architecture, anatomy, and, of course, art. He was a universal genius.

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With the ever-accelerating growth of knowledge and ever-increasing access to information​​, one human being could no longer even remotely be considered a master in the number of areas da Vinci was – developing expertise in even one can take decades.

The resulting changes impacting our economies and societies pose crucial challenges for education systems and teachers. To be effective, teachers must continuously increase their knowledge and skills in a growing number of domains, including neuroscience; the social, cognitive, and behavioral sciences; pedagogy; computer and information sciences; artificial intelligence/machine learning; environmental studies; economics, and engineering.

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Whilst the teaching profession can greatly benefit from the combined knowledge and experience of individuals such as Dr. Judy Willis, a practicing neurologist with years of classroom teaching, we must accept that such levels of integrative expertise are unique. The expectation that teachers (and leaders) develop a high level of interdisciplinary understanding when it takes years of effort to cultivate a deep knowledge of even one discipline is not only untenable but also excessively unfair. Offering professional learning opportunities is not enough when we realize our world, our societies, and, therefore, our students, need so much more. To address this challenge, significant changes are needed to reduce overwhelm and improve the learning and well-being of students and their educators.

Suggested action points:

• Streamline school structures and curriculum frameworks so that success criteria for leaders, teachers, and students are not only clearly defined but manageable.
• Explore and implement sophisticated digital tools to support both teaching and learning.
• Focus efforts on developing the strengths of teachers and students as a new paradigm rather than attempting to manage untenable approaches and/or ‘cover’ a curriculum.
• Further develop support networks, including those of service providers to provide needed expertise.

Recommended organizations and resources:

• Common Ground Collaborative: Co-creating smart, systemic, sustainable solutions for schools.
• NoTosh: embedding design thinking into organizational cultures to enable them to work more effectively, efficiently, and creatively.
• hundrED: Seeking and sharing inspiring innovations in K12 education.
• MiniPd: Providing professional learning content, resources, and services by international education practitioners, for international education practitioners.
• Linden Global Learning: Providing educational and therapeutic support to international students and schools anywhere in the world.

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Educators choose the teaching profession because they are creative, knowledgeable, and dedicated to building a better future. We need to be ingenious and support each other in the ever-changing domains required to develop the

minds, skills, and spirits of today’s students.

Sources

Guerriero, S. (2017), Pedagogical Knowledge and the Changing Nature of the Teaching Profession, OECD Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264270695-de.

Ulferts, H. (ed.) (2021), Teaching as a Knowledge Profession: Studying Pedagogical Knowledge across Education Systems, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/e823ef6e-en.

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