I had never come across the phenomenon that Tony Wagner had discussed in his book The Global Achievement Gap. I was quite interested to read our given course page and then I looked into the skills he (and others) believe are needed in the 21st century to be prepared for the world of work, and I would venture to say in life, in general, as well. Today, especially in many parts of the world, we do not live on 'an island unto ourselves’ and the interconnections of the global community require the skills Wagner formulated. However, the worlds of work within societies are cultural and needs may greatly vary. 

It very beneficial to listen to Wagner speak about his work. Below is a video of the talk he gave in 2009. Although more than ten years old, I believe there is still a lot of work to do to fill this gap, and probably there are different places that lack more in one skill than the other. New Learning works to fill many of the gaps, if not all. Please keep this in mind as he speaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2PqTTxFFc Oct 1, 2009

What follows is a short video briefly explaining the skills Wagner mentions needed to fill the gap between the world of work and what is taught in schools and universities. There are variations on this, but these are the basics. For more detail read:  Why America's Students Are Falling Behind.” http://www.education.com/magazine/article/global-achievement-gap/.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRkvZdRe1rQ Nov 11, 2018

As for my own narrative, for over the past ten years, I have been teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) in medicine in a university with a college of medicine and medical sciences. It is a small university that has top students from the GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE. There has been some change in the nature of education, but usually, this depends on the lecturer, and it is not from the top down. So, first, allow me to further set up the scene.

Until 2014, I was still required to use overheads in the classroom, and students were not permitted to use PowerPoint presentations. (I wonder if some of you reading this have much idea about those! Anyone for ditto machines?) This was not only in my department. Many might think this was just an ‘old slow-changing Middle Eastern’ way of being, but my supervisor was actually Canadian. Students generally were for 12 years taught in a purely didactic classroom and felt comfortable being again in that same system. Students from international schools were more cosmopolitan and taught differently usually by Western teachers.

Things have greatly changed now, especially in my department that I was appointed as head because I have taken honestly over thirty online classes and I am a person invigorated by change for the better and having students enjoy learning; making them actually think, and use technology as a tool for improvement, modernization and expanding the mind and ideas. Students love this and develop but are under a lot of pressure, yet the seed is planted in them. During this time when they were thrust into online learning during the current pandemic, it was challenging and there was so, so much to cope with in life.

Another major issue that still exists today in my experience in medical education here is the attitude of hierarchy among medical doctors and the ‘others all way below’ to the extent that one may be reminded of a caste system. Many doctors teach as they were taught. Very often, the concept of change makes them dig their heels in the ground even further. The university features itself as using the problem-based learning system (PBL) adapted from Harvard since 1985, but the questions lurk about the training of the educators and their commitment to this system, and the assessment methods used and how they are carried out. There is a disjointedness in the fit somehow.

With this as a background, when I read our course material, Wagner: The Global Achievement Gap, and it made me think about the changes in education and the global achievement gap from a point of view outside the US. The concepts of a gap between what is taught in school and universities and what is required for now and the future. What I have seen is that in order to modernize education here, the idea is just bringing in technology, but this often does not change the internal core of individual teachers or students molded by their society.

There are many growing pains that have gone on with changes to modernize with technology, but more than this is not really changing the mind-set of the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of teaching for the future. Thus, there is an amalgamation of what appears progressive because of all the technology, but it is held back because of perspective and far outdated entrenched concepts of how teaching and learning should be.

The real difficulty with change is resistance to it. An array of factors goes into this, but change requires hard work and makes one vulnerable, as there is often so much comfort and power in the status quo. With change, there could be a shift in power, and it can be threatening to give that up to even think of students as important in the teaching process. And then, some cannot even fathom why change is needed. Can all these skills be taught and accepted by institutions as schools are so steeped in tradition in many places?

I realize that many, many of my students come from backgrounds where education is memorization and nearly purely didact. I believe there is a place for this at times. Here, education is slowly changing, and as teachers are being trained for more modern methods; things are evolving. However, I also think of these 21st-century skills and of the students I have. Some graduate as doctors after studying medicine at 22 or 23, and are just absorbed back into their rural desert villages in one or the other of the GCC countries. They will take care of the local people and live the life they have been used to. How will these skills serve them, not to mention the English I have worked so hard to advance them in? There should be an understanding and the option to explore and use what is needed culturally and in context.

However, glimmers of hope occur when individuals have gone to the West to study and return with progressive experiences. There has also been a boom in international schools coming from mainly the US and the UK which has an enormous effect on the concept of education and the teaching styles learners are exposed to. These influences are then somehow slowly mixed into the culture. It is where the global and the local merge and become woven into a new fabric. Young parents of the new generation are calling for this. I also have done my best to teach these skills without knowing this was in this trend or in the research. Somehow in language teaching, you can often push in your own hidden curriculum quite easily. I, as a combination American born, educated Muslim, and a Bahraini citizen, somehow make a change in my own way with an understanding of all facets in play. I love my work because somehow there is an effect: one class, one student at a time…

References

“7 Skills Students Need for Their Future.” YouTube, The Asia Society, 1 Oct. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=NS2PqTTxFFc .

“7 Survival Skills - Global Achievement Gap - Tony Wagner.” YouTube, Compass Point Law Point, 11 Nov. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRkvZdRe1rQ.

Conlon, Kevin. “The Global Achievement Gap.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, 20 Aug. 2008, www.gse.harvard.edu/news/08/08/global-achievement-gap.

Pastore, F. and Zimmermann, K.F. (2019), "Understanding school-to-work transitions", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 40 No. 3, pp. 374-378. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-06-2019-343

“The Global Achievement Gap: Why America's Students Are Falling Behind.” Education.com, 15 Jan. 2010, www.education.com/magazine/article/global-achievement-gap/.