Sharing Good Practice
to grow innovators’ mindsets in our
students require conducive policy
environments in which to flourish,
in education we often assess and
evaluate that which we value. If one was
to sample the types of assessments
most routinely being designed and
delivered to our students, would
they currently demonstrate the
value we place on innovation, open
collaboration and cognitive flexibility?
Most likely not.
However,
encouragingly
UAE's
Knowledge and Human Development
Agency (KHDA) has taken significant
strides to evaluate that which it values,
in order to foster innovation in schools.
The UAE School Inspection Framework
(2017) makes clear and unequivocal
commitment to the importance of
education for innovation and the
aptitudes and dispositions that bring
it about in our students. The Dubai
Future Foundation and the Future
Accelerators facilitated an important
discussion at Area 2071 on 'The Future
of Education' with four key questions:
1. What is the role of technology and
design in creating an education
system
that
matches
the
requirements of the 21st
century?
2. What are the structural and
curricular changes required in
order to allow integration of
transformative solutions?
3. How can educational institutions
empower 21st-century learners for
the future of work through exploring
innovative data architecture?
4. How can we enable a transparent
and
collaborative
ecosystem
between academia, the industry
and government to allow
for
better knowledge sharing/decision
making/positive change? (Dubai
Future Accelerators, 2019)
It is my contention that there is another
highly complementary driver within
the UAE educational environment that
will also be instrumental in bringing
about this shift. the Dubai Future Foundation mission
of making UAE the global hub for
educational innovation that is so
required.
Since 2014, the KHDA have fostered
a strong relationship with the
Commission
on
International
Education at the New England
Association of Schools and Colleges
(NEASC).
NEASC
International
is leading the way within the
global
international
education
sector in building a new model of
transformative accreditation. Its ACE
Learning protocol is already proving
its tremendous value in supporting
schools throughout their shift to
becoming future-focused learning
environments that nurture among our
young people the necessary ways of
thinking, ways of working and skilled
use of the tools for working to drive
innovation. Adam Pisoni, one of the founders of
Yammer, uses the metaphor of bridges
and islands to describe his experience
of innovation within particular sectors.
Islands are out there on their own,
but they stand as examples of how
innovative transformations can be
fully achieved in practice; they are
trail-blazers and thought leaders.
For Pisoni, Yammer was an island
within the enterprise social network
sector. However, after Yammer, Pisoni
sidestepped into US K-12 education,
where he is now building 'bridges'.
While not as radical, there is a value
in bridges as they start from where
school is, and they can find immediate
footholds in the middle of the market
as they address critical challenges that
schools are facing right now. Bridges
also build towards the vision of what
is possible.
By foregrounding the necessity of
a school's strong commitment and
deep conceptual understanding of
this notion of vision-driven modern
learning
environments,
NEASC
International is using its significant
leverage as an accreditation agency to
facilitate significant transformations.
In
addition
to
this,
providing
frameworks
for
impact
design,
guidance and support, ACE Learning
is also supporting the development of
schools' capacity and competence, to
achieve their ambitions.
The strengthening of the strategic
partnership between KHDA and
NEASC International will, in my view,
be hugely productive in achieving
the aspirations set out in the National
Innovation Strategy, Vision 2021 and
As a new academic year begins, and
as you consider this year's strategic
goals and your accreditation timelines,
I would encourage you to think about
the future challenges facing our young
people. We need islands of innovation
to inspire us. But we also need bridges
to lead schools towards this vision,
and to build them we need useful
tools like inspection frameworks and
transformative accreditation protocols.
This way, in the coming years, all
international schools in the region can
contribute to the development of UAE
as a hub of outstanding innovation
in global education that would make
Sheikh Maktoum bin Butti bin Suhail
proud.
Tim Logan is a freelance consultant supporting schools in UAE to use accreditation
to drive innovation and school transformation. He is also a doctoral student at
the University of Bath studying the role of evaluative tools in 'measuring' schools'
impact on 21st century skill development.
Twitter: TimLogan_FLD; Email: [email protected]
Class Time
Term 1 Sep - Dec 2019
45