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What does Education 4.0 mean? Do teachers or practitioners comprehend it fully or are
they just following the trend? In order to fully comprehend Education 4.0, it is very essential to be
aware of and get accustomed to the Industrial Revolution (IR) 4.0.
Let’s go to few centuries back to get an overview on how the industrial revolutions changed
across time and the impact it had on the Education setting since the 18th century until today.
Industry 1.0 Industry 2.0 Industry 3.0 Industry 4.0
Today
1870
1969
1784
E
ducation 4.0 vitally utilizes tools and resources based on technology to propel
education in various non-traditional ways. This leads to students no longer
requiring to write down notes utilizing textbooks, pens and papers from
teachers in a traditional classroom environment.
As an alternative with
Education 4.0, learning can take
place anywhere at any time.
Interesting opportunities are
offered through the use of E-
learning tools in cultivating remote
and self-paced learning. Students
can remotely log on for their
classroom through video chat or
massive online open courses. All
they need to learn and participate in
their classes is just a laptop or a mobile phone with a stable internet connectivity.
The vital cause in why Education 4.0 was developed after the emergence of Industry
4.0 is the significant increase of communication tools and internet-based technology across
the industry. Education 4.0 was developed in response to the need of Industry Revolution
4.0 to produce trained and qualified professionals who are committed and prepared to work
in a digital-driven and highly globalized environment.
Education needs to be kept pace with the era it is molding students for, that is for them to
have a future that is financially sustainable and feasible. Education 4.0 is implemented to
ensure that the students are fit to survive the challenges faced in the Industrial Revolution
4.0.
Education 4.0 through the usage of technologies and tools ensures a teaching
experience same to the working experience by creating an equal and similar environment
for both. Students will be very skillful and productive in hands-on job in future. Thus,
Education 4.0 is a more practical and realistic approach towards learning. It leads to
students having better learning outcomes in aspect of their actual academic or professional
interests.
Education 4.0 is thus a more realistic and practical approach to learning. Education
4.0 leads to better learning outcomes for students in terms of their real academic or
professional interests, thereby educators are responsible to instill students with the essential
skills along Education 4.0. The skills are discussed in the section below.
According to The Future Jobs, a recent article published from The World
Economic Forum in 2016, there are few skills required by students in 2020 to survive
in Industrial Revolution 4.0. The comparison shows some changes in relative
importance of several skills, and the emergence of new skills “cognitive flexibility”
and “emotional intelligence” find a mention in the list for 2020 but is not mentioned
at all in the 2015 list. By 2020, skills such as emotional intelligence and cognitive
flexibility are expected to be far more critical to industrial needs.
Hence, students, the future leaders need to equip themselves with these skills to
thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to think flexibly and to shift mindsets easily. It
allows us to adapt to unfamiliar and unexpected situations, by integrating different
perspectives and shifting between problem-solving strategies. When you teach students
strategies for shifting flexibly, you help them to see the value of different approaches
when solving problems, which helps them to succeed academically. When students
cannot think flexibly, they approach their schoolwork rigidly and often cling to one
method only, even when it’s clear that this method isn’t work for them.
When reading, students must shift their thinking depending on the specific goals of the
assignment, the structure of the text and the emphasis on comprehending the material.
For example, reading a science fiction (Sci-Fi) book is different from reading a science
textbook. When reading “A Photosynthesis Story”, students must shift between the
narrative structure and symbolic language. However, when reading “Encyclopedia of
Photosynthesis”, students must shift between the main ideas introduced by the topics
and the subtopics. Therefore, in order to understand what they are reading, students
must approach both language and contents flexibly.
Cognitive flexibility also underlies students’ ability to write successfully. They must
take into account audience, purpose and perspective. For a scientific essay like
“Formation of Water”, students must be able to flexibly shift from main ideas to details
in order to develop a coherent thesis or argument. When writing creatively like “The
Adventures of Little Drop”, students must shift the ideas and details to develop an
imaginative storyline.
Note-taking is a skill that requires students to shirt between listening, reading and
writing. Students need to extract the main ideas and important details as they listen to
a lecture, read from a textbook or conduct an experiment, and translate these ideas into
presentation in the form of word and drawings. For example after conducting an
experiment, students are required to simultaneously listen and follow the experimental
procedures, identify and record important observations, and then translate the results
into their own words.
Being emotionally intelligent means you are conscious of your own feelings and able
to counterpoise emotion and reason. You also can recognise the feelings and emotions
in others and show empathy and compassion, which it plays a crucial role of all
relationships both business and personal. For us as teachers, it allows us to gauge a
student’s mood and carefully examine the classroom climate.
Example 1
Cognitive flexibility
To solve the problem, there might be multiple strategies, thus
students are encouraged to present different ways to grow
their mindset.
Emotional intelligence
Students might experience disagreement and conflict when
trying different strategies with classmates. They need to learn
how to manage their negative emotions in order to achieve the
goal which is to solve the problem.
Example 2
Cognitive flexibility
Students need to shift their mindset to think about the
alternative ways to make the roots of green beans grow
downwards logically.
Emotional intelligence
Students might experience disagreement and conflict when
discussing the solutions with classmates. They need to learn
how to manage their negative emotions in order to achieve the
goal which is to solve the problem.
Example 3
Cognitive flexibility
Students need to evaluate their own models and also other
models, and then provide different constructive ideas for
improvement.
Emotional intelligence
Students need to know that everything isn’t perfect, they
should listen to the ideas from peers, and also judge the
models critically.
Example 4
Many countries over the world try to reduce the mass production of
stationeries to save the environment and replace them by technology.
It is estimated that in 2050, all stationeries are replaced
by technology. New generation won’t
use stationeries anymore.
Cognitive flexibility
Students need to shift their thinking to think about the pros
and cons rationally, and also reflect on their own ideas.
Emotional intelligence
Students need to understand the feeling of people when
experiencing the situation and find the alternative ways that
can solve the problem.
Example 5
In Science Year 5, pupils need to understand the food relationship among living
things and the concepts of food chain, food web, main source, producer and
consumer. Teacher can create a problem and encourage pupils to think the ways
to solve it:
Cognitive flexibility
Students need to think flexibly about every step taken to
avoid negative impacts to each side and find the best solution
to solve the problem.
Emotional intelligence
By solving this kind of problem, students are trained to be
resilient and choose the solution objectively.
Example 6
In Science Year 6, pupils learn about the extinction threat of animals and plants
and ways to preserve and conserve animals and plants. Teacher can build a
situation as below to enable pupils ponder the action and find out the best
solution:
Cognitive flexibility
Similar to Example 4, students need to shift their thinking to
think about the pros and cons rationally, and also reflect on
their own ideas.
Emotional intelligence
Students should feel empathy on orangutans, understand how
orangutans feel when the action is taken to them, thus
students can respond appropriately to the situation.
When setting up the scenarios, teacher should be objective and make sure that the
scenario is understandable by students of that level. Students’ discussion must involve
ideas of pros and cons. Teacher as a facilitator needs to be neutral and retort students
of both sides with questions that enable them to think rationally and critically.
Conclusion
In order to keep on track with Industry 4.0, teachers must be ready and well prepared
to train the students since elementary level. Even Malaysia is on the path of providing
the higher education system now to face the Education 4.0, however the in-demand
skills like cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence should be instilled to students
as early as possible.