All India
Association for Educational Research
FOURTH-WAVE
EDUCATION:
(WAVES AND
VISIONS)
Prof. B.K.Passi
17th
AIAER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT RAJKOT
January 10th
to 12th 2004
Many years ago, a painter peeped into futures of education of year 2000. The painter thought that education will continue to remain confined within the four walls of the classrooms. Transmission pedagogy will be in vogue. Monitor-students will help the teachers. The learners will be recipients of this knowledge classroom. The contents, methods of teaching, and methods of learning are vividly depicted in this painting. All students will move in one direction with one pace. The painter visualized that the teacher and his books will be the main source of knowledge. The learners will be passive recipients of this knowledge classroom.
What will happen to education of tomorrow? What type
of learning approaches will emerge? How will schools form their new curriculum?
What type of thinkers will be prepared by the school systems? What type of
management will suit the new environment? Answers to these questions are
dependent upon you and your choices. The contents of new education of the
fourth wave are yet to take place. We will find answers to these questions?
Like this painter above, let us draw our painting of the desirable and feasible
futures of tomorrow.
17th
AIAER INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AT RAJKOT
January 10th
to 12th 2004
Prof.
B.K.Passi[1]
Presidential
Address
Fourth wave is not a fixed
entity that will come one day. The fourth will be created by its users.
Will fourth wave change our
education? Yes! A wave-shift creates sweeping changes in all fields including
that of education. A wave is much more than a simple change. A wave brings a
paradigm shift. Let us understand that there is difference between a paradigm
change and an ordinary change. When a paradigm shift takes place then the
primary propositions, the basic assumptions, and the approaches do change
dramatically. In ordinary change, the primary propositions remain the same, and
thus we cannot foresee many of the outcomes. We lose this sense of linear
predictions during a paradigm shift.
In the past, man created
nomadic society, followed by agrarian society, industrial society, and
information society. Let us call these creations the zero, first, second and
the third wave respectively. During nomadic, agriculture, industry, and
information society the nature of engagements
of man were changing. During these waves, education too was changing. After the
information wave, we may encounter a responsive
wave. We may call this one as the fourth wave.
In the fourth wave what will be the engagement of man to create the responsive society? Man will focus on value-additions along with his on-going economic engagements required in nomadic, agriculture, industry, and information waves. In the fourth wave, man will develop wholistic and compassionate view about life and ecology. He will look at things and events at the level of global consciousness.
Zero and the first wave emphasized that we are separate and unconnected, second wave claimed we are separate but competing, third wave claimed we are separate but cooperating, and the fourth wave may argue we are one and co-creating a responsive society. Likewise, we managed to operate our societies (i) by traditions in the zero and first wave, (ii) by religion in second wave, (iii) by rationality in the third wave. In the fourth wave, we may like to knit our society with a basic fabric of responsibility.
Today, the signals[2]
of fourth wave are being felt through the emerging forces of
*respiritualization of society, *decline of materialism and scientism, *responsiveness in institutions, redefining
wealth, *merging of corporate-personal life, *emergence of self-forgetful
service paradigm, *integration of religiousness with science.
Let us understand that our
roles in the fourth wave will be different. You will be actively
participating in the creation of wave. But you alone cannot be a controller of
the wave. The nature of these changes will be complex and dynamic. The patterns
of change may follow chaotic principles. These changes will transform the total
society in all respects. Even though you are partners of changes yet you are
not the controllers. Education of fourth wave has to deal with these
possibilities.
When
will such a thing called fourth wave come about? What will be the nature of education?
Who will manage this education? Whether education will be a passive agent or an
active partner? Will education be a contributory factor for the creation of
fourth wave or other forces will create the fourth wave and education will be a
service agency to cope with the change? Will education change its vision
before, during, or after, the fourth wave? All this depends upon you who are
engaged in and around education? Shall we
continue to play the old game with old / modified rules? Shall we play a new
game of education with more sincerity and seriousness? If we seriously want to
play this game, let us consider a framework to play the game.
What are these waves? How many waves are there four
or five? The waves are Zero Wave, 1st Wave 2nd Wave, 3rd Wave and 4th Wave.
These waves have already occurred or currently emerged or will be emerging.
What are possible sub-dimensions of those waves that have already occurred or
have emerged or are emerging? These dimensions could belong to the natural and
human world.
It is not easy to select the sub-dimensions. We
selected four dimensions that have high relevance to education. These
dimensions are named as (i) Approach Vision, (Ii) Methodology Vision, (Iii)
Systems Vision, and (Iv) Management Vision. You will see in the cells of the
framework that many of the things have happened or and many new will occur. In
the first few columns of Table 1 below, there is reference to activities the
past and present. But, in the last column that is designated for the fourth
wave, we will not be able to say anything as these activities have yet to
happen. We cannot mention them right today. The outlines of framework are
presented in a tabular form. The following Table 1 gives a conceptual framework
of AIAER Conference of Fourth Wave Education. Reference to Table 2 is given
with a view to have an all inclusive overview.
Table 1 Framework of theme
and sub themes “waves by vision” |
||||||
Waves Sub-themes |
Wave-0 Nomadic
|
Wave-1 Agricultural |
Wave-2 Industrial
|
Wave-3 Information
|
Wave-4
Responsive |
|
Approach-Vision |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Signals
are emerging |
|
Methodology Vision |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Signals
are emerging |
|
Systems
Vision |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Signals
are emerging |
|
Management
Vision |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Occurred
/ Occurring: see Table 2 |
Signals
are emerging |
|
It is quite difficult to articulate the details for
these cells. One has to find such details of
past and present from the on-going waves and have to use the futuristic methods
of research for the column cells falling under the fourth wave education.
Our deliberations in the Conference will guide the
contents of this column meant for the fourth wave education. Thus, we may work
out the preferred scenarios and the broad action plans. These preferred
scenarios will be shaped by our aspirations, our values and our on-going
actions. The scholars of the International Conference will construct and
articulate the preferred contents for the Fourth Wave Education.
Meanwhile, let us move ahead. Let us understand
these waves. Let us understand the sub-themes. Let us then find the historic
evidence of the developments in the past. And finally let us create a futuristic
framework for considering the possible issues about the four sub-theses the
Conference. These issues can be discussed before, during, and even after the
Conference. Right now, let us start with a brief outlines of the waves.
The developments of waves have uneven patterns over
time. We know that development of the waves is not uniform in the societies /
countries across the globe. In some countries, some waves are subsiding, and
some others are emerging. There are overlaps. The development is progressively
increasing in its complexity.
Let
me make it clear about the nomenclature and number of the waves that are
referred in this address. The title of the International Conference is “Fourth
Wave Education”. In continuity to Alvin
Toffler’s, the Amritsar Conference
accepted the title of “Fourth Wave Education”. Later on, we deliberated upon
and decided to include nomadic wave as zero wave. We decided to include this
wave as we find that even today some societies are living in the nomadic stage
of development. Hence, two tables have included “Zero Wave” as one of the
waves.
What are the principles of agricultural wave? What
developments took place during this wave? Man moved from stone-age and started
to rear animals for food, and movement. Animal strength was the symbol of his
power. Hunting and horse riding were the basic skills for survival. All
learning (not schooling) was addressed to nomadic skills.
What are the principles of agricultural wave? What
developments took place during this wave? Man recognized the importance of land
as a source of growing plants and food. He developed living places like
permanent houses and dwellings. Animal power was the source of movement and
working. Education was organized in the tribes about animal care, plantation,
and agriculture.
What are the principles of agricultural wave? What
developments took place during this wave? Man found new sources of energy. Coal
and oil gave the energy to work with new tools and machines for production and
movement. The six principles of second wave are (i) standardization, (ii)
specialization, (iii) synchronization, (iv) concentration, (v) maximization,
and (vi) centralization.
During industrial wave, the developments in
management of societies took the shape of compliance of instructions,
conformity of behaviors, bureaucratic organization, autocratic leadership,
centralized control, adversarial relationships, one-way communications, and
compartmentalization of actions. This was true for the fields of human endeavor
including that of education. In that wave, all educational activities were
addressed to develop an industrial man.
What are the principles of information wave? What
developments are taking place during this wave? The principles of third wave
are (i) planetary cooperation, (ii) justice, equality, balance, reciprocity,
sharing, (iii) redesign of institutions, changing values, (iv) unity and
diversity, from an “either-or” logic to a “both-and” logic, (v) distributed
networks of power, no rigid organizations or hierarchies, and vi) many models
of the future encouraged openness, learning societies.
During the information wave new developments have
emerged by shifting: from standardization to customization; from compliance to
initiative; from conformity to diversity; from bureaucratic organization to
team organization; from autocratic leadership to shared leadership; from
centralized control to autonomy-accountability; from adversarial relationships
to cooperative relationships; from one-way communications to networking; from
compartmentalization to holism. All activities of education are addressed to
the development of a man suiting to the information management
.
In order to create a realistic vision for the fourth
wave, let us see what happened in the past waves and what is going on in the
ongoing information /knowledge /communication wave. The contents of Table 2
have been searched from Internet. Here, we are giving the reference of Table 2
for a comprehensive overview of our framework.
Table 2 is giving the life
pattern of dimensions Zero wave, 1st wave 2nd wave, 3rd
wave (taken and adapted from the Internet) |
||||
Waves Dimension |
Zero
Wave Nomadic-
Not
Settled |
1st
Wave Agricultural Revolution |
2nd
Wave Industrial Revolution |
3rd
Wave Communications Web Revolution |
Wealth |
Cattle |
Land |
Industry |
Information |
Habitat
|
Extended
Family; Mobile life |
Village
(Agriculture); Tied to Land; Immobile |
Mega-City;
Tied to Factory/City |
Not
tied to City; Tied to Computer Web; Mobile |
Class
Distinctions |
Few |
Nobles,
Warriors Priests Peasants/Slaves |
Owners
Workers |
By
Abilities/ Access to Information |
Position
Determined |
By
Abilities |
By
Birth |
By
Wealth |
By
Abilities |
Economy |
Personal |
Local
(except sea-faring) |
National
/International |
International-yet
Local |
Energy
Sources |
Human |
Renewable:
human / animal wood, wind, water |
Non-Renewable: Fossil fuels, gas, oil, coal |
Renewable |
How
Things Made? & For Whom? |
Handicraft
For self |
Custom-Made
(Expensive) For self/ Others |
Mass
Produced (Cheap) For Others; Mass Distribution (railroads; highways) |
Mass
Markets; But Custom Distribution (Cheap) For Others |
Family
|
Pre-Wave
Hunting groups; Transitory Gatherers |
Large;
Multi-generations; Immobile |
Small;
Nuclear- Family, Mobile |
Individual;
Decline of Nuclear Family; Mobile |
Education |
Oral
/ Family |
Elite
only; Bureaucrats (Priests; Scribes) |
Mass
Education Same for All; Contents 3-Rs |
Individualized
and Differentiated for all. |
Warfare
Weapons |
Warriors;
Push out of territory; take away people and cattle |
Mass
armies; destroy warriors; take people; land; cities |
Mechanical
Technology; Mass Destruction |
Information
is the Weapon; Destroy by control information |
This wave is the theme of the AIAER
Conference. This is the wave that will emerge. Are the contents of the fourth wave
lying out there? No! These contents have yet to be created. It will be better
if we may say that these contents will be created by us as we want them to be.
What will be the principles of fourth wave? What new initiatives will emerge? The educational activities may aim to develop a Responsible man who will create a society that will be full of holistic thinking and compassion. The creators of fourth wave will have to learn to use the “science of complexity". Compassion will be brought to the center stage of all human endeavors including that of education? These creators will use their inner own authority
Behaviorism (Learning as response strengthening): In
behaviorism the learner passively receives rewards and punishment where he or
she repeatedly cued to give a simple response which is followed by immediate
feedback. The learner has the efficiency of deploying the cognitive strategies
of memory & work on cognitive & meta-cognitive strategy when handling
the task.
Cognitivism (Learning as knowledge acquisition):
Here the information is a commodity that can be transmitted directly from
teacher to the learner. Cognitive learning style originates in a person’s psychodynamic
history & reflect consistent individual differences in the way world is
perceived, how task are learned & how problems are solved
Constructivism (Learning is constructing your own
knowledge): Here learner is a sense-maker where as teacher is a cognitive
guide. Child teaches himself by gathering information and experiencing the
world around him. Such learning exemplifies constructivism. The purpose of
learning is for an individual, construct his or her own meaning, and not just
memorize ‘right’ answers. Learning is studied in the perspective of the
learners. The object is to see how the learners construct the context, express
the relationship.
What is the learning
approach? How do we justify the rote learning approach that is employed in some
eastern world? How will the learning environment and the assessment mechanisms
harmonize their relationships? What will happen to informal system of
education? What will happen to non formal education and life long learning
environments? If deep strategy of learning is recommended, then why assessment
is devoid of that focus? How do we deal with the idea of multiple
intelligences? What will be our view about the learning from the unstructured
data when some students are motivated to adopt the approach of structured
learning?
Mass Action Research is a form of collective
self-reflective enquiry undertaken by the participants in social situations in
order to improve their own productivity. Teachers, students, principals,
parents & other community members can participate in action research.
In action research teachers are encouraged to
examine their educational ideas for their own practices. Teachers may uncover
assumptions that turn out to be unjustified. Teachers may find ways in which
practices shaped by habit have become irrelevant. Teachers can find obstacles
in the way of attaining educational goals. Through MARS, our teachers will
solve their problems of teaching, learning, evaluation, administration etc. The
local environment influences teaching-learning processes.
MARS will improve the self-esteem of teachers. They
learn to work creatively. Participation in action research improves the ongoing
practices. It enhances the role of the teachers. MARS will improve self-esteem
of teachers.
The curriculum can thus be related to local set-up.
A wide range of topics, which could include, but not be limited to student
learning, instructional effectiveness, staff development, classroom management,
organizational structure, and school / community program, can become core
topics of local research. They will diagnose and solve their own problems.
Teachers can thus create local knowledge and can thus use local wisdom for developing
new local context curriculum. Teachers are expected to be flexible in using
local wisdom even while using the prescribed syllabus.
I was reading a publication of Diganter about “local
wisdom” where they say, “We had overlooked the most important kind of capital,
the kind that underlies communities just as a foundation keeps a great building
from toppling. This fourth form is wisdom capital - the available store of
thought collected over thousands of years that calls us to live in ways that
sustain the well-being of others. In a time of growing change and complexity,
without wisdom capital and the values it sustains, we cannot have strong and
healthy communities.”
In the conference of the last year, I have mentioned
2003 that the futuristic curriculum may have seven types of knowledge that will
form the basic tenets of earth as a whole. Acceptance of local and global
realities will create a happy marriage to enrich our curriculum. We have to
help our teachers to use local wisdom within the context of global framework?
How will teachers be trained to use action research
techniques & strategies for transformative improvement in education? If Action
Research is a collaborative work, can it involve work of individuals without
being simultaneously being social? If Action Research is a self-reflective
cycle, can it be relatively neutral research technology? How do teachers learn
to change the local information to local knowledge, and then to local wisdom?
How can formulate the curriculum having the co-existence of local and global
wisdom?
Someone has said that we ourselves have created our
problems by overuse of competition and analytical methods of thinking. Today we
suffer from ‘fragmentation, competition, and reactiveness’. We may use systems
thinking rather than analytical thinking, cooperation rather than competition,
and pro-activeness rather than reactiveness. We may examine the scenario of the
‘Fourth Wave Education’ in terms of ‘approach-vision’, ‘methodology-vision’,
‘systems-vision’ and ‘management –vision’.
Fragmentation: Let us understand fragmentation. We continually fragment problems into pieces; yet the major challenges we face
in our organizations and beyond are increasingly systemic. The analytic way to address a complex situation is to break it into
components, study each component in isolation, and then synthesize the components back into a whole. Once a mirror is
broken / divided into pieces, then any type of synthesis cannot make it a whole mirror.
Competition: We have become over-dependent on competition. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with competition. Competition
can promote efficiency, invention and daring. The problem is that we have lost the balance between competition and cooperation.
The new education will have to think about how the process of developing people is more like parenting than competing.
The new culture may be more like gardening than a military campaign. The quick-fix mentality also makes us "system blind."
We need to think for long-term, system-wide consequences.
Reactiveness:
today, we have learnt to react to outside forces rather than our aspirations,
imagination, and experimentation. Fear has become a motivator of our actions.
We need to discipline to manage our lives through systems thinking, coupled
with the other disciplines like personal mastery, shared vision, team learning
and mental models. May be we have to use parallel thinking like the methods of
six thinking hats of De Bono.
Tearing
tensions: a new holistic system of education has to be created that is free
from the seen tensions as outlines by the Delors Report. These tensions are:
tensions between- global and local; universal and the individual; tradition and
modernity; long-term and short-term considerations; competition and equality;
expanding knowledge and capacity to assimilate; and the spiritual and the
material outlooks.
How do we avoid the tendencies of symptomatic
solutions and pursue systems thinking in future education for a responsible
society. Do we solve the symptoms or the core causes of finding problems? How
do we coordinate systemic thinking, systems thinking and systematic thinking?
How do we integrate the ideas of inclusiveness, shared responsibility,
openness, adaptive governance, open acknowledgments, and quality of global
life?
Education of tomorrow will take its new shape in
terms of objectives, contents, methods of learning, schedules of learning, and
management of learning. The number of learners will increase at an alarming
speed. They will ask for alternative learning facilities at different places
including their work-places, just-in-time learning, and will demand to receive
new life like contents. The demand will be perennial and will be escalating as
the knowledge and skills are changing dramatically. The current managements
will not be able to meet the emerging needs of new users of education. There
will be a need of ‘new manager new users and new uses’ of education. Management of education will address itself
for the health of ‘The Earth’ as a
whole.
The current structures of management of educational
institutions will transform for enabling themselves for dealing with increased
complexities, increasing diversity, and progressively escalating flexibility.
Pro-schooling: This scenario says that the present
system of school education will expand so as to meet the demand for education
of increasing population. The major objectives of this scenario are- continuing
bureaucratic institutionalized system, fulfilling the hidden social functions
and resisting radical changes in the system.
Re-schooling: This scenario opposes the rigidity of
the above education system by giving importance to education that has strong
social links and community leadership. This scenario favors flexible learning
organizations focusing on generating new knowledge base and accepting the
radical changes.
De-schooling: This scenario advocates for non-formal
education facilitated by ICTs and network society. As a result, the formal
system of schooling will melt down.
What
other new scenarios of schooling will emerge. Will multiple scenarios operate
concurrently in given country? How will we manage the multiple systems fourth
wave education? How will different stakeholders satisfy their needs through new
models of education? Is there a possibility to devise some models of management
of education where we may integrate issues of education with that of
development through the joint efforts of four stakeholders’ government,
multinational business, professionals and philanthropists? Will these models
satisfy the needs of individual, family, community, nations, world, and the
ecology? Will education move out of the four walls of the schools and beyond
the designated years of schooling to life long education likely to be organized
in life like situation?
Will ‘elder hostel’, communes, families, special
organizations and specially-formed groups provide educational and recreational
travel experiences and services to all the men and women and that as necessary
part of a living society?
Will the managers of
work situations arrange learning environment including the establishment of
universities with unique purposes and special work competencies?
On the lines of health education, will our mass media educate
our children for core curriculum through edutainment programs? And will formal
schools devote their energy for the child-specific programs of education while
consulting and collaborating with parents and other professionals?
Will political parties, religions, professionals, business
groups, mass media and communities form self supporting educational
consortiums?
Illiteracy
is increasing: today man is doing nothing less than trying to start a revolution
It is first time that we are thinking of competing with the possible life in
the universe? For such a revolution, the world is changing fast with an
unprecedented speed with unknown parameters about the directions of change.
Every moment, we are becoming increasingly illiterate even in the sphere of our
work. Pro-action in favor of life long learning is needed so that we can
contribute meaningfully for the emerging noosphere. Both planned and unplanned
learning will be useful if there is readiness for e-learning.
Human
life will be transformed. Future brain researchers are aiming to improve the
brains of children. Birth to age three is the critical period for social and
emotional development. If children are exposed to nurturing experiences then
brain development can gain momentum as later on plasticity declines. We may
start talking of pre-kindergarten
training in the fourth wave education.
I am sure that the participants of the 17th international
Conference in Rajkot will deliberate most of the issues that are in our minds. Let us look for the guiding principles of building the
preferred scenarios of Fourth Wave Education. I think it will form the
crest of the fourth wave.
[1] I owe my gratitude to Late Prof E.P.Torrance who had introduced to me the idea of Creative Future Problem Solving. In the year 2003, Prof Torrance was worried about the futures of his futuristic ideas that he has been nurturing. Through this article, I pay my respects and homage to Late Prof. Torrance.
[2] Maynard Herman Bryant Jr.
and Mehrtens Susan E., Berrett-Koehler Publishers San Francisco 1993