Episode 47: Designing Schools for Future-Ready Minds


We all want to help prepare students for the future. In an unpredictable and fast-changing world, does designing school for future-ready minds mean embracing every technological innovation and new idea that comes our way? Or are there lessons from the past that may still be relevant in a technological revolution? Dr. Shimi Kang has the neuroscientific evidence to help us decide.


Guest: Dr. Shimi Kang

Resources, Transcript, and Expanded Show Notes


In This Episode:

“You know, people talk all about how do we motivate kids? Well, first of all, there's no such thing as an unmotivated kid. But if you're sleep deprived, stressed, over burnt out from over scheduling, you're not going to be motivated. If you're disconnected on social media, or not, or hyper competitive and don't have a sense of meaningful connection, you're not going to be motivated because the biggest motivation comes from a sense of contribution and being needed.” (12:00)“Neuroplasticity is a complex word, six syllables, but I believe it's the word for hope because what it means is we can always change, we can always learn, we can always grow, we can always do better. Humans are gifted with this idea, this concept of neuroplasticity, till the moment we die. And that's really important.” (33:32)“Where focus goes, neurons grow. Let's say you want to change your classroom to a more future ready classroom…There might be resistance, you know, from kids or parents or admin. And that's normal, because if I back up a bit, the psychology of change, in any given moment, there's only about 20, 30% of people in what's called action state of change. They are ready. The rest of the population is in pre-contemplation or contemplation. Because change, by definition, is a change, it's different!” (34:33)

Related Episodes: 40, 35,  31,  28, 18, 16, 11, 3



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