Saving us from Gradgrind-esque thinking !

The rise of a new model of education?

"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them” Thomas Gradgrind in Charles Dickens’ Hard Times (1854)

Earlier this year we published an article in ESOMAR’s Research World Magazine reviewing the opportunities and threats posed by AI and sharing a ‘strawman’ structure of society (our Brave New AI World) to reflect how AI might shape the world of knowledge work in the future – a framework to be knocked down and discussed. One of the strata in this new world were The Gammas or the newly advantaged. You can find the full article here

We described how AI will open up opportunities for those who have hitherto been ‘structurally and creatively oppressed’ by our educational system and the way the world of work up to now has undervalued their particular talents. These are people who hitherto felt their skills and mindset did not fit the conventional educational and work paradigm. But these individuals will now come to the fore because they offer things that AI struggles with. They have dominant right-brain creativity, outside-the-box thinking skills, heightened sensitivity and an ability to deal with complexity in an innovative and compassionate way. 

It is always good when evidence emerges to support a hypotheses, and such positive evidence at that.

THE LONDON INTERDISCIPLINARY SCHOOL 

Last month saw the first undergraduate graduation ceremony at The London Interdisciplinary School. Founded in 2017, the LIS offers undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees and professional courses - admitting its first cohort of undergraduate students in 2021. The curriculum for the BASc degree is designed around interdisciplinary problem solving incorporating diverse areas including neuroscience, law, and philosophy to address complex contemporary issues

The London Interdisciplinary School is the first new university in the UK for 40 years - and is taking a new polymathic approach to teaching and learning, with a cross-curricular focus on tackling the most complex problems facing the world. It can perhaps trace its heritage back to the 19th century societies or clubs, in the tradition of the salon or coffee-house, which came together in Europe and the US to discuss topics from the viewpoint of different disciplines or academic faculties.

Peter Burke, author of ‘The Polymath: A Cultural History From Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag’ (2021) suggests that groups such as this “encouraged free expression of different points of view [and] their success illustrates the argument that when problems need to be solved, even more important than ability is cognitive diversity”.

From these salons, in the 1930s, emerged interdisciplinary research projects in universities that cut across the formal boundaries of academic departments, and a host of ‘new’ universities and institutes, opened after the second world war were a catalyst for the spread of the interdisciplinary approach.

Proponents of the interdisciplinary approach saw the traditional departmental siloes as ‘sterile’ and obstacles to a wider understanding. Writing in the 1970s and 1980s, Edgar Morin reminds us that, “Key realities often slip through the cracks between artificially created disciplines”. A thought still being echoed in 2023 by The Royal Society of Edinburgh …

“The consistent focus on a single set of disciplinary phenomena may result in a lack of creative engagement with other disciplines and with the gaps between disciplines. Disciplines may be inward-looking and fail to address relevant, real-world problems. Disciplinary communities guard their boundaries in competition with other disciplines, yet it is in the gaps beyond disciplinary boundaries – the interdisciplinary areas – that major new insights and research breakthroughs occur”. 

With the accumulation of human knowledge growing rapidly, there is a doubling of knowledge about every decade. The result is increasing disciplinary specialization in learning to the extent that we easily lose sight of the wider contexts and bigger picture, and of how ideas and phenomena interconnect and inform each other in a complex network of knowledge (McGilchrist 2012).

The LIS aims to leverage this network of knowledge. “The big shift we’re making is to combine knowledge through disciplines to tackle problems. If you start with disciplines, you immediately have walls you have to break through, so we’re starting with the problems and then backfilling the academic learning.” Co-Founder, Ed Fidoe.

The LIS has been described as an "innovative new concept in higher education" which "is taking a new approach to teaching and learning, with a cross-curricular focus on tackling the most important problems facing the world." World Economic Forum (2019). And Forbes argues that the multidisciplinary approach championed by LIS is more relevant to today's world than traditional higher education, which was designed for the industrial age.[1]. We couldn’t agree more

The concept of developing a polymathic, multi-disciplinary approach to the learning and the application of skills or capabilities is central to how we frame our PowerSkills model, and it is heartening to see this approach gain, or regain, traction in education, and hopefully in broader industry. You can sign-up for a newsletter from the LIS as well as join webinars of presentations given by guest speakers who exemplify polymathic and interdisciplinary thinking.

THE UNIVERSITY OF DYSLEXIC THINKING

The second headline we came across recently was the September launch of DyslexicU or the University of Dyslexic Thinking – a collaboration between the charity ‘Made by Dyslexia’ and Virgin. It is a free online resource hosted by the Open University and accessible around the world.

Kate Griggs, Founder & CEO, Made By Dyslexia  … “For decades, schools, businesses, and society in general have benchmarked intelligence with a traditional range of standardised tests and measures, using these to grade, select, and filter applicants into further education, opportunities, and jobs. And for decades, these tests and measures have disadvantaged those who think differently and creatively and who excel in soft skills, rather than traditional measures like rote memorisation and spelling”.

And we never miss an opportunity to quote the great Sir Ken Robinson – here in support of Kate Griggs’ view …

“If you design a system to do something specific, don’t be surprised if it does it. If you run an education system based on standardisation and conformity, which suppresses individuality, imagination and creativity, don’t be surprised if that’s what it does” Ken Robinson (2006)

Kate Griggs’ believes that one group that exemplifies ‘thinking differently and creatively and excel in soft skills’ is Dyslexic Thinkers.

“But as we stand on the cusp of a Fifth Industrial Revolution, powered by human minds and machines, the demand for creative, innovative and adaptable thinking skills has never been greater. Just as previous revolutions — fueled by steam power, electricity, computers, and digital connectivity — transformed our world, modern-day artificial intelligence (AI) is reframing the type of thinking critical for success. AI has now learned how to think in a standardised way, often doing it faster and better than humans […] but AI is not good at thinking differently and creatively – and not good at soft skills. And these inherently human skills are the new type of intelligence needed to work alongside AI in the new 5th industrial world”[2]

The point of The University of Dyslexic Thinking is to help develop the kinds of skills that are innate to dyslexics in the rest of society, as these are going to be the skills that businesses and society will need as we head further into our AI-shaped future. They articulate these skills as :

• Visualising – interacting with space, senses, physical ideas and new concepts.

• Imagining – creating an original piece of work or giving ideas a new spin.

• Communicating – crafting and conveying clear and engaging messages.

• Reasoning – understanding patterns, evaluating possibilities and making decisions.

• Connecting – understanding self, connecting, empathising and influencing others.

• Exploring – being curious and exploring ideas in a constant and energetic way.

These skills map really well to the 7 PowerSkills we have been talking about for the last couple of years. Many of our Substack posts reference the seven Powerskills, but for the latest – you can find details in this video post

We believe that the rationale for DyslexicU fits really well with the ideas encapsulated in thepolymathmind (www.polymathmind.ai). The people who exhibit these skills will be The Gammas or the newly advantaged in our Brave New AI World model.

You can find out more about The University of Dyslexic Thinking / DyslexicU via this link to the OU

https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/index.php?categoryid=1656

“The world is changing. AI has learned to aggregate and recall knowledge much faster and better than humans. Yet, the skills AI cannot replace – like innovation, lateral thinking, and interpersonal skills – are the very skills humans must develop and master. In this new world, thinking differently is your biggest asset” Sir Richard Branson

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Interdisciplinary_School

[2] https://madebydyslexia.org/MBD-Intelligence-5.0-Report.pdf