Transformation

Middle school students generally have limited knowledge of the range of possibilities that exist for career choices. They also tend to see the choice of a career as a one-time decision, rather than as an ongoing, lifelong process. Additionally, current advances in technology as well as emerging technologies are transforming work, as we currently know it.  As Karl Fisch asserts in the popular presentation, Did You Know; Shift Happens – Globalization and the Information Age, “ We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist…using technologies that haven’t yet been invented… in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

The transformation in understanding that I would like to see in my students is threefold:
  • I would like students to see that a person’s career path often is a journey with many unexpected twists and turns.
  • I would like students to understand that developing a career is an ongoing, work-in-progress and will be a lifelong endeavor.
  • I would like students to be aware that because technology is in a constant state of change the essential skill they need to develop is learning “how to self-educate” when challenged with learning to use and apply a new technology tool. 

Using Wiggin’s and McTighe’s explanation of the Six Facets of Understanding helps to design instruction and assessments to bring about the transformation in understanding I am seeking to achieve. A brief explanation is shown in the following chart.