In the last post, I wrote that education in American schools needs to change to reflect the new ways of thinking that students will need in a global society. This call for change is not new. Futurists, and other thinkers have been describing the kinds of skills people would need in a “knowledge society.” I recall reading Daniel Bell’s 1973 book, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society in which Bell argued that society would be information led and service-oriented. In 1973, personal computers had not been invented, the Internet did not exist, and surely, people were not using cell phones.

The world has changed by quantum leaps since Bell’s book. His prediction of an information led society certainly is evident today, but the world is also more complex and dangerous place. The very technologies that have accelerated the information age have also been used by terrorists to carry out evil deeds. Yet, even within the context of events since 9/11, there is a greater need for new thinking, and reformulation of classroom learning. Indeed we need a new paradigm.

After the atomic bombs were dropped in on Japan in 1945, Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe…a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.” Although Einstein didn’t say it directly, perhaps he meant systemic or holistic thinking was required if we were to survive. Perhaps the mode Einstein envisioned was a form of global thinking. We face the same situation today, more than sixty years after Einstein spoke. We live in a world that is not only small, but flat. Technologies allow people to cross borders without passports, to work and collaborate on problems, or in the case of terrorists to plan atrocities.

Schools need to embrace a new form of thinking if it is to help students survive in a global economy, in a world that has strunk in size, yet expanded the need for creative thinkers and problem solvers.

The paradigm that I am advocating here is a paradigm of global thinking. Learners and teachers need to anticipate and particpate in local and global events. In this view students not only become knowledgeable about the world, but aware of the world’s problems, how to solve them, and motivated to work toward their solution. The design of learning experiences includes an action-taking component that is fundamental to the idea of participation. Anticipation in learning is the capacity to face new situations. It is the ability to deal with the future, to predict coming events, and understand the consequences of current and future actions. Anticipation also implies “inventing” future scenarios, and developing the philosophy that humankind can influence future events.

Participation, on the other hand, is the complimentary side of anticipation. Students must participate directly in learning. The learning model that underlies global thinking is based on the following constructivist ideas:

1. knowledge is not passively received but actively constructed by the student.

2. the function of cognition is adaptive and it organizes the experiential world.

The other component of participation is global. The use of the Internet enables students to extend participation beyond their own communities. The Internet sets up cross-cultural partnerships, global communities, and global summits for studying common global concerns. I’ll talk more about global thinking in the days ahead.