Chair of the Academic Leadership Forum will be Prof. dr. Rytis Krušinskas, from the School of Economics and Business, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania. The forum will be entitled “Academic leadership for the sustainable future: academic impact for society, evidence-based decision-making and leading for transformation” and held on Thursday, 19 May 2022 at 16.30 (EET).
Forum abstract
The discussion will be stimulating and provoking participants to identify and to challenge past and future expectations from Academia, while trying to share personal approaches and design the next steps needed.
Key concepts of the discussion and questions to be discussed:
- The World Economic Forum states: “Over 50% of the current workforce will require reskilling by 2025. Yet the ability to adapt to change and engage in lifelong learning must be developed from an early age. Studies show that early investments in children’s learning and education generate significant economic returns. […] The COVID-19 pandemic has both accelerated these trends and massively disrupted learning.”
(If) the strategic leadership in “economic” recovery is expected from Academia, will we manage to do it by the deadline (2025)? Is Academia able to solve all the challenges and problems that the current world is facing? - The report “The Evolution of Science Education” by Oxford University Press (2021) suggests that the core purpose of science education could be: to inspire learners to engage with science, to teach underpinning scientific concepts, to teach skills enabling effective experimentation, and to help learners achieve the range of desirable outcomes through science.
How valid are those concepts in the era of digitalisation? Does it prepare students to face the challenges in the future? What is the modern world requirements to be integrated in the education curriculum? - According to the OECD report “Education at a Glance 2021”, “governments are increasingly looking to international comparisons of education opportunities and outcomes as they develop policies to enhance individuals’ social and economic prospects, provide incentives for greater efficiency in schooling, and help to mobilize resources to meet rising demands.”
What are effective, state-of-the-art measures for measurement of learning outcomes’ quality ? What policy levers could be proposed to make the process more consistent? What factors that shape these outcomes could encourage all stakeholders to invest into education to gain social and private returns? - In 1999, the British Journal of Educational Studies published a paper by P. Davies “What is Evidence – Based Education”, stating that “education should become more evidence-based. The distinction is made between using existing research and establishing high-quality educational research. The need for high quality systematic reviews and appraisals of educational research is clear. Evidence-based education is not a panacea, but is a set of principles and practices for enhancing educational policy and practice.” However, after 30 years later, in 2021, the OECD paper “Building the Future of Education” stated: “Compared with other public policy domains such as health, education has been slow in developing into a fully evidence-informed system. Some of the knowledge base used by teachers, school leaders and policy makers is outdated; educational research is limited in quantity and quality; and adequate mechanisms of knowledge transfer, dissemination and translation into policy and practice are underdeveloped. This has important consequences for the quality and efficiency of learning experiences, and for the productivity of educational investments.”
Are these principles still relevant? How to anticipate future skills and adopt the system? Is the speed of transformation acceptable for Academia, reasonable for student, agreeable for local business communities and government? How we can move further?
