I was watching on cable TV recently about what will happen after humans have disappeared from the face of the  earth. I thought that it would be fun today that we try to imagine Singapore schools without its well-known high stakes examinations system.

What would it be like to be in such a scenario? What will it be like for all the concerned with school and education, namely, the students, teachers, school administrators, parents and even potential employers? What will a day in school be like? What will remain and what will change as a result fo the removal of of high stakes testing?

Will the actors in the educational stage die? Will they change and embrace the absence of high stakes testing? Will the manner of teaching and learning change? Will the teachers be taught new skills? Will they have to unlearn many things? Will they welcome it?

Will what is deemed important for learning in school also change? Will it be the same for all schools? Who will considered bright in such an environment? How will learning be assessed? Will students be happier? Will parents be happier?

Will there be more dropouts or fewer? How will the school leavers find their places in the economy?How will employers choose employees? How will the workforce change? How will the workplace change?

What do you think? These are just some of the questions that come to my mind. You may have more. Do share your thoughts with us.

Are schools today still relevant? In other words, what is the role of schools today? In Singapore, the education system is often seen as necessary to prepare its people for the employment market. The Singapore economy needs them so the schools must produce them. In fact, education today in Singapore schools is really about the needs of the economy. It is not about education at all but rather about training workers. Schools in Singapore have long given up that role as educational centers. They are in reality training schools for the job market.

But what if the economy is going to undergo rapid and constant changes? What if, as it has been predicted that people will have many different jobs (some say up to 16) by the time they are 40 years old? What can the schools teach to keep these people meaningfully employed in their later years?

Can a school system that emphasizes mainly content be relevant in this age? Can a school system that only emphasizes producing exam smart students be relevant? Can a school system that emphasizes giving only “correct” answers be of any use to an economy that requires workers with skills relevant to the 21st century?

Schools need to change their priorities with regards to what is taught if they want to remain relevant even in its narrowly defined role as training ground for the future workforce. In a future (some say even current) environment where content is no longer king, and skills matter more, schools in Singapore, and the rest of the world must move towards emphasizing the teaching and learning of skills. Content must be taught in greater tandem with skills. If this fundamental shift does not take place, then school obsolescence will become permanent.

The workforce of the future depends on even greater teamwork and interdependence then perhaps the workforce of today. Working in an interdependent manner suggests that people must learn to work co-operatively. Working co-operatively means that workers may see that they to work together for the common good of all. It means that they would have to work with those they like and also those that they don’t like. What becomes more important is the group goals. Individual goals would be met through these group goals. Such workers must be prepared well before they enter the workforce. Expecting people who have been conditioned to only work for themselves all their lives to suddenly work as a team is very unrealistic. This is where schools must do their part to teach the value of working and learning together.

Schools can help in this respect by making co-operative learning one of the core strategies for learning within the school environment. Instead of the usual group work where there is little structure for individuals to play their part in the roles and tasks  given to the group, in a co-operative learning strategies, a clear structure based on the principles of positive interdependence is created to ensure the individuals in a group must all do their part to achieve the group learning goals.

There are five ways in which positive interdependence can be structured into a group. They are:

a) Positive goal interdependence;

b) Positive reward interdependence;

c) Positive resource interdependence;

d) Positive role interdependence; and

e) Positive task interdependence

By positive goal interdependence we mean that the final product must be the a joint effort that requires a degree of consensus by each individual member. No one is allowed to submit an individual learning product at the the end of the task. Only a group product is permitted and members must come to agreement what that group product would be.

Positive reward interdependence means that group members know that the reward for their work is dependent on the eprformance of the group. For example, group performance will affect individual members scores. While a portion fo the scores is credited individually, another portion of their individual score will reflect the overall performance of the group. The message is that even if they did well individually, they must ensure the whole groups performs before they all get the best rewards.

Positive role interdependence requires specific team roles to be defined for each member of the team. One can be a team manager, while another keeps track of what has been done as the recorder while another ensures meetings are focused events and so on.

Positive resource interdependence is concern with the delegation of specific and differentiated learning materials to each member of the group. This is to ensure that no one member can dominate in completing the given tasks. Each resource will be part of a complete jigsaw which everyone is responsible for. Each piece of that jigsaw has to be completed by the specific member and only after its completeion can all the pieces be put together to complete the picture.

Positive task interdependence means that each member would have to complete his given task in order for the group to complete the group task. The group task would depend on specific contributions of the group members. The final goal is unattainable if even one member does not contribute to the outcome by neglecting the task that has been given to him.

Through structuring positive interdependence in a group setting. students would be forced to work co-operatively rather than individualistically as is the norm in many classrooms today. This would help changed the classroom environment from a drive for individual success to one of group success. This working together in a  school setting will help students to become the team player at their workplace or their larger community in the years to come.