What competencies are important to ensure comprehensive education in the 21st century? Debate proposals to answer this question was the keynote of the event “Education and Curriculum in the 21st Century”, held on 30 November at the British School of Creative Arts (EBAC) organized by the Ayrton Senna Institute in partnership with the Instituto Península. The meeting marked the launch of the Portuguese version of the book “Education in Four Dimensions: the skills that students must have to achieve success”, signed by the president of the Center for Curriculum Redesign, Charles Fadel.

Viviane Senna at Sao Paulo meeting 2016

The publication addresses the need to revise school curricula for 21st century life skills. During the event, Fadel gave a keynote address in which he presented the challenges of building an education proposal more connected to creativity, critical thinking, Communication and collaboration, without neglecting the socio-emotional dimension and characteristics such as mindfulness, curiosity, resilience, courage, ethics and leadership for the construction of a sustainable humanity.

“Education is for life, not just for work or for technique, it is made for other dimensions as well,” he said. “It is important to note that these skills are not dissociated from so-called cognitive abilities. It is impossible to teach school content without going through these themes. What we propose is that they be developed with intentionality, “he added.

For Viviane Senna, president of the Ayrton Senna Institute, considering these issues in the curriculum is a way of providing better development for society.

“We recruit social-emotional competencies all the time in our lives, whether it’s to maintain a marriage, bond with friends, or learn math. No one learns math without motivation, effort, commitment. We need to develop those ideas in the curricula deliberately, “

Following the keynote address, Fadel also participated in a panel discussion with Luiz Carlos Menezes, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo and an advisor to the National Common Base, Priscila Cruz, CEO of Todos pela Educação, and Antonio Neto, institutional director Of the Consed (National Council of Secretaries of Education).

During the discussion, the group pointed out the need to coordinate debates on competencies for the 21st century with public policies, in order to ensure a better quality of education. “It is possible to bring high-quality, high-performance education to anyone and anywhere in Brazil. But for that, you have to have an open mind. We can not think of something that is extremely innovative considering only what we have today, and in that sense, the great challenge is to change the formation of teachers, so that it can be formed to work these dimensions with its students, “said Antonio Neto.

Luiz Carlos Menezes defended the need to incorporate the discussion into the school reality. “If we want to develop ethical qualities, creativity, flexibility, respect, we need the school to live it,” he said. “The education revolution has to bring to school the idea of society and its problems. It should look at the world as our problem and aim at reformulating this situation. The school has to problematize the reality in which it is lived, “concluded the specialist.

source: Ayrton Senna Institute