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Author and global education expert Dr. Rebecca Winthrop joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about the future of global education.
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00:00I'm Rebecca Winthrop, global education expert. I'm here today to answer your questions from
00:04the internet. This is Global Education Support.
00:12Potential Law 5289 says, which country has the happiest students? There's really two ways to
00:17look at this. You can look at children's well-being, or you can look at student satisfaction.
00:24And children's well-being, the UN has a measure for this. It's mental health, physical health,
00:29skill building, like literacy, numeracy, and if kids make friends easily. And we know that topping
00:34the charts is the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. These countries have kids who have really high
00:40levels of well-being. The second way to look at it is the question of students' life satisfaction.
00:46And there is something really strange going on when you look at a whole bunch of countries'
00:52data around 15-year-olds' life satisfaction compared to adults. The richer a country gets,
00:58the happier or higher life satisfaction adults have, which makes sense. You can get more groceries,
01:04you can buy a car, maybe go on vacation. But the opposite is true for 15-year-olds. They report
01:11less
01:11and less life satisfaction, and the researchers identified that it was education doing it to
01:16them. Learning intensity was the problem. That schools got way more competitive, kids started
01:23feeling like they were in a pressure cooker as countries got richer and richer. So that's another
01:28way to look at happiness in students.
01:31A Quora user asks, is AI in education at a crisis level? We know that over 80% of teens
01:38in the United
01:39States say they use AI for schoolwork, and that's just shortcutting their learning. And we also know
01:46that it's really hard for teachers to keep up. So young people say, no, we're not supposed to use
01:53AI. But if an assignment is boring, or I'm short on time, I'll use it. And I'll take, for example,
01:59my essay, and I'll break it into three pieces, and I'll run it through three different chatbots. And
02:04then I'll put it back together and run it through three different AI humanizers, which in case you don't
02:09know, you stick your AI generated content in and say, make me sound like a seventh grader, put in
02:15some typos and take out the fancy vocabulary. And then I turn it in and I never get caught by
02:19my
02:20teacher. So yes, it is at a crisis level. One thing that makes my head explode is when people go
02:26around and say, well, we need to teach our children to use AI responsibly. Really what we need is
02:33responsible products to be on the market. It's as if I left my six-year-old child at the dining
02:42room
02:42table, and I had a plate of broccoli and a plate of brownies. And I said, don't eat the brownies.
02:48I'll be back in eight hours. Kids are going to eat the brownies. So we need better products.
02:57At WWJ950 says, should school still have snow days now that students can do remote learning?
03:02Heck yes. Do not take the snow days away from kids. The most important reason why we should
03:09still have snow days is that it's fun. Kids need joy. They need unpredictable things. And there's
03:18nothing like waiting to see if school's going to be canceled the night before and when it is,
03:22you just get super excited and you put on your mittens and hat and take your sled and go out
03:27the
03:27door. We need that. WickedKing94 asks, is AI actually helping students learn or just helping
03:34them avoid learning? This is the million-dollar question right now. We've got narrow AI use,
03:40which enriches learning, and wide AI use, which diminishes learning. So narrow use is teachers
03:46using AI to make interesting lessons. It's AI being embedded in assistive learning technology for kids
03:55with learning differences like dyslexia. That is narrow AI use. It's controlled, it's vetted content,
04:02and usually teachers are the intermediary. The problem is wide AI use. Wide AI use is when young
04:09people are spending lots of time talking to ChatGPT or any other frontier model chatbot or AI friend,
04:19and those are tell-not-teach machines. And when kids spend a lot of time talking to them,
04:26there's a lot of problems that come up. One of the things we worry a lot about is cognitive
04:32stunting. So this is when young people don't necessarily have enough deep learning experiences
04:40to really develop the independent learning skills that they need. Because actually learning to think
04:48is like learning to ride a bike. You have to do it yourself. And we know from lots of studies,
04:55especially on brain imaging, that when young people are using ChatGPT, even if they think
05:01they're just getting help, kids don't remember what they even wrote a couple days later because they
05:05haven't actually done the deep, effortful thinking. So we really want to shut down wide AI use and
05:12hone in on narrow AI use. Nevis783 says, do schools in Japan literally not employ janitors or in-house
05:20cleaners? If so, does it mean the students clean everything, including the toilets? That isn't true.
05:26Schools in Japan definitely have janitors, but kids also clean. But it's not necessarily about cost
05:33saving for janitorial staff. What happened is after World War II, community contribution is part of the
05:42Japanese curriculum. And the reason Japan did this is they wanted to cultivate an ethos of citizens that
05:49would help contribute to the public good. So every day across Japan, kids in school clean the school,
05:58daily cleaning. They take mops, they mop the hall, they wipe the windows, they clean the chalkboards,
06:02they clean the desks. I love this practice because it shows kids that they are valuable and their
06:09contributions matter no matter what age they are. A Quora user asks, how does education shape people's
06:17view of society and their place within it? We know that for as long as we've had school systems,
06:23the type of policies we have subtly tell young people what is valuable. One of my colleagues did
06:32a whole study of the Jordanian curriculum. She was trying to figure out why there was such a low
06:37level of female labor force participation. And it found that every picture in the textbook
06:43of women and girls was of them getting prepared to be married. And every picture in the textbook
06:49of men and boys was of them entering the workforce. So it shapes how we think about ourselves and social
06:56norms pretty strongly. PanoPancakes9 says, what do you mean American high schools don't have recess?
07:03Well, unfortunately, this is true. Many, many schools in America are having less and less recess. This
07:10includes elementary school all the way through high school. Most high schools have a lunch break,
07:14but not a lot of time between classes and not recess. In fact, over the last two decades, 40%
07:22of school
07:22districts have been reducing or eliminating recess. And the American Pediatric Association in the United
07:29States is so worried about this that they've put out guidance saying bring recess back because kids
07:35need to move. We know this. Kids need mental breaks from studying. Recess actually helps kids do better
07:42academically. So it's a flawed logic. The reason schools are removing recess, they're saying,
07:48oh, oh, we need to maximize time for learning. It doesn't work that way. Little human beings need
07:54to move. My own kids, when they were in first grade, their schools went down to 15-minute recess.
08:01And I can't tell you how many calls home I had about my son running around and causing havoc. And
08:07I kept
08:07saying, let him play more. Solution.
08:12Obsolescence says, what study methods do Chinese students use? Chinese students have a range of study methods
08:19that they do, and they study a lot. One thing that I love is they have a mistake notebook. So
08:24instead of just
08:25keeping track of right answers, they also keep track of the mistakes they make. And they write down the mistake
08:31they made and how their error in thinking got them there so they know not to repeat it and what
08:36the right answer is.
08:37And they review it regularly. Another thing that Chinese students often do is study in a way that
08:43is self-testing, not just rereading material. Let me show you what I mean. If you have a textbook and
08:51you've read the material already and you're studying for an exam, rather than just rereading the passages
08:58passively, you can quiz yourself. The passive way is I take my highlighter and I reread the whole chapter
09:04and I highlight things. It doesn't stick with you as much. What's better is self-testing, which is
09:10a form of retrieval, where you open it up and just take a couple sections, take a look at sort
09:16of the top
09:16headlines really quickly. And then before you reread it, you close it, take your pencil, and you write
09:25down what you remembered. And then you open back up and reread again, this time a little more slowly,
09:33but not super thoroughly, but a little bit more. You do your three sections, close it again, and then
09:39you fill in the gaps of what you missed. And that is the way that they remember so much in
09:46such a short
09:47period of time. A Quora user asks, how do most schools handle cell phone and tablet usage while
09:54on the school grounds? I recently visited a school where the principal told me that they're getting
09:58rid of cell phones because they tracked and found that 80% of the fights in schools started online
10:04with kids using their cell phones, largely in school, as well as out of school. And so now there's
10:10a big global movement to take phones out of schools. We see kids putting them in pouches
10:17when they enter the front of the building. We see kids having to have their cell phones in their
10:23backpacks. Some schools let kids take the phones out during recess and lunch. I am not a fan of that
10:31because one of the main things you want is kids to be interacting eyeball to eyeball, shoulder to
10:36shoulder, running around and talking with each other rather than on their phones. Parents also
10:41should be wary of cell phone distraction when it comes to homework and studying. If you're at home
10:47and you're a kid and you're trying to do your homework and your phone is next to you face up,
10:52the worst grades. If your phone is next to you face down, your grades are a little bit better.
10:57If your phone is out of sight but still within your area of reach, your grades are better yet.
11:03But the kids who get the absolute best grades are the kids who chuck their phone into another room
11:09altogether. It really is incredibly distracting even to know your phone is around you. Kids
11:14constantly take breaks. AccomplishedFee2145 asks, tell me about kindergarten curricula around the world.
11:22What should kindergartners be learning? Kindergarten curricula around the world is super different.
11:27In the United States, you have a lot of kindergartens that are really pushing academics down into very
11:35young ages, particularly things like literacy and learning letters and trying to get kids ready for first
11:42grade. Other countries like Finland really focus on playful learning. These kids are outside. They're making
11:50forts. They're learning about nutrition. They're talking about their families. They learn things like
11:55self-regulation. So turn-taking, which is great from playing, and getting someone else's perspective.
12:04So all of those really important things that aren't necessarily academic skills are crucial to learn
12:10in kindergarten. A Quora user asks, why do some countries seem to outperform the U.S. in education?
12:17And what's being left out of these comparisons? The United States is not at the top of the rankings.
12:23We're about 34th in math and 9th in reading. Some states and some schools are at the top of the
12:31charts with the top performers in the world, and others are really, really far below. Part of the
12:38issue is that the United States really has high inequality, and a lot of times schools are funded
12:46by local property taxes in part. So if you're in a really wealthy community, those schools are really
12:53well-resourced. But if you're in a poor community, you have much fewer resources. So what is being left
12:59out? There's things like entrepreneurial spirit, which is measured across countries, and that's the
13:06idea that you have the confidence and the gumption to take an idea and translate it into action.
13:11And we know countries that are really high on math are pretty low on entrepreneurial spirit.
13:17And some countries who are really low on math, like the United States, are high on entrepreneurial
13:22spirit. There's some countries in the middle that are both good at math and have entrepreneurial spirit,
13:26like the Netherlands and Australia, and that seems like a good place to be.
13:31Nicola Turing asks, how does a poor country build an education system from scratch? You do it from the
13:38inside out. When you strip away all the things that make education, education, the thing that is left
13:47is not fancy buildings. It's not even necessarily textbooks. It's a teacher-student relationship.
13:54And you start classes wherever you can find a safe space, under a tree, or in a living room,
14:01or some other type of shelter. You definitely work on academics, but you also have to include art.
14:08Because kids who have been displaced or faced a wide range of traumatic experiences, this is not
14:15the time to be punishing them for not turning in their homework. They need a safe place where they
14:19can draw, sing, be with other kids to process what's going on with them. One good example is in East
14:27Africa and communities displaced from war. And there were hardly any books, no real school buildings,
14:35but there were people who cared a lot about kids and had some education themselves. And they would gather
14:42the kids every day under a tent, and they would get every kid to bring a stick. And they would
14:49practice
14:49writing and learning their letters by drawing in the sand. That was how it started. And then you just build
14:54from there. Pizza lover 911. What does play-based actually mean? Great question. I love play-based
15:03learning. Kids, and frankly, all mammals, learn through play. And there's free play, which is when
15:10your kids go outside in the park, and they run around, and they play tag, or they play cops and
15:15robbers.
15:15And kids are learning a lot from free play. When they role play, they're learning to take another
15:21person's perspective. They're learning that they're not the center of the world. They're learning how
15:25to collaborate. But in education, we often use guided play. In middle school, I've seen educators
15:32try to teach fractions through basketball. Instead of the three-point shot, it's one point. Then you get
15:39a half point and a quarter point, and kids are playing fraction basketball. And man, they learn how to
15:45add their fractions, and they understand fractions really well when they're playing basketball.
15:48Character Strong asks, Teacher burnout can be a symptom of systemic issues. So true. How can schools
15:55better support educators' well-being? All the evidence shows that the number one indicator of
16:01kids' success is how good their teacher is. Teachers need not only to be paid well, they also need time
16:10to prepare. They need time to grade. They need time to get inspiration and bring innovation into the
16:17classroom. And for most educators around the world, actually being a classroom teacher is almost
16:24impossible. Imagine if you're a doctor, and you had 30 patients come to you all at the same time,
16:31and you had to look across them and immediately diagnose in 45 minutes what was wrong with each of
16:37them, and then have a follow-up plan for each of them each day. That's what teachers have to do.
16:42It's incredibly hard. So there's lots of things that we can do to support teachers. One, we can give
16:49them breaks. Two, we can pair them up with other teachers so they can share lessons, give them
16:54opportunities to travel and get inspiration. Three, we can really support team teaching. We know that
17:01teacher well-being increases when teachers have a bit of a cohort to teach with and share their
17:06inspiration and their troubles with. Mr. Deach 27 says, if you were designing a school from scratch,
17:14would you copy the traditional model we followed for so long, or would you do things differently?
17:19I would definitely do things differently. And the reason I say that is I just went on a big study
17:27tour
17:27with my co-author Jenny Anderson in our book, The Disengaged Teen, and we found that kids are engaging
17:33in their learning in four different ways. Passenger mode, achiever mode, resistor mode, explorer mode.
17:4010% of kids between third and 12th grade are coasting along, doing the bare minimum in passenger
17:45mode. Kids in achiever mode are really trying to get the right answer. And in a world of AI where
17:51you
17:51have lots of answers they need to learn about how to ask the right questions, kids in resistor mode are
17:57checked out. And what you want is kids in explorer mode. That's what's going to prepare them
18:03for a world of AI. When kids are in explorer mode, curiosity meets drive. They become really invested
18:09in the learning journey and internalizing the learning because they want to master it. They're
18:13interested. They get better grades. They have better mental health, and they're prepared for a world of
18:19AI. And less than 4% of kids say they're regularly in explorer mode in middle school and high school
18:26in
18:26the US. So we definitely need to do something different. For example, we should start rewarding
18:32kids for trying, but not necessarily succeeding. We know that when kids spend a lot of time in
18:39achiever mode, they start becoming risk averse because they're only indexed on their grade.
18:44Okay, that's it. That's all the questions for today. Hope you learned something. Till next time.
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