Keynote presentation at the OECD/CERI and GELP conference 'Building Future Learning Systems. From exceptional innovations to systemic transformation', in Durban, South Africa, 20 April 2015.

1. INNOVATING LEARNING,
SOCIAL PROGRESS and
HUMANITY’S FUTURE
Dirk Van Damme
OECD/EDU/IMEP

2. SETTING THE SCENE
2

3. • Relentless expansion of education systems
Setting the scene – the big picture
3

4. • Relentless expansion of education systems
Setting the scene – the big picture
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Israel
UnitedStates
Germany
Brazil
Estonia
Austria
RussianFederation
Finland
Chile
Turkey
Italy
Denmark
Mexico
Switzerland
NewZealand
Canada
SlovakRepublic
Iceland
Australia
Greece
Sweden
EU21average
OECDaverage
Norway
Hungary
Netherlands
CzechRepublic
UnitedKingdom
Portugal
Belgium
Slovenia
Spain
France
Luxembourg
Ireland
Japan
Poland
Korea
Difference between the 25-34 and 55-64 year-old population with tertiary education (right axis)
Proportion of the 25-34 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)
Proportion of the 55-64 year-old population with tertiary education (left axis)
%
Percentage
points
4

5. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
Setting the scene – the big picture
An individual with a higher level of education is more
likely to believe they have a say in government
5

6. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
CzechRepublic
Italy
Spain
Estonia
Germany
Japan
SlovakRepublic
Ireland
Canada
Korea
England/N.Ireland
(UK)
Austria
Average
Flanders(Belgium)
Australia
UnitedStates
Netherlands
Sweden
Denmark
Finland
Norway
%
Below upper secondary education Upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education Tertiary Education
An individual with a higher level of education is more
likely to believe they have a say in government
6

7. • Relentless expansion of education systems
• Growing impact of education on various social
and economic outcomes
• But challenges remain and magnify
– The equity and social mobility challenge
– The quality challenge
– The efficiency challenge
Setting the scene – the big picture
7

8. Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Czech…
Japan
Germany
Estonia
Poland
Canada
Norway
United…
Russian…
Finland
Slovak…
Austria
Sweden
England/…
Denmark
Flanders…
Average
France
Korea
Australia
Netherlan…
Ireland
Italy
Spain
Proportion of young students (20-34 year-olds) in tertiary education whose parents have below upper
secondary education
Proportion of parents with below upper secondary education in the total parent population%
The participation of students in HE from low-educated
families is less than half of their share in the population
8

9. Setting the scene – the big picture
0
10
20
30
40
HongKong-China
Korea+
Liechtenstein
Macao-China+
Japan
Switzerland
Belgium-
Netherlands-
Germany
Poland+
Canada-
Finland-
NewZealand-
Australia-
Austria
OECDaverage2003-
France
CzechRepublic-
Luxembourg
Iceland-
SlovakRepublic
Ireland
Portugal+
Denmark-
Italy+
Norway-
Hungary
UnitedStates
Sweden-
Spain
Latvia
RussianFederation
Turkey
Greece
Thailand
Uruguay-
Tunisia
Brazil
Mexico
Indonesia
%
2012 2003
In most countries the percentage of top performers in
math in PISA has declined between 2003 and 2012
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10. Setting the scene – the big picture
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
Brazil
Chile
SlovakRepublic
Korea
Poland
CzechRepublic
Canada
Australia
Israel
Germany
Switzerland
Portugal
Mexico
UnitedKingdom
Finland
Sweden
EU21average
OECDaverage
Netherlands
Austria
Japan
Norway
UnitedStates
Ireland
Belgium
Slovenia
France
RussianFederation
Spain
Estonia
Iceland
Denmark
Italy
Hungary
Index of change
(2008=100)
Change in expenditure Change in the number of students (in full-time equivalents) Change in expenditure per student
Primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education
In most countries the per student expenditure
has continued to increase
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11. • Can we continue
– Expanding our systems quantitatively?
– Exporting our model to emerging and developing
countries?
– Pretending that nothing is changing in the outside
world, impacting on the
• Why
• What
• How we are educating?
Setting the scene – more of the same?
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12. THE DRAMA
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13. • Challenges for education policy makers increase
– Supporting the expansion of the system
– Ensuring quality
– Securing equitable access and opportunities
– Meeting ever growing expectations
• But in very difficult times
– Deepening social problems
– Doing more with less
– Intensifying political and ideological differences
Challenges may seduce policy-makers to
sustain the current model
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14. • The race with technology
• The nature of the skills demand, employability,
skills mismatch
Where is education getting out of tune?
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15. “~50% of US jobs
potentially
automatable”
Oxford Martin Study 2014
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16. 16

17. 17

18. 18
Changing skills demand
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2006 2009
Routine manual Nonroutine manual Routine cognitive
Nonroutine analytic Nonroutine interpersonal
Mean task input in percentiles of 1960 task distribution

19. • The race with technology: can schools cope?
• The nature of the skills demand, employability,
skills mismatch:
• Deepening socially unequal distribution of
educational opportunities: can schools
compensate for society?
Where is education getting out of tune?
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20. Amount of money spent by US households
on child development
20

21. • The race with technology: can schools cope?
• The nature of the skills demand, employability,
skills mismatch:
• Deepening socially unequal distribution of
educational opportunities: can schools
compensate for society?
• Declining social cohesion: is school segregation
contributing?
Where is education getting out of tune?
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22. • Less well functioning democratic systems
Where is education getting out of tune?
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23. Fewer people engaged in their democracies
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24. • Less well functioning democratic systems
• Are social protection systems paying the price of
less functional education systems?
Where is education getting out of tune?
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25. Increasing social expenditure
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26. • Less well functioning democratic systems
• Are social protection systems paying the price of
dysfunctional education systems?
• What kind of values do we need to address
humanity’s imminent challenges?
Where is education getting out of tune?
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27. Charles Fadel
Living in the world
Personal and social
responsibility
Life and careers
Citizenship
Fairness
Integrity
Respect
Self-awareness
Courage
Empathy
Resilience
Adaptability
Curiosity
Initiative
Leadership
Living in the World

28. • But, most importantly, are our education systems
really tuned to
– Support learning?
– Foster social learning?
– Creating learning societies?
• Or are we merely maintaining credentialism, systems of selecting,
screening and signalling people?
Where is education getting out of tune?
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29. THE PLOT
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30. • Widely shared perception of slowness of reform
and ‘resistance to innovation’ among policy
makers and external stakeholders
• Many examples of ill-conceived and badly
implemented top-down innovation
• Yet, CERI evidence points at many examples of
meaningful change
• And, evidence in CERI’s Innovative Learning
Environments present a rich reservoir of
innovative energy
Innovating learning
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31. • The 7 principles of learning (ILE):
– Learners at the centre
– The social nature of learning
– Emotions are integral to learning
– Recognising individual differences
– Stretching all students
– Assessment for learning
– Building horizontal connections
• We know which road to follow!
The roadmap of innovating learning
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32. • Learning is the key to creating learning societies
that can address challenges and to liberating
humanity’s problem-solving potential
• Innovative environments and conditions will be
necessary for individuals and societies to
succeed in higher, better, deeper learning
• How can we create ecosystems to make that
happen?
Innovating learning
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33. THE STAGE
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34. • We can learn a lot from experimentation and
pioneering
• Too often incapable of transcending the
pioneering stage
• How to move towards
– Systemic change
– Transformative change
• Crucial challenge: implementation or the
‘political economy of reform’
Towards systemic transformation
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35. • It’s not about education having to become more
‘responsive’ to society’s needs
• It’s about education taking a leadership role in
defining humanity’s future
Finally
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36. 36

37. Thank you !
dirk.vandamme@oecd.org
www.oecd.org/edu/ceri
twitter @VanDammeEDU
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