5 education trends to watch in 2020

Vinod Kakumanu
Jan. 8, 2020, 10:26 a.m.

The developments that beckon the educators in the year 2020 will be centered around the capacity to leverage technology, personalized learning, global inputs & learning.

The surveys have reflected that the current pace at which the students are acquiring 21^st century skills will not suffice and amends have to be made in our approaches towards educating.

The trends that are likely to turn defining are listed

Concept-based learning:

The top down instructional approach where the class is revolves around the teacher needs to undergo a change. The classroom should become the hub of intrinsic motivation thereby becoming the center where core-skills are facilitated. The understanding that the completion of the curriculum is a means to an end, not an end in itself has to permeate the minds of the educators and the focus has to shift on skill-building and the imbibing of the concepts. Project-based learning and understanding by design methods are great ways to achieve a concept-based learning.

2. blended learning:

A trend spawned by digital technology, blended learning is basically a radical diversification of the modalities of learning. With the widening user base of the mobile phone subscribers and educational application users, blended learning is catching the imaginations of the educators and ways to leverage the technology for acceleration of learning are being researched upon.

India has 560 million internet subscribers, 1.2 billion mobile phone subscriptions and downloaded around 12.3 billion apps in 2018 (McKinsey).

The platforms like Google, mobile apps and YouTube are being increasingly used by educators and students now. Offline and online courses which are short in duration are also being opted for with greater frequency.

3. DIY (Do-it-yourself) learning

Do-It-Yourself learning is gaining grounds in India, according to the Global Learner's Survey by Pearson. The survey recorded that 78 per cent of Indian learners are of the opinion that technology greatly enhances learning by injecting fun into it. Additionally, 81 per cent of learners worldwide believe that education is set to become more and more self-serviced and driven by intrinsic motivation.

A new education-business landscape is emerging and a DIY mindset is playing no small role in it . The way DIY motivates the educators and the students alike to permute and combine different modalities to train and learn is phenomenal.

4. Personalised learning (MOOCs)

The idea of personalized learning has found immense practicability with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). They are immensely popular for their flexibility and affordability. The acquisition of new skills is becoming far more convenient with MOOC.

5. AI and Gamification

The value of AI and gamification in education is being increasingly realized and its potential to begin a revolution in teaching-learning is gaining mainstream attention. Learning through video-game design and game elements is the cutting-edge development in learning and its applicability in schools is being researched upon. Educators agree that the key to increased learning is enhanced receptiveness and the gamification has elements that naturally give fillip to students’ receptiveness. The ease of self-assessment and rapid feedback that analytics and algorithms afford is valuable.