[Music]
do you know that we approximately spent
between 17 and 20 years in school how
often do you think about that number
somehow we don’t even become aware of
the fact how big of an impact education
has on or our leader behaviors in life
if I were to describe how I saw the
education in my early age then I would
say to you that I often thought about
one definition I have learned in my
biology class
do you remember what is the definition
of a cell you probably do and it goes
like this
cell is the smallest structure and
punctual units of an organism I was
trying so hard to learn that definition
by heart because professor asked us to
do so that I never really understood
what it actually meant and I never felt
brave enough to ask and we were only 5th
grade of elementary school when I came
to the Belgrade open school first as a
student and later on as an employee I
realized that not all education needs to
be like this this is a classroom in
Belgrade where two or three times in a
week young students gather and they’re
willing to spend their afternoons
learning and discussing about various
topics that are not exclusively related
to what their formal education is there
is around 30 of them each year and they
come from at least 10 different
faculties and they are part of the
future Studies program program that is
designed for the best students of the
Belgrade University and program that is
there to develop their knowledge and
skills in up to 20 different disciplines
and I’ve experienced this program myself
and later on I’ve been working on its
development and I realized that there
are some small changes that could be
introduced into the system of formal
education so that we actually make a
change in a process of shaping the
student that is to become a bearer of a
change in our society in my opinion
these changes should include changes in
teaching methods introduction of the
multidisciplinarity and development of
responsible students when it comes to
teaching methods lately there has been
too much discussion are on the
changes that should be applied in a
usual classroom setting so that actually
professor changes its position from the
top of the classroom to its middle
enabling himself exactly to both teach
and learn from the students at the same
time this picture here has been proving
for 25 years now that the position of a
professor in the classroom has a large
impact on the way the lecture is going
to be taught and maybe more importantly
it has a large impact on the discussion
between the professors and students
these students here are those best
students from the Belgrade University
acting ones with good grades highly
motivated for self-development and yet
many of them have confessed me that they
have a problem approaching their
professors directly and asking them
questions about everything they don’t
know or wanna know more about and now we
can discuss it yes there are too many
reasons for this kind of situation but
in my opinion the position of a
professor in the classroom while he or
she is giving a lecture has allowed him
on this problem from the moment
professor enters your classroom somehow
his or her authority becomes the most
important part of that one’s class he’s
there to ask you whether we can properly
absorb and repeat a specific lesson
prepared for a specific class and
somehow he is always in front of you
whether you sit in a first or last row
and in that way he never becomes a
partner in your learning process and
that is a problem I recently spoke with
a young student that is interested in
enrolling in our program and she asked
me what kind of exams she could expect
besides the enrollment exam and I said
none explaining her other commitments we
expect our students to fulfill class
attendance working with their mentors
finish finishing internship program etc
and I added that those commitments are
there not to be graded but to be
accomplished in the best possible way on
her face I saw on a shocked and
questioning as I have seen before when
other students approached me with a
similar question I’m not here today to
tell you that I think that exams and
grades should be omitted from the system
of formal education I don’t think that
but I do think that the way the grading
is perceived might be changed in our
experience when you give us to it in the
specific task and enough time to work on
the way he or she is going to solve it
then you get a student that actually
fully engages his own creativity and
unique approach in solving that task and
you don’t remind them that they soon
will have a new desk finally since we do
this with a group of students that are
coming from different educational
backgrounds we developed a rule that
whichever topic is discussed different
teaching methods must be used group
discussions group discussions
presentations case studies etc and
before each lecture professor is
familiar to the students in the group
our and students are familiar with the
professor’s biography knowing each other
very well in that way each lecture is
prepared in a way that everyone can be
included but baby maybe more importantly
in that way students and professor feel
familiar with each other making it a lot
easier to start a conversation and ask
questions and what is really interesting
at this part is that actually it takes
only two emails to do this I’ve been
working on this not a whole working day
now let’s add multidisciplinarity to
this we are we are aware that will turn
reality Internet of Things blockchain
artificial intelligence are creating
really major changes in what today
constitutes a fourth Industrial
Revolution and young students are part
of the educational system they do not
have an adequate answer on this the same
World Economic Forum’s suggests that
there are some skills we need to master
during our elementary and high school in
order to better navigate throughout
throughout our lives and those skills
are people management creativity
negotiation coordination with others
emotional intelligence etc creativity
yeah and a very nice list I would say
but somehow we are witnessing that not
even University programs teach that
lately I also feel that there is
sometimes too much discussion about how
creative and innovative it should be and
how to achieve that but really one
cannot help to ask himself how to awaken
that creativity especially within a
young student I think that opening a
opportunity for a multidisciplinary
approach to the students has a great
influence on this if in that way you
give a student an opportunity to
understand that he or she actually has
other perspectives to use that there are
some other disciplines and some other
methods that could be used in solving a
specific problem whenever I think about
this a great book comes to my mind
Howard Gardner five minds for the future
especially the part where he explains
the concept of synthesizing mind he
remind us that often we are overwhelmed
by the information we get without being
able to actually differ what is
important and what is not if our
educational systems had a
multidisciplinary approach then we would
develop individuals who understood all
those information and who are capable of
coping with this information in an
efficient way but maybe more importantly
we would develop individuals who would
be aware that information is not there
to be learned just put itself or for the
better understanding of the next one
information is a mean for a better
informed practice now I will share with
you some data because I think it could
if they are good to support what I’ve
been telling you so far at the end of
our program for several years now 70% of
the students rated the overall quality
of the program as excellent 83% of them
said the same for the way they get they
were gaining knowledge and skills and
what fascinates me the most is that
actually this kind of approach raises
the motivation within a young person
making them actually people who love
spending time learning and discussing
new things at the end of the program on
the anonymous evaluation 100
all of them said that they would
participate in the same program again
now how did you develop the concept or
the responsible student our story the
story of my organization has a line it
has a title and that is not for school
but for life we learn and that is not a
story about great students different
teaching methods various disciplines
that is a story about specific set of
emotions and values that is a story
about people who actually understand
that they are being educated for
something more that is a story about
network that is carefully built and
nurtured network of people who actually
use its knowledge and skills in changing
their own environment we do not learn
from school and yes we do learn for life
if our educational systems understood
this and implemented it then we would
develop individuals who are responsible
for their own environment in every
possible way at this point I really
think that our educational system could
learn a lot from the civil society
organization when it comes to this
matter
especially the society that is in
transition now you can say wow this is
great what a nice story but how to
really implement all this into our
system of formal education here I would
like to draw your attention to a
specific method that actually exists in
both formal and non-formal educational
system the one and only and my favorite
evaluation process whenever we wanted to
change adjust adjust adapt innovate our
program we firstly discussed it with our
students then we asked them to
anonymously fulfill some of the
evaluation regarding the program and our
and its content then we repeated this
process with our professors with some of
our co-workers and some of our partners
and we make changes immediately we make
the results available online so that is
a strong reminder you don’t want to mess
this up next generation in the idea
twenty-five years ago when we created
the program up until
is the same and that is to have and to
be able to offer academic challenging
and professional program program that is
designed only for students not for
professors not for government not for
any possible third party that might be
interested in that way you put a student
back in the center of the education and
then you can fully focus on additional
and advanced development of their
knowledge and skills I wish I could
share with you the fact that after the
evaluation that my university some
changes were made or at least I wish I
could share with you the fact that I’m
familiar with the results of these
evaluations if that were the case then
then I would probably not be suggesting
that this is the method future education
needs to implement once again I do
believe that the way I perceived the
definition of a self had a large impact
on the way I pursued education in my
early age let’s remind us again so that
we never forget cell is the smallest
structural functional unit of an
organism but let’s imagine education is
a large and complex organism then let’s
imagine for a minute that we could be a
part of this organism that we could be
itself large or small think about the
impact you as individuals having this
organism that is so alive and complex as
soon as you become aware of that then
you are immediately enabled to make some
changes to improve it and make it more suitable for the future we are thank you
do you know that we approximately spent
between 17 and 20 years in school how
often do you think about that number
somehow we don’t even become aware of
the fact how big of an impact education
has on or our leader behaviors in life
if I were to describe how I saw the
education in my early age then I would
say to you that I often thought about
one definition I have learned in my
biology class
do you remember what is the definition
of a cell you probably do and it goes
like this
cell is the smallest structure and
punctual units of an organism I was
trying so hard to learn that definition
by heart because professor asked us to
do so that I never really understood
what it actually meant and I never felt
brave enough to ask and we were only 5th
grade of elementary school when I came
to the Belgrade open school first as a
student and later on as an employee I
realized that not all education needs to
be like this this is a classroom in
Belgrade where two or three times in a
week young students gather and they’re
willing to spend their afternoons
learning and discussing about various
topics that are not exclusively related
to what their formal education is there
is around 30 of them each year and they
come from at least 10 different
faculties and they are part of the
future Studies program program that is
designed for the best students of the
Belgrade University and program that is
there to develop their knowledge and
skills in up to 20 different disciplines
and I’ve experienced this program myself
and later on I’ve been working on its
development and I realized that there
are some small changes that could be
introduced into the system of formal
education so that we actually make a
change in a process of shaping the
student that is to become a bearer of a
change in our society in my opinion
these changes should include changes in
teaching methods introduction of the
multidisciplinarity and development of
responsible students when it comes to
teaching methods lately there has been
too much discussion are on the
changes that should be applied in a
usual classroom setting so that actually
professor changes its position from the
top of the classroom to its middle
enabling himself exactly to both teach
and learn from the students at the same
time this picture here has been proving
for 25 years now that the position of a
professor in the classroom has a large
impact on the way the lecture is going
to be taught and maybe more importantly
it has a large impact on the discussion
between the professors and students
these students here are those best
students from the Belgrade University
acting ones with good grades highly
motivated for self-development and yet
many of them have confessed me that they
have a problem approaching their
professors directly and asking them
questions about everything they don’t
know or wanna know more about and now we
can discuss it yes there are too many
reasons for this kind of situation but
in my opinion the position of a
professor in the classroom while he or
she is giving a lecture has allowed him
on this problem from the moment
professor enters your classroom somehow
his or her authority becomes the most
important part of that one’s class he’s
there to ask you whether we can properly
absorb and repeat a specific lesson
prepared for a specific class and
somehow he is always in front of you
whether you sit in a first or last row
and in that way he never becomes a
partner in your learning process and
that is a problem I recently spoke with
a young student that is interested in
enrolling in our program and she asked
me what kind of exams she could expect
besides the enrollment exam and I said
none explaining her other commitments we
expect our students to fulfill class
attendance working with their mentors
finish finishing internship program etc
and I added that those commitments are
there not to be graded but to be
accomplished in the best possible way on
her face I saw on a shocked and
questioning as I have seen before when
other students approached me with a
similar question I’m not here today to
tell you that I think that exams and
grades should be omitted from the system
of formal education I don’t think that
but I do think that the way the grading
is perceived might be changed in our
experience when you give us to it in the
specific task and enough time to work on
the way he or she is going to solve it
then you get a student that actually
fully engages his own creativity and
unique approach in solving that task and
you don’t remind them that they soon
will have a new desk finally since we do
this with a group of students that are
coming from different educational
backgrounds we developed a rule that
whichever topic is discussed different
teaching methods must be used group
discussions group discussions
presentations case studies etc and
before each lecture professor is
familiar to the students in the group
our and students are familiar with the
professor’s biography knowing each other
very well in that way each lecture is
prepared in a way that everyone can be
included but baby maybe more importantly
in that way students and professor feel
familiar with each other making it a lot
easier to start a conversation and ask
questions and what is really interesting
at this part is that actually it takes
only two emails to do this I’ve been
working on this not a whole working day
now let’s add multidisciplinarity to
this we are we are aware that will turn
reality Internet of Things blockchain
artificial intelligence are creating
really major changes in what today
constitutes a fourth Industrial
Revolution and young students are part
of the educational system they do not
have an adequate answer on this the same
World Economic Forum’s suggests that
there are some skills we need to master
during our elementary and high school in
order to better navigate throughout
throughout our lives and those skills
are people management creativity
negotiation coordination with others
emotional intelligence etc creativity
yeah and a very nice list I would say
but somehow we are witnessing that not
even University programs teach that
lately I also feel that there is
sometimes too much discussion about how
creative and innovative it should be and
how to achieve that but really one
cannot help to ask himself how to awaken
that creativity especially within a
young student I think that opening a
opportunity for a multidisciplinary
approach to the students has a great
influence on this if in that way you
give a student an opportunity to
understand that he or she actually has
other perspectives to use that there are
some other disciplines and some other
methods that could be used in solving a
specific problem whenever I think about
this a great book comes to my mind
Howard Gardner five minds for the future
especially the part where he explains
the concept of synthesizing mind he
remind us that often we are overwhelmed
by the information we get without being
able to actually differ what is
important and what is not if our
educational systems had a
multidisciplinary approach then we would
develop individuals who understood all
those information and who are capable of
coping with this information in an
efficient way but maybe more importantly
we would develop individuals who would
be aware that information is not there
to be learned just put itself or for the
better understanding of the next one
information is a mean for a better
informed practice now I will share with
you some data because I think it could
if they are good to support what I’ve
been telling you so far at the end of
our program for several years now 70% of
the students rated the overall quality
of the program as excellent 83% of them
said the same for the way they get they
were gaining knowledge and skills and
what fascinates me the most is that
actually this kind of approach raises
the motivation within a young person
making them actually people who love
spending time learning and discussing
new things at the end of the program on
the anonymous evaluation 100
all of them said that they would
participate in the same program again
now how did you develop the concept or
the responsible student our story the
story of my organization has a line it
has a title and that is not for school
but for life we learn and that is not a
story about great students different
teaching methods various disciplines
that is a story about specific set of
emotions and values that is a story
about people who actually understand
that they are being educated for
something more that is a story about
network that is carefully built and
nurtured network of people who actually
use its knowledge and skills in changing
their own environment we do not learn
from school and yes we do learn for life
if our educational systems understood
this and implemented it then we would
develop individuals who are responsible
for their own environment in every
possible way at this point I really
think that our educational system could
learn a lot from the civil society
organization when it comes to this
matter
especially the society that is in
transition now you can say wow this is
great what a nice story but how to
really implement all this into our
system of formal education here I would
like to draw your attention to a
specific method that actually exists in
both formal and non-formal educational
system the one and only and my favorite
evaluation process whenever we wanted to
change adjust adjust adapt innovate our
program we firstly discussed it with our
students then we asked them to
anonymously fulfill some of the
evaluation regarding the program and our
and its content then we repeated this
process with our professors with some of
our co-workers and some of our partners
and we make changes immediately we make
the results available online so that is
a strong reminder you don’t want to mess
this up next generation in the idea
twenty-five years ago when we created
the program up until
is the same and that is to have and to
be able to offer academic challenging
and professional program program that is
designed only for students not for
professors not for government not for
any possible third party that might be
interested in that way you put a student
back in the center of the education and
then you can fully focus on additional
and advanced development of their
knowledge and skills I wish I could
share with you the fact that after the
evaluation that my university some
changes were made or at least I wish I
could share with you the fact that I’m
familiar with the results of these
evaluations if that were the case then
then I would probably not be suggesting
that this is the method future education
needs to implement once again I do
believe that the way I perceived the
definition of a self had a large impact
on the way I pursued education in my
early age let’s remind us again so that
we never forget cell is the smallest
structural functional unit of an
organism but let’s imagine education is
a large and complex organism then let’s
imagine for a minute that we could be a
part of this organism that we could be
itself large or small think about the
impact you as individuals having this
organism that is so alive and complex as
soon as you become aware of that then
you are immediately enabled to make some
changes to improve it and make it more suitable for the future we are thank you
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