Five Areas of Development - Actualising learners' potential

We aim to solve the problem of a myopic view of education in which the focus is only on a few areas of a learners' development and very little ownership of learning by the learner. 

Many institutions in the world are still preparing learners for life in the 20th century. Students appear disengaged and the skills and content seem to be not aligned with the future of our common world in mind.

We have created a curriculum model known as the Five Areas of Development. This model uses content to impart skills, processes and watermarks.

Our learners are awarded Blockchain based digital credentials that are owned by the learners and can be used to share and verify their achievements with anyone they choose. Learners are made co-creators in this learning journey and they are given the opportunity to record and share what matters as they progress through the different phases.

We are trying to solve the skills gap that exist in learners. This gap emerges as early as primary school and expands as learners move towards higher education and then into their careers. So much so, organisations are having to re-skill their employees. We also believe that besides academic and career skills there are a host of other skills that learners need to possess to thrive in their lives. Some examples that come to mind are resilience, empathy, a sense of purpose and gratitude.  The second challenge that we are addressing in tandem is enabling learners to take ownership of their learning. This begins by asking young learners what they would like to know more about. The answers to these are varied and we use that as a platform to help learners gain these skills using the content they have expressed interest in. We are creating a digital portfolio of the learners’ journey and they are active co-creators in their portfolio. At each stage, learners are given access to this portfolio in a Blockchain backed JSON file which they are free to share with anyone they choose and the authenticity of the portfolio or credential can be verified instantly. 

We are carrying out our innovation in a few different schools in India and the neighbouring region that cater to students from the age of 3 - 18. India has the advantage of having a positive demographic dividend. According to figures from the UNDP, India “has a demographic dividend of 65% of her human resource pool under the age of 35 with about 12 million individuals expected to join the workforce every year”.   While that is great news for the country, if not tapped into the advantage can be a curse with huge levels of unemployment. The rapid increase in adoption of automation is a case in point. We want the learners, and the broader communities we work with, to discern the nature of the education journey. We hope together we can take take ownership of our own learning, understand how we learn and chart a roadmap for ourselves. At the end of their formal educational journey, learners will have access to a rich portfolio of data that captures their achievement over the many years.

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

1. Considerable learning happens from 0 to 7 years. The problem is we don’t acknowledge this in our preschool curriculum and give it due importance. So children cannot actualise their potential

2. There is very little focus on skills that can serve us well in life (critical thinking, decision making, negotiation, communication, resilience and many more)

3. Children don’t have ownership of what they have achieved

4. As adults we are making choices every minute of our lives but we don’t teach our children this very important aspect

SOLUTIONS:

• Provide learners many opportunities to express themselves in a non judgemental environment
• Create opportunities to make choices and encourage them to take responsibilities for their choices
• Stimulate their thinking skills
• Make them a part of their learning process
• With their help document their learning through a portfolio

WHO ARE WE SERVING

All strata of children: affluent, middle class, weaker sections, special needs.

How are we going to do this?

Our solution involves a two pronged approach:

1) Facilitate the holistic development of all learners using the Five Areas of Development curriculum that has a focus on the following areas - Cerebral, Emotional, Physical, Social and Spiritual

2) Create a portfolio that captures the learning journey, which is co-create by the learner and is stored as a digital credential on the Blockchain. 

We are striving to actualise the potential of each learner, to help them be the best version of themselves and not just thrive but shape the world they are living in for the benefit of the greater good.

Our solution involves the following processes:

• Use the Five Areas of Development curriculum framework to focus on the holistic development of every learner

• We use content that the learner is interested in learning to impart skills and processes

• We encourage learners to be co-creators in their educational journey and shape their portfolio with their mentors

• At the end of a learning journey, be at primary, high school or secondary level learners are awarded a portfolio that captures a rich snapshot of their journey including their strengths, weakness, passion, skills gained and anecdotal evidence

• This portfolio is in the form of a blockchain based digital certification that is immutable, shareable and instantly verifiable

This process gives a much more comprehensive overview of the abilities a learner has innately present and those that they have gained over their educational journey. 

Our solution is innovative because it focuses on imparting a range of skills using content as a means. It also gives students ownership of their learning. This has not happened at the scale we are doing. Students not only see their progress but are actively involved in choosing what they would like to see in their portfolio. Their level of performance drastically increases because they are more engaged and realise that they are shaping their future. It is not about being a passive recipient but actively co-constructing their learning journey, recording rich aspects of their growth, and having complete ownership of their digital credentials which they can securely share and instantly be verified. 

Our current core technology involves digital credentials in the form of Blockchain based certification. We have piloted with this technology because we feel that it is much more secure and offers more features than a traditional model such as the Portable Document Format.

We are keenly watching the digital credentials space to see how it will innovate in the next 12-18 months and if a more widespread adoption of the technology will happen. 

Millions of learners, every year, finish their K-12 education and graduate with a high school diploma. Is this what the learner deserves after investing a dozen years into their learning journey? Even when they graduate, they do not have full ownership of their credentials and often find the need for a third party to verify whatever little of a credential is handed to them.

We expect our solution to address the problem because they actively involve learners in charting their own journey. Individual differences and preferences of learners are encouraged and cherished. Snapshots of their growth, together with a cultivation of their passion is documented. They have full ownership of their digital credentials portfolio. This not only serves the interests of the learners but other stakeholders too. For example, admission officers would be in a much better position to decide if an applicant is suitable for the chosen course by looking at their portfolio. Or an employer can better understand what this learner brings to the organisations and help plan the growth of the learner and the organisation.

Currently serving: 150 students

In one year: 750 students

In five years: 3000-5000 students

We feel that educating students holistically; equipping them with skills, processes and watermarks; encouraging them to co-create their learning journey is an idea whose time has long come. What makes it different now is there appears to be a way where these digital portfolios can be entirely learner-owned, thanks to technologies like Blockchain. Moving forward, we feel there will be other technologies as well that will help securely store, share and verify credentials.

In the next three years, we are planning to launch a Baccalaureate program that places the Five Areas of Development curriculum at its centre. Work on this has started since 2017 and we are envisioning to be active from 2022.

One of the main barriers is bringing about a shift in mindset. While change is hard, a change that involves the use of technology is harder.

We are planning to demonstrate value by focusing on results. We are doing this by introducing this innovation in schools that we work with. 

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The Five Areas of Development curriculum framework was conceived over a decade ago and has been implemented in a few schools. With the onset of new technologies, in this case, Blockchain, we are working to ensure that we combine existing practices with new ones to create a richer experience for the learner.

We are uniquely positioned because we have been creating student portfolios for a few years now. However, anyone who has a grasp of the concept and the inclination to explore new technologies can use this idea to leverage their own learn experiences.

We hope that Solve will offer us mentorship as we plan to launch our Five Areas of Development curriculum globally (from 2021-22). We realise that this is a learning journey and we can benefit from the expertise of an organisation like MIT while we design our curriculum, credentials and effective use of technology as we move forward.