29 November 2016
The obsession with examinations and grades is prevalent in many countries, including Singapore, but that mentality has to change, said Dr Bror Saxberg, chief learning officer at Kaplan University.
The 57-year-old educator was in Singapore in November 2016 for a talk at EdTechXAsia, a platform designed to foster conversations and devise solutions in education.
Dr Saxberg asserted that skills sets frequently alternate between relevance and irrelevance, and he commended Singapore’s SkillsFuture movement in getting its people to think about lifelong learning.
He added that in future, short courses may become more prevalent.
Dr Saxberg also highlighted the use of mobile technology and augmented reality as new innovations that can boost teaching. However, he reminded educators to stay practical, saying “Stuff that is cool doesn’t necessarily work better for learning. In fact, it can end up being distracting for learning, even though the users like it.”