Keynote Address

KERA International Conference 2010 Keynote Address 1. Reorienting Education for the Twenty-First Century: A Korean Perspective Bom-Mo Chung (Hallym University, Korea) 2. Building 21st Assessments of 21st Standards: Verifying Learning of Advanced Skills and Knowledge: Towards Standards and Assessments 3.0 Eva L. Baker (WERA /UCLA, USA) 3. The UNESCO-research-programme on “Linking National Qualification Frameworks with Validation-Practices 2010-2011” Ruud Duvekot (Foundation European Centre Valuation of Prior Learning, The Netherlands) The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences Reorienting Education for the Twenty-first Century : A Korean Perspective Bom Mo Chung Hallym University, Korea The latter half of the twentieth century in Korea may well be called the age of national development, the period of breathtaking transformation from destitution to affluence, from autocracy to democracy and from a hermitic society to a modern nation. Education, meanwhile, that was inexorably interrelated to these development processes certainly played its vital role during the same period. In contrast, the coming half a century should be called, I suggest, as the age of national maturation, much like the beginning of mature adulthood after turbulent adolescent spurt. What, then, should be the renewed roles of Korean education in the twenty-first century? Upon reflections on the past experiences and on the future perspectives, I come to postulate six necessary reorientations of Korean education, which I hope may have some relevance to other countries, too. 1. The Holistic First, reorientation to the holistic. In ancient China two millennia ago, the ideal man was supposed to be well versed in "Six Arts", that is, capabilities in six areas of courtesy, music, archery, horse- back riding, literature and mathematics. In modern terms, they encompass a holistic array of intellectual, emotional, moral and physical traits. Thus, from ancient times, the ideal man has been holistic in nature. We commonly judge the merits of other person and of oneself, too, from a holistic point of view. If someone is highly intelligent yet emotionally immature and morally despicable, we would surely consider him less of a dignified person. Parents, too, naturally want their children to be not only intellectually capable but also physically strong and emotionally well balanced. More fundamentally, every individual has a multi-layered system of physiological, emotional, social and self-realizational needs that have to be met holistically. Thwarting seriously either one of those needs would lead to a personality crisis. Moreover, man's intellectual, emotional, moral and physical capabilities act all together simultaneously in all aspects of his behavior. As the neurophysiologist Damasio proclaims there is no such thing, for instance, as purely emotionless 3 KERA International Conference 2010 intellectual reasoning. Education, therefore, of necessity has to be holistic with respect to educational aims, curricular arrangement and evaluational scheme. Further, Korean experiences show that, during the early stages of economic growth, simple knowledge and skills would suffice, but as the economy progresses toward a more advanced status, they would not be enough to sustain further development. In increasingly greater demand are not only higher order intellectual abilities such as problem solving, critical thinking, imagination and creativity, but also broader human traits such as emotional refinement and moral maturity. These are the traits which not only directly impinge upon economic productivity but also direct the course of socio-political development. Furthermore, one can argue that to maintain a basic holistic stance is the best guarantee to meet the vicissitude of unanticipated historical exigencies since holism would accommodate an assortment of human and social potentialities that would be readily available to deal with those different exigencies. Korean education played its expected role successfully in the earlier stages of development, but for a number of reasons it still falls very short of meeting the needs in full for educating holistic capabilities and traits of higher order and across broader areas. The often mentioned culprit for the lapse of holistic education is the highly competitive university entrance examinations, which still place heavy emphasis on rote memorization. Whatever the reasons for it may be, the slighting of holistic education has to be rectified for further national development. Students now have to be led to experience diverse yet essential cultural activities in a holistic fashion. 2. The Intrinsic Second, reorientation to the intrinsic. In the early stages of Korea's economic spurt, everything was looked upon and mobilized as a means to achieving economic growth. Politics and administration, education and mass media, science and art and even ethics and religion were all taken as means to the economic end. Accordingly, instrumental ways of thinking prevailed, disregarding to a large extent the intrinsic joys, meanings and values inherent in so many things and acts in themselves. Eating food gives you the strength to live, but eating itself is, and should be, intrinsically a delight, unless of course you are sick. Playing tennis is a means to building your health, but tennis itself is a refreshing enjoyment. Studying mathematics lets you pass a college entrance examination, but math itself is, and should be, intrinsically fascinating. Moreover, who would become a greater mathematician after all, one who studies it as a means to passing an entrance examination or the one who studies it simply because it is inherently exquisite and enchanting? Some years ago, a secretary of the Nobel Prize Committee visited Korea. In an interview with the media, he was reported to have said, "Korea, too, may like to have a Korean scientist awarded with a Nobel prize. However, the surest way to it is to forget all about the Nobel prize itself and just produce as many young scientists as possible who are deeply fascinated by science." 4 The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences Excessively instrumentalistic ways of thinking would further spread even to personal affairs such as care for one's aged parents, making friends, and marriage. To be filial with an eye to a possible inheritance is avowedly loathsome. To befriend or to marry someone as a covert means to gaining wealth, fame or power is decidedly disgusting. We may even say that instrumental thinking in excess turns all value systems upside down, and that the often lamented sense of valuelessness and meaninglessness in modern times may well have its roots in the excessive instrumentalistic thinking. Of course, man is a purposeful being. He does something today to attain an end tomorrow. Students learn many subjects and engage in many activities in school, and they are the means to a better life tomorrow. If, however, learning a subject lacks intrinsic interest, joy and fascination now, learning itself may well become half-hearted and listless. A high level of achievement in any domain is possible only when intrinsic values themselves are experienced in things and acts one is occupied with. Students, therefore, should be led to see the intrinsic worth of their activities in school before being unilaterally conditioned to focus on their utility values. 3. The Autonomous Third, reorientation to the autonomous. In the beginning of economic take-off in Korea, the central government took the total initiative in drawing up and executing the successive Five Year Economic Development Plans. Thus began the period of "development authoritarianism" or bureaucratic authoritarianism, which might have been necessary, by the way, in view of the fact that historically persistent destitution is like an impregnable enemy fortress that can only be conquered by centralized, concentrated and consorted all-out attack. However, to extend the same mind-set of bureaucratic authoritarianism, beyond economic matters, to such domains as education was not necessarily desirable where the professional autonomy of teachers was still of crucial necessity. Futhermore, as economy progresses in its magnitude and complexity in leaps and bounds as it did in Korea, what Toffler calls "decision load", (that is, the total number of decisions to be made in a social system—be it a company, a university or a nation as a whole) becomes augmented in an exponential rate annually. The fast increasing decision load could be appropriately disposed of by a centralized decision making system up to a certain point. As it is augmented still further, however, the centralized decision making system tends to break down, becoming liable to make increasingly inappropriate decisions that are blind to the particularities in the reality. Beyond that point, therefore, decisions have to be gradually delegated to the "front lines", encouraging, even demanding, their responsible spontaneity and autonomy. There are some more basic reasons for the need for autonomy. First, autonomy is the precondition with which man feels himself to be a human being. Without autonomy, he feels himself to be bestial, slavish or robotic. Second, autonomy is the main spring of the will and morale to achieve. To do things as commanded saps the willingness and spontaneity in work. Third, autonomy is the 5 KERA International Conference 2010 premise of moral and responsible acts. The slave is not morally responsible for the

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