EDUCATION 4.

Education 4.0 is a response to industrial revolution 4.0 or IR 4.0.

IR 4.0

This is the 4th industrial revolution. Obviously, the 4th industrial revolution came after a first,
second and third industrial revolution which are referred to as IR 1.0, IR 2.0 and IR 3.0 respectively.

In the 1st place, you may ask what industrial revolution is all about. Scwab, the funder and executive
chairman of the world economic forum, the international organization for the public private cooperation,
describes an industrial revolution as the appearance of “new technologies and novel ways of perceiving
the world that trigger a profound change in economic and social structures.”

IR 1.0 was the invention of the steam engine. With the steam engine, human labor was replaced by the
machine. Many laborers lost their jobs because machines did their jobs even more efficiently.

IR 2.0 was the age of science and mass production. Things started to speed up with the discovery of
electricity. There were a number of key inventions, gasoline engines, airplanes, chemical fertilizer.
Advancements in science weren’t limited to laboratory. Scientific principles were brought right into the
factories, the most notable of which is the assembly line, which effectively powered mass production.
Recall here Henry Ford’s company where by the early part of the 20 th century mass-produced cars with
gasoline engine built on an assembly line.

IR 3.0 is the digital revolution. We moved from analog electronic and mechanical devices to digital
technology which dramatically disrupted industries, especially global communications. We are now
enjoying the blessings of digital revolution-computers, cellphones, we used to tune in our television with
an antenna (analog). This is now replaced by an internet connected tablet that lets you stream movies
(digital).

IR 4.0 is computers connected to computers. It is interconnectivity. It’s the internet of thing (IoT),
Artificial intelligence. In IR4.0 we have robots, driverless cars, genetic sequencing and editing,
miniaturized sensors, and 3d printing, to name some, we can know anything, anytime, anywhere. Global
community connectes everything, everywhere always- the internet of everything. Stem cell curing
becomes obsolete. With genetic sequencing and editing, we can now remove the sickness.

EDUCATION 4.0

With all these profound changes brought about by IR 4.0, how should education be? What and how
should schools teach? What should curriculum consist of? What should curriculum focus on? The answer
or answers to these questions are actually what education 4.0 means. In other words, edu4.0 is the
response of the education sector to all the changes brought about by IR 4.0]

Schools have no choice but to respond to the dramatic changes brought about by IR 4.0, if they have to
be relevant. Higher education institutions cannot ignore these developments or else become irrelevant.
To be relevant, schools should consider some statistics:

-80% of the skills trained in the last 50 years can now be outperformed by machines
-65% of children who entered in 2018 will work in a job that have not been invented yet

-49% of current jobs have the potential for machine replacement (statistics, whelsh, 2018)

With the efficiency of machines, routinized jobs can be dome by machines with gretater efficiency than
human laborers. So human laborers must be taught how to use the machines at their advantage. But
machines lack important human characteristics such as CREATIVITY, FLEXIBILITY, COMPASSION AND
EMPHATY. School curricula then should focus on the development of these innately human
characteristics of creativity, flexibility, compassion and empathy. Actually, creativity, flexibility,
compassion and empathy form part of the 10 skills demanded by IR 4.0 enumerated by the WEFR as
follows:

-Complex problem solving

-critical thinking

-creativity

-people management

-coordinating with others

-emotional intelligence

-judgment and decision making

-service orientation

-negotiation

-cognitive flexibility

Education 4,0 must intentionally and formally include program outcomes, course outcomes and learning
outcomes that are focused on the development of the 10 skills for success in IR 4.0. School curricula
should develop a new generation that is analytical in their way of thinking and is continuously adaptable
to new skills and new roles.

Course content must necessarily, purposively (not identical teaching) include or integrate these 10 skills.
They must be taught to welcome machines and other features brought by IR 4.0. Learners should be
taught that AI can enhance or optimize creativity but cannot create. AI is a great creative toll for scientist,
artists, musicians and writers. Learner must therefore be taught how to use machines with their
unprecedented processing power, storage capacity and their unlimited access to knowledge. Learners
must be made to understand that AI can’t replace workers in creative jobs but can do the routine jobs at
the service of humans.

Teaching methods, strategies and activities must be such that these top skills for success in IR 4 must be
developed. Problem based learning or PBL, project-based learning or PrBL, service learning, immersion,
shadowing, internship, are expected regular features of teaching learning methods and strategies.
Modes of teaching shall be flexible. With knowledge anywhere, anytime, lesson delivery can be flexible.
We can have flipped classrooms where students are given the problems or questions in class and they go
out to search for the answers to the problems or questions then come back to share their answers. One
can combine face-to-face instruction with on-line learning.

Assessment of learning will not be limited to paper-and-pencil test. The assessment of knowledge, skills
and values is done though more authentic modes assessment.

TAKE ACTION

ACTIVITY 1

Research on how schools teach each of the following to prepare learners for IR 4.0. SHARE YOUR
FINDINGS IN CLASS

SELF CHECK

What do I know? What can I tell?

If you are asked to lecture on education 4.0 and how schools can help prepare learners for IR 4.0, what
will you dwell on? What will be the meat of you lecture? Show it in an outline made of sentences.

Are you ready for IR 4.0? What skills should you develop more in order not to be redundant / replaced
by robots?