Organizational learning towards Education 4.0

Rethinking learning towards education 4.0 (part 5)

Koenen, Dochy and Berghmans (2015) argue that “a competence-based institution should function as a learning organization that is constantly evolving in response to an ever-changing and increasingly complex professional practice”. Schools as learning organizations need “reculturing, retiming and restructuring” (Fullan, 2005). Such institutions should provide a proper learning environment to foster student creativity and innovation so that they can effectively deal with complex problems happened in their careers and daily lives (Wagner, 2010). Moreover, creativity has been identified as one of the key skills required from the 21st-century workforce and it should be considered as a critical goal for relevant stakeholders in education systems (Chan & Yuen, 2014; Robinson, 2011; Wagner, 2010). To support creativity and innovation, it is not enough to develop practices in teacher-student level, but also to focus on building organizational culture and structures.

Each Vietnamese educational institution needs to find their own next possible development step in the process. Managers play an important part in cultivating organizational learning towards Education 4.0. The aim of managers’ study visit to Finland was to strengthen common understanding and engagement to support the forthcoming development process. This aim was very well reached. As outcomes of the visit, we can identify many practical actions, which build a good foundation for further development. Managers expressed the way they can build a new learning culture, like “We need to trust and support our teachers to learn” or “Encourage students to join and take their role in teaching and learning process”. They mentioned the need to make a strong linkage between educational institutions and industry by research and project-based learning and to change the curriculum to meet the requirements of companies. They recognized the need for utilizing digital tools and environments in building inspiring learning environments for teachers and students. It is crucial that managers are motivated for changes and also learning themselves, as their own enthusiasm and interest can help to overcome challenges.