Pupils need to learn creativity and humour, not just the hard facts, Microsoft boss says

Teachers need to be given scope to educate pupils about how to think with creativity and humour, Microsoft’s top education official said.

Anthony Salcito, Microsoft’s vice president of Worldwide Education, outlined to an Abu Dhabi audience Microsoft’s new programme to help teachers develop a skill-focused curriculum. He said teachers have all the technological tools they need, they now just need the time and space to develop pupil’s “soft skills”.

As hundreds of educators piled into conferences to hear how pupils could build satellites or get on in the job market, Mr Salcito stressed the importance of soft skills such as creativity and humour.

He was speaking on the sidelines of Bett Middle East, a twoday educational technology conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre that opened yesterday.

The dialogue around jobs has shifted from a focus on the device to the human – educators must prioritise soft skills to prepare children for a future where many jobs that today’s children will have, do not yet exist.

“The question that many school leaders asked before was, how do I get more computers into the classroom?” Mr Salcito said. “Now, over a relatively small period of time, what school leaders are asking is how do I help best prepare my students for the future?”

In a world where information is at our fingertips, the teacher’s role has changed from one who imparts knowledge to someone who develops these skills.

This corresponds with a shift in Abu Dhabi education policies to prioritise critical thinking over learning by rote.

“Before, the curriculum depended on the teacher,” said Alia Salem, a secondary school teacher at Al Murijib public school in Al Ain. “Now, it depends on the pupil. Before, the teacher was the source of information. Now pupils participate in the learning process.”

Traditional measurements of pupil development are becoming obsolete. However, there is no way to measure soft skills in traditional curriculums, Mr Salcito said. “I would argue that the role of a teacher has never been more vital and never been more necessary for education outcomes.”

In a country where even the elderly are active on Instagram and Snapchat, teachers and parents in local schools have welcomed classroom technology. Arabic teaching resources are limited, however.

“There are translations but the boy or girl in the story has an English name and it’s a different culture,” said Alkhansa Al Ketbi, department head of Arabic at Al Afa, a government school in Abu Dhabi city.

Her colleague, Mariam Al Malki, the head of an Arabic department at a government school in Tawila, Abu Dhabi, said: “We’ve raised this issue many times. There are many resources in English. Nobody thinks of the Arabic language.

“It causes an Arabic teacher to work harder.

“English teachers can stay in the classroom and the resources will come to them.”