Shaping the Future of Education | Interview with David Mansfield

Introduction

YK Pao School's Executive Headmaster David Mansfield recently delivered a lecture during the Oxford Cambridge Shanghai Forum titled “ Shaping the Future of Education”. In his speech, he discussed the future of the teaching profession in light of the development of artificial intelligence and high tech. In this video, we take a look back at this topic with Mr. Mansfield and discuss the educational philosophy and vision of Pao School.

Mr. David Mansfield is a respected Headmaster whose experience spans a wide range of schools and educational institutions both internationally and the UK. He has successfully sat at the helm of four different schools, most recently YK Pao School - a leading bilingual school in China. Before coming to YK Pao School he was headmaster of Dulwich College in Beijing and led two 'outstanding' secondary schools in the UK. He has been a Director of Cambridge Assessment, which owns Cambridge International Examinations, and a member of the Court of the University of Essex. He has also participated in national steering groups and professional associations, building his understanding of education in its widest sense. For his work, he has been recognised as a Freeman of the City of London. David completed his undergraduate degree in history at Cambridge University and his postgraduate studies in education at Oxford University, later continuing his studies with an MBA in International Education Leadership.

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Interview with Mr. David Mansfield

I just gave the lecture which is really about ‘Will the teaching profession survive in era of high tech and AI?’. I was arguing ‘yes, it will’. Basically, what I was saying is, when you look closely at how children learn - and it is a lot of work has been done over many hundreds of years on how children do learn effectively? - we need to create technological solutions that fit and align with best practise pedagogy and, actually, AI will find it very difficult to replicate all of those efficiently. So, what I was saying is, there will always be really good solutions, IT-based solutions, that can help and advance and support the learning process but there will always be a need for a good teacher to be able to support children as they really begin to master their subjects. It doesn’t mean that IT has no future, I think it has a massive future, but it will be alongside the teaching profession. From a business management perspective, and a lot of the audience perhaps involved in the ed-tech business, if we are looking to save money through IT by replacing teachers that may be a difficult and long-term ambition which we don’t see happening. So, I was really speaking up on behalf of the teaching profession, saying but even in the future it’s going to be there.

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Lecture delivered by Mr. David Mansfield

Surely, YK Pao School was started in 2007 and is probably one of the first of the private bilingual schools. We’re looking to create the sort of children that are able to, when they graduate, still communicate with their Grandparents, so know what it means to be Chinese, to understand Chinese culture, to be very engaged with the growing modern China but at the same time are very conversant in English, they’re bicultural, they’re bilingual. They’re the sort of kids that can get into Ivy League universities, they can be engaging in the debate of a seminar, standing up, communicating, arguing, because they have the confidence to not just understand and to work and be effective in exams, but also to engage in the learning process with their peers. It means that they are going to have the skills that they need to be successful in the 21st Century, so we’re building, I think, a really wonderful opportunity for children to be Chinese and also to be Western at the same time – to bring those two together. And, ultimately, that’s what is needed in China… the strapline of the school is ‘A school for tomorrow’s China, an education for tomorrow’s world’ and we want young people who are going to be able to really make a difference in shaping China as it grows into the future. It’s going to be… it already is the lead nation on the globe, so we want Pao students to be leading the charge and looking after the growth of China in the future.

Mr. David Mansfield (first from right) in Oxford Cambridge Shanghai Forum

*Article sourced from Oxbridge Shanghai

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