Envisioning the Graduate of the Future MOOC

Starting on May 2, 2019, embark on a collaborative and exploratory design process to reflect on the purpose of secondary schools with the Teaching Systems Lab’s Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) Envisioning the Graduate of the Future. Over the four weeks of this course, you will create a shareable artifact called a graduate profile that conveys what you and your community believe a secondary school graduate should know and be able to do.

Communities have always wrestled with the multiple purposes of education: to train young people for careers, vocations, and college; to prepare them for their roles as citizens; to develop habits of reflective, ethical adults; and to create a common experience in a pluralistic society while meeting the needs of individual learners. As the world changes and grows more complex, returning to these important questions of purpose can help guide schools in their growth and strategic change. To ensure our schools are effective, we need to routinely reimagine what the high school graduate of the future will need to know and be able to do. The artifact that communicates these ideas is called a graduate profile. Making explicit the capabilities, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes for secondary school graduates, and inviting key stakeholders like students and community members to be engaged in the process, can help you and your school to focus your vision of success and drive school innovation efforts.

Instructor Justin Reich and the course team from the MIT Teaching Systems Lab look forward to guiding teachers, administrators, community members, and others passionate about improving secondary school in the process of designing a graduate profile. Over four weeks, you will reflect on the purpose and goals of secondary school, as well as desirable characteristics for graduates. You’ll learn how schools have benefited from a graduate profile development process and begin the process yourself. You’ll learn more about your own context, its values and beliefs. You’ll leave the course with a shareable artifact that communicates a vision of a multi-faceted secondary school graduate.

What you’ll learn

  • What a graduate profile is and the benefits of creating one
  • A better understanding of your own school context through a reflection and discovery process
  • How a graduate profile design process can engage a community in reflecting on and communicating the purpose of secondary school and establishing a cohesive vision
  • Process and tools for designing a graduate profile that reflects the values of multiple stakeholders
  • How a graduate profile can guide continuous school improvement