The world is already collaborating. From hackathons to crowdsourcing, people across the world are pooling resources and sharing ideas everyday. Collaboration is clearly supporting business owners, entrepreneurs and innovators to thrive, but can it help preschoolers? We investigated why little children should develop collaboration as a life skill. Here is what we found.
Coexisting in a highly connected world
Globalization is bringing people from all corners of the planet closer and our societies are becoming more and more vibrant. From a young age little children interact with other kids and adults who come from many walks of life. Children today have the ‘whole world at their fingertips’, and they need to know what to do with it. Through collaboration they can increase their understanding of how others view the world. They can develop new and more invigorating perspectives and learn to appreciate differences of opinions. In an era of picking sides, learning to collaborate will support them to find the middle ground. This is crucial not only to coexist and live side by side in harmony, but also to move forward as a civilization.
Solving skills inequality and uncertainty
Children living in some parts of the world need another 100 years to develop the level of skills their peers have right now. Moreover, the highly evolving time we live in makes it impossible to predict the type of skills they will need for the future. What we do know is one person can’t be good at everything, but we all can excel at something. This means we need to explore, learn, create and share together. Collaboration helps children to discover each others’ strengths, interests and capabilities. Instead of limiting learning to a one way stream from a teacher or an adult to them, they can learn from each other. As a result each child can develop a unique set of skills and knowledge in a fun and efficient way.
Advancing future education and career prospects
Employers and higher education institutes today are in search of candidates with unique ideas and soft skills. The skills in demand include communication, negotiation, teamwork, interpersonal skills, social skills, cultural competence and so on. Moreover, individuals with leadership qualities who are willing to help others and also know when to ask for help are highly valued. These skills cannot be developed by one person working alone. They require collaboration and interacting with the people around to achieve common goals. Therefore, by learning to work together from a young age children can get a head-start in achieving their education and career aspirations.
Overcoming global challenges
Our world is facing many challenges today. From environmental conservation to world peace there are many issues affecting us that need immediate solutions. However, these problems are often rooted in economics, politics, biology and everything in between. Therefore, finding answers require a wide range of interdisciplinary expertise. Moreover, implementing these solutions calls for bringing together key players who have the power and means to make a change. Therefore, to make the Earth a better place we need to combine our knowledge and skills. There are many amazing initiatives around the world such as NASA Space Apps Challenge where people from across the world collaborate to solve challenges that could change the world. We need to extend similar initiatives to schools and kindergartens so children can discover the importance of collaboration and develop it as a life skill from a young age.
If you are in Pori, Finland between 16.-20.7.2018 don’t forget to stop by the SuomiAreena Lapsiparkki for some out of this world fun!
Alternatively join us virtually from anywhere in the world and be a part of the Fun Academy Future Astronaut Week.
Access the Fun Academy Future Astronauts program and discover Fun Learning ideas for FREE.