(Newswire.net — April 27, 2015) Singapore, Singapore — An Expert in Residence at Harvard University’s new Innovation Lab, Dr. Wagner made a special appearance at Singapore American School on April 6 in which he visited classes and met with the school’s leadership team before delivering his hour-long keynote presentation “Educational Innovation At SAS” to teachers, parents, and interested members of the community. Dr. Wagner’s trip to Singapore was one of purpose and education. He was in Singapore as one of the keynote speakers at the World Education Leadership Summit 2015 which took place on April 7th and 8th. The Summit featured over 2,000 delegates from more than 500 organizations representing 14 countries.
A tireless advocate for our children’s educational future, Dr. Wagner has logged to many miles to count, travelling nearly three weeks out of four for the past 15 years to speak all over the world.
Prior to this current appointment, Dr. Wagner was the first Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology & Entrepreneurship Centre at Harvard, and the founder and co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for more than a decade. According to his website, his previous work experience includes 12 years as a high school teacher, K-8 principal, university professor in Teacher Education, and founding executive director of Educators for Social Responsibility.
Dr. Wagner’s talk at SAS was similar to the one he recently gave in NYC to staff and the parents of students at Avenues: The World School. As part of his ground-breaking Creating Innovators series, Dr. Wagner makes the point that “the fear of failure is persuasive in our schools,” and that the fear of failure often creates a culture of compliance in the classrooms, and most of all, “fear of failure also creates risk aversion — for teachers as often as students.” The problem, he points out “is that innovation demands that you take risks, that you make mistakes, and that you fail. Innovation demands trial and error. There is no way of innovating without trial and error.”
The message Dr. Wager brought to the Singapore American School, he says echoes the same essence behind all of his messages. “Knowledge has become a commodity – free, like air or water,” he explains. “In the innovation era, there is no longer a competitive advantage in knowing more than the person next to you – because they will just Google it in time. The world no longer cares how much you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know, which is a brand-new education challenge.”
Students will still need content knowledge he explained, “but that’s the easy part. More important are skill and will – meaning motivation. Students who are intrinsically motivated will continuously learn new skills and acquire new content knowledge throughout their lives.”
“I’m excited to speak at SAS,” said Wagner prior to his presentation, “because the school’s leaders understand these new educational challenges and are attempting to meet them by re-imagining education for the 21st-century.”
Soon after Dr. Wagner’s presentation at SAS was complete, he took to social media, sharing a tweet “Great visit today @SAmericanSchool! They are more committed to educational R&D & systematic innovation than any established school I know.”
About Singapore American School
Singapore American School (SAS) is an independent, non-profit, coeducational, college preparatory day school offering an American curriculum with an international perspective for students in preschool through grade 12. SAS has the largest Advanced Placement program outside of the United States, is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) in the U.S., and offers the American High School Diploma at the senior level. Established in 1956, the school primarily serves the American and international expatriate communities of Singapore.