From Artificial Deep Learning to Human Authentic Learning: Education & Data Analysis

1
From Artificial Deep Learning to Human Authentic Learning
Dr. Riadh Besbes
Supreme Council for Planning and Development
Kuwait
Abstract
Transforming Our World is the message conveyed by the United Nation in its 2030 agenda.
Compared to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) emerged to address global challenges, taking into account national priorities and
cultural differences.
Acknowledging global values is imperative to be reflected in our actions, as the Russian
philosopher Alexander Chumakov argues that the main purpose for humanity is to achieve
unity, while recognizing our cultural differences. Therefore, it is a priority to lay down a set of
agreed upon foundations and principles for a global society, and to formulate a global
consciousness and a humanistic worldview that effectively reveals the realities of our problems,
this is where the role of education comes in handy toward achieving SDGs targets.
Although, advanced technology has revolutionized business and work environment, education
and capacity building aspects are still lagging. Education systems in less developed countries
still concerned with classic subjects that lack taping uncharted potentials, and focus on urgent
global challenges.
Engineering School effectiveness studies concluded that teachers make a difference. Yet, the
lack of sophisticated tools to map the quality of teaching and learning remains a challenge.
Elliot Eisner stipulates in his book “The Enlightened Eye” that the ability to discern patterns of
behavior in the classroom is what distinguishes the expert who acquired deep understanding of
classroom dynamics throughout years of practice. There are relatively few theoretically
grounded and validated tools designed to “map” the ongoing teaching-learning process in
engineering classrooms.
Sarah D. Sparks confirms that the use of analytic tools to predict student performance is
exploding in higher education, and experts say the tools show even more promise for K-12
schools, in everything from teacher placement to dropout prevention.
1. Introduction
Education remains the backbone of development, “We cannot transform our world and achieve
the SDGs without achieving its goal number four on education, “Ensure inclusive and equitable
quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all””
1
. Yet education in many
Arab countries, still faces significant challenges, the quality of education is the most important
one. Education is key to the global integrated framework of sustainable development goals.
Indeed, “Education is at the heart of our efforts both to adapt to change and to transform the
world within which we live. A quality basic education is the necessary foundation for learning
throughout life in a complex and rapidly changing world”
2
. Empowering a learning society for
sustainability through quality education with adequate measurement is our ultimate goal as
education experts and stakeholders. Within its knowledge contents, education should,
encourage a new focus on science, technology and mathematics. Within in its processes, it
1
Ashok Nigam, “The important role of Education in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 2030” at the
Post-2015 Education in the GCC and Yemen: Focus on Population-Related-Indicators seminar, 8-10 September
2015, Riyadh – Saudi Arabia
2
Irina Bokova, Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), in UNESCO 2015: 3.

2
should have an enormous impact on vital students’ skills such as communication, collaboration,
critical thinking, and creativity. However, how best to integrate and frame education’s role in
strengthening sustainable development must be innovatively explored, especially that education
is recognized as having one of the highest long-term returns on investment of all development
goals. “High-quality education and life-long learning and the capacity of teachers are key
factors in empowering youth as a globally connected engine for change”
3
, as stated in the recent
synthesis report of the UNSG on the post-2015 development agenda.
2. Arab students’ performance at PISA
Data from PISA 2015 illustrates the achievement gap in science is above 50 score points on
average across OECD countries, although in some countries, such as Australia, Canada, Ireland
and New Zealand, no substantial differences are observed. As argued by the OECD elsewhere,
proficiency in the language of instruction at school is crucial for migrant students’ academic
performance and social integration. In addition to academic outcomes, attributes such as
tolerance, global-mindedness, and skills in collaborative problem solving and communication
are of growing importance for individuals to live and work effectively in multicultural settings.
Therefore, improving the capacity of teachers to work effectively in diverse classrooms is
necessary to respond to student’s needs and facilitate the development of global competence.
Teachers need to be able to assess students’ prior knowledge and skills, master different
instructional approaches, and increase their knowledge of second language development to
better support the learning of all pupils. There is a need for professional development in this
area: about 13% of participants in the 2013 OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey
(TALIS) reported a high level of need for professional development in teaching in multicultural
or multilingual settings.
In the large majority of countries, actual teachers’ salaries lose out against those of competing
professions. On average across OECD countries, pre-primary teachers’ actual salaries amount
to only 74% of the earnings of a tertiary-educated worker. Primary teachers are paid 81% of
these benchmark earnings, lower secondary teachers 85% and upper secondary teachers 89%.
Governments realize that to achieve high quality, efficiency and equity in education, improving
the quality of the profession is key. Countries also want to improve the attractiveness of the
teaching profession, and the quality of teacher education and professional development.
3. Innovative pursuit of effectiveness, quality, and inspiration
(“FeelingData ” School)
Big data analytics is the process of examining large sets containing a variety of data types to
uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends, customer preferences, and other
useful business information. The primary goal of big data analytics is to lead to more effective
marketing, more informed business decisions, new revenue opportunities, better customer
services, and improved operational efficiency. All this advantages are reached by using many
advanced techniques such as machine learning, data mining and statistical skills.
Education find itself in the middle of a major transformation with technology and big data
leading the way, it has been slow to follow due to difficulties surrounding what data to collect,
how to collect those data, and what they might mean
4
. However, using data analytics in
education can lead to some findings that reinforce known concept, or can lead to other insights
that are quite surprising and are already transforming approaches to education both online and
in the classroom.
3
Synthesis report of the UNSG on the post-2015 development agenda (UNSG, 2014: 21-2).
4
www.edukwest.com/big-data-education

3
1500 CEOs were asked: what is the single most important quality in navigating our increasingly
complex world? the answer was very meaningful, they said that above rigor, above
management discipline, above integrity, and above vision, the single most important quality
is creativity
5
. The abilities to think strategically, reflect, and apply learned knowledge in a
range of situations have been identified as key indicators of competency for a wide range of
professions. Creativity, collaborative problem solving, and critical thinking are soft skills that
can be aligned with the upper level of the various cognitive taxonomies as opposed to mere
recall of facts. As consequence, there is now widespread recognition of the importance of
invoking higher order processes in both curriculum and assessment design
6
.
a. Leading to ignite and sustain passion for learning and teaching:
“Observatory headquarters”
“For the management of education systems, the quality of curricular, schools, and teachers
should all be benchmarked against specific criteria and qualifications”15. Within educational
practice, mechanisms “may include accountability measurements such as practice standards and
targets, value and behavior change, Education for Sustainable Development knowledge gain
and assessment tools for monitoring and evaluation”
7
. “Sustainable Development goal four’s
stronger emphasis on quality education will hopefully ensure its inclusion within future
implementation plans, but the identification of appropriate indicators to accelerate quality
education improvements still remains elusive within the proposed framework for Action”
8
.
“FeelingData ” School is an institution where innovative educational politics are implemented
in order to transform it into field of effective practices, to make it sustain educational concepts
that constitute pillars of innovation, originality, and creativity. Its new vision leads to unleash
its students’ potentials, a vision that provide this elementary education system the flexibility to
innovate and evaluate.
Let’s see and share “FeelingData ” School’s experience that already begun to pursuit, in realistic
way, what it is aimed high by its optimistic vision and mission.
• Vision
Every student is an engaged learner, every teacher a caring educator, every parent a supporting
partner, every principal an inspiring leader in education, and every “FeelingData ” school a
good school.
• Mission
Buckler
9
& Creech affirm in their report that “Education for Sustainable Development is
influencing learning pedagogies and advancing approaches that help learners to ask questions,
analyze, think critically and make decisions in collaboration with others. Innovative approaches
to learning are contributing to changes in knowledge and understanding among learners that
will support sustainable development in the future”. Thus, “FeelingData ” school’s mission is
conceived as follows: “Transform our classrooms into incubators to awaken curiosity,
5
PISA 2015 Assessment and analytical framework – Science, reading, mathematic and financial literacy
6
Darina Scully, Constructing Multiple choice items to measure higher order thinking, Practical Assessment
Research & Evaluation.
7
Didham, R. J. & Ofei-Manu, P. (2012a). Education for Sustainable Development Country Status reports: An
evaluation of national implementation during the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-
2015) in East and Southeast Asia. Hayama, Japan.
8
UNESCO. (2015a). Framework for Action Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education
and lifelong learning for all (draft). Incheon: UNESCO.
9
Buckler, C., & Creech, H. (2014). Shaping the Future We Want: UN Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development (2005-2015)-Final Report. Paris: UNESCO.

4
encourage discussions, sustain critical thinking, and provide opportunities for innovation
and creativity”. This institution’s mission is built by stakeholders on high educational
standards. They believe that we are all born creative and curious, that knowledge is free and
none cares how much you know but all are interested with what you can do with what you
know. They plan to make things hard within their institution, because doing challenging work
is the best way to make the brain stronger, but simultaneously they ensure that when things get
hard it should be fun.
• Goals
The backbone of “FeelingData ” school’s system architecture is its accountability provided by
its observatory headquarters. It is based on the production of a comprehensive and readily
available data on students, teachers, and system performance that enabled decision makers to
improve every level of the system in real time. Those improvements are achieved through
important objectives:
- Provide empowering learning opportunities for all children that develop their abilities to find,
understand, apply knowledge, think critically and creatively, solve problems, communicate,
and collaborate.
- Assess learning authentically with tools that are used to inform teaching and support progress.
- Continually improve through research, evaluation, sharing of data and best practices, and
ongoing inquiry within and across every level of the system.
• Values
The positive educational context is built through values that make teaching performance
flourish, ensure strong learning, enhance academic achievement, and develop students’ social
and relationship skills. “FeelingData ” schools are growing within an environment that instills
the followed believes:
- Development is malleable,
- Variability is a human development’s feature,
- Human relationships are the essential ingredient that catalyzes healthy development and
learning,
- Learning is social and emotional as well as academic,
- Students actively construct knowledge based on their experiences, relationships, and social
contexts,
- Innovation in teaching and learning should be research and effective practice,
- Technology should be used to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
b. Teaching effectiveness
“The present deficit of 1.9 million teachers globally and the capacity gaps created by under-
trained teachers, particularly in developing countries, continue to contribute to poor learning
Willing to Share Leadership
Create a Climate of Trust
Support Innovation

5
outcomes”
10
. Teachers in “FeelingData ” school are trained to be alike with successful
entrepreneurs in some competencies that are the core of their effectiveness: the willingness to
experiment, the aptitude for problem solving, the ability to prioritize, and the belief in continued
learning. Also, those trained teachers sustain daily the effective practice to engage their students
to feel desire to discover, to be committed, to be challenged, to be guided through their mistakes
and manage their failure. The teachers’ practices are rooted in their belief that their students’
brains grow the most when they get answer wrong and then figure out strategies to correct their
mistakes, their brains can be rewired as they learn (hard work) and think (strategies) differently
(help from others).
“FeelingData ” school’s leaders motivate their teachers to pursuit effectiveness by ensuring
two main feelings during their professional activities: job satisfaction and professional self-
efficacy. Those two feelings are continuously nurtured by:
- Positive relationships among the whole institution’s staff,
- Constructive feedback provided by classrooms’ visits and the following reflexive
discussions about teaching methods,
- The school level decision making and how much it is based on peers’ collaboration
and collective intelligence.
It is proven that the main phenomenon that will rise any education reform to its success is the
effectiveness contagion among teachers which spread at the “speed of trust” built between the
most innovative educators and the rest of their colleagues. Hence, inside “FeelingData ” school,
teachers are encouraged to consider the famous citation: “too often we enjoy the comfort for
opinion without the discomfort of thought”
11
, in order to avoid that attitude.
Since that effective teaching is one of the key propellers for school improvement, it requires
criteria for effectiveness, and one source of information that provides evidence about teachers’
effectiveness and effective teaching is “classrooms practices observation”
12
.
c. Learning quality
Formative data provided by “FeelingData” school’s observatory headquarters guide all
instructional decisions among teachers and help them to apply adequate supports and
10
UNESCO & UNICEF. (2013). Outcome Document. Moving the post-2015 Education Agenda Forward. In
Global Meeting – Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post- 2015 Development Agenda. Dakar.
11
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, elected president of the United States on November 8, 1960.
12
James Ko, Pamela Sammons, Linda Bakkum, Effective teaching: a review of research and evidence, CfBT
education trust, 2013.
Collaboration
with peers
Collective
intelligence
School level decision making
Classrooms
visits
Reflective Discussion
about teaching methods
Feedback
Job satisfaction
Professional Self efficacy
Positive Relationships