反転ワールドカフェ（田原真人インスピレーショントーク）

Good Morning, everyone!

My name is Masato Tahara
I am a Flip Education researcher

Mr. Bergmann will speak on
"what Flip Education is" in detail shortly

For my part, I would like to talk about the
reason why flipping is called for today

I believe the purpose of education is

to develop children's ability to live in the society

I observe that the societal paradigm is
"flipping" from old to new right now

With that shift, the educational paradigm
must also be flipped

Since Industrial Revolution

the world has been considered as a huge machine

This paradigm, which has been with us
for over 400 years,

is called Mechanistic Paradigm

According to this paradigm

everything develops from past to future
according to certain principles

Applying those principles, we predict future,

make plans, and implement them

This mode of operating has been valued
in Mechanistic Paradigm

I am a physics teacher

so this way of thinking is very familiar to me

However, since the internet was
introduced 22 years ago,

the Mechanistic Paradigm started
not function too well

Why is that?

There is a reason

As a physicist, my expertise was in
complexity physics

From that perspective
the reason is very clear

In general, systems acquire new properties
as they become more complex

For example, our bodies are made of many cells

But, it is not simple
collection of cells

As cells come together,
new properties are acquired

and life emerges

For example, fish is no longer living
when it is cut into parts

Similarly, dissecting complex system

and studying parts separately

the sum would not lead to
the understanding of the whole

As the internet connects the world
like the nerve system

the world is no longer like a huge machine

it is becoming more like
a huge living organism

with that, parts and the whole are
closely interconnected

It is no longer possible to understand
the whole world

by looking at small parts

In the past, our process to
predict future was as follows:

1) Build a model
focus on what's relevant, ignoring the rest

2) Refine the model
based on the data from the past

3) Predict the future
by applying the model

When the world was not
closely interconnected

this method worked well

But when we build a model
by extracting small parts of complex nexwork

the ignored elements enlarges

the gap between the model and reality too much

The gap becomes too big to ignore when
we try to predict in a longer term

With internet, the world is becoming
more and more complex

Mechanistic Paradigm will become
more and more obsolete

What should we do then?

I believe the nature's ability to organize itself

power of self-organization
will be very important

No one plans a forest

but forest develops complex eco-system
all by itself

it is due to the self-organization ability
of the nature

As living organisms, we too have
self-organizing ability

In the future, it will be important to
utilize our self-organizing ability

in order to harmonize our societies

The difference between
mechanistic order and

the organic order through
self-organization is like this

The Mechanistic order functions
when individual freedom is restricted

Everyone acts as subscribed

Then the order is maintained

When individuals act freely
the order breaks down

In contrast, in organic order

individuals' life force brings order

In that, we need to liberate individual freedom

In the mechanistic order,

information is concentrated in the hands of
the manager on the top of the hierarchy

the managers make plans
and the subordinates implement the plans

The information flows one way
from top to bottom

In the organic order

the information is scattered
among the members

Each member holds various
diverse information

By bringing diverse information
and learning collectively

the group determines the direction
to move forward

The information is created
bottom-up

What it means is

the direction of information flow

in the mechanical order and
in the organic order is reversed

In the mechanical order

the goal is set in future

and determine what to do now
by calculating backwards

The time flows backward from the goal to present

In the organic paradigm

future is created by sharing what we are
feeling in the present moment

The time flows from present to the future

The flow of time too is "flipped"

in mechanistic paradigm and organic paradigm

In the education to live in
the mechanistic order

the ability to act according
to the plan by the manager

without questioning

without making mistakes

and quickly

was greatly valued

As the futurist Alvin Toffler pointed out

obedience, punctuality, and
patience to perform repetitious tasks

was taught as hidden curriculum

In order to guarantee organizational continuity
despite member changes

the standardization of thoughts
was stressed

This kind of education was meaningful

while mechanistic society was functioning

However, in the present time
when societal paradigm is shifting

from mechanistic to organic

we have to re-examin current education

Or else children's ability to live
in the future society could be compromised

What is the educational model that fosters
ability to live in an organic society?

I propose the hidden curriculum of
the past be replaced as follows

be authentic self

learn from differences

keep reframing through self-reflections

What it means is

to exam the frame of reference
that one holds

and keep renewing it

such process would be very important

In a safe and secure environment

express oneself

learn from each other

in order to create collective wisdom

This type of learning will probably foster
the learning for the future

In Japan, active learning and flip education
is attracting more attentions

In December 2012

I started a study group on flip education

with only about 10 friends

All my previous education was
of mechanistic model

I had no idea how it is like to learn as a group

I had no idea how to create future
from collective wisdom

So I wanted to experience
collective learning myself first

As I proposed to create a forest like
environment online

where diverse people would gather

in 5 years, the forest has grown
to have 4500 participants

It was never anticipated when I started

Through my 5 years of experience
I am convinced

that when I want to start something

it goes better when
I share my ideas with others

than when I make plans by myself

As I dialogue my hopes and
desires with others

more and more people come together

and things are realized in a way
not even imagined at the beginning

I have experienced that repeatedly
in last 5 years

It might seem senseless in
a mechanistic society

But in an organic society

it will soon become a common sense

Our children will probably live in a society

that is a further development of
my experience in last 5 years

The Flip Education means much more than

flipping the order and role of
classroom learning and homework

The paradigm would shift from

the teacher-centered
"teaching" paradigm to

learner-centered "learning" paradigm

From top-down learning from past success
and of the predetermined knowledge

to the learning where learners dialogue

share knowledge

exchange emotions and share individual
hopes and desires

build collective wisdom from the bottom up

for the creation of future

that kind of "flip"

Furthermore, the life will change from

setting a goal in the future and
and calculating backwards

to the life that co-creats future

by sharing what is felt by me
and others around me

Thus, flipping the flow of time

It is also a shift from maintaining the order
by restricting individual freedom

to fostering self-organization by
liberating freedom

It is also a shift from the mechanistic
paradigm to the organic paradigm

We are at a great turning point of
the human history

where 2 paradigms co-exist

We are living in contradictions
of the paradigms

From the mechanistic perspective
this contradiction appears as a crisis

the order is breaking down

But from the organic perspective

it is the source of creation

This present historical turning point

can be seen as the end of an old era

or as the beginning of a new era

5 years ago, as a teacher of physics
at a college prep school

I published video footage of my classes online

I anticipated what was working before
would no longer work before long

my job would be elimiated

I was experiencing great anxiety

But now, I am excited that I stand
at the beginning of new era

I am involved in flip education

with a hope to create future with colleagues
from around the world

Through which perspective
do we see the world?

We have a choice

I invite you to "flip" with us

Thank you very much!