Turing Award winners, Stanford and Harvard faculty members recommended
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What will the talent of the future look like? What will be Korea's new education model?
Insights gleaned from Paul Kim, former vice dean of Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, over 20 years of experience in the global education field.

Professor Paul Kim, who went from last place in his school to vice dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education.
He redefines children's 'learning' and 'growth' with the belief that "people work and learn best when the boundaries between work and play disappear."
He says that the essence of education in the age of artificial intelligence should be not simply the accumulation of knowledge, but rather "reasonable intelligence"—the power to understand why one is learning, the sensitivity to empathize with the suffering of others, and a sense of purpose to lead the world in a better direction.


『Intelligence with Reason』 presents a new direction for education, focusing on the 6Cs (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, responsibility, and compassion) that Professor Paul Kim summarized as the core competencies of future talents, including inquiry-centered learning, the coaching role of teachers, hyper-self-directedness, and education based on patience.
Additionally, vivid examples from encounters with children from Stanford, India, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, and other countries around the world vividly demonstrate the potential of education.
For parents concerned about their children's future, teachers questioning the essence of education, and all those who believe in children's potential, this book proposes a new path of learning to walk together.

Now, even elementary school students can, with the help of generative AI, quickly analyze complex scientific concepts or international political issues and tailor content to the audience's level.
Not only that, you can create lecture videos using virtual characters that synthesize your own voice and face, and even discuss them in real time with a virtual audience.
The perspective on ‘expertise’ is also becoming more diverse and broader.
Nowadays, anyone can be recognized as an expert.
Therefore, a core goal of education should be to cultivate the ability to make creative interpretations and independent judgments while utilizing artificial intelligence as a tool.

---p.55

The '6C competencies' are the minimum sensibilities required to live as a human being in the age of artificial intelligence, and will serve as a compass for advancing toward a society where technology and humanity are in harmony.
From now on, we will look at specific examples to see how each competency actually works.
Since multiple capabilities operate in a complex manner even in a single case, we will focus on introducing the capabilities that are most prominent in each case.
First, let's learn about 'communication skills'.
Communication skills go beyond effectively conveying your thoughts; they involve the ability to share opinions and build rapport with people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
In the digital age, not only face-to-face communication but also non-face-to-face communication using various platforms is important.
However, the most important thing to focus on in communication is 'the ability to see the world from the other person's perspective.'
This demonstrates a willingness to see eye to eye with others and truly understand them.

---pp.61~62

Although artificial intelligence can mimic human emotions to some extent, the ability to empathize is still a uniquely human domain.
Empathy goes beyond understanding another person's feelings; it's the starting point for seeing the world from their perspective, sensitively sensing their needs, and sometimes even taking action to bring about change.
As technology becomes more sophisticated, emotional competencies like empathy and consideration are emerging as increasingly important qualities.
Empathy is a combination of several core competencies.
The first of these is the ability to perceive emotions delicately.
To accurately understand not only our own emotions but also those of others, we need a sensitive eye that can read complex emotional currents.
Also important is the attitude of changing one's perspective to look at the world from the perspective of others.
The depth of empathy is determined by the attitude of putting aside one's own judgment and trying to think from the other person's perspective.
Cultural sensitivity cannot be overlooked either.
In today's society, where diverse cultures coexist, it is essential to understand others' thoughts and actions within their cultural context, even if only to reduce hasty misunderstandings and prejudices.
And finally, empathy doesn't stop at just understanding someone else's situation.
When understanding leads to actions that practice social responsibility, empathy expands beyond emotions to become an attitude toward life.

---pp.95~96

Stanford is a place where change and creativity permeate daily life, to the point where even the word "innovation" feels like a cliché.
At the center of it all is the Stanford School of Design, aka the 'd-school.'
While at Stanford, I created a course at the d.school called "Design for Learners in Resource-Constrained Communities."
The goal of this class was to directly solve real-world problems through instructional design.
This class brought together students with different majors and career paths.
Students from diverse majors, including engineering, business, and education, collaborated in one classroom, and their nationalities included the United States, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India, Korea, Japan, China, and South America.
The tasks presented to the students in this lecture were by no means easy.
For example, developing a digital education program for youth living in a juvenile detention center on a remote island in the Philippines, or
This includes creating motivational content using social media targeting youth in rural areas of Siko.
These were tasks that had no clear answers and were intertwined with various real-world problems.
Students worked in teams to face complex and challenging situations in different regions and were required to design educational solutions to address them.

---pp.104~105

I have introduced and spread the Smile Learning Method to many parts of the world, but my experience in Ghana, Africa, left a particularly deep impression on me.
This is because it was a representative example of a long-term operation of the Smile Learning Method over a period of approximately two years.
Beyond simply introducing new educational technologies, this study provided a valuable opportunity to delve deeper into the real-world impact they can bring.
Approximately 560 students from grades 5 to 9 participated in five schools in Ghana that implemented the Smile Learning Method.
Most of these schools are located in areas with unreliable power supplies and very limited internet connectivity.
Most teachers and students had never owned a personal computer or laptop and had little experience using a computer.
At that time, the digital environment was so limited that even typing a few words on a keyboard in a school with a computer lab was considered a huge 'innovative education'.

---p.142

Teachers must break free from the mindset that they must know everything, and instead demonstrate an attitude of thinking and exploring together with their students.
“Even the teacher doesn’t know this.
This is the first time I've seen this method, teacher.
It takes courage to say, “Let’s find out together.”
This attitude not only sets a good example for students of lifelong learning, but also fosters the ability to view uncertainty and confusion with an open mind.
Finally, teachers must become ‘metacognitive mentors.’
A metacognitive mentor's role is to help students become aware of and develop their own thought processes and learning strategies.
It is about identifying points of difficulty during the project process, exploring effective strategies or problem-solving methods, and guiding students to take control of their own learning process.

---p.177

I ask myself this every now and then.
Why have I spent so many years listening to the stories of so many students, even dedicating my time to coaching them? Why continue when this work doesn't directly benefit me?
The answer to this question was clear.
The conclusion was that if through this process, even just one student among countless others develops the desire to share what they have with the world, then that alone will have contributed to making the world a slightly better place.

---p.198

Whether you're learning a language or anything else, everyone needs some time to adjust when they encounter something new.
But the parents couldn't stand this time and said, "I taught you yesterday.
What if you press your child with, "Can't you even answer that?" or show disappointment or resignation? Contrary to your initial intention to help, your child will become increasingly discouraged and lose confidence.
Conversely, if children can frequently hear accurate pronunciation and expressions in their daily lives and are provided with an environment where they can naturally learn words, their learning speed will be faster and their learning efficiency will also increase.

---p.241

Some parents worry, “My child is too passive.”
But this statement is essentially no different from confessing, “I raised my child to be passive and dependent.”
Another parent says, “My child is so timid that he can’t do anything without my intervention,” which is essentially saying, “I never gave him the chance to think for himself, and I always made him do what I thought was right.”
Ironically, these parents are more likely to yell at their children, “Why are you so thoughtless? Please think for yourself and act!”
The surname is big.

---p.243

The core of Finnish education is 'giving children enough time'.
This educational philosophy applies to all learning.
During this time of waiting, children develop their imagination through play, develop their observation skills in nature, and learn social skills through relationships with their peers.
‘Time of silence’ is part of this natural rhythm of development.
All complex developmental processes alternate between periods of rapid growth and periods of stability, which are essential features of ecological and organismal growth processes.
I also started learning Korean only when I was in first grade.
Because I had never attended kindergarten and had never learned to read at home, I showed a large gap in my reading skills compared to other children.
Although I never got out of the bottom of the class for 12 years in school, looking back now, I think that time was actually a great blessing for me.
Because while other kids were studying, I ran my own 'makerspace' at home.
For me, the moments I spent disassembling and fixing things at home were play, an opportunity to be creative, and a valuable time for self-directed learning.

---pp.249~250