The Unholy Trinity: Connecting the Unconnected—Systems, Strategies, and Students

Abstract

Educational reforms have increasingly shifted from teacher and content-centric approaches to prioritising the students’ needs, sometimes even extending this beyond academic success. Academic success is easily measured through standardised assessments; however, the ‘life skills’ that students require for more general success—such as self-regulation, goal-setting, and distraction control—are harder to quantify and therefore harder to implement and measure. Reflecting these challenges, this paper critiques some of the more popular frameworks which schools adopt in their aim to nurture successful students for the future. Drawing comparisons with high-performance domains such as sports, where psychological characteristics and potential are actively considered and nurtured in talent development, we highlight the limitations of current offerings in education. Through discussion, we advocate for a more research-grounded approach to learning, equipping schools with both systems and strategies for their students’ long-term life-related success.