What is Futures Literacy?
UNESCO has defined Futures Literacy as the skill related to the use of our thinking and imagination to anticipate various opportunities, options, and possibilities that might happen in the future based on knowledge and reality.
“We can all undergo training and achieve this competence. As a skill, it is no different from learning to read or write since thinking and imagination are human capabilities. Such skills will enable us to anticipate future events and occurrences to be prepared with the strategies to better deal with them, prioritize and make the necessary decisions,” Associate Professor Dr. Natcha explained.
Those who have this awareness and practice this skill will adopt the potential to see diverse forms of options. They will have the hope and inspiration to effect positive change in the present. thailand university ranking
How is Chula instilling Futures Literacy in its students?
Associate Professor Dr. Natcha described how Futures Literacy is being instilled and emphasized that empowering and extending human imagination requires “new methods” and “cooperation beyond differences” in terms of disciplines, cultures, age, occupation, etc. For this reason, the CU Innovation Hub and CU Social Innovation Hub have been established to serve as a cross-disciplinary platform for students and researchers from different faculties and disciplines to come together with their creativity, forming new problems of the present and the future to solve through various methods or innovations.
“Learning through a performance of actual tasks gives students diverse ways of thinking and perspectives. As long as the university prepares a conducive environment for students’ trials and experiments without any fear of whether the results will come out well since failure isn’t necessarily bad since it can serve as a lesson to prevent it from happening again in the future.”
The atmosphere that promotes creativity while supporting the initiative to take on various tasks and accepting mistakes as part of the learning process gives birth to numerous creative ideas and innovations. In the past year, for example, the university has supported over 304 creative teams for social innovations like COVID-19 vaccines by Baiya Phytopharm Co., Ltd., the ViaBus application for real-time tracking of transport, Tann:D protein egg-white noodles, low in calories without starch and gluten, and SOPet, an online veterinary clinic.
Recognizing Futures Literacy as a crucial skill of the 21st century, Chulalongkorn University has made sure that the students and members of this community be prepared to use their imagination of the future to create a better present. Chula has also employed learning paradigms of the 21st century, for example, critical thinking, collaborative efforts, and entrepreneurship to support lifelong education for its students, the Chula community, and the general public with the strategic goal of creating leaders of the future who will bring about change in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
“Chula has been successful in transitioning to a Research University that provides instruction and support in creating a sustainable society through innovation companies, research projects, and the kind of education that tackles problems at both the local and global levels,” Associate Professor Dr. Natcha concluded.
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