Edarabia features an exclusive interview with Lord Jim Knight, as he tackles new frontiers at Tes, his opinion on the role of teachers as ‘ring masters’ of knowledge, and how major challenges in education can be addressed.

1. Tes is dedicated to supporting the teachers worldwide, tell us about your collaboration with IB, how it came about?

I’ve been a big admirer of the IB curriculum for some time. It combines academic excellence with strong social purpose, and this shines through from the IB teacher community. Once we started talking to the IB organisation it was clear that that had a long-standing desire to make it easier for those teachers to exchange ideas and resources. We have been delighted to help, and thereby improve our relationship with the growing numbers of the IB teachers in international schools around the world.

2. Having the largest online community of teachers, what have you found are the major challenges that every educator faces? How can these challenges be addressed?

Teachers work really hard and are keen to engage and help every child they teach. This translates into two common challenges – workload and differentiation. These can best be addressed by increasing the collaboration with the profession. As teachers share and learn from each other they find they don’t need to start from scratch with every lesson and every child. Each will be different. But by comparing notes teachers find common strategies and pooled resources that work well.

3. Are there plans to continue to expand Tes.com in the future? If yes, can you tell us more about your future plans?

We are currently focusing our expansion in Australia, UAE, China and SE Asia. Much of this is in improving our services for the international school sector. We then are always looking at what next in support of our mission to better support teachers. I am also visiting Zambia later in the year to explore how we can help train and support teachers in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with the girls education charity Camfed.

4. What was your most valued memory working in education?

It was really thrilling to have spearheaded England’s largest secondary school rebuilding programme for a generation and see these cathedrals for learning impact some really challenging communities. But better than that has been meeting teaching assistants that Tes Institute have been working with to qualify them as teachers through the Straight to Teaching programme. This is changing the lives of these people, growing the numbers of teachers we so sorely need and doing so in a way that really suits the pressures on their lives.

5. How is education changing? In your opinion, is technology fundamentally reshaping education?

Education is not changing fast enough. The IB is a rare example of a curriculum that is combining academic rigour with the breadth of learning we now need as technology erodes the security of the professions. Children will now have to be equipped with the resilience and love of learning necessary to re-skill and change careers several times during long working lives.

6. How can educators be better shepherds of knowledge?

Educators shouldn’t be the guardians or shepherds of knowledge. Knowledge is no longer power, it is ubiquitous online. Instead they need to help us be better self-directed learners, to be able to distinguish fake from real online, and be able to connect across the silos of academic subjects. Power is now in the application of knowledge and educators exist to empower learners. I would prefer to see educators as ringmasters not shepherds.

About the Author

Jim Knight, The Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth, is the Chief Education Adviser at Tes Global, having successfully started our teacher training business, Tes Institute. He is also a visiting professor at the UCL Knowledge Lab and a member of the House of Lords. Jim served as an MP from 2001-2009, during which time he was a minister for rural affairs, schools and then employment, spending his final year as a Cabinet minister.

Jim is a founder of XRapid Ltd, the first company to sell disease diagnosis commercially via an iPhone app. He is a trustee of the Centre for Accelerating Social Technology, and for Whole Education. Jim is also a member of the Future of Work Commission, established by Tom Watson MP, and the Brookings Institution’s Millions Learning 2.0 Advisory Group.