He started off asking the question, "Can our students be adaptable & resilient for the VUCA work demands?"
Indeed, looking inward, I wonder... perhaps as educators, we should ask ourselves the same question, too!
I guess, we already experienced the first wave more than 20 years ago, when the ICT Master Plan was rolled out to all schools. I guess, the emotion was a mix of excitement (hope!) and anxiety. Back then, many would not have imagined how life would be like once technology was first introduced to schools, and no one, more than 20 years ago, could have imagined how technology has become part of our livelihood today, and how undetachable it is (to us)! No, the ICT Master Plan did not prepare us for this massive change. It first came as a means to improve how teachers teach, hence the way students learn (in the form teachers dished out the lessons), but not about changing how students learn.
To answer the question, have we, the educators, adapted?
Yes... over time. Those who could not, they probably belong to the group we infamously labelled as "those who were resistant to change" or "technology" (more specifically). Many were those near retirement age, then... and that was probably the group that most HOD ICTs had to face and struggle with, while trying to carry out the mandate. Then, we allow those who could fly be the champions in the school, and of course, some of those champions landed up with key roles in the ICT department. The transition was tough, though varying degree - depending on the profile of the school (also the school leadership) and the staff.
Can I conclude those who survived till today had demonstrated resilience? Probably yes. OR because they were not given a choice as teaching is their means of living, hence they have to follow the flow? After all, this flow doesn't end up bad, isn't it? Because we acknowledge that change is inevitable and change is constant, we been change in order to keep up with what we are supposed to be doing?
Those of my era... and survived in the school system (till today) - kudos to us! Knowingly or unknowingly, we braved through the tough weather. We learn to be adaptable, not just the way we do things, but also our way to think, our mindset. Not bad, after all, when we look back. If we were determined to be resistant to change, we probably would be the rare few cavemen around. Continue to remain in the cave... and being isolated from the society.
About Abstraction:
To illustrate abstraction, Liang Soon used the example, on how the engineers managed to pin point at the problem that caused the train delay of the circle line a few years ago - to illustrate how data scientists draw connections from what they know and exercise flexibility when handling data (non-routine, seeing from a think-of-the-box way) to solve problem.
One trait he highlighted was, being able to arrange or organise data points in the way it makes sense, the ability to notice is critical, and it comes with the ability to imagine!
Making relationship between dots to form some kind of patterns that may or may not make sense is the starting point.
To be able to do this, the desirable attributes of Problem Solvers would be Perseverance and Problem Solving (spirit!).
Abstraction is about extracting underlying structures, patterns or properties of a mathematical concept.
What is the big idea there?
Let's figure out how to leverage mathematical processes to develop competencies in abstracting and reasoning!