What will life be like in 2030? Or 2040? OK,
and how about 2055? If that seems an impossible
question, be in no doubt that there is one group of
professionals who are always thinking about 2055.
Who are they? Teachers.

Because in 2055, today’s Kindergartners will
be 30 years old. And today’s 12th Graders will
be approaching middle age – they will be senior
managers, leaders and entrepreneurs. They won’t
just need knowledge, but also values and mindsets
that will help them navigate the next 30 years and
beyond. That’s why their current teachers at ZIS are
thinking, researching, planning and collaborating to
gain a clearer picture of the future – because today’s
students need future thinking now.

In fact, that future might be here even sooner than
we think, says ZIS Director Elsa Hernández-Donohue.
“If you have been an educator or a leader in the past
20 years, you will have thought about how the world
is changing. But what is different nowadays is the
pace of change and the fact that it is today’s reality.
With the advent of AI, it’s here. So my answers could
just as well apply to the schools of 2030 or 2055.”

Indeed, in 2040, schools may well look pretty
much like the schools of today – but, she says, they
are likely to feel different, particularly in terms of
what they choose to prioritise. “I think that schools will continue to be deeply personalised, with a
student’s strengths, needs and aspirations front
and centre. But that personalisation will focus on
learning shaped around each student’s strengths,
needs and aspirations.”

For Doline Ndorimana, Director of Teaching
and Learning, educating students to thrive in the
future is as much about what will stay the same as
it is about what will change. “We will still be social
beings. And particularly in a fast-paced, multilingual,
multicultural AI-driven world, we will still need a
community to thrive. We will still need to collaborate
clearly and understand different perspectives.”

That’s why ZIS is making plans to deliver learning
experiences where students can intentionally practise
these human competencies every day. Schools,
points out Doline, tend to be carefully structured
to help students be successful – which, sadly, does
not always reflect the outside world. “What excites
me is designing learning experiences where we
bring authenticity into classrooms. Students will
learn, through experience, what collaboration,
communication and agency really look like and they
will hopefully become comfortable with failure.”

Will subject knowledge still play a vital part
in an AI-driven world? Elsa says yes – but what
those subjects look like may be very different.

“The boundaries between the subjects are becoming
far more blurred, with students spending more
time working on complex, real-world challenges
that require them to think critically, collaborate
meaningfully – and to communicate with clarity.”

This doesn’t mean that knowledge itself will take
a back seat – quite the contrary. “Do we know for
certain that we will need every piece of content we
teach in the future?” says Doline. “No, we don’t know
that. But we do know that skills come from knowing
things. You cannot think critically about nothing.
You cannot solve problems without knowledge.
Content still matters, because knowledge is what
allows students to do things, to create things and
make informed decisions.”

Technology will be seamless and ever present,
but not dominant, suggests Elsa. “We’re already
seeing much less of ‘we’re all about the technology.’
What matters is how well students can make sense of
complexity, regulate their own learning, and act with a
sense of responsibility toward themselves and others.”

Education is becoming less about innovation for
its own sake and more about clarity, she adds – on the skills that matter most, and the discipline to
design learning around them. “We’ve been very
intentional about anchoring everything in our
mission – to inspire curiosity, critical thinking
and high expectations for learning so that students
can have a positive impact.”

But whatever the ZIS of 2040 might look like, says
Doline, it will be the result of careful thinking and
planning that is happening right now. Great teaching
and learning, she emphasises, is not about chasing
the latest new thing. “It’s about being clear about
who we are, what we stand for and making strategic
decisions that deepen impact over time. For me,
whenever something new emerges, the first question
I ask is: what problem are we trying to solve? Is this
addressing a real need in our own context? How will
this meaningfully improve student learning, and how
is it different from what we’re already doing?”

So how are teachers putting these ideas and
predictions into their current practice? It might
sound counter-intuitive, but science teacher
Eirini Boulinaki has taken a deep dive into history –
the history of science.

“In doing that, we can see that scientific
advances follow the same pattern, and you always
need critical thinking and creativity,” says Eirini.
“Whether you are doing science in 1926, 2026 or
2056, if you have those characteristics and are a
good thinker, you can do good science.”

She is excited by AI but emphasises that
it’s just another tool – and one that needs careful
handling. “And in the future, we will need to
put much more emphasis on proper evaluation
of sources.” But the exciting developments, she
believes, are around developing those skills that
make learning possible – and identifying how
learning itself can help students build resilience,
be comfortable with failure and feel empowered
to discover. “In physics, you have to stay with the
problem. You have to ask for help. And your teacher
should believe in you and make you feel trusted.”

Teacher learning and development is playing
a big part in her thinking, she says: she recently
undertook Cultivating Compassion training, which
explains how the brain requires safety to learn
effectively. It’s helped her think about learning in a completely different way. “I recently taught an
introductory lesson on forces using a meditation
session. I asked students to close their eyes, breathe
slowly and be aware of the forces surrounding
them. Yes, we could explain it by drawing an arrow
pointing downwards. But actually feeling those forces
helps you remember and understand the concept.”

Right now, says Elsa, ZIS is at the beginning
of an exciting journey to 2030 and beyond,
redesigning learning experiences – and even the
school’s schedule – to allow for deeper thinking,
meaningful collaboration and sustained inquiry.
It also means investing in teachers, enabling them
to design learning that develops not just knowledge,
but also communication, self-management and
ethical engagement.

“At its core, this is about creating learning
environments where students are not just acquiring
knowledge but actively developing the skills they
will need to thrive,” she points out. “Importantly,
we are beginning to align how we define success
with these broader outcomes – so that we design
for and measure what we know matters.”