What Children Learn at Arkki

What Children Learn at Arkki

Arkki, the National Creative Extra-Curriculum of Finland, prepares children for the creative digital economy by equipping them with 21st century skills (6C's — Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Complex Problem Solving, and Computational Thinking).

Arkki’s hands-on project-based curriculum focusses on developing Higher Order Thinking (HOT) and key digital skills, to allow our children to create, innovate and work with and not for machines, in the future.​
In its field, Arkki is globally one of a kind: no other institute in the world offers as wide a curriculum in creative education for children and youths. Arkki Singapore is currently offering these distinct creative education curriculum:
Long-Term Courses for creativity and 21st century skills development (4 to 19 year olds)
Goal-directed Workshops and Theme Courses
Design thinking and innovation mindset Workshops for Organizations

Arkki's Educational Goals

Arkki’s mission is to nurture and equip a new generation of children and the youth with creative mindsets and core 21st century skills needed for them to become innovation leaders and job creators in a technology-disrupted future.
Arkki educational program helps the kids of today to reach their fullest potential and become the creative leaders of tomorrow, solving the most complex problems mankind has ever seen.
In this time of industrial revolution 4.0, when machines are replacing the basic jobs, it is time to aim higher and develop the higher-order thinking skills of the next generation. It is no longer enough to learn facts, but we need to learn what to do with the facts and how to solve the complex problems of our society at all fields of life.
Considering this modern society, future life is no longer about WHAT you know at a certain moment, it’s about HOW you can learn and adapt, which is why teaching should focus on learning to learn, instead of memorizing.
What Children Learn at Arkki

Why are creativity and 21st century skills crucial?

According to studies by the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and the University of Oxford, 65% of children in primary school today will end up with jobs that don’t exist. The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) estimated in 2018 that 70% of existing jobs in Thailand are at risk of being automated. New technologies are disrupting industries and displacing the human workforce daily — creating an uncertain future.
While the world is changing at light speed, traditional education systems have been slow to adapt, teaching knowledge and skills for the past 100 years that are increasingly obsolete. Securing our children’s future therefore requires us to provide them with the skills and qualities to resolve complex issues and unknown challenges. The traditional teaching around the world focuses on the lowest thinking skills of humans, such as remembering. This was useful in the past decades, but not enough in the present day rapidly developing society.
Education needs to focus on the skills and qualities specific to humans, which machines and AI lack. After all, we humans design the AI and robots, and imagine and create the implementations how to use them.

What do children learn at Arkki?

Design Thinking

A human-centered approach to creative problem solving that entrepreneurs, startups, and technology giants use for innovation based work. Arkki believes that it is important for children to master design thinking through repeated guided practice and integrate its creative problem solving philosophy into their everyday activities. All Arkki classes and projects guide children in design thinking, teaching them how to think, and not what to think.

The Maker Way

Each Arkki class is a makerspace experience where hands-on learning, both individually and in groups, is emphasized. Children are taught how to envision their ideas, build prototypes and test them. At Arkki, either we succeed or we learn! Children learn to persevere and quickly understand that prototypes that do not work are simply a step towards improvement and the environment is kept positive and motivating in an open and social environment.

Integrating Arts into S.T.E.A.M.

Arkki classes allow children to apply what they learn at school in Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.) not in silo, but in an integrative manner through Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. This allows ideas to be grounded in solving human needs and to be considerate to factors such as cultures, religions, and the environment. Children are taught that in order to understand complex problems, they need to gather information through multiple sources and people, utilizing an inquiry based approach that develops their ability to observe, empathize and communicate.

21st Century Skills & Qualities

Arkki emphasizes the development of the 6C’sCreativity, Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, Complex Problem Solving, and Computational Thinking. Through opportunities provided by the classes, projects, and experiences, children are mentored to cultivate perseverance, focus, adaptability, leadership, curiosity, and initiative. Great importance is given to the development of their social and cultural awareness and emotional intelligence so that they can work collaboratively in groups.