I recently attended a Q&A session, to some extent with my senior colleague, Nicolas Sadirac (Co-founder of IT schools 42, 01Talent, Epitech worldwide), where he talked about his innovative teaching method, creative confrontation.

At first, I thought that I was familiar with the concept of the peer-to-peer approach, because at the Kazakh-Turkish Lyceum we were often told: "Anlayan anlanmayanlara anlatsin" - “Those who understood, let them explain to those who did not understand.” However, the essence of Sadirak's method turned out to be much deeper and more complex.

Creative confrontation is not just learning without teachers. This is a concept where students themselves are teachers to each other, but in a more complex dynamic of dispute and joint creative problem solving. And I once saw on Instagram how Lisa Su (CEO of AMD) said that education is always about the ability to solve problems (problem-solving skills).

Traditional education was created during the Industrial Revolution to train the workforce. The main criteria of this tax system are:

• Standardization and unification: everyone studies according to the same program.
• Discipline: training hours, calls and regulations were prepared for the factory schedule.
• Hierarchy: The teacher is the supreme authority, the student follows the instructions.

This helped create a workforce that could perform repetitive tasks, leaving no room for creative thinking, innovation, and critical thinking. But after the rise of digital technology and AI, this model is outdated and does not prepare for modern challenges.

Nicolas Sadirac's methodology begins with real-world tasks that students solve in groups based on argument and criticism. It develops:

• Critical thinking;
• The ability to argue;
• Creativity and problem-solving skills.

Creative confrontation is different from simple collectivism. It not only stimulates support, but also includes elements of conflict, where different points of view collide, are discussed and lead to better solutions. This process forces students not only to find a compromise, but also to develop new, innovative solutions.

Considering this, being in the modern age of globalization and fairly easy access to information, modern education often balances between two cultural approaches.:

The modern world requires specialists who are able to adapt, think outside the box and work in conditions of uncertainty. Creative confrontation methods help to foster qualities that are not available in the traditional education system.:

• Creativity - creative approaches to solving a problem
• The ability to learn quickly, adapt;
• The ability to work in a team, even with different opinions;
• Critical information assessment skills. 

The creative confrontation proposed by Nicolas Sadirac is not just an approach to learning, but a model that meets the challenges of the 21st century. In support of this, in 2016, the World Economic Forum released a vision for 21st century skills (https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Vision_for_Education.pdf ) 

And of course, questions arise for further study, how applicable is the methodology not only for programming and IT, but in general in various fields, and how will the use of AI help in the effectiveness of training? And how is it possible to apply the approach of creative confrontation in an online format? (Nicolas Sadirac said that they empirically revealed that the online learning format using this method is not effective) PS. One more question for context, why do we have two at a desk in our schools, but one at a time in the USA? Is it related to cultural aspects or to square meters or something else? :)

The text is written using ChatGPT

1. Nicolas Sadirac, "Creative Confrontation and Peer-to-Peer Learning" 01 EDU official site.
2. Hofstede, G. "Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations".
3. Sahlberg, P. "Global Education Reform: How Privatization and Public Investment Influence Education Systems".
4. Ken Robinson, "Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education".
5. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Vision_for_Education.pdf