Western Academy of Beijing parents met on campus to continue a discussion about what the school experience will look like in 2021.

"WAB will feel like a worldwide community. Teachers may be teaching from some other place, like in a different country."

"There is personal motivation to learn and individualized feedback on the spot."

"WAB will still be a place where children enjoy learning."

"Learning will be more individualized for a student, but it will still be a shared experience. Teachers will be learning. Parents will be learning."

Academic discussions throughout the 2016-17 school year have focused around the Future of Learning at WAB, an initiative known as FLoW21. Parents have gathered for a series of events throughout the school year to work directly with administrators, faculty and students to shape what learning will look like at WAB in five years.

"If you choose WAB, you choose to be a learner," said Deputy Director John D'Arcy, who has lead the discussion to lay out FLoW's 21 "targets", which are characteristics that will define the WAB experience in the future and signal that learning is maximized for each student.

The idea is to prepare students for an unpredictable future. Students don't only gain knowledge. They discover how to navigate their own learning, seeking out information and applying that information to take action.

Some of the FLoW21 targets include:

• Focus on self-directed learning, which means students learn the context in which their knowledge and skills become useful in university or the professional world.
• Inquiry-driven curriculum, which allows students to explore the meanings of things, answering the "why?" rather than just the "what?"
• Preparation for an unpredictable future

Inspiration behind the FLoW21 initiative is putting neuroscientific research into practice to provide the best learning experience for each student.

"Anything is possible," WAB Director Courtney Lowe told a room of parents. "It's a lot of work, but what we want is to create a school where all students reach their dreams and maximize their potential. We, as a school, need to be flexible to make sure students can be the person they want to be."