Future Focus | From Classrooms to Change-Makers: What Today’s Students Are Teaching Us About the Future | Week of January 20, 2026

In this episode of Designing Schools, Dr. Sabba Quidwai reflects on her recent keynote at Shanghai American School, where students showcased real-world applications of AI, decision-making, and entrepreneurial thinking. She connects these powerful examples to emerging research from Anthropic and Stanford, revealing how AI mirrors human capability and why fostering critical thinking and initiative is more urgent than ever.

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Students Are Ready—Now, Not Later

• Reflections on student agency at Shanghai American School and how young people are already solving real problems using AI and global partnerships.

[00:04:00] What the Data Tells Us: AI Mirrors Human Thinking

• Insights from Anthropic’s Economic Research Index revealing AI’s dependence on user input quality and education levels.

[00:08:00] Why Most People Don’t Use AI Effectively

• Stanford’s Jeremy Utley explains the real barrier to AI use—imagination and modeling, not fear or lack of access.

[00:12:00] Introducing the Spark Prompting Framework

• Dr. Quidwai shares her human-centered approach to AI collaboration, emphasizing clarity and empathy over clever syntax.

[00:18:00] Leadership in a Time of Unstoppable Change

• Reflections from Davos and why education systems must invest in human capability, not wait for tools to stabilize.

[00:21:00] Why Entrepreneurial Thinking Is No Longer Optional

• A call to embed entrepreneurship into core learning, not as an elective, but as essential preparation for an AI-driven world.

Resources Mentioned

• Spark Prompting Framework Guide + 50 Prompts
• Anthropic Economic Research Index
• Jeremy Utley, Stanford – AI Bootcamp & Research
• World Economic Forum – Davos AI Panel Video

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