U.S. educators and international education leaders point to growing demand for learning models that combine academic development with human skills, self-awareness and future readiness
ISTANBUL, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Doping Hafıza, Europe's third-largest EdTech company and recognized by TIME and Statista among the World's Top EdTech Companies 2026, has highlighted a growing shift in global education toward learning models that go beyond academic knowledge to develop the skills, self-awareness and human capabilities children will need for the future.
Drawing on more than 16 years of experience and work with more than five million students, Doping Hafıza has been developing this approach through WAY (Who Are You?), a holistic learning framework that brings together cognitive development, social-emotional learning, identity, self-understanding and future-ready skills.
The approach is built around a fundamental question: if the world children are preparing for is changing faster than traditional curricula can adapt, education must consider not only what students need to know, but also who they need to become.
This challenge is increasingly visible across the global education ecosystem.
The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs 2025 report estimates that 39% of workers' existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated by 2030. Analytical thinking remains the most sought-after core skill among employers, while creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, technological literacy, curiosity and lifelong learning are also becoming increasingly important.
For Doping Hafıza, these changes reinforce the need for an educational approach that develops academic capability alongside adaptability, critical thinking, creativity, social-emotional development and the ability to work responsibly with technology.
A Research-Based Framework Developed in Türkiye
WAY was developed following more than three years of research and development involving specialists from education, psychology and related disciplines.
Its academic framework was developed through a three-round Delphi study involving an interdisciplinary expert panel and published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2026.
The resulting framework comprises 312 learning outcomes across 13 themes, including emotional intelligence and empathy, community and collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving, and technology and artificial intelligence.
Rather than treating these areas as separate additions to academic education, WAY brings them together within a holistic learning framework centered on the individual learner.
Its starting point is reflected in its name:
Who are you?
The framework is designed to help students better understand themselves, recognize their strengths and potential, develop future-ready capabilities and build a more meaningful relationship with learning.
Doping Hafıza has supported this framework with learning experiences including Startup Lab, where students develop their own entrepreneurial projects with AI-supported coaching, as well as Mission WAY and Fateful Moment, which use real-life and historical simulations to develop decision-making and problem-solving skills.
U.S. Educators Identify Opportunities for Schools and Students
As Doping Hafıza has introduced its approach to the international education community, feedback from U.S. educators has highlighted the potential relevance of these learning experiences to schools, students and families.
Diana Eggers, Director of Educational Technology at Issaquah School District in Washington State, identified Startup Lab as an experience that could potentially fit into a high-school business or marketing class.
Dr. Amber Morgan, Director of Curriculum & Instruction at Rich Township High School District 227 in Illinois, described the approach as "a great opportunity for both students and educators and families."
The feedback also points to a broader discussion taking place within the U.S. education and EdTech ecosystem.
EdTech founder and venture partner Sunny Nadolsky noted that artificial intelligence is likely to change both how schools teach and how children learn. She highlighted an important distinction between content acquisition and human skills:
"The challenging part is not the content."
Nadolsky pointed particularly to soft skills as an area where the learning experiences demonstrated by Doping Hafıza could create opportunities for schools and students.
For Doping Hafıza, this distinction is central to the future of education.
Technology can increasingly support access to content and academic learning. But students must also develop curiosity, empathy, self-awareness, judgment, resilience, collaboration, creativity and the ability to adapt to circumstances that cannot yet be predicted.
The objective, therefore, is not simply to use technology to make existing education faster or more efficient. It is to use technology to create more personalized and meaningful learning experiences while strengthening capabilities that remain fundamentally human.
Growing International Interest in Human-Centered Learning
The same themes have emerged in feedback from education leaders outside the United States.
Batjin Boldbat, Founder and Chairman of Tomujin Alternative School, highlighted Doping Hafıza's decision not to focus solely on making academics faster and more efficient, while also giving significant attention to social-emotional learning.
Khairul Anwar Mohamad Zaki, Founder and CEO of Pandai, who works with thousands of schools across Southeast Asia, described the developments he saw from Doping Hafıza as pointing toward "the future of education."
These perspectives reflect a broader challenge facing schools and education systems internationally.
No education system can know with certainty which professions, technologies or working environments will define today's children's adult lives.
But education can prepare students to remain curious, understand themselves, think critically, solve complex problems, collaborate with others, adapt to change, create new ideas and use technology responsibly.
This is the broader challenge WAY was designed to address.
A Similar Direction Is Emerging at National Scale in Türkiye
Doping Hafıza also sees an important connection between this global shift and the transformation currently taking place within Türkiye's national education ecosystem.
Türkiye is implementing the Türkiye Century Education Model, a national education framework that places greater emphasis on applying knowledge, higher-order thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, social-emotional development and values.
The model's Skills Framework includes 20 integrated conceptual skills, together with three higher-order thinking skills: decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking.
It also systematically addresses 21 dispositions, ranging from curiosity and creativity to self-confidence and analytical thinking.
The shift can perhaps be expressed most simply through a change in the question education asks the child.
Not only:
"What do you know?"
But:
"What can you do with what you know?"
For Doping Hafıza, this represents an important direction for education because information alone will not be sufficient to prepare children for the world they will enter.
Young people will increasingly need to analyze information, distinguish reliable information from unreliable information, solve unfamiliar problems, create new ideas and work effectively with technology.
The Türkiye Century Education Model adds another important dimension to this discussion through its emphasis on the "competent and virtuous individual."
Through its Virtue-Value-Action framework, justice, respect and responsibility are positioned as foundational values.
This becomes particularly significant as technology expands what individuals are capable of doing.
The question for education is therefore not only:
"What can I do?"
but increasingly:
"What should I do—and what values should guide me?"
From Academic Achievement to Future Readiness
Doping Hafıza believes the developments taking place across the U.S., international EdTech community and Türkiye point toward a broader evolution in education.
The approaches are not identical, nor are the education systems in which they operate.
But a common direction is becoming visible: academic knowledge remains essential, while the ability to think, create, adapt, understand oneself, collaborate with others and act responsibly is becoming increasingly important.
For Doping Hafıza, this is also the principle connecting its work in Türkiye with its international expansion.
"Throughout our 16 years of experience, we have seen that a strong academic foundation creates sustainable success when it is supported by flexibility, critical thinking and adaptability," said Arif Karakuş, CFO of Doping Hafıza.
"We cannot know exactly which professions will define the future. We cannot teach the future itself, but we can prepare children for it. That requires more than developing their knowledge. It requires helping them adapt to change, preserve their curiosity and discover their own potential."
Karakuş added:
"As with every innovation we develop at Doping Hafıza, WAY does not put technology at the center. It puts people at the center. Because the future will not be changed by technology itself, but by the people who guide it and use it well."
Doping Hafıza believes this shift—from focusing primarily on what children know toward developing what they can do, who they can become and how responsibly they can use their capabilities—will increasingly shape education across different countries and systems.
Türkiye's experience provides one national-scale example of this transition, while the response from educators in the United States and other international markets demonstrates that the underlying questions extend far beyond any one country.
Preparing children for the future is becoming a shared global challenge. The answers may differ across cultures and education systems, but the need to develop capable, adaptable, self-aware and responsible young people is increasingly universal.
Doping Hafıza will continue to contribute its experience, research and learning technologies to this global conversation.
The company also extends its sincere gratitude to Türkiye's Minister of National Education, Prof. Dr. Yusuf Tekin, and to everyone who has contributed to the development and implementation of the Türkiye Century Education Model.
About Doping Hafıza
Founded in 2008 with the vision of making high-quality education accessible to everyone, Doping Hafıza has reached more than five million students through its education technologies and learning platforms.
The company combines education, technology, psychology and learning science to develop academic and future-ready learning experiences. Through WAY and its expanding international ecosystem, Doping Hafıza aims to help children understand themselves, discover their potential and develop the capabilities they will need to navigate an increasingly complex future.
Media Contact
IHSAN ATALIK, Doping Hafıza, 90 5070480517, [email protected], https://www.dopinghafiza.com/
SOURCE Doping Hafiza
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