What is 21st Century Education?

“School”, “Teacher”, “Learner” and “Curriculum” for the 21^st Century

How should education be structured to meet the needs of students in this 21^st century world?  How do we now define “School”, “Teacher” “Learner” and "Curriculum"? 

Schools in the 21^st century will be laced with a project-based curriculum for life aimed at engaging students in addressing real-world problems, issues important to humanity, and questions that matter. 

This is a dramatic departure from the factory-model education of the past.  It is abandonment, finally, of textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper and pencil schooling.  It means a new way of understanding the concept of “knowledge”, a new definition of the “educated person”.  A new way of designing and delivering the curriculum is required

 

We offer the following new definitions for “School”, “Teacher” and “Learner” appropriate for the 21^st century:

Schools will go from ‘buildings’ to 'nerve centers', with walls that are porous and transparent, connecting teachers, students and the community to the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world.”

Teacher - From primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestra of learning and helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom.

The 21^st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create a “culture of inquiry”.

Learner - In the past a learner was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and graduated.  Today we must see learners in a new context:

First – we must maintain student interest by helping them see how what they are learning prepares them for life in the real world. 

Second – we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning. 

Third – we must be flexible in how we teach.

Fourth – we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside the formal school day.”

What is 21^st century curriculum?

 

Twenty-first century curriculum has certain critical attributes.  It is interdisciplinary, project-based, and research-driven.  It is connected to the community – local, state, national and global.  Sometimes students are collaborating with people around the world in various projects.  The curriculum incorporates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligence, technology and multimedia, the multiple literacy of the 21^st century, and authentic assessments.  Service learning is an important component.

 

The classroom is expanded to include the greater community.  Students are self-directed, and work both independently and interdependently.  The curriculum and instruction are designed to challenge all students, and provides for differentiation.

The curriculum is not textbook-driven or fragmented, but is thematic, project-based and integrated.   Skills and content are not taught as an end in themselves, but students learn them through their research and application in their projects.  Textbooks, if they have them, are just one of many resources.

 

Knowledge is not memorization of facts and figures, but is constructed through research and application, and connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and passions.  The skills and content become relevant and needed as students require this information to complete their projects.  The content and basic skills are applied within the context of the curriculum, and are not ends in themselves.

 

Assessment moves from regurgitation of memorized facts and disconnected processes to demonstration of understanding through application in a variety of contexts.  Real-world audiences are an important part of the assessment process, as is self-assessment. 

Media literacy skills are honed as students address real-world issues, from the environment to poverty.  Students use the technological and multimedia tools now available to them to design and produce web sites, television shows, radio shows, public service announcements, mini-documentaries, how-to DVDs, oral histories, and even films.

Students at the Automotive High School in New York City create how-to DVDs on how to complete various automotive repairs.  A student from California created a film on sweatshops that made an international impact.

Students find their voices as they create projects using multimedia and deliver these products to real-world audiences, realizing that they can make a difference and change the world.  They learn what it is to be a contributing citizen, and carry these citizenship skills forward throughout their lives. 

As a result, standardized test scores are higher.  This is because students have acquired the skills and content in a meaningful, connected way and the understanding is there.  They actually KNOW the content on a much higher level of understanding, and they have developed their basic skills by constant application throughout the duration of the unit.

The Global Classroom

Every day students from countries all over the world collaborate on important projects.  The web site, ePals, is a site where teachers and students can go to join or start a collaborative project with anyone in the world.  According to ePals, Inc., “Our Global Community™ is the largest online community of K-12 learners, enabling more than 325,000 educators and 126,000 classrooms in over 200 countries and territories to safely connect, exchange ideas, and learn together.  Award winning School Blog™ and School Mail™ products are widely used and trusted by schools around the world.”

As we have seen from our own experiences, from the media, from university research, and as it was demonstrated in the Did You Know? video, technologies, especially the Internet, have resulted in a globalized society.  The world is now “flat”.  Our world has been transformed, and will continue to change at ever-increasing rates.

In order for our students to be prepared to navigate this 21^st century world, they must become literate in 21^st century literacy, including multicultural, media, information, emotional, ecological, financial and cyber literacy.  Collaborating with students from around the world in meaningful, real-life projects is a necessary tool for developing these literacy.  Students can learn that through collaboration, not competition, they can work together to make the world a better place.  Students will use technologies, including the Internet, and global collaboration to solve critical issues.

Greening the Curriculum and the Classroom - "Green Education"

Our planet and its citizen residents are facing a growing number of issues related to the environment.  Education is the key.  From environmental awareness to producing scientists, politicians, international relations experts, media producers, and others, our schools will assist students in finding the answers to our environmental problems.

Students will be motivated as they achieve higher levels of learning in all content areas from science and math to cultural studies and nutrition and other areas when they are involved in projects such as The Edible Schoolyard, The Globe Program, Jason Projects, the Global Johnny Appleseed Project and many more global classroom projects focused on the environment.  From renewable fuels, to designing “green” buildings (including “green” schools), gardening, nutrition, environmental law, and more, we can teach “green”.  Also see our new project introduced in 2010 - Food and Culture, a Global, Collaborative Classrooms Project.

 

What does all this mean for how we design and build schools? 

From "greening" the district to designing facilities that support 21st century learning, the factory model of schools and classrooms is no longer appropriate.

As we move forward in the process of creating a world-class, 21^st century educational system, the building of new schools and the remodeling of present school facilities will be addressed.  21^st Century Schools, LLC, can assist you in utilizing the latest research and technologies to create environmentally friendly, energy efficient, “green” schools.  In fact, it is not uncommon for students to apply their knowledge of research, mathematics, science, technologies, and engineering to design real buildings!  This is just one example of a relevant, rigorous, 21^st century, real-life curriculum project.  And think of how good this will look in the students’ portfolios, and the knowledge that they will have created and contributed to the world.

There is much more to consider.  There is no “one size fits all”, or “one style fits all” blueprint.  Each school should be designed with the students and the goals of the school and community in mind.  However, there are some basic things you should consider.

You will want to stay away from the traditional, what I call egg carton, design which has students isolated in small classrooms.  Those school facilities were designed for the emerging industrial age of the 19th century, and were based on a factory model and scientific management system.  There are many excellent examples of new schools being designed and built which support the kind of curriculum and instruction briefly described above. 

First of all, the design takes into account the kind of spaces needed by students and teachers as they conduct their investigations and implement their projects.  Spaces will be needed for large groups, small groups and for independent work.  There should be plenty of wall space and other areas for displaying student work.  This includes a place where the parents and community can gather to watch student performances as well as a place where they can meet for discussions. 

 

What about Technology Resources?

First of all, technologies are not an end in themselves; technologies are tools students use to create knowledge and to create personal and social change. 

There should be full access to technology.  If students do not have computers or access to the Internet at home, together we will find a way to provide them.  If we can, we will obtain laptops for every student and teacher.  Buildings will need to be wired in such a way that students can access their files, as well as the Internet, from anywhere in the school.  Various labs and learning centers should be set up around the campus.  Art, music, theater, television, radio and film studios can be created with relatively small expenditures.  All classrooms should have televisions to watch broadcasts created by their school as well as by other schools in the district. 

As an example, I recently visited a small school district in western Arkansas that had a technology lab that would be the envy of many universities and corporations.  It had half a million dollars worth of equipment and software, absolutely state-of-the-art, and the school did not have to invest any money at all.  They were only required to create a space to set up the lab and provide one full-time teacher. 

Students use this lab to do everything from architectural design to film making to creating virtual reality programs on various topics.  For example, a group of them had made a field trip to NASA in Houston.  They filmed what they saw, and when they returned they created a virtual reality program for the other students in the district to use to “visit NASA”!

Source: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/what_is_21st_century_education.htm