Becoming true 21st century teachers will require change on our part. We will have to change how we think about the skills that are being targeted as essential in every classroom. We will have to change the scope of our instruction, reaching out to the larger community and the world to make connections as well as make changes in our use of technology to reach that larger communty.
We are being asked to use 21st century skills and teaching in our classrooms, but what does that really mean on a day to day basis? How can we begin to incorporate 21st century skills in our daily planning and teaching? How can we start to prepare our students to be 21st century thinkers and learners? Beginning this process can be easier than you might think .
Learning in the 21st century asks us to require our students to engage in higher level thinking and interacting with their learning so that they can be successful in the world they will live in as adults. When planning a unit or lesson, the following are some strategies you can think about that will move your students toward the goals of 21st century thinking and learning.
Think about the skill(s) you want your students to use to show that they understand a concept or idea. Rather than stating that "students will understand..." as your learning goal, kick it up a notch and state:
- "Students will compare or contrast to show they understand..."
- "Students will demonstrate they understand by explaining the process to another student"
- "Students will collaborate to come up with a common understanding of the term(s)..."
- "Students will create ______ to demonstrate their understanding of..."
Keep your copy of Bloom's Taxonomy near by when creating learning goals or access one of the many websites that offer this information as well as suggestions for using them. When learning goals are stated in higher level terms, students must use higher level skills to meet our expectations.
Another way to begin incorporating 21st century skills in your classroom is to increase the amount of time that students spend in discussions/problem solving activities. The more time students spend actively engaged with the content, the better they understand it and can apply ideas and skills in new situations. "Teaching that emphasizes active engagement helps students process and retain information. It leads to self-questioning, deeper thinking, and problem solving. Engagement strategies like repetition, trial and error, and posing questions move the brain into active and constructive learning. And such activities can lead to higher student achievement." (Peter Loraine)
In a math class for example, rather than completing the examples with students for a skill that has just been taught, have them work with other students to complete the examples, come up with an explanation as to why their answers make sense and then present their work to the class. Have students be responsible for going over their homework in small groups while you act as a resource for questions and quandaries. Students need to talk about the material they are learning. They need to solve problems around it and make their own connections to prior knowledge. We can make major strides towards teaching our students to become 21st century thinkers and problem solvers by conciously planning for student to student discussion time several times a week .
Using technology as a tool for communicating with each other and the larger community is a third way to bring your lessons into the 21st century. In many, if not most of our classrooms technology is already used to create products or conduct research. One of the things 21st century learning asks us to do is to extend the work of our students to the larger community. If students are creating a power point, with whom could it be shared outside of the school environment? Can students review materials and post their reviews for other students to see and respond to? Use webquests as scaffolding for researching answers to larger questons. Encourage students to both cooperate and collaborate on projects using technology.
I hope as you've been reading this you have been saying "I already do this" or "I could do that". Moving our teaching to the 21st century is a process that most of us have already started by virtue of all of our work on common assessments, essential vocabulary and essential learning. Continuing this process will require us to expand our ideas about what students need to know and the skills they will need to use their knowledge to compete as 21st century adults. Each day we can move a little closer by using these strategies to encourage our students to become independent problem solvers and thinkers.
Please feel free to check the websites and articles below for more ideas . I would also like to hear from you if you have any thoughts or questions or would like to take this conversation further.
http://newbay.ebookhost.net/tl/21cc/2/index.php?e=30&open=1
http://courses.science.fau.edu/~rjordan/active_learning.htm
http://www.nea.org/tools/16708.htm
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/research/Blooms_Taxonomy.shtml
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