EDUCATION TRENDS

4 Essential Learning Approaches of a 21^st  Century Classroom

Last Updated on 5 September 2023 / By Zineb DJOUB 

What are the essential 21st-century learning approaches?

With the rapid developments and changes with digital technologies, teachers are challenged to develop their thinking and practices to instil critical minds able to participate actively in the knowledge society. Indeed, students need to develop the necessary 21st-century skills that enable them to thrive in today’s economy.

But, how can teachers foster these skills to prepare their students for the challenges of 21st-century citizenship? Answering this question requires identifying the characteristics of a 21st-century classroom. Here are 4 essential 21st-century learning approaches along with some practical suggestions for teachers to develop them.

 

1. Deeper learning

It refers to the delivery of rich core content to students through the application of higher-order skills, including critical thinking and problem-solving, effective communication, collaboration, academic mindset, and the ability to learn how to learn—all applied to the mastery of rigorous academic content (Hewlett Foundation).

By developing such high skills, this learning approach enables students to transfer what they learn in school to solve problems they face in the future.

To prepare students for economic and civic success, 21st-century education must deliver deeper learning outcomes for students.

This requires a shift from an ‘Instruction Paradigm’ where students are receivers of information to a ‘Learning Paradigm’ where they are involved actively in discovering and constructing knowledge.

How can teachers develop deeper learning approaches?

• Share with students the learning targets and criteria of success before starting the lesson, the task, or giving an assignment.
• Use inductive teaching methods that provoke students’ observation, analysis, evaluation, and communication.
• Don’t feed them answers, but encourage them to search on their own to find their own answers.
• Introduce students to cognitively demanding tasks such as reasoning, problem-solving, constructing and evaluating evidence-based arguments, project-based learning, etc.
• Provide opportunities for ‘student choice and voice’ to increase their engagement.
• Use digital tools (e.g., Skype, videos, etc.) that support students in developing skills for accessing, analyzing, organizing information, connecting to peers and experts, searching for information, creating new content, and sharing results with peers around the globe. Yet, technology needs to be “like oxygen—ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible” (Lehmann, 2010).
• Encourage students to set personal goals, reflect on their performance, monitor their progress, and modify their learning behaviours accordingly.
• Move away from outcome-based assessment towards a more holistic, process-based assessment where students are actively involved in the assessment process.
• Acknowledge students’ achievements by rewarding and praising them.

2. Personalized learning

Affordances of technology and the diverse students’ needs and expectations have called for a shift from a ‘one size fits all’ learning model to personalized learning. This involves tailoring teaching to students’ needs and preferences.

Within the 21st-century classroom, the personalization of learning is essential for students’ engagement in the process of learning.

How can teachers develop personalized learning?

• Know about your students’ needs (difficulties), preferences (learning styles), and wants (learning goals). You can use questionnaires, interviews, and checklists for this purpose. Observations of students’ attitudes towards what they learn and how can be opted for mainly in cases where they are not aware of their learning needs and goals.
• Keep track of students’ needs and progress. You can ask them to fill in reflective worksheets or simply talk it over.
• Use authentic materials and activities that connect students’ learning to their lives and aspirations.
• Use frequently formative assessments to identify needs and adjust instruction accordingly.
• Develop students’ ownership by supporting them in learning to set, track, and evaluate their learning goals, monitor, and adjust their approaches to learning (to become self-directed students). This can be achieved through fostering their ongoing reflection on their learning using self-assessment approaches (portfolios, journals, etc.)
• Provide opportunities for students’ voices and choices regarding what, how, when, and where they learn.
• Explain, demonstrate, and guide students’ future learning.
• Integrate educational technologies for a variety of purposes to support personalized learning, e.g., flipping classroom content, observing students’ work, providing interactive feedback, etc. Still, explain to students why a specific digital tool is being used and encourage them to adopt a deeper learning approach to using it.
• Keep ongoing self-reflection on your teaching.

3. Self-directed learning

It is the process by which students make decisions and take the initiative in identifying their needs, setting their goals, selecting and implementing activities, learning strategies, monitoring their progress, and assessing their learning.

Students self-directed learning needs to be the prevailing practice of 21st-century classrooms because it boosts students’ motivation, self-confidence, and engagement in learning.

Having ownership over their learning, students are likely to develop their sense of responsibility, reflection, and decision-making to solve problems and respond actively to different circumstances.

How can teachers develop students’ self-directed learning?

• First, make instructional goals and objectives clear to students. This is because having a clear understanding, as a learner, of where one is going and what one is expected to be able to do affects students’ desire to learn (Farmer & Eastcott, 1995).
• Raise your students’ awareness of ways of identifying goals, specifying objectives, identifying resources, and strategies needed to achieve goals, and measuring progress to help them make relevant decisions concerning how they learn (Cotterall, 2000).
• Act as a facilitator who motivates his students to take the initiative by involving them in multiple opportunities to hold control over their learning. This is, for instance, through negotiating with you what lessons they need in the course to improve, the depth of practice they need to understand, and the kind of tasks required; inviting them to create their own tasks, teach a lesson, or share something with other students and exchange ideas in groups.
• Promote students’ reflection on what they are learning, how, and why through handing out reflective worksheets so that they develop more rationality when making decisions.
• Use different learning resources and materials to allow for more flexibility and students’ choice.
• Provide a supportive learning atmosphere where students can take risks, make mistakes, and learn from your feedback (their peers’ as well). This requires being sensitive to what your students consider significant and what they see as trivial.
• Encourage students to work outside the classroom by assigning homework, projects, etc. Set the task and its required time, but let students manage time and determine the means by which the task is completed.
• Discuss methods of working independently outside the classroom.
• Acknowledge students’ achievements by rewarding and praising them.

4. Social and emotional learning

One of the most important learning approaches in today’s education is SEL. Learning is not only about understanding content knowledge and developing the necessary skills to apply it effectively in different contexts but it is also connected to the learner’s character, i.e., emotions and attitudes.

Thus, education’s mission also involves contributing to students’ social and emotional development to make them good students, citizens, and workers.

This is through the social and emotional learning process (SEL) where learners acquire and apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage their emotions, collaborate with others, show respect and empathy, set and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

Five interrelated sets of cognitive, affective, and behavioural competencies have been identified as follows: Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Adapted from the Collaborative for Academics, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) (2006)

 

How can teachers develop these skills?

• Implement evidence-based programmes that address social and emotional skill development and link those skills to academic content.
• Focus on specific social and emotional skills then decide how this learning approach needs to be systematically infused into the academic curriculum.
• Explain to your students the importance of developing social and emotional skills for their learning and future careers.
• Teach, explain, and model SEL skills.
• Provide multiple opportunities for students to practice SEL skills (in and out of the classroom) and apply them in a variety of settings.
• Encourage cooperative learning, peer feedback, and classroom discussions.
• Encourage students to make decisions, share ideas, solve problems, and be involved in deeper learning to get engaged in the learning process.
• Create a supportive learning atmosphere based on mutual respect, trust, care, and support. Be approachable by allowing time for students to be able to ask you questions, and not just in front of the whole class.
• Have a clear code of conduct and be consistent.
• Control your emotions and don’t lose your temper.
• Interact with students inside and outside the classroom (through Skype, classroom blogs, etc.), foster their reflection (through discussion and self-assessment), and provide constructive feedback.
• Communicate regularly with parents to keep them informed of SEL activities.

Deeper learning, personalized learning, self-directed learning, and social and emotional learning are the essential learning approaches of a 21st-century classroom. Teachers must devote more attention, time, and effort to incorporate them successfully in their teaching practices.

Though each approach has specific features and procedures, they are interrelated since they have one common goal which is developing students’ 21st-century skills that enable them to be global citizens.

Teachers play a decisive role in developing and embedding these learning approaches, but schools, institutions, and colleges’ role cannot be negated. Their culture, policies, programmes, resources, and plans do really matter.

These are the main 21st-century learning approaches. What other attributes would you suggest? Comment below to share your suggestions.

 

References

The Collaborative for Academics, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2006). Sustainable school wide social and emotional learning (SEL): Implementation guide. Chicago, IL: Author.

Cotterall, S.(2000). Promoting learner autonomy through the curriculum: Principle for designing language courses.ELT Journal, 52(2), 109-117.

The Hewlett Foundation’s Deeper Learning website  http://www.hewlett.org/programs/education/deeper-learning

Farmer, B., & Eastcott, D.(1995). Making assessment a positive experience. In P. Knight (Ed.), Assessment for learning in higher education,(pp. 87-93). London: Kogan Page Limited.

Lehman, C. (2010) Science Leadership Academy, speaks at TED. Retrieved April, 2014, from http://21k12blog.net/2010/06/05/chris-lehmann-science-leadership-academy-speaks-at-ted/