Home Learning

4 Essential Rules Of 21st-Century Learning

by TeachThought Staff June 8, 2019 6 min read

781

SHARES

4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning

contributed by Jennifer Rita Nichols

The term “21st century” has become an integral part of educational thinking and planning for the future.
Educators and administrators are actively searching for ways to prepare students for the future, and the
educational system has been evolving faster than ever before.

Various studies have shown us that rote memorization is not an effective learning strategy and that
teacher-centered classrooms (versus student-centered classrooms) may not be the most efficiently
structured ones for student engagement.

However, despite learning about the skills that students will need to develop to become successful in
the 21st century, as well as what beliefs about education may be worth hanging onto or throwing away,
schools and teachers are left trying to figure out what their role needs to be in the education of their
21st century students.
Once upon a time, the role of the educator was to prepare students for the specific tasks they would be
required to complete (be it a trade, craft, or profession). Communities were also much more
homogenous, and so specific values and cultures needed to be transmitted and practiced to ensure the
survival of those beliefs.

Nowadays, we don’t live in the same world. Society is a mix of many different beliefs and cultures.
Globalization has opened up the world and allowed people to connect in new and exciting ways. We
blend traditions and create unique belief systems that are not taught in any classroom, but are
developed through our life experiences and passions. We transmit our values and cultures without the
expectation of them being adopted by our audience – just accepted by them.

So then, what is the role of education in the 21st century?

From Procedural Knowledge To Self Knowledge: The 4 Stages Of Curiosity

The Assimilation vs Accommodation Of Knowledge

As always, at its core, the role of education is to prepare students to become active, successful, and
contributing members of society. The essence of education’s role has not changed.

However, there has been an important change that must be considered.

Society has changed. We cannot adequately prepare students for the society that exists today or will
exist tomorrow, if we continue to prepare them for the society that existed yesterday. In order to
prepare students to play their role in the 21st-century society we are a part of, a few things need to be
considered when deciding how education will look in our schools and classrooms.

ipad-teacher-collab
1. Instruction should be student-centered

The days of lecturing teachers has passed – though not entirely. While student-centered learning is
strongly encouraged in the 21st century, this does not mean that the teacher can never give a lecture
again. Instead, it means that the main source of knowledge in the classroom should not be the teacher.
Education is no longer about listening to the teacher talk and absorbing the information.

In order to contribute to society, students will need to be able to acquire new information as problems
arise. Then, they will need to connect the new information with the knowledge they already have and
apply it to solving the problem at hand. They will not be able to call upon a teacher for answers, so will
need to have ‘learned how to learn’ on their own.

In this classroom model, the teacher would act as a facilitator for the students. Instead of passively
receiving information, the students would gather information on their own, under the guidance of their
teacher. Different learning styles are encouraged, and students have an enhanced sense of motivation
and responsibility. They engage in many different types of hands-on activities, as well as demonstrate
learning in many different ways. Learning is about discovery, not the memorization of facts.

2. Education should be collaborative

Students must learn how to collaborate with others. Society today has people collaborating across the
globe. How can students be expected to work with people from other cultures, with different values
from their own, if they are not able to work with the people they see each day in their classroom?

Students should be encouraged to work together to discover information, piece it together, and
construct meaning. Collaboration should also be dynamic. Students should learn how to recognize the
different strengths and talents each person can bring to a project, and change roles depending on those
attributes.

Schools should also be collaborating with other educational institutions around the world to share
information and learn about different practices or methods that have been developed. They should be
willing to alter their instructional methods in light of new advancements.
3. Learning should have context

Student-centered does not mean that the teacher gives up all control of the classroom. While students
are encouraged to learn in different ways, the teacher still provides guidance as to the skills that need to
be acquired. The teacher can make a point of helping students to understand how the skills they are
building can be applied in their lives. Students will be much more motivated to learn something that
they can see the value in.

Since we are no longer preparing students for specific tasks and roles, we need to take a more general
approach and teach them the skills that are useful in any situation. Lessons have little purpose if they do
not have any impact in a student’s life outside of the school.

4. Schools should be integrated with society

In order to prepare students to become responsible citizens, we need to model what a responsible
citizen is.

Schools will often work at accomplishing this by creating events for the school community, by
encouraging students to join committees or take part in school projects, and by occasionally helping the
community around them with activities such as food drives or neighborhood clean-ups.

With the powers of technology and the internet, students of today can do even more. Our community is
no longer just the area of space located around the school, but reaches out and envelopes the world.

Education needs to help students take part in this global community and find ways of impacting more
than just their neighborhood. This doesn’t mean that they do not need to learn the value of helping
others around them and protecting their immediate environment, but that they should also be learning
about how they can help and protect a world further away from them, but also closer all the time.

Image attribution flickr users kjgarret and flickeringbrad; 4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning
Previous Post

Opinion: Charter Schools Fight The McDonaldization Of Education

Next Post

The Benefits Of Competency-Based Assessment

Related Posts

From Procedural Knowledge To Self Knowledge: The 4 Stages Of Curiosity

From Procedural Knowledge To Self Knowledge: The 4 Stages Of Curiosity

BY TERRY HEICK OCTOBER 6, 2019 9.9K

The Assimilation vs Accommodation Of Knowledge

The Assimilation vs Accommodation Of Knowledge

BY TERRY HEICK OCTOBER 28, 2019 44.6K

Please Login to comment

Subscribe

newest oldest most voted

Joanne O'Brien

Sorry, rote memorization has its place in education. Students who memorize their math facts, or spelling
have a leg-up on students who don’t – and not just for standardized timed tests, in just simple
conveyance or information at school or work. Secondly, this insistence that collaborative learning is the
be-all and end-all of learning is ridiculous. Susan Cain, in her book Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a
World That Can’t Stop Talking, makes a reasoned, research-based, argument against the “collaborative”
crazy pedagogy that passes for good teaching. What we should be teaching them is what goes into
good… Read more »

-12

6 years ago
Trending

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy? A Definition For Teachers

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy? A Definition For Teachers

DECEMBER 11, 2018 429.2K

20 Ways To Provide Effective Feedback For Learning OCTOBER 14, 2019 238.3K

50 Ways To Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom NOVEMBER 3, 2019 124.3K

32 Research-Based Instructional Strategies NOVEMBER 5, 2019 160.3K

LOAD MORE

Grow

Podcast

Curricula

Newsletter

Books For Teachers

PD Events

PD

PBL

Technology

Assessment

Inquiry Learning

Differentiation

Request Info
More

About

Terms

Contact

Feedback

Privacy Policy

Cookie Policy

Follow

Facebook

Twitter

YouTube

Instagram

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Search...

Search

Search...

Critical Thinking

Teaching

Technology

Learning

Literacy

Podcast
Newsletter

Professional Development

Copyright © 2019 TeachThought, LLC | Kentucky | United States | Global

https://www.teachthought.com/learning/4-essential-rules-of-21st-century-learning/