Researching and Developing Engaging Pedagogies Week 2

Lecture Notes
hello everybody this is our second online lecture and today's focus will be on the future of
learning education for the 21st century so i start with
this image and i hope that you appreciate the details
here when i look at this image it shows a classroom
that is very different from a traditional teacher-centered
classroom the perceptions are different the students and
the teacher are both involved actively involved and
everybody is responsible for the speed and the
direction battling and driving the teacher is not in full
control however he is still central not a commander but
a leader for students to drive and push their learning
effectively they must have a significant control and responsibility at every stage see the
student wheel where the students plan do review and define in tandem with their teacher
when you look at literature on 21st century education it's really complex and diverse so one
of the things that we need to establish to start with is a framework to look at all the literature
order readings or the resources that you might find with regards to future focused education
21st century learning 21st century teaching 21st century classrooms so i think that this
particular segment from luna scott's article is really useful for us because it does actually help
us structure all the current knowledge she argues
that the past two decades have seen the emergence
of a global movement that calls for a new model
of learning for the 21st century there is now a
significant body of literature focusing mainly on
three topics so here it comes here comes the
structure on the one hand we can look at the
literature on new models for learning on the
second hand we can look at the specific
competencies and skills needed to function
effectively in 21st century and on the third point
raised by a scot we can also look at the pedagogy required to stimulate those capabilities so
what i'm going to start with today is the first element was the second element here the
competencies and skills needed to function effectively in the 21st century
so 21st century skills as i mentioned before there is an
abundance of work on this particular topic it is very
popular very trendy and the content can be
overwhelming the center for curriculum redesign ccr
developed a framework to prepare students for the
demands of the 21st century this framework contains
four dimensions knowledge which is what students know
and understand the ccr argues that the primacy given to
knowledge in education inadequately prepares students
for the 21st century while the ccr recognizes knowledge
as essential knowledge is not the only ability required of
today's students to thrive and it should be taught through the application of skills so skills are
therefore very central in this model skills are about how students use knowledge the ccr
defines four central skills students need to thrive in in the 21st century creativity critical
thinking communication and collaboration so once again creativity critical thinking
communication and collaboration this might sound familiar to you it's the four c's i would say
you could say um character refers to how students behave and engage in the world civic
mindedness is really central in this model the ccr defines six character traits students should
be taught mindfulness curiosity courage resilience ethics and leadership the ccr gives three
reasons why developing character is in students is necessary for them to thrive in the 21st
century so first of all many of the major challenges facing today's students involve complex
ethical considerations and collaboration in a globalized world for example climate change
and income inequality research has also found that students character regardless of skill and
knowledge level plays an important role in their work and civic life so when it comes to civic
mindedness the argument is that knowledge and skills might not be sufficient and certain
character traits or features of one's character play a very important role in students civic
mindedness or civic life character traits support lifelong learning an unpredictable and
changing world that which requires continuous learning to face unknown challenges now
another uh important concept introduced in this framework is matter learning matter learning
is how students reflect on themselves and adapt by continuing to learn and grow towards their
goals there are two components of the ccr's meta learning framework metacognition and
growth mindset metacognition is the process of thinking about thinking we know this concept
already and strong meta cognition is associated with the development and application of
knowledge skills and character qualities consistent with the consistent with the rest of the
literature on the key competencies the ccr argues that developing a growth mindset in
students supports long-term success so they're balancing the ability to reflect on our own
thinking and cognitive capacities or attitudes or considerations on the one hand and the
growth mindset on the other hand as a two balancing components of the metal learning the
ccr's emphasis on metacognition supports the oecd focus on the importance of reflection in
relation to learning to learn the notion of resilience features he is too an aspect further
developed in what comes next so the importance of students acquiring general competencies
was also identified in new vision for education fostering social and emotional learning
through technology produced by the world economic forum in 2016. the report identified 16
skills students need to thrive in the 21st century let's see how similar or how different these
skill sets are compared to what we've just discussed earlier the world economy forum is
specific about the importance of a range of literacies
including ict literacy global literacy global literacy is not
okay so i might just re-record this
so the importance of students acquiring general
competencies was also identified in new vision for
education fostering social and emotional learning through
technology produced by the world economic forum in
2016. report identified 16 skills students need to thrive in
the 21st century the world economic forum is very specific
about the importance of a range of literacies including ict
literacy global literacy is not among them curiosity and
resilience in the form of persistence and grit echo the ccr
attributes the world economic forum introduces initiative leadership and social and cultural
awareness as important qualities the report emphasizes the value of social and emotional
learning it points to evidence that social and emotional skills lead to better academic
performance and career success together with a range of other measures of lifestyle's lifetime
success i would also like to point out that the middle section competencies is in congruence
with the model that we discussed before the ccr model which also emphasizes these four c's
the critical thinking creativity communication and collaboration working together towards
lifelong learning so once again consider these different models and see which one fits your
own preconceptions and your own beliefs the best
what is important though just to point out is that
creativity in these models is not optional but
fundamental the third model
i'd like to mention is the oecd's learning compass
that was developed in 2018 and its development is
still ongoing the oecd as part of the future of
education and skills 2030 project has developed
this compass which extends the work started
previously the compass defines the knowledge
skills attitudes and values students need to fulfill
that need to fulfill their potential and contribute to
the well-being of their communities and the planet
so sensitivity towards planetary well-being has
entered the dialogue here the conversation here the graphic is interactive online so i'm just
providing you with a snapshot here you would need to check their website out to get the
interactive model and it provides you the details behind each of the aspects in the compass
the oecd has developed resources that include commentary by students to support an
understanding of these aspects core foundations are the prerequisites upon which every other
aspect of learning is built the core foundations core learning skills i would say are cognitive
foundations such as literacy and numeracy upon which other literacies can be developed for
example digital literacy data literacy media literacy and global literacy so once again there is
this notion of global research literacy entering the uh conversation health foundations
including physical and mental health and well-being are also addressed social and emotional
foundations are also introduced address addressing morals and ethics as in the world
economics forum report social and emotional development is recognized as a critical
component of learning in line with research so the emphasis is on the close link between
well-being and learning so this is repeated in the different models the recognition that without
well-being without psychological well-being personal and collective and planetary well-being
there is no learning the oecd introduces agency with core agency this reflects the interrelated
world that we live in and that once again it kind of resonates with what i just mentioned um
the well-being of who or what so if you're all interrelated as we live and the importance of
students active role in their education as individuals and in mutually supportive relationships
with others and our planetary environment the transformative competencies provide a
purpose to creativity and critical thinking in the form of creating new value so creativity and
critical think thinking are harnessed towards creating new value they acknowledge the
complexities of the world and the need to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty i don't know
how good we are at tolerating uncertainty and ambiguity but it has become really influential
to look into our resilience and agility both as students and adults actually as teachers in in the
current circumstances as educators and students and citizens are in our culture so
management and working with ambiguity and uncertainty skills that require empathy respect
and resilience and i think empathy and respect when we think about compassion um and the
ability to relate um very very crucial here and you can see that these 21st century skills go far
beyond the traditional model once again so we need to recognize that what we work with in
the traditional curriculum is very limiting in terms of what we understand today as the core
skill set that we would need to nurture in a classroom situation research from new zealand
and international contributors between 2014 and 18 share a common and common related
threats in thinking and developing what students need to be successful and successfully
navigate the future and contribute to the well-being of their communities and the planet so
once again when you listen to this the oecd learning compass is really geared towards
planetary well-being as much as it is geared towards cultural collective and individual well-
being uh and that is seen as foundational both in terms of what is required for um you know
thriving communities and individuals and planet and also what is required in our goals and
aims for um our education what what what what education and what our involvement uh
human involvement in the world needs to really aim towards
so let's just summarize this really interesting model i'm going to share this screen here too
with the quotes from always cd's andrus schluchter develop a reliable compass and the
navigation skills to find their own way through an increasingly uncertain volatile and
ambiguous world and i think that this could be this couldn't be more relevant today in the
current crises and geopolitical upheaval that we are witnessing right now
and so what i also would like to show you here um is a
very useful um extension of those three models and i'm
going to tell you why it is a useful extension when you see
this reading and you work with this reading from theo into
2019 it really does offer you a nice summary of key trends
in the discussion of 21st century skills so all these complex
models represented like in the literature and i only hand
picked three of those um he really really is very useful to
pinpoint those trends in the literature with regards to 21st
century skills that we really need to be aware of um and we have already hinted at this but
there is this obvious and very kind of repeated and very
explicit shift from traditional curriculum for example from
the three hours of reading writing and arithmetic to what he
refers to as a new r's relevance and real word skills and
those real world skills include communication
collaboration and critical thinking and i would say you
would also have to add creativity creativity is not optional
but he also mentions and this is a really neat point is that
there is a shift from the what to the how from the content
of the knowledge or knowledge content to the knowledge
process what is also very useful when you work with theo's article is that it introduces a core
21st century pedagogy which he introduces in this article and that is dialogic teaching uh
we'll touch upon it in a minute i just wanted to show you that working with theo's article is
really useful um to actually once again get an understanding of the key trends in the literature
on 21st century skills um and also leading to what we are going to do for assignment one it's
it's a good transition um if you work with this reading in between what the literature offers
and what we are going to do in the assignment so let's just get me back so this lecture this
online lecture focused on 21st century skills and that's one of the key questions for today's
education what is what are 21st century skills and as you remember as you recall there is an
additional question what pedagogy is needed to nurture these skills so how do we need to
change our teaching to nurture to facilitate to welcome these skills um and competencies so
let's just focus on this very briefly
next so i'm just going to help you read the slide so
adding to the three core questions i would also
like to add what teacher professional development
is needed to support teachers to meet 21st century
educational goals and aims okay so what exactly
would we need to work on as teachers and what
would professional teacher professional
development look like to once again work towards those 21st century ideals goals and aims
and so in our action research plan in rdap we are going to focus on this with a particular
question that each of us will have to uh reflect on and address in assignment one and in
assignment two specifically uh you will ask yourself how can i refine my practice to reflect
21st century education needs and goals and i'm recommending that you use the framework of
21st century education that i've presented here today to identify a more specific theme within
okay and so that particular theme will be um offered to you as a choice let me just show you
what i mean so we when we use action research we self-reflect and we look into our own
professional development and think about the gaps and the areas for future development so in
this action research plan that we do for rdap we also think about the future so what would
why what would we change in the future for example in assignment one you will think about
your first practicum placement you will think about areas that you think you could improve
on and in the second assignment you actually plan hypothetically that you would that you you
go back to uh the practicum placement and change your practice and also evaluate the change
in your practice so in these assignments critical self-reflection is key and forward thinking is
key so you're looking into the looking at the past but also looking into the future and you are
at this juncture um when you're looking into the possibilities and so in these assignments i'd
like you to work towards a future focused education and i think it's obvious if you look
through the literature that a future focused education is also substantially uh related to or
resonates with uh what we understand as substantive student engagement or engaging
pedagogies so what i talked to you about in the first lecture which was um the me framework
and our understanding of substantive student engagement the principles and processes of
action research is well added to it what i'd like you to do is to make those mental creative
mental links between what you understand as engaging teaching or engaged learning and
what you understand as the key principles goals and aims of 21st century education are and
so those two are not separate topics they are deeply interrelated for example i would say
engaging teaching is creative teaching engaged learning is creative learning and so i would
say that a future focused pedagogy that centers around creativity is an engaging pedagogy but
i'm not going to give you all the links and relationships because i'd like you to discover and
explore your own uh links and relationships in this complex web of knowledge educational
professional knowledge however i'm going to help you uh or the unit is going to help you
because uh the options are way too many so it's nice to give you some sort of framing with
these um big ambitions really so let's just see what that means
so in RDEP we are offering you five specific areas of
professional development or you could call them
pedagogical strategies or pedagogical orientations which
you can choose from and these five topics will be
discussed in um week three these are purposeful
technology integration creative classrooms personalized
learning teaching and learning through dialogue and
project-based learning so five possible pedagogical
strategies or orientations that you can choose from as an
area that you want to improve on or improve with so you
might choose to work on making your teaching more creative which is related to student
engagement and it is also related to future focused education because creative teaching and
learning is a priority in future focused education alternatively you could say you would like
to focus on project-based learning and introduce more project-based learning into your
teaching or improve the way you use project-based learning in your teaching because you
believe that it's deeply related to substantive student technique engagement and i would agree
with you on this and it's also related to the 21st century aim scores and principles that we
were discussing earlier in the online lecture so these five topics a choice of one um is what
you're going to do in week three you're not going to work with all five content areas you're
going to make a decision of which on which one to work on and you will basically focus on
one out of the five only if you have any questions about this let's talk about it in the tutorials
or let's just converse uh through emails and other informal uh forms of communication so
basically just to reiterate uh in week three you will have a choice of one out of the five topics
and you will read and go deeper into that topic and you're going to write that topic up for
assignment one so this is the end of today's online lecture and i do hope to see you all in the
tutorials