21st Century Learning In Focus

Jim Hunt once said “Who knows what technology will emerge in the next five years, let alone 20. Yet the education we provide our children now is supposed to last for decades. We cannot train them for jobs that do not even exist yet, but we can provide them with the minds and tools they'll need to adapt to our ever-changing set of circumstances.”

We live in a constantly changing world where things keep on moving at a rapid pace. People with low adaptability may struggle to survive the world’s dynamism. This holistic change affects all aspect of our lives with education being inclusive.

One basic motive of education is to groom individuals to adapt to the world they are living in. Countries keep on reforming their education to meet the changing world. For instance, the world after the covid19 pandemic may have to reform the education system since a lot of countries education system have been exposed.

In the case of Ghana, most of the universities had to introduce an emergency remote learning which incorporates more of technology something which was hardly encouraged before the pandemic.

This article seeks to navigate the 21^st century learning design based on the International Teaching and Learning (ITL) research project. The 21^st century learning design is based on six rubrics aimed at building students’ 21^st century skills which will may them adaptable to ever-changing world.

Rubrics Of The 21^st Century Learning Design

Collaboration
The real world problems faced today are very complex and can easily be surmounted by effective collaboration by people.

According to the ITL research project, our classroom lessons should be tailored to require students to work together, have a shared responsibility, make substantive decisions and produce an interdependent work.

Skilled Communication
The inception of social media has eased how people communicate within the same country or outside the country. The ITL research makes provision for how learners should be taught to be able to skilfully communicate. For a communication to be termed as a skilful one, it should be extended or multimodal. Again such communication should be evidence based and must be designed to suit a particular audience.

Knowledge Construction
Route learning has been tagged as ineffective according to research. For learners to survive in this era, they should be taught how to construct knowledge. The ITL research project prescribed some underlying conditions for a classroom activity to meet the knowledge construction rubric.

An activity should have its main requirement being knowledge construction. Again learners should be able to apply the knowledge in a new context and the knowledge should draw ideas from different subject areas.

Self-Regulation
Today there is a requirement on people in the world of work to manage themselves and engage in multidisciplinary projects with colleagues. For learners to acquire this skill the ITL research project incorporated the rubric self-regulation. A classroom activity must be long –term, give room for students to plan their own work and also to revise their work based on a reliable feedback to meet the self-regulation rubric

Real - World Problem Solving And Innovation
Learners may be faced with real-world problems which they may have to innovate before they can get the problem solved. In view of this the ITL research project again added real-world problem solving as part of the rubrics of a 21^st century learning design. A classroom activity meets this rubric when it is problem solving, a real- world problem and learners must innovate.

The Use Of ICT.
The last rubric of the 21^st century learning design is the use of ICT. Emergent technologies made it prudent for such rubric to be added. In view of this, a classroom activity must require students’ use of ICT, the ICT tool must be involved in knowledge construction and an ICT product must be created in regard.

These learning rubrics are ideal for a 21^ST century education certain. The International Teaching and Learning research project piloted these rubrics and found them ideal for a classroom which will cumulatively shape our students to fit into this globalised world.

In subsequent articles the writer will dig deep into each rubric.

Kindly read and leave a comment.
Written by;Ebenezer Duodu Nkansah
Tutor, Offinso State A JHS
Email: [email protected]
0246037396