THE FUTURES OF LEARNING 3: WHAT KIND OF PEDAGOGIES FOR THE 21st CENTURY?

Cynthia Luna Scott

PERSONALISED NOTES
LEARNING ● Learner’s journey - not learners moving from educational institute to another.
● Emphasis on supporting students individuality, creativity etc instead of trying to
mold/stifle.
● Personalised learning needs to be authentic - integrated fully into practice, not
an add-on.
● Project based - students need to learn in context. Students need to invest in
their learning, from here creating autonomy for students.
● Students track their own learning through e-portfolios - setting goals and
showing evidence of their own learning. Digital planning allows for more
flexibility for teachers and students.
● This also means students need to understand the
standards/expectations/progressions. Teachers job to make sure students
understand/explained in child-speak.
● Learning as project/problem based:
○ Tied to curriculum
○ Needs driving questions/problems to direct student to central concepts
○ Involves inquiry and knowledge building
​ ○ The ​learners are responsible for their learning - planning, designing and
undertaking.
○ Authentic, real world situations
● 4C’s principles - creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration - all
fostered through project based learning.
● Working together gives students accountability to meet time frames, complete
different roles/parts of projects.
● Research findings:
○ Factual learning gains are equal to or larger than traditional learning
○ High order 21st century skills learning gains significantly higher than
traditional learning.
○ Those who struggle with book work find project based learning better.
○ More successful if applied to real world contexts.
● Teachers now as facilitators.
● Intrinsically motivates students.
● Creativity is deeply social - group based projects to foster this.
● Community based learning helps with motivation. We need new ways of
motivating students in the 21st century.
● Motivation based on interest and confidence in abilities.
● Teachers can foster motivation - praise for success, clarifying purpose of
lesson, sharing long term learning goals (these may need to be broken down).

QUOTES
Leadbeater (2008) argues that learning is most engaging, “when it is personalized,
when it means something to the learner” (p. 9).

The collaborative learning environment challenges learners to express and defend

their positions, and generate their own ideas based on reflection. They discuss
their ideas with peers, exchange different points of view, question others, seek
clarification, and participate in higher order thinking such as managing, organizing,
 critical analysis, problem resolution, and the creation of new learning and deeper
understanding.

DEEP AND NOTES

MEANINGFUL ● Links in with notes above - project based learning in real-life contexts promotes
LEARNING a deeper understanding. Learning experiences need to be authentic.
● Research shows deeper learning comes from creativity and collaboration.
● Involves sharing what has been learnt with others.
● Collaborative learning helps build meta-cognition and higher levels of
discussion and debate.
● Deeper learning is supported by doing and using. Students more motivated,
with more talking, meeting, asking questions, discussing ideas.
● We need to be helping students create knowledge, not transferring knowledge
to them.
● Creativity, innovation needs changing classrooms - traditional classrooms can
not foster this.
● LEARNING TOOLS:
○ Questioning - engages, fosters curiosity, divergent answers - allow for
curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and sharing of ideas.
○ Mobile Technologies - huge with kids, but has little place in education
system. Technology, not a solution but an enabler. Offer diverse learning
experiences, assessments, monitoring etc.
○ Social Media - cloud based, continuous connection to people, learning etc.
Allow for giving and receiving feedback, breaks down classroom borders.
■ ISSUES - accessibility to devices for all - good opportunity for equality.
● Metacognition can be taught - not just intrinsic. Get students talking about what
is confusing, what they are finding difficult/struggles
● Deeper thinking is fostered by good relationships (between students and their
teachers, friends and family).
● Assessing for deeper learning - importance of FORMATIVE assessment -
giving on the spot feedback, feedforward, allowing for self-reflection. Allows for
students to know their own learning.

QUOTES
Deeper learning results when individuals bypass expectations to memorize and
repeat disconnected facts and knowledge (with limited application), and instead
seize opportunities to grasp difficult concepts and complex ideas, evaluate newly
presented ideas, and summarize their own reactions and insights (Sawyer, 2008).
For transfer to occur, individuals need to apply new learning and practise new skills
in different situations and contexts. This also means that teachers must ascertain
what knowledge individual learners have acquired, so as to decide whether to
move forward with covering the curriculum, applying the new learning or reviewing
existing material in greater depth.

What ultimately makes collaborative learning successful? Leadbeater (2008)

stresses that ‘learning is best done with people rather than to or for them. It is more
effective when learners are participants rather than merely recipients’ (p. 19).

McLoughlin and Lee (2008a) argue however that the ultimate goal of learning is to
stimulate learners’ capacities to create and generate ideas, concepts and
knowledge. To this end, there is a need for meaningful learning experiences that
tap into and expand learners’ creativity, not extinguish it (Robinson, 2006).
 Prensky (2012) points out, ‘it is not the tools themselves that we need to focus on,
but rather the products, creativity and skills that the tools enable and enhance’ (p.
25)

Metacognition reflects an individual’s critical awareness of how they think and

learn, and their assessment of themselves as a thinker and learner. Metacognition
is not solely an intrinsic talent; it can be taught and cultivated.

LEARNING FOR NOTES

THE WORLD OF ● Collaborative learning helps students prepare for employment - exposes
WORK students to different situations, ways of thinking, opinions, points of views and
backgrounds.
● Digital technologies/social media more and more important in many sectors -
science, business, government etc etc. Need to build skills so students are
prepared for all sectors of employment.
● Project based learning needs to be based around real life situations that
students will encounter in their adult life. School experiences for students often
very fragmented from what they will encounter in their adult lives.
● Memorisation of knowledge will not be enough - students will need to be
problem solvers, creative etc to keep up with changing world.
● Students need to be able to pull information from different sources and know
what to do with this information.
● Foster attitude of life-long learning. Will continue to learn throughout adult life.
● Students will face meta-learning challenges - they may need to un-learn,
re-learn, use info from different sources, learn from experience and social
dimensions.

QUOTES

Digital communications allow users to import the wisdom and live experience of
individuals in the community, as well as experts from science, business,
government and higher education, into the learning experience to instil new
excitement and relevance into education (p. 2).

According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21, 2007b), research
suggests that ‘when teachers create meaningful learning activities that focus on the
resources, strategies and contexts that students will encounter in adult life,
absenteeism rates fall, cooperation and communication grow, and critical thinking
skills and academic performance improve’ (p. 3).

Sawyer (2008) maintains that educated graduates will need a deeper

understanding of complex ideas and the ability to work in global teams to generate
new ideas, new theories, new products and new knowledge (p. 49).

A total of 75 percent of experts consulted online by Redecker et al. (2011) believe

that by 2025 there will be abundant training and employment opportunities
available to assist people in converting professional experiences and personal
skills into competences relevant for new job profiles (p. 76).

OUR CHANGING ● We are not passing on knowledge anymore - we are facilitators, co-learners.
ROLES ● Teachers aren’t just in the classroom - students are now learning using digital
 technologies - online videos etc.
● LEARNING COACHES - encourage students to interact with knowledge, to
question, to seek, to critically engage with new knowledge. Do not need to be
experts with everything, they can learn alongside their students. Need to model
all the important attributes.
How do we assess? What do we credit? How do we acknowledge a range of of
new (and old) skills?
- What does this mean for me now - e.g. with National Standards gone,
students strengths - great at oral language, but not getting their ideas down
on paper?

Innovation and creativity are very valuable competencies in knowledge societies.

Yet one question remains – do educators have the courage to disrupt conventional
wisdom and encourage learners to improvise and pursue innovations that matter
the most?

Experts polled by Redecker et al. (2011) noted repeatedly that informally acquired
skills must be better recognized and structures put in place to allow people to
obtain formal recognition for their experiences and skills.

OUR CHANGING ● LEARNING TOOLS:

RELATIONS TO ○ Questioning - engages, fosters curiosity, divergent answers - allow for
TECHNOLOGY curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and sharing of ideas.
○ Mobile Technologies - huge with kids, but has little place in education
system. Technology, not a solution but an enabler. Offer diverse learning
experiences, assessments, monitoring etc.
○ Social Media - cloud based, continuous connection to people, learning etc.
Allow for giving and receiving feedback, breaks down classroom borders.
■ ISSUES - accessibility to devices for all - good opportunity for equality.
● Allows for teaching without borders - students can work at home

Critical Questions- Prompts

Consider

● What are the discourses, promises and perils of the future of learning and education?
● What things contribute to a thriving society?
● What should education be for?
● What should learning look like?