Last week, I explored What is 21st Century Learning? This week I am putting some of those ideas of 21st Century Learning into action. Specifically, I am focusing on student-centered learning and the 4 C’s (critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration). I wanted to take those ideas that I have learned and put them into use in my own classroom.
According to Jennifer Rita Nichols (2019) in student-centered learning students “will need to connect the new information with the knowledge they already have and apply it to solving the problem at hand” (para. 11). This idea is something that I want to work towards in my classroom. I want to provide students with the necessary tools and skills to solve problems or research answers to their own questions. Through this process of student-centered learning, students will also have the opportunity to use the 4 C’s. Students are provided with these opportunities because they will have to critically think about their research or have an “element of skepticism” (Stauffer, 2020, para. 8). Students will have to be creative with how they communicate and collaborate with their peers.
With these ideas of 21st century learning in mind, I pushed myself to create a Social Studies lesson that was student-centered and contained the 4 C’s. My lesson helps to support these ideas because students are able to use the 4 C’s. Students will work with one another to communicate and collaborate each of their strengths and preferences. They will have to work together to create a presentation and that includes elements where they critically thought about the use of different natural resources. Students will then share their findings with other peers in their classroom so that others can learn about the variety of uses of different natural resources in Michigan. This is where student-centered learning comes in. We are moving away from teacher-led to student-led.
Besides considering aspects of 21st century learning in this lesson, I also had to consider TPACK. I had to think about what content knowledge students already had about natural resources, what pedagogy like small groups would work best for this learning, and what technological knowledge my students had since they would be creating their presentations via the online platform, Animaker Class.
As an educator, having to think about applying all of these different aspects when creating a lesson is challenging. The most challenging part for me is student-centered learning. I am the type of person who has a hard time releasing control so the idea of students teaching themselves and each other is a little terrifying for me. It makes me nervous that students will not learn the necessary information. However, after spending some time diving into what student-centered learning I learned from Nichols (2019) that I will now play more of a role as a facilitator. Knowing this helps to relax some of the nerves I had and know that I will be able to help guide my students through their learning process.
From a student perspective, the idea of the 4 C’s could be challenging especially the ideas of communicating and collaborating. This something that I have personally witnessed in my own classroom, students have difficulty expressing their ideas to others this leads to difficulty when students are expected to collaborate. This is where the idea of the teacher being a facilitator comes to play again because I, as the teacher can help facilitate student’s thoughts to others or ideally help the student present their own thoughts to their peers.
Overall, like with any new learning pedagogy or technique, there will not only be a learning curve from the student’s perspective but also the teacher’s perspective. I do believe that applying these ideas of 21st century learning it will lead to greater student engagement and understanding.
References
Jansen C. (2019, December 3). Group Work. [Image].
Koehler, M. (2012, September 24). TPACK Explained. http://www.tpack.org/
Nichols J. R.. (2019, June 08). 4 Essential Rules Of 21st Century Learning. https://www.teachthought.com/learning/4-essential-rules-of-21st-century-learning/
Raghav (2018, March 16). Introducing Animaker Class - a Creative Toolkit for Classrooms around the World. [image] https://www.animaker.com/blog/introducing-animaker-class/
Stauffer, B. (2020, May 07). What Are the 4 C's of 21st Century Skills?. https://www.aeseducation.com/blog/four-cs-21st-century-skills