21st Century: Teaching & Learning

http://learningcurveplanner.com.au/resources/teacher/professional-readings/21stcentury-teaching-and-learning-8.html
The 20th century was a knowledge based era in which

remembering and reproducing information was themain focus

it was not so much about how or why, butconcerned with what = content
our teaching encouraged left brain linear thinking with little emphasis on patterning or
discoveringconnections to create new understandingsThe 21st century is a conceptual
age, all aboutcreativity and making connections and seeingpatterns

the net is the new paradigm for learning; to quote

Mark Treadwell, we can ignore it, but it wont goaway

our teaching needs to encourage right brainthinking to foster innovative ideas

linking thinking and learning to build deeply richunderstandings

George and Lisa Otero from New Mexico, havepioneered new pedagogies which
engage students
called Relational Learning

its about teaching that encourages students to use

both the left and right sides of their brains

time spent investigating their work will enhance both student engagement and learning
outcomes.Some ideas to integrate into learning and teachingthat will help our
pedagogies move from traditional20th to contemporary 21st century include

students framing their own questions throughthinking tools such as KWHL, PMI, Six
Hats, Y diagram etc. Replacing students answeringquestions from us

students expanding their understanding throughshared dialogue of their experiences,

replacing building knowledge banks through individual study

students being encouraged to use their individualmultiple and emotional intelligences

and learningstyles. Replacing the belief that IQ fits all

students linking their thinking and learningthrough habits of the mind and thinking
tools.Replacing a dominance of left brain thinking thatfocuses on remembering.
Information and knowledge is being created at anastonishing rate and our students
have excellentfilters on what they are prepared to take in

it is an overload situation and we must bediscerning and cre

ative on the what we teach; it
must be relevant in their worlds or their brains willdisregard it

personalised education is what we must strive for; ithas chaos written all over it
and pushes us outside
our comfort zones, but its essential for us to r
olemodel 21st century creative right brain thinkingThe key is to nurture a learning
environment in which students can learn different things in different ways in different
places at different times fromdifferent people; replacing learning the same thingsin the
same ways in the same places at the sametimes from the same people.
The future is already here, its just not evenlydistributed Prakash Nair