Teaching in the C21st
Arthur C Clarke Never Saw This Coming
In 2001 we were meant to be sending people to Jupiter. Unfortunately it seems that this was not the only thing we forgot to do; we also neglected to update our educational pedagogy to better serve our space travellers, engineers and ceiling walking space stewardesses.
Since we are in the C21st it seems logical that we are teaching in a manner that reflects our times. According to a number of educational thinkers and organisations this has not been the case, and so they have repackaged education into four linked areas and advocate moving away from making content knowledge (although important) the focus of the learning, but rather the skills that are used to learn this stuff (technical term). While different organisations focus on different approaches, they all tend to agree on the main points:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Creativity
- Critical Thinking.
Others have spoken about this in detail, and so rather than rewriting their work, I will just direct you their pages:
I also like that some systems that were definitely thought up in the C20th are going, hang on we were doing this years ago! For example, The Orff approach to teaching is a model for optimal learning in C21st music classrooms.
I am slowly looking at how I am adapting my approaches to fit this. In the initial stages this is taking the form of:
- Revising listening tasks to be pair or group work
- Reviewing assessment material to develop thinking skills by adding in more focussed reflection and feedback
- Using online resources such as Edmodo to facilitate the drafting and development of student's work.
Another issue I am looking at is the idea of ipsative testing, especially as we are now looking at how to assess work post levelling (also see my Optimus-training page). This is where rather than focusing on assessments that compare students against one another, it compares their performance against their previous best - i.e. have they taken onboard the feedback they have been given and used it to improve their work. Read about it here. Although this is something we already do in some shape or form, sometimes it needs a little more consideration when we are planning our work.
Here is an interesting article from Dylan William about assessment post NC levels. I especially liked reading how the ideals of levels got corrupted through 'people-in-the-know' (my words) not actually knowing how to use them - we have all been in schools that have fallen into this trap! Read it here
Here is an interesting article from Dylan William about assessment post NC levels. I especially liked reading how the ideals of levels got corrupted through 'people-in-the-know' (my words) not actually knowing how to use them - we have all been in schools that have fallen into this trap! Read it here
He finishes with the following paragraph, which is something we should all remember:
Assessment is a good servant, but a terrible master. Too often, we start out with the idea of making the important measurable, and end up making the measurable important. By sticking clearly to a set of principles for the design of an assessment system, schools can ensure that the assessment system supports learning, rather than gets in its way.
Assessment is a good servant, but a terrible master. Too often, we start out with the idea of making the important measurable, and end up making the measurable important. By sticking clearly to a set of principles for the design of an assessment system, schools can ensure that the assessment system supports learning, rather than gets in its way.
Check out the main blog to see how this is getting on!
Other sites I am finding really useful in keeping me uptown date with what is happening in the world of education include:
Other sites I am finding really useful in keeping me uptown date with what is happening in the world of education include:
- Teachertoolkit.co.uk - Ross McGill's original blog has now become something much bigger, with the blog, the twitter feed, live FB meetings, resources to use, and links to other relevant sites. I must admit to have have taken a lot of my latest classroom ideas from here, including the 5 minute lesson plan (which is a great way to focus your thoughts on how the lesson will progress), the takeaway homework menu, and several suggestions for the apps for using both within and outwit the classroom to support student learning.