Student success in school needs to reflect, now and more than ever, the 21st-Century expectations that will prepare for life after high school. Therefore, student learning needs go beyond their reading, writing, and math computation skills. Students need to learn how to acquire knowledge, find the support that will promote student inquiry, not student acceptance. Also, locate interventions to support learning their needs. The responsibility for a teacher, now, is to guarantee students to have a self-sustaining life by teaching students 21st-Century skills (Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011).
If students need to learn are not met, they are not going to learn (Global Digital Citizen Foundation, n.d-g.). Students learn best in an environment that they fill empowered to learn (ISTE, 2016). Students also need to be able to believe they can contribute their own schema or new knowledge they acquire to the learning experience. Student support and intervention is critical. They need learning misconceptions analyzed and addressed in real-time. Also, if students still are unable to grasp specific content interventions are met by the teacher, through differentiation and using scaffolding. To achieve this type of culture in the classroom, teachers must model best behaviors and practices in learning. Students need to see how thinking occurs through the lens of a professional. Students must then practice the new skills they acquire until mastery. Student success “success in work, life, and play will greatly depend on their ability to interpret and apply old information and new alike to new situations, problems, and environments” (Crockett, Jukes & Churches, 2011).
The benefits of teaching students to learn, unlearn and relearn outweigh the hindrances. Students who can critically think and problem-solve are better equipped to handle the professional, social, and life demands that they will count as an adult. For students to practice these skills, they need to be modeled and practiced by teachers. A student who doesn’t see the relevance in what they are learning, won’t learn (Crocket, Jukes & Churches, 2011). Teaching students to think outside the box, tap into using technology, and practice handling real-world examples of problems they will face are beneficial to student growth and development. The 21st –Century offers students ways to learn that weren’t inexistent in the previous centuries. Teachers and students alike are digital citizens, and we use technology in everyday life to learn, socialize, and communicate. Now teachers can embrace technology in learning and use it to move students into the right direction (Edutopia, 2012). Designing and developing digital learning experiences for students, facilitating and inspiring students to create their inquiries and discoveries, and modeling learning and thinking molds students into citizens prepared for the life in the 21st-Century (ISTE, 2008). Not only do students benefit by becoming critical thinkers and problem-solvers, but their interpersonal skills (i.e., communication, collaboration, cooperation, etc.) also enhances. Students learn to set short term and long term goals (Crockett, Jukes & Churches, 2011).
21st-Century skills is a newly acquired concept that promotes, problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. The challenge of teaching students the art of learning is that these skills differ from the traditional means of teaching that is still prevalent in most schools. Students also come from various education backgrounds that make it difficult to meet the needs of every child, and this means taking risks, embrace new innovative thinking and technology, and apply new pedagogy (Crockett, Jukes, & Churches, 2011). If not students will fall behind the cracks and lack the needed skills to make it now and in the future.
References
Crockett, L., Jukes, I., & Churches, A. (2011). Literacy is not enough: 21st–century fluencies for the digital age. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Edutopia. (2012). David Thornburg on the evolving classroom (Big Thinkers Series) [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/david-thornburg-future-classroom-video
Global Digital Citizen Foundation. (n.d.-g). The essential fluencies. Retrieved August 30, 2016, from http://globaldigitalcitizen.org/21st-century-fluencies
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2016). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/for-students-2016
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2008). Standards for students. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/standards/standards-for-teachers
BmurrayEDUTECH 