The Need of the 21st Learner and Implications for Secondary Teaching - Literature review Example

The Need of the 21st Learner and Implications for Secondary Teaching Name: Institution: One of the most fundamental questions educators, especially in secondary education, need to tackle is the effectiveness of current learning and teaching principles or strategies to the 21st century students. Almost everyone agrees that the needs of the current secondary students are diversely different from those of secondary students one or two decades ago. The extremism of this fact is directly proportional to the level of technological advancements and how they are adopted and applied to the learning systems. Of significance to note is also the fact that almost all sectors of existence acknowledge that technological changes occur at a faster rate, that makes it difficult for our systems, be it educational or organizational, to adjust to. This, therefore, means that at every point in time, the society is forced to adapt to the technology rather than vice versa. This creates a challenging aspect of the society, especially learning in the secondary education systems. It is deducible that the deep incorporation of technological advancements into the society gave rise to the 21st learners. In the context of education, 21st learners refer to learners in the 21st century, who have a diverse way of incorporating knowledge as compared to what has been known in the previous centuries. It is, thus, paramount to look deep into the implications that this group of learners, together with their learning principles and strategies, has for teaching and learning processes. Therefore, this essay focuses on discussing the impacts and effects of the 21st learners alongside what implications this is likely to bring to secondary teaching. Prensky (2001) indicates that recent studies have proved that the brain is a complex organ that develops, organizes and changes based on the different inputs it receives. This means that the current environment and exposure that the secondary learners are exposed to plays a significant role in defining their ability and what to learn. This forms a critical aspect of trying to understand how the 21st learners are different from the other learners of the past centuries. Indeed Prensky (2001) makes a significant acknowledgement since different generations have different perspectives of understanding the teaching and learning process. The fact that the brain constantly undergoes a reorganizing process during the development of a child is a phenomenon that can only mean that this reorganization process depends significantly, on what the child is exposed to during the development process. This plays a critical role in trying to understand the 21st learners in secondary schools. In the education system, the term ‘environment’ is comprised of various factors of consideration. In secondary schools in specific, environment not only mean the physical factors surrounding the learning process, but also includes all the factors that form an inclusive learning and teaching process (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). This, therefore, means that the environment of learning include the teachers, the students themselves, their colleagues, parents, physical location of the institutions of learning, and the materials available at the disposal of the students. It is, hence acknowledgeable to note that teachers, make a difference is a secondary students’ learning process. In order to understand the teachers’ contributions and the effect of these contributions to students in the learning process, Hattie (2003) looked into an Australian Council’s educational research. According to this research, it was evident that teachers accounted for over 30% of the variance in students' performances. This, alongside the fact that the study indicated that the students contribute to 50% of the variance, clearly showed that these two factors have significant aspects of students learning process. For the 21st century learners, and going by the research mentioned above, it is deducible that the learner plus the teacher accounts for 80% of variance in different students. It is, therefore, essential to look at how the 21st learners are affected in terms of two parts that constitute the learning environment (Hart, 2008). First, it is essential to understand that the digital age has contributed significantly to the development of difference in teaching and learning processes. According to Starkey (2010), the digital era introduces a networked world, in which, access to information is not a problem for students. Unlike in the previous past where students had to go physically to the libraries, through the shelves and literary search for literature materials to read, the digital era introduces a mechanism in which all these can be done at the comfort of the classroom or home just on a laptop or a computer device. This means that the 21st learners do not have to go through the hustle of physically looking or books, and rather can just go to the internet and search for the various learning material required. In fact, the introduction of the Web 2.0 has led to the availability of search engines such as Google, where students can search for any material available online for reference. With this kind of mechanism where materials are not filtered yet readily available and the fact that the brain has a reorganization mechanism based on what an individual is faced with, the 21st century learners are exposed to more materials and knowledge (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2000). However, the most challenging fact in looking at this aspect is the relevance, accuracy and above all, the contribution of these materials to the learning process. This is because it is acknowledgeable that despite the fact that the Web 2.0 has brought with it very efficient ways of accessing learning materials, students get exposed to more dangerous and irrelevant materials than expected. This forms the destructive aspect, which affects the 50% indicated in the research study mentioned above. Therefore, teaching and learning processes of the students is impaired unless the students take it upon themselves to ignore irrelevant materials. However, this is difficult especially owing to the fact that most of the secondary school learners are in their adolescence stage. In addition, teachers are put into task of dealing with learners who get access to information and materials that pose a serious threat to their learning and teaching processes. It is evident that the 21st learners are most exposed to cultural erosion than any other past category of learners. Students’ concentrations to learning are distracted by unfit materials available on the internet (Trilling & Fadel, 2009). This also means that the students have the potential to be exposed to learning material way above their teacher’s acknowledgements. Situations arise in secondary schools where students pose complex questions to teachers, requiring the teachers to have tactical means of engaging students. Perhaps the most effective way to understand and look at the confusion teachers have to deal with is through looking at the 21st learners and tries understanding how their learning processes relate to the learning theories. There are several theories that have been proposed to try explaining the learning process and how it effectively affects students. One of such learning theories is the digital age learning theory (Starkey, 2010, p. 233). According to Starkey (2010), much focus has been given to experienced teachers instead of focusing on the beginning teachers who seem to have experience with the digital technologies. This tries to insinuate that focus should be given to new teachers who have their training in teaching students in a digital environments rather than using teachers who have focused on their experiences in teaching. Although experienced teachers have knowledge on how to deal with various students based on experience, their limited experience, exposure and use of digital technologies makes it difficult for them to fully understand the diverse aspects involved in handling the 21st learners (Harasim, 2012). However, beginning teachers, who have their training in a digital world, would practically understand the aspects that these secondary students are exposed to. This is best understood through a scenario, which is perhaps the most common type of example to give for illustrations. Every experienced teacher would agree to the fact that 21st learner impose challenging aspects, in terms of their social interactions and mode of learning as compared to students of other generations. For example, baby boomers were used to confine to the learning process and individual input while Generation Y learners are more focused on discussions and teamwork rather than individual inputs (Armstrong, 2009). This not only imposes challenges to learning institutions, but also to organizations or companies. In overall, it is acknowledgeable that teachers who are digitally able are familiarized with the digital technology and are in a position to incorporate both their technical knowledge of the pedagogical knowledge contents in the process of coming up with amicable teaching decisions. The aspect of understanding teaching and learning for the 21st centuries also brings the concept of preparing teachers for the changing world (Bouch, 2008). This is because the solutions offered by the digital era learning theory are not amicable in all circumstances. Focusing on beginning teachers might have vital negative impact on the social and cultural aspects of learning process. Darling-Hammond & Bransford (2005) indicated that expertise and teaching play significant roles in preparing teachers to embrace the changing world. According to these two authors, it is paramount for teachers to have proper and in-depth knowledge about what they need to teach. A proper example would be in a mathematics class where a teacher is expected to teach loci or even calculus. Students would only concentrate and enjoy classes where they are able to deduce that the teacher understands the concepts he/she is trying to bring across rather than gamble with them (Harasim, 2012). In addition, teachers of 21st learners should understand that the discussions and teamwork play essential roles in enhancing understanding of students. This indicates that secondary teachers of 21st learners do not only require the technical understanding but also expertise in dealing with the students (Hattie, 2011). On the other hand, mathematical concepts are based on theories that are not easily observable or interpretable in secondary level (Ananiadou & Claro, 2009). Understanding of the application and relevance of calculus and loci has been only much practicable in college level yet these form part of what must be taught in secondary schools. Teachers, therefore, must have a wide scope of understanding these concepts to make it easier for the students to understand and know their relevance. Perhaps the most challenging issue that secondary teachers of 21st learners have to deal with is the identification of an effective learning theory to apply in classrooms. In most circumstances, teachers, and the education learning mechanism available employ the cognitive approaches to learning. This focuses on the information process (Marzano, 2007). A cognitive theorist believe in the fact that teaching should focus on teaching students how to think, remember and self-monitor their skills with the aim of helping them reason and solve problems. Hence, this theoretical perspective focuses on information processing model. However, this approach poses challenging threats to teaching 21st learners (Ormrod & Davis, 2004). This is mainly due to two reasons. First, the 21st learners have developed the urge to be able to look at every learning experience as part of their future lives. This requires the need to be able to articulate what is being taught in terms of its relevance in life experiences. However, these theoretical concepts only focus on modelling students to pass a certain stage in life, especially exams for secondary students. However, the introduction of technology has brought a concept of life learning that focuses on the belief that learning process occurs in the entire life of an individual. This, therefore, dispute the appropriateness of this theoretical perspective to teaching and learning process of 21st learners. According to Bransford, et al., (2000), indicated that focusing on enabling students to overcome misconceptions in the learning process is the key aspect that teaching mathematics and science should focus on. In addition, epistemologies, which play critical roles in guiding the disciplines’ subject matter is also a vital tool that all teachers should embrace in order to help them effectively teach and understand 21st learners. It is evident from the secondary learning processes of the 21st learners that, perhaps the most significant theoretical approaches that can be effective in the learning process are the behavioural, constructivism and humanist approaches to learning (Lieberman & Mace, 2010). The behavioral theoretical approaches can be effectively applied to this category because the approaches focus teaching based on situational behaviors and experiences that students are exposed to while learning new information (Bouch, 2008). The concepts and beliefs of this theory play a significant role in the learning process of the 21st learners since it paints the practical picture of the learning process to the students. In addition, constructivism approaches not only focus on experiences and situations but also incorporates the use of multiple perspectives that help students approach and understand the learning process. Teaching 21st learners should focus more on helping them develop constructive knowledge rather than focusing on receiving pre-formed ideas and information. This, therefore, requires that teachers focus on guiding the secondary students in embracing new ideas and concepts rather than restricting them to pre-determined ideas. This is only possible when teachers learn together with the students. Therefore, secondary teachers should focus on effectively teaching 21st learners. Moreover, Humanistic approach requires that attention during the learning process be focused on the needs, values, emotions and self-perceptions of the students. Teachers of 21st learners must focus on this essential approach (Illeris, 2007). This is because the current secondary teachers must ensure that the content of what is taught is relevant to the students in a practical manner. Students must be given the environment where they are able to draw meaningful impacts from the learning process rather than focus on absolute aspects. In this approach, both parental and teacher support plays an essential role in the learning process. The 21st learners, as mentioned earlier, are exposed to too much information, some of which have negative impacts on their learning process. This, therefore, calls for the support from both the parents and the teachers in order to ensure a constructive learning process. As evident from the theoretical perspectives and the opinionated drawings, it is clear that the learning process of the 21st learners is inclusive of the relationships between them and their parents and their teachers. This concurs with what was insinuated at the beginning based on the research on the percentage of variance in the learning process of the students. It therefore, becomes categorical to indicate that the learning and teaching process of a 21st learner is diverse and involves the incorporation of the many aspects of the lifelong learning. In this perspective, Hattie (2011) indicates that the curricula’s content less affect the development of students as compared to the teacher’s strategies on how to implement it. This indicates that for 21st learners’ effective knowledge acquisition, the teachers must not focus on the content of the curricula but more emphasis should be given to the strategies that are put in place to implement the curriculum (Bouch, 2008). This demands for both experience and expertise since development of strategies involves both social and educational concepts. In addition, Bouch (2008) also recognizes the need to focus on a deeper conceptual approach of understanding of the learning process rather than superficial procedures and facts. This indicates that 21st learners focus on understanding the significance and the connection between learning and coherent knowledge (Illeris, 2007). Therefore, teaching secondary 21st learners not only requires an understanding of course material, but also an effective articulation of the relevance of the learning material to the practical concepts of existence. This only means that teachers must widen their understanding of the teaching and learning process. As mentioned above, the fact that most secondary students are in their adolescent stage also calls for a cautious approach to handling their learning process (Queensland Studies Authority, 2007). The anxiety to learn from both the society and exposure poses a threat to the beliefs of school mechanisms. Teachers must, therefore, be exposed on the current social and educational issues in order to guide the students in an effective learning process. In fact, teaching 21st learners is more of upraising a learned society rather than the commonly educated community (Schraw & Robinson, 2011). This is because current education cuts across all aspects of life rather than focusing only on schools. In conclusion, it is evident that the learning and teaching process for a 21st learner is more complex than it used to be. It is also evident that the introduction of the internet brought about the availability of information in an immense manner, thereby calling for a different approach to teaching and learning process. The 21st learners introduce challenges to experienced teachers since they have to go beyond their experiences to learn new approaches of handling the students. In addition, teachers must have a wider understanding and perception towards teaching in order to handle the students’ learning process. More importantly, it is also acknowledgeable that the most affected teachers are those teaching mathematics. This is because secondary mathematics involves theories and concepts that are difficult to articulate socially. However, it is evident that teachers must have a wider thinking approach in handling 21st learners. References: Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part III: Do They Really Think Differently, on the Horizon, 9 (6), pp. 1-9. Hattie, J. (2003). Teachers make a difference: what is the research evidence?. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research. Starkey, L. (2010). Teacher’s Pedagogical Reasoning and Action in the Digital Age, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 16 (2), pp. 233-244. Darling-Hammond, L & Bransford, J. (2005). Preparing Teachers for a Changing World, What Teachers should learn and be able to do. New Jersey: John Willey & Sons. Illeris, K. (2007). How we Learn, Learning and non-learning in school and beyond. Oxon: Routledge. Bouch, J. (2008). 21st Century Learning: Research, Innovation and Policy, OECD. Queensland Studies Authority. (2007). ‘Essential Learning and Standards: Position Paper November 2007’ accessed September 30, 2013 from http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/qcar_el_position_paper.pdf Hattie, J. (2011). John Hattie’s Synthesis of over 800 Meta-analyses relating to achieving, Queensland Principal, 36(2), pp. 10-23. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. & Cocking, R. (2000). How People Learn, Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington: National Academy Press. Marzano, R. J. (2007). The art and science of teaching: A comprehensive framework for effective instruction. Virginia: ASCD. Ormrod, J. E., & Davis, K. M. (2004). Human learning. Indianapolis: Merrill. Hart, J. (2008). ‘Understanding Today’s Learner’ accessed September 30, 2013 from http://ict.mcast.edu.mt/moodle/data/102/resources/28420243-Understanding-Todays-Learner.pdf Harasim, L. (2012). Learning Theories and Online Technologies. New York: Routledge. Armstrong, T. (2009). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Virginia: AsSCD. Ananiadou, K., & Claro, M. (2009). 21st century skills and competences for new millennium learners in OECD countries (No. 41). OECD Publishing. Schraw, G., & Robinson, D. H. (2011). Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills. Current Perspectives on Cognition, Learning and Instruction. Charlotte: IAP-Information Age Publishing, Inc. Lieberman, A., & Mace, D. P. (2010). Making practice public: Teacher learning in the 21st century. Journal of Teacher Education, 61 (1-2), 77-88. Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st Century Skills: Learning for life in our Times. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Read More