Critical Review of: The Futures of Learning 3: What kind of Pedagogies for the 21st Century?

Scott, C. (2015). The Futures of Learning 3: What kind of pedagogies for the 21st century?

Personalised ● Current system does not fit all learners and their learning styles - moving through multiple levels and settings.
Learning Students are currently grouped by a test or age.
● 21st century idea is to support creativity
● Personalization occurs when collaboration is supported and nurtured - it is not a ‘add-on’ to the learning, this
helps students have an investment into ‘their’ learning. Control is given back to the students
● Teachers need to find ways to encourage a sense of wonder and inspire students to explore ways of using
knowledge and skills.
● Moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach - moving away from the ‘lesson’
● Personalised learning is learner-driven with a framework of standards. This helps teachers to try and reach
learners individually
● It is all about the the resources and how they are used. Mobilization, flexibility or time and space, moving from
classroom to community
● Teacher's role changes - mentor/ facilitator/
● 4cs Principles
○ Critical thinking
○ Communication
○ Collaboration
○ creativity
● Based on pedagogical principles of
○ Personalisation
○ Participation
○ Productivity
● With personalised learning students are able to approach learning with a way that fits them they can grasp
ideas and concepts in their own time and respond to multiple forms of feedback

Quotes
As people learn in a variety of ways and may take multiple pathways to skills acquisition, education must be
reorganized around each ‘learner’s journey’
(Leadbeater, 2008).
 Personalization occurs through collaboration, provides for more rapid sharing of innovation and good practice,
and quickly captures information about learners’ aptitudes and progress. Personalized learning is not an ‘add-on’ but
a different way to undertake educational endeavours and includes peer-to-peer self-organized learning (Leadbeater,
2008). With personalized learning, individuals approach problems in their own way, grasp ideas at their own pace, and
respond differently to multiple forms of feedback (Hampson, Patton and Shanks, 2011)

Deep and ● Project and problem based learning encourages flexibility

Meaningful ● Participation
learning ○ Learning through peers
○ Intergenerational partnerships
○ Community relationships
● Students already come to school with some form of participation (personal networks and social media)
● Metacognitive ability is developed through problem based learning that need peer collaboration. By challenging
their thinking, ideas and concepts students are able to gain better insight, knowledge and skills.
● Renew the focus is on quality
● Social media helps create meaningful learning through connection, collaboration and shared knowledge
building
● Collaborative learning encourages free thinking and supports creativity
● Deeper learning is supported when students are ‘doing and using’ activities
● Metacognition - Thinking about one’s thinking. Individuals are able to and are more aware of their thinking, and
are able to assess themselves.
● Relationships - in order to motivate someone they need t have trust and confidence in your. Students will
engage more when they are motiviate. Having strong relationships make people feel safe and cared for
● Encouragement for lifelong learning

Quotes
By challenging their thinking, teachers can use learner responses as an opportunity to evaluate learner readiness for
deeper understanding and introduce new concepts accordingly. (Bolstad, 2011; Leadbeater, 2008; NZME, 2007).

Learning for the ● Solving real world problems

World of work ● Problem based learning supports students to have better gains in the classroom
● Must incorporate more than just technology - learning must take place outside of the classroom
○ Libraries, museums, community centres, local businesses, nearby farms
● Problem based learning supports students abilities to be able to improve reasoning with clear arguments and
 better planning for complex projects.
● It encourages flexibility
● Students are able to transfer knowledge and apply it to more than just the classroom
● Learners benefit from group interaction through exposure to different points of view, different backgrounds,
situations, they must defend ideas and thoughts
● Learners are more engaged and can work on bigger tasks, more sophisticated projects and work inside the
school and outside
● Need to be relatable to students world

Quotes
Carrying out projects in teams which require learners to research across subject boundaries, take responsibility for
different parts of their project, critique each other’s work and create a professional quality product, will help develop
real-world problem-solving skills.

Our changing ● Students making time to interact with mentors/ peers to practice and apply knowledge and skills
roles ● Students are taking on more active roles with learning and are becoming more contributors
● Teachers are having to adapt teaching styles to fit the needs and the changing demand of students
● Teachers need to create regular opportunities for students to select ways to learn - design and plan activities
that match the interests and needs of learners
● Going to be uncomfortable for many in the teaching world
● Learning coaches - provide guidance to help develop skills and help support students to attain their goals. They
will enable:
○ Understanding
○ Critique
○ Manipulate
○ Design, Create and transform
○ Identify problems
○ Construct new knowledge
● Key role is to model confidence, openness, persistence and commitment (GRIT)
● Lots of professional development to support learning transformation
● Changing to learning resource coordination and mediators
● Teachers need meaningful professional development to help shift their thinking

Quotes
 Learning is not simply a matter of interaction, but of interaction that results in the co-creation of learning…

Teachers must also evolve into creative workers, jointly constructing knowledge with learners in the classroom.
Teachers will stimulate deepening engagement and articulation by guiding learners to develop skills such as
formulating arguments to support their positions, sharing and communicating these arguments to others using
multimedia (including image, text, sound, movement, sequence and interactivity), constructing their own meaning, and
collaborating with others to extend that meaning (Bolstad, 2011; Brown, 2005; Gijbers and VanSchoonhoven, 2012).

Adopting twenty-first century pedagogy requires teachers to rethink their reasoning about what they teach and why,
and to rethink who they are as teachers. It requires them to ‘resituate themselves professionally, not as a traditional
teacher, but as a highly skilled advanced learner’ (Saavedra and Opfer 2012, p. 6).

Our changing ● Students are regularly taking part online. Social media has the potential to transform learning and teaching
relations to ○ For example; Camera phones making it possible to share experience online
technology ● Students are accustomed to having a voice
● Technology is not the sole solution but used as an enabler within the culture of learning
● Encourages personalisation
● Lowering barriers to access of data and information
● Transfer of learning to real life situations

Quotes
Facer (2009) states that social media can be used as a means to implement pedagogical strategies that support,
facilitate, enhance and improve learning processes.

POINTS TO CONSIDER?

★ Relationships are the key to teaching students - strong relationships

★ How are we going to support our teachers with this change - especially those who have been teaching for so long?
★ With large class numbers how does one teacher manage this with say 30 kids?
★ How are new teachers being taught? New way or the traditional way? If school are changing and new teachers are coming in how
do we support this?
★ How do teachers feel about taking away the ‘control’ they have over the students learning? How does this go for planning to teach
them?
★ Do the teaching standards and requirements need to change to fit 21st century learning?
★ Are we already doing this in schools but not realising it? DIMC and Inquiry?
★ How do we encourage/support/inspire creativity?