My concern is that many teachers still teach how they were taught, usually with some slight alterations. Whilst these approaches may have some validity, I am not certainly not criticising them as long as teachers are considering why they teach the way they do and the effectiveness of it for their students. Students are increasingly learning in ever changing ways, fully suported by technology, from cell phones to social network sites. They expect to use technology it is a core part of their life and expect learning to use, at least in part, the skills they know and understand. Please note I did not say technology should replace all teaching styles. My real concern is that, for many teachers, the reality gap between them and students is widening rapidly.

The issues include the fact that many teachers often do not see themselves as anything other than overworked and put upon by endless initiatives. Their pace of change is not as fast as that of their students. Many are certainly wary of the ever changing technologies which students love and understand.

The energetic enthusiastic teachers who do reflect on their practive certainly are researchers, and we all should share their experiences and learn from them. Linked to this is the changing face of professional development where, modelling, collaborative teaching and practicing new approaches to learning, espcially those involving technologies, becomes a group activity. This replaces the old routine of one person ‘going on a course’ and then supposedly sharing with colleagues.

The learning processes for teachers and learners can then be easily shared on a blog or similar which would share practive, successes, words of caution and evidence of the impact of approaches in terms of performance data. This in turn would help them really review and reflect on their practive.

This is a gain a very brief post on what is a truely exciting subject being considered all round the world.

I can see that you could make a case for epochs represented by the ascendancy of powerful ideas – such as the Enlightenment, which represented an amazing change in how humans viewed the world. But this “21st C” phrase does need some spelling out IMO if you are going to use it as a self description for your research project. I suppose I do think that how you name things is important.

What is our underlying basis for evaluating and comparing a new good thing with an old good thing? I’ve come to the view that there is more involved here than “learning style” or “motivation” or “keeping up with technology” even though they are also worthwhile questions.

One thing I’ve been wondering is if there are tools that would provide teacher researchers with easy to use recording devices that would help document changes in practice. For example, what if there was some sort of plugin for a blog that would allow data collection for self-reporting. The teacher could journal, and also collect data – quantitative, qualitative, whatever is needed.

The fact that many teachers can’t articulate their teaching styles is, in fact, quite worrying. I use the term 21st century teaching and learning – but hang on, we are already nearly a decade into the 21st century. Many people use it as though this is something that has yet to arrive – really we should more likely be looking at the real future and adpting our teaching and learning styles NOW. In reality, many people are using 20th century teaching styles in the 21st century, and a few, regretably, using 19th century styles and then wondering why their students are a) not fully engaged and b) not getting the results they have the potential to get.

The transformation of education needs brave decisions led by brave leaders who have the confidence to continue to be brave through the inevitable moments of doubt.

The Cayman Islands are in the process of transforming all aspects of the entire education service simultaneously – whilst challenging its been great fun and really a very intersting exercise. Many countries are watching the progress, which, so far, has been outstanding.

More through liks below

Great post Graham.

http://blog.garethl.com
http://buildingcaymansfuture.blogspot.com

I think the focus question (“What does 21st Century learning look like?”) sounds grandiose … *as well as* being a new buzz phrase

cf. idit harel’s study of children using logo to make fraction puzzles in x age tutoring context: “Instructional Software Design Project” ie. she just described what her project was and it’s theoretical dimensions (Papert, Vygotsky, Perkins)

But “21st Century learning” sounds like what we should all be doing … and it doesn’t play well if we use the Ancient Greek methods and inspiration to teach geometry (even though that might well be part of good 21st C learning) … or if we attach more importance to recent decades rather than the past decade … why associate all of learning (by implication) with the new century or the most recent decade?

Justify the focus question – its implications and hidden assumptions, how is it not just web2.0 ism?

I would see a danger of ending up with a description of practices which is not really theorised. I think it’s a real danger in part because learning theory is so rambunctious (disorderly, all over the place).