21st Century Classroom for the 21st Century Student

The Upper and Middle School Learning Center team recently spent three days in Boston at The Learning and the Brain 30th Conference titled Preparing for the 21st Century: Using Brain Research to Enhance Cognitive Skills for the Future. Researchers, educators and practitioners from all over the U. S. came to teach, ponder and learn together.

We listened to speakers tell how our schools are still based in the 19th Century, yet today’s students need to be prepared for the 21st Century. It was very poignant to see demonstrators living in tents in Boston and Harvard Yard, showing their frustration with the economy and job market. These jobless young people feel strongly that they were not educated and prepared for today’s world.

The pace of technology was a central theme at this conference. This point was driven home when we were given iPads for menus at lunch. However, we heard as much concern for the way technology is shaping us, as the excitement of the potential. Regardless technology is here to stay with no limits in sight. We found ourselves wishing you all could hear what we did, and so we wish to pass along some highlights. We will also be doing some short presentations in faculty meetings, but this is to hopefully whet your appetite.

Curiosity, imagination and critical thinking are key skills for success now and for the future, yet our schools still emphasize short term memory skills for content that is often irrelevant for future success skills. Today’s students, coined the “net generation,” are concerned about what is happening today and being able to succeed for today; they are already functioning in a different world than we are and they are bored and frustrated as a whole. “Classrooms of the future” are already popping up as “teacher directed,” where the students do the research and learning in teams or pods. Succinctly, information at our fingertips is propelling us out of the industrial age to an age we don’t even know what to call - some say the innovation age.

What is changes in traditional educational settings are needed? It became clear to us we can start right now by teaching and encouraging students how to ask questions; coaching self-advocacy; teaching oral and written skills; and promoting creativity, exploration and problem solving in every way we can. For example, students could create a Facebook page as an assignment about researching someone. We heard of many schools going to multi-year projects for their seniors, who must complete a digital portfolio for their graduation. We heard about a lot of change going on in teaching and the “new form” of classrooms.

We are in a difficult time as teachers because our broad educational system is still based on standardized testing and learning content. But recent research has shown that we can get away with teaching much less content and have students actually do better because they have developed better critical-thinking skills; they are in more control of their learning and, therefore, they are more invested in it. 

For more, visit www.curriculum21.com.