Embracing Change: Collaborative Discussion

You’ve heard the saying “It’s a journey, not the destination.” When it comes to curiosity, it’s the question, not the answer, that engages the students. The destination has value and will reward a student’s hard work. The journey, however, makes that result more exciting and satisfying. Curiosity starts the journey and motivates a learner to keep going, no matter how rocky the path. To keep students engaged and draw them in, you need to ask open-end questions that encourage them to seek out their own answers- questions that cannot be answered with a yes or or a shrug of the shoulders.

Open-ended questions can begin with phrases like

· What would happen if…

· What would it be like to…?

· Why did …

· How do we know that …?

· What did you think when …?

The 21st Century Learner Needs a 21st Century Teacher. According to John Dewey, if we teach today’s students, as we taught yesterday’s we rob them of tomorrow. How we teach must reflect how students learn, it must also reflect the world they will emerge into. This is a world that is rapidly changing, connected adapting, and evolving. Our style and approach to teaching must emphasize the learning in the 21st century.

To effectively teach our 21st century students, teachers must integrate the following into lessons:

· A Professional Learning Community

· Collaboration

· Constructivist Teaching

· Student -Centered Teaching

· Project -Based Teaching

· Challenged – Based Teaching

· Problem- Solving skills

· Technology and Multimedia

· Arts Integration

· Real World Application

References

21st Educator. (2009). 21St Century

Education vs. 20th Century Education. YouTube. Retrieved September 26, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiD1UqLPrOg.