21st Century Learners

The twenty first century learner seems to be a common theme in my education classes this semester. I am constantly grappling with trying to understand what this means for future classrooms and teaching practices. It is evident that technology is stampeding the education system and in my opinion, this is a good thing.

Technology is allowing our students to think like the twenty first century citizen. Society is now looking for minds that can think out of the box. We are looking for students who can think critically and find a bigger purpose. The instructional teacher model seems to be disappearing and our classrooms are becoming more student-focused rather than teacher-centered. Not only do we want students who can think critically, we want students who work cooperatively and are able to collaborate. The future work system is dependent on individuals, experts, coming together for a common purpose. As educators we need to get our students thinking and working like twenty first century students.

I was assigned to read chapter six of “Class Matters” this week which was dedicated to drop out rates; especially among lower class citizens. For many, the workforce is the way of life. There is a quick, sweet success to getting a job right out of high school. It is easy to make money and many individuals find that college tuition is a waste of money when they could be earning money. However, this is a huge problem because the workforce that many of these students are getting involved in is diminishing. There are less and less jobs in factories because technology has taken over. Businesses are hiring individuals who have bachelor degrees over experience. In the article, a man stated that he worries everyday that he could lose his job and that if he did he would lose everything.

With the economy and a technological society, we have a lot of work to do as teachers. The main question is how do we help produce twenty first century thinkers among a demographic group whose lifestyle does not center on education? In my opinion, we need to make our curriculum more real-life. Students need to be put in situations where they are forced to think and challenge ideas. Moreover, students need a role in school. They need to be assigned work where they feel there is a purpose. If there is a group assignment, every student should have a role to play because as stated earlier, when you collaborate in the real world everyone involved is an expert and has a role.

Furthermore, I think teachers need to explain to their students where society is headed and the purpose of education. I know that many times I have sat in a math class thinking “when am I ever going to use this in real life?” No one could answer this question for me, and it was so frustrating. If I was a student who came from a lifestyle where education was less important than making money to put food on the table, I would be beyond frustrated. I wish someone would have said to me that all the statistic work I was doing could be applied to educational research, or simply grades.

If we want twenty first century students, then we need to give purpose. The classroom that relies on rote memory and merely exam scores is never going to produce the thinkers we want. Moreover, this type of classroom is going to leave the students from lower incomes behind, and that is just not fair. We need to soften the gap between lower and middle class students. If we can do this and make our classrooms better equipped for the future, then I believe students will be less inclined to drop out.