MODULE 1

ST
21 CENTURY EDUCATION

I. CONCEPT EXPLORATION

This modern society is ushered in by a dynamic technological revolution. It is an increasingly

diverse, globalized and complex media-saturated society. According to Dr. Douglas Kellner, this
technological revolution bears a greater impact on society than the transition from an oral print
culture.

Education prepares students for life in this world. Amidst emerging social issues and
concerns, there is a need for students to be able to communicate, function and create change
personally, socially, economically and politically at the local, national and global levels by
participating in real-life and real-world learning projects.
Emerging technologies and resulting globalization also provide unlimited possibilities for
exciting discoveries and developments.

II. Learning Outcomes

1. Define 21st Century education
2. Describe the 21st Century teacher and the needed innovative tools for learning
3. Examine the critical attributes of 21st Century education
4. Explain how 21st Century education concepts can be integrated in the classroom
5. Draw relevant life lessons and significant values from the experience in practicing 21 st
Century education
6. Analyze research abstract on 21st Century education and its implications on teaching-
learning process
7. Prepare an evaluation instrument intended for 21st Century teaching-learning

III. ABSTRACTION

21ST Century Education Contexts

21St Century Schools. Schools in the 21st century focus on a project-based curriculum for life
that would engage students in addressing real-world problems and humanity concerns and issues.
This has become an innovation education, from textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper-
pencil schooling into a better understanding of the concept of knowledge and a new definition of the
educated person. Therefore, it makes a new way of designing and delivering the curriculum.
Schools will go from ‘buildings’ to ‘nerve centers’, with open walls and are roofless while
connecting teachers, students and the community to the breadth of knowledge in the world.
Teachers will transform their role from being dispensers of information to becoming
facilitators of learning and help students translate information into knowledge and knowledge into
wisdom.
Therefore, the 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery,
and schools will need to create a ‘’culture of inquiry’’.
Learners will become adaptive to changes. In the past, learners spent a required amount of
time in respective courses, received passing grades and graduated. Today, learners are viewed in a
new context.
These changes have implications for teachers: (1) Teachers must discover student interest by
helping them see what and how they are learning to prepare them for life in the real world; (2) They
must instil curiosity, which is the fundamental to lifelong learning; (3) They must be flexible in how
they teach; and (4) they must excite learners to become more resourceful so that they will continue
to learn outside formal school.
21st Century learning demands a school that excites students for school. There is a little or no
discipline problem because of strong student engagement. Likewise, parents are informed about
positive changes in their children. As a result, students manifest significant improvement in basic
skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, researching, scientific explorations, math, multimedia
skills and others.
 The 21st Century Curriculum. The twenty-first century curriculum has critical attributes that
are interdisciplinary, project-based and research-driven. It is connected to local, national and global
communities, in which students may collaborate with people around the world in various projects.
The curriculum also integrates higher order thinking skills, multiple intelligences, technology and
multimedia, multiple literacies and authentic assessments, including service-learning
(http://edglossary.org/21st-century-skills).
The classroom is filled with self-directed students, who work independently. The curriculum
and instruction are designed imbued with the concept of differentiation. Thus, instead of focusing on
textbook-driven or fragmented instruction, instruction turns to be more thematic, project-based and
integrated with skills and competencies purely not confined within themselves, but are explored
through research and concept application in projects and outputs (http://edglossary.org/21st-
century-skills).
Learning is not confined through memorization of facts and figures alone but rather is
connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and habits.

The 21st Century Learning Environment. Typically, a 21st Century learning classroom is not
confined to a literal classroom building but a learning environment where students collaborate with
their peers, exchange insights, coach, and mentor one another and share talents and skills with
other students. Cooperative learning is also apparent, in which students work in teams because
cooperation is given more emphasis than competition, and collaborative learning more than isolated
learning. They use technologies, including Internet systems and other platforms.
Hence, in the process of creating a world-class 21st century learning environment, building
new schools and remodelling of present school facilities can be addressed toward creating
environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and ‘’green’’ schools. Inside every classroom, students
shall apply their knowledge of research in life, which is a clear indication of a relevant, rigorous, 21 st
century real-life curriculum.
An ideal learning environment also considers the kind of spaces needed by the students and
teachers in conducting investigations and projects by diverse groups for independent work. An ideal
learning environment has plenty of wall space and other areas for displaying student work that
includes a place where the parents and the community can gather to watch student performances,
as well as a place where they can meet for discussions.

Technology in the 21st Century Pedagogy. Technologies are not ends in themselves but
these are tools students use to create knowledge for personal and social change.
21st Century learning recognizes full access to technology. Therefore, a better bandwidth of
Wifi access should be available along areas of the school for the students to access their files and
supplement their learning inside the classroom. Various laboratories and learning centers are set up
in such a way that they allow a space needed for students’ simulation and manipulative works. All
classrooms should have televisions to watch broadcasts created by the school and other schools
around. Other resources in the school can also be utilized by students in creating opportunities for
their knowledge explorations (http://www.21tcenturyschools.com/Critical_Pedagogy.htm).

Understanding 21st Century Learners. Today’s students are referred to as ‘’digital natives’’,
while educators as ‘’digital immigrants’’ (Prensky, 2001). Most likely, digital natives usually react, are
random, holistic and non-linear. Their predominant senses are motion and touch. They learn
through experience and learn differently. Digital immigrants often reflect, are sequential, and linear.
Their predominant senses are hearing and seeing. They tend to intellectualize and believe that
learning is constant (Hawkins and Graham, 1994).
Students’ entire lives have been immersed in the 21st Century media culture. They take in
the world via the filter of computing devices, such as cellular phones, hand held gaming devices,
PDAs, and laptops plus the computers, TVs, and game console at home.
A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found out that young people (ages 8-18)
spend on electronic media an average of six hours a day. In addition, many are multitasking, such as
listening to music while surfing the Web or instant-messaging friends while playing a video game.
The pre-schoolers easily navigate electronic multimedia resources on games, in which they
learn colors, numbers, letters, spelling, and more complex tasks, such as mixing basic colors to create
new colors, problem-solving activities, and reading.
 However, as Dr. Michael Wesch points out, although today’s students understand how to
access and utilize these tools, they use them only for entertainment purposes. Thus, students should
be prepared and assisted to become media literate as they function in an online collaborative
research-based environment with the advent of researching, analysing, synthesizing, critiquing,
evaluating and creating new knowledge.

21st Century Skills Outcome and the Demands in the Job Market. The 21st Century skills are
set of abilities that students need to develop to succeed in the information age. The Partnership or
21st Century Skills lists three types, namely: (1) Learning Skills which comprise critical thinking,
creative thinking, collaborating, and communicating; (2) Literacy Skills which is composed of
information literacy, media literacy, and technology literacy; and (3) Life Skills that include flexibility,
initiative, social skills, productivity and leadership. These skills have always been important in an
information-based economy.
Likewise, skills demanded in the job market include knowing a trade, following directions,
getting along with others, working hard and being a professional, efficient, prompt, honest, and fair.
More so, to adapt to this jobs in this information age, students need to think deeply about issues,
solve problems creatively, work in teams, communicate clearly in many media, learn ever-changing
technologies and deal with the influx of information. Amidst rapid changes in the world, industry
requires students to be flexible, take the initiative, lead when necessary, and create something new
and useful.
According to Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), various industries look for employees
who can think critically, solve problems creatively, innovate, collaborate and communicate.
Therefore, for a perfect match between academe and industry demands, schools need to embed
time-tested industry-demanded work skills in the curriculum
(http://thoughtfullearning.com/resources/what-are-21st-century-skills).

The 21st Century Learning Implications. 21st Century skills are viewed relevant to all
academic areas and the skills may be taught in a wide variety of both in-=campus and community
settings.
Teachers should practice teaching cross-disciplinary skills in related courses, such as
integrating research methods in various disciplines; articulating technical scientific concepts in
verbal, written, and graphic forms; presenting laboratory reports to a pool of specialists, or use
emerging technologies, software programs and multimedia applications as an extension of an
assigned project.
Likewise, accrediting organizations and regulatory bodies may require 21st century skills in
the curriculum. In doing so, the assessment tools should also contain these skills. They may design or
adopt learning standards that explicitly describe multi-disciplinary skills that students should acquire
and master.
Schools and teachers should use a variety of applied skills, multiple technologies, and new
ways of analysing and processing information, while also taking initiative, thinking creatively,
planning out the process, and working collaboratively in teams with other students.
More so, schools may allow students to pursue alternatives, in which students can earn
academic merits and satisfy graduation requirements by completing an internship, apprenticeship or
volunteer experience. It is in this manner that students can practice a variety of practical, career-
based, work-related skills and values while equally completing the academic coursework and
meeting the same learning standards required of students.
In today’s world, information and knowledge are continuously increasing at a certain rate
that no one can learn everything about every subject. What may appear true today could be proven
to be false tomorrow and the jobs that students will get after they graduate may not yet exist. For
this reason, students need to be taught how to process, analyze and use information and they need
adaptable skills that they can apply in all facets of life. Thus, merely teaching them ideas and facts
without teaching them how to use them in real-life settings is no longer enough.
Schools need to adapt and develop new ways of teaching and learning reflect a changing
world. The purpose of school should be able to prepare students for success after graduation and
therefore, schools need to prioritize the knowledge and skills that will be in the greatest demand,
such as those deemed to be most important by college professors and employers. Hence, teaching
students to perform well in school or pass the test alone is no longer sufficient.
 Henceforth, teachers must realize and students must understand that no one can move
toward a vision of the future unless he/she understands the socio-historical context of where they
are now, what events led them to be where they are, how this can inform development of a vison
for the future and how they want to get there, thus, a clear articulation of the purpose of education
for the 21st Century is the place to begin with. (http://thoughfullearning.com/resources/what-are-
21st-century-skills).

A Paradigm Shift for 21st Century Education

Before 21st Century Education 21st Century Education
Time-based Outcome-based
Focus: memorization of discrete facts Focus: what students Know, Can Do and Are
Like after all the details are forgotten.
Lower order thinking skills in Bloom’s Higher order thinking skills (metacognition),
Taxonomy, such as knowledge and such as application, analysis, synthesis, and
comprehension evaluation
Textbook-driven Research-driven
Passive learning Active learning
Learners work in isolation and confined in the Learners work collaboratively with classmates
classroom (walled classroom) and others around the world (global classroom)
Teacher-centered: teacher is dispenser of Student-centered: teacher is facilitator/coach of
knowledge, information and attention. students’ learning.
Little is no student freedom. Great deal of student freedom.
‘’Discipline problems’’- No trust between No ‘’discipline problems’’- Students and
educators and students. Little student teachers have mutual respect and relationship
motivation. as co-learners. High student motivation.
Fragmented curriculum Integrated and Interdisciplinary curriculum
Grades taken from formal assessment measures Grades are based on students’ performance as
entered in the class record for reporting evidence of learning outcome.
purposes.
Assessment is for marking purposes and placed Assessment is important aspect of instruction to
as part of lesson plan structure. gauge learning outcome.
Low expectations. What students receive is High expectations that students succeed in
what they get. learning to high extent.
Teacher us judge. No one else sees student Self, peer and others serve as evaluators of
work. Outputs are assessed using the structured student learning using wide range of metrics
metrics. and authentic assessments.
Curriculum is irrelevant and meaningless to the Curriculum is connected to students’ interests,
students. experiences, talents, and the real world.
Print is the primary vehicle of learning and Performances, projects and multiple forms of
assessment. media are used for leaning and assessment.
Student diversity is ignored. Curriculum and instruction address student
diversity.
Students just follow orders and instructions Students are empowered to lead and initiate
while listening to teacher’s lecture. while creating solutions and solving problems.
Literacy is the 3 R’s (reading, writing and Multiple literacies of the 21st Century aligned to
‘rithmetic). living and working in a globalized new society.
Factory model, based upon the needs of Global model based upon the needs of a
employers for the Industrial Age of the 19th globalized high-tech society.
century.

The paradigm shift from the 20th to 21st Century, shows that structures and modalities of
education have evolved. Students become the center of teacher –learning process in the 21 st
Century using wide array of technological tools to assist them in exploring knowledge and
information needed in surviving the test of time and preparing for future career endeavors.
Assessment has been made varied to address multiple literacy development in diverse contexts.
Teachers turn to become facilitators rather than lecturers and dispensers of information. As such,
curriculum is designed in way that it connects to life in the real world, interconnected with other
disciplines and reshapes the students’ holistic perspectives.

The Critical Attributes of 21st Century

Education Integrated and
Global classrooms

Interdisciplinary
21st Century Skills
Education continuously changes dramatically
throughout time. There is a paradigm shift in
Technologies and Relevant,
the way teaching and learning is delivered.
Multimedia Rigorous, and
Therefore, the 21st Century teacher needs to
Real World
develop essential knowledge, skills and values Student
in order to cope up with these changes and Centeredness Creating/Adapting to Constant

address students’ need (21st Century Schools, Project-Based and Personal and Social Change

2011) Research-Driven and Lifelong Learning

The following are eight attributes of 21st Century education and their implications:
1. Integrated and Interdisciplinary. Education in the 21st Century is characterized by
interfacing various disciplines in an integrate manner rather than compartmentalizing its
subsequent parts. This critical attribute implies the need to review the curriculum and
create strategies infusing different subject toward enhancing the learning experiences of
students.
2. Technologies and Multimedia. Education in the 21st Century makes optimum use of
available Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as well as multimedia to
improve teaching and learning process, including online applications and technology
platforms. It implies a need to acquire and use computers and multimedia equipment
and the design of a technology plan to enhance learning at its best.
3. Global Classrooms. Education in the 21st Century aims to produce global citizens by
exposing students to the issues and concerns in the local, national and global societies.
This critical attribute implies the need to include current global issues/concerns, such as
peace and respect for cultural diversity, climate change and global warming in classroom
discussions.
4. Creating/Adapting to Constant Personal and Social Change and Lifelong Learning.
Education in the 21st Century subscribes to the belief that learning does not end within
the four walls of the classroom. Instead, it can take place anywhere, anytime regardless
of the age. This means that the teachers should facilitate students’ learning even beyond
academics. Therefore, it should not end with requirement compliance and passing the
exams, but also for transferring and applying knowledge to a new context or real-life
situations. As such, the curriculum should be planned in such way that students will
continue to learn even outside the school for life.
5. Student-Centered. Education in the 21st Century is focused on students as learners while
addressing their ned. Differentiated instruction is relevant in the 21 st Century
classrooms, where diversity factors and issues are taken into account and addressed
when planning and delivering instruction, including their learning styles, interests, needs
and abilities.
6. 21st Century Skills. Education in the 21st Century demonstrates the skills needed in
becoming productive members of society. Beyond learning the basic skills of reading,
writing and numeracy, students should also develop life and work skills in the 21 st
Century communities, such as critical and creative thinking, problem-solving and
decision-making and ICT literacy and skills. Therefore, it implies that teachers should
possess these skills first before their students.
7. Project-Based and Research-Driven. 21st Century education emphasizes data,
information, and evidence-based decision-making through student activities that
encourage active learning. This implies the need for knowledge and skills in research,
such as self-directed activities, learning projects, investigatory projects, capstones and
other research-based output.
8. Relevant, Rigorous and Real World. Education in the 21st Century is meaningful as it
connects to real-life experiences of learners. It implies the use of current and relevant
 information linked to real-life situations and contexts.
(http://iflex.innotech.org/GURO21/module1/l1_5.html)

The Characteristics of a 21st Century Teacher

The 21st Century teaching-learning environment becomes more complicated brought by
technological changes. Therefore, teachers should be able to cope with and adapt to these changes.
Thus, teachers must be equipped with attributes, knowledge, and skills critical to 21 st
Century education so that they may be able to integrate them in their teaching. 21 st Century
teachers are characterized as:
1. Multi-literate. Teachers know how to use various technologies in teaching.
2. Multi-specialist. Teachers are not only knowledgeable in the course subject that they teach
but also in other areas so that they can help the learner build up what they gain in the
classroom and outside the school and make sense of what was learned.
3. Multi-skilled. Teachers cope with the demand for widening learning opportunities by being
skilful not just in teaching but also in facilitating and organizing groups and activities.
4. Self-directed. Teachers are responsible for various aspects of school life and know how to
initiate action to realize the learning goals of the students and the educational goals of the
country, at large.
5. Lifelong learner. Teachers embrace the ideal that learning never ends. Therefore, teachers
must be constantly updated on the latest information related to their subject and pedagogic
trends. They should also share what they are learning with their students and colleagues
with a high sense of professionalism.
6. Flexible. Teachers are able to adapt to various learning styles and needs of the learners.
They can facilitate learner-centered teaching with flexibility using the alternative models of
delivery.
7. Creative problem solver. Teacher create innovative ideas and effective solutions to the
arising problems in the field, be it in the classroom, in the school or the profession as a
whole.
8. Critical thinker. Teachers are critical thinkers as they encourage students to reflect on what
they have learned, and rekindle in them the desire to ask questions, reason out, probe, and
establish their own knowledge and belief.
9. Has a passion for excellent teaching. Teachers possess passion in the teaching profession to
ensure that students are motivated to learn under their guidance and care.
10. High Emotional Quotient (EQ). Teachers do not just have the head but also the heart to
teach. Teaching is emotionally taxing but an influential job as it involves interaction with
human beings. (http://udyong.gov.ph)

Common 21st Century Technology Tools for Learning

As teacher for the 21st Century, no one can escape from the reality that we are now in a
borderless society. It is, therefore, important that we should know different technology tools for
learning to respond to the needs of 21st Century learners’ and the demands of the times. The
following are common 21st Century technology tools.
1. Affinity Groups. These are groups or communities that unite the individuals with
common interests. Electronic spaces extend the range of possibilities for such groups.
2. Blogs. Web logs or ‘’blogs’’ are interactive websites, often open to the public that can
include Web links, photographs, and audio and video elements.
3. E-portfolio. It refers to student’s works that are generated, selected, organized, stored
and revised digitally. Often, electronic portfolios are accessible to multiple audiences
and can be moved from one site to another easily. It can document the process of
learning, promote integrative thinking, display final work, and/or provide a space for
reflective learning.
4. Hypertext. These are electronic texts that provide multiple links and allow users to trace
ideas in immediate and idiosyncratic directions. Hypermedia adds sound, video,
animation, and/or virtual reality environments to the user’s choices.
5. Podcasts. These are digitalized audio files that are stored on the Internet and
downloaded to listeners’ computers or most likely to MP3 players. The term ‘’podcast’’
from iPod, the popular MP3 player.
 6. Web 2.0. This refers to a second generation of Web-based communities that
demonstrate the participatory literacies that students need for the 21 st-century.
7. Myspace. It is a social networking website that offers an interactive user-submitted
network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos
internationally. Students can rate professors, discuss books, and connect with high
school and college classmates here.
8. Second Life. It is Internet-based 3-D virtual world that uses avatars (digital
representations) to explore, socialize, participate in individual or group activities, create
and trade items (virtual property) and services.
9. Semantic Web. It is an extension of the current Web that puts data into a common
format so that instead of humans working with individual search engines themselves
feed into a single mechanism that provides this searching on its own. Sometimes called
Web 3.0 this technology enables integration of virtually all kinds of information for more
efficient and comprehensive retrieval.
10. Webkinz. It is an Internet simulation wherein children learn pet care and other skills.
11. Wiki. It refers to software that fosters collaboration and communication online. Wikis
enable students to create, comment upon, and revise collaborative projects. One of the
most prominent is Wikipedia, an online multilingual free-content encyclopedia, which
has 7.9 million articles in 253 languages.
12. Youtube. It is a popular website for video sharing where users can upload, view and
share video footage, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, even student-
produced videos.
13. Google Docs. It allows students to collaborate with other people and the document
materials that need to be compiled, processed, transacted and analyzed.
14. Prezi. It allows individuals to use pre-made, creative presentation templates.
15. Easybib. It allows individuals to generate citations in any given format.
16. Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Edmodo, Schoology, Instagram, etc.). these
are means to communicate and share ideas among users.
17. Smartboards and audience response systems. These are replacement for traditional
chalkboards or whiteboards in classrooms.
18. ReadWriteThink.org. it is a repository of standards-based literacy lessons that offer
teachers instructional ideas for Internet integration.
19. WebQuest Page. It provides Webquests on an array of topics across content areas with
a template for creating one’s own.
20. Literacy Web. It is an online portal that includes a large number of new literacy’s
resources for teachers.

SYNTHESIS
THE 21ST CENTURY EDUCATION
S
⮚ Education prepares students for life in this world that can make them communicate,
Y
N function and create change personally, socially, economically and politically on local,
T national and global levels.
H ⮚ There is a drastic change brought about by the advent of the 21st Century education in
E the context of a curriculum, classroom environment, technology, learners and demands
S of the job market.
I
S ⮚ 21st Century education implies challenges among teachers in the way they need to
embrace technological advancement and instructional innovations.
⮚ With the paradigm shift from 20th Century to 21st Century education, transformations
and transitions are taking place.
⮚ To cope with the demands of 21st Century education, educational institutions should
address its eight critical attributes.
⮚ Teachers must be multi-literate, multi-specialist, multi-skilled, self-directed, lifelong
learners, flexible, creative problem solver, critical thinker, emotionally intelligent and
passionate for excellent teaching.