Module I

st
21 Century Education

o Define 21st Century Education

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

Concept Exploration
This modern society is ushered in by a dramatic technological revolution. It is an increasingly diverse,
globalized and complex media-saturated socie4ty. According to Dr. Douglas Kellner, this technological
revolution bears a greater impact on society than the transition from an oral to 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 the4 local, national and global levels by participating in real-life and real-world service learning
projects.
Emerging technologies and resulting globalization also provides unlimited possibilities for exciting
discoveries and developments.
21st Century Education Contexts
21st Century Schools. Schools in the 21st Century focus on the project-based curriculum for life that
would engage students addressing real-world problems and humanity concerns and issues.
This has become an innovation in education, from textbook-driven, teacher-centered, paper-and-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 a 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.
Implication for Teachers:
o Teacher must discover student interest by helping them see what and how they are learning to prepare
them for life in the real world;
o They must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning;
 o They must be flexible in how they teach; and
o They must excite learners to become more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside formal
school.
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 and interdependently. The
curriculum and instruction are designed imbued with concept of differentiation. Thus, instead of focusing on
textbook-driven or fragmented instruction, instructions turn 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. Our traditional notion of learning environments has centered
mainly on places and spaces. It’s natural to associate the quality of our learning with the quality of our learning
environments, but a fancy building with big LCD monitors and gigabit Ethernet may not be a 21st century school
at all. In fact, an effective learning environment doesn’t have to be a particular place or space. Effective learning
environments do not limit themselves to time or space, but comprise a variety of support systems that take into
consideration the ways in which we learn best as well as the unique learning needs of each student.
Today’s classrooms look very different from those of the past. Students do not necessarily sit in rows of desks;
teachers are as often working alongside students as lecturing in front of them. In many schools, students enjoy
the luxury of a laptop for every learner. Learning environments today need to embrace the variety of places, ideas,
and people that the modern world demands and reflect a flexibility of space, time, people, and technology.
Physical learning environments need to sustain and promote multiple modes of students learning, supporting both
individual and group work, providing space for presentation and exploration, promoting interaction and a sense
of community, and fostering both formal and informal learning.
Expanding our notion of learning environments to encompass more than physical space allows us to provide
students with more opportunities for meaningful learning. Whether students are working in their communities to
tackle problems through internships and service projects, or networking with peers using social networking tools
to gather and share data on global issues, our learners are acquiring knowledge in a context that is meaningful
and taking responsibility for their own learning. We are finding out that powerful learning is happening outside
of schools through online learning, community service, and internships.
Technology can help seamlessly support a 21st century learning environment by blending physical and digital
arrangements. This often includes online course work, access to outside experts, and the wealth of information in
the online community. One-to-one technology, ubiquitous networking, and exciting new tools like Wixie allow
students to turn ANY environment into a learning environment.
To be prepared for the world of the 21st century, students need to be inspired. Peers, teachers, educators, parents,
entrepreneurs, and civic leaders can all provide the human component necessary to encourage students to become
intellectual risk-takers and creative problem solvers. We need to praise students for generating ideas and
encourage innovative thinking, and we must challenge students to push further to refine their most unique ideas
into high-quality projects.
Each school is a unique amalgamation of leadership, instructional strategies, and teaching talents that meets the
learning needs of its community. The belief that every child deserves and wants to learn, and the commitment to
achieve that goal, is shared throughout all effective school communities.
There is no single right answer to developing a 21st century learning environment, but expanding our notions
beyond the spatial and temporal restraints of our school building and school day will help us truly provide
environments that support anytime, anywhere learning
(https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v09/articles/Developing_21st_Century_Learning_Environments)
 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
the students in creating opportunities for their knowledge explorations.
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. The 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).
21st Century Skills Outcome and the Demands in the Job Market. The 21st century skills are a set of
abilities that students need to develop to succeed in the information age. The Partnership for 21 st Century Skills
lists three types, namely: (1) Learning Skills which comprises critical thinking, creative thinking, collaborating,
and communicating; (2) Literacy Skills which is composed of information literacy, media literacy, and media
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.
According to Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), various industries look for employees who can
think critically, solve problems creatively, innovative, 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 21 st 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.
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 the 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 that reflect a changing world. The
purpose of school should be 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 vision for the future and how they want to get there.
Thus, a clear articulation of the purpose of education for the 21 st century is the place to begin
(http://thoughtfullearning.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 Taxonomy, Higher order thinking skills (metacognition), such as
such as knowledge and comprehension application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation
Passive learning Active learning
Textbook-driven Research-driven
Learners work in isolation and confined in the Learners work collaboratively with classmates and
classroom (walled classroom). others around the world (global classroom)
Techer-centered: teacher is dispenser of knowledge, Student-centered: teacher is facilitator/coach of
information and attention. students’ learning.
Little to no student freedom Great deal of student freedom
“Discipline problem” – No trust between educators No “discipline problems” – Students and teachers
and students. Little student motivation. have mutual respect and relationship 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 purposes evidence of learning outcome
Assessment is for making purposes and placed as part Assessment is important aspect of instruction to
of lesson plan structure gauge learning outcome
Low expectations. What students receive is what they High expectations that students succeed in learning to
get. high extent.
Teacher is judge. No one else sees student work. Self, peer and others serve as evaluators of student
Outputs are assessed using structured metrics. learning using wide range of 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 media
assessment. are used for learning and assessment.
Student diversity is ignored. Curriculum and instruction address student diversity.
Student just follow orders and instructions while Students are empowered to lead and initiate while
listening to a teacher’s lecture. creating solutions and solving problems.
Literacy is the 3 R’s (reading, writing and ‘rithmetic). Multiple literacies of the 21st century aligned to
living and working in a globalized new society.
Factory model, based upon the needs of employers Global model based upon the needs of a globalized
th
for the industrial Age of the 19 century high-tech society
(Source: http://www.21stCenturySchools.com/)
The paradigm shift from 20th to the 21st century, shows that the structure and modalities of education
have evolved. Student become the center of teaching-learning process in the 21st 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 a way that it connects to life in the real world, interconnected
with other disciplines and reshapes the students’ holistic perspectives.
 Education continuously changes dramatically
throughout time. There is a paradigm shift in the
way teaching and learning is delivered. Therefore,
the 21st century teacher needs to develop essential
knowledge, skills and values in order to cope with
these changes and address students’ need (21 st
Century Schools, 2011).
1. Integrated and Interdisciplinary
Nowadays, knowledge is no longer distinctly
divided into clear-cut learning chunks or separate
subjects. Education in the 21st century is
characterized by linkages among various subject
areas in an integrated manner. The new approach
promotes the utilization of learning from various disciplines.
This critical attribute implies that teachers need to review the school curriculum and identify strategies or ways
on how different subjects can be effectively linked to enhance the learning experiences of students.

For example, music and algebra can be linked together in the discussion of fractions. The time signature of music
uses fractions; as such, you, as a good teacher, can certainly apply this to both your music or math classes.
2. Technologies and Multimedia
Education in the 21st century makes full use of available Information and Communication Technology, or ICT
(e.g., computers and the internet) as well as multimedia (e.g., using audio- and video-based instruction) to improve
teaching and learning activities. The ability to find, evaluate, utilize, and create information using technologies
and multimedia, or digital technology in general, is referred to as digital literacy. As a teacher, some of your day-
to-day activities – writing reports, creating multimedia presentations, and communicating or exchanging
information with your colleagues and students online – require different levels of digital literacy. As such, it is
important for you to develop your digital literacy skills so that you can in turn pass these on to your learners.
This critical attribute implies that your school will need to acquire and use computers and various multimedia
equipment to enhance learning to the best extent possible. Training is also needed for teacher-users as part of a
bigger “technology plan.”
3. Global Classrooms
Education in the 21st century aims to produce global citizens by exposing students to the concerns of the region
and other countries. They are encouraged to react and respond to issues as part of their roles as global citizens.
This critical attribute implies that teachers 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 only happen inside the school and
during one’s schooling years. Learning can take place anywhere, anytime, regardless of one’s age.
This means that teachers should facilitate students’ acquisition of KSAVs that go beyond academics. Learning
should take place not only for the purpose of passing exams, but also for transferring knowledge to real life
situations. The curriculum should be planned in such a way that the students will continue to learn even outside
the school’s portals.
5. Student-Centered
Education in the 21st century is focused on students as learners. It is tailor-fit to address the individual learning
needs of each student. Differentiated instruction is common in 21st century classrooms, where diverse student
factors are taken into account when planning and delivering instruction. You, as a teacher, can structure learning
environments that address the variety of learning styles, interests, needs, and abilities found in your classroom.
This critical attribute implies that teachers should act as facilitators of learning — not as “sages on the stage” but
as “guides on the side.” Learners should be given opportunities to discover new knowledge, learn with one
another, and create their own learnings.
6. 21st Century Skills
Education in the 21st century promotes the skills needed to be productive members of today’s society. It is not
enough for students to learn the basic skills of reading, writing, and numeracy, but should develop in themselves
skills that would help them cope with life and work in 21st century communities. These skills include, among
others, critical and creative thinking skills, problem solving and decision making, and ICT literacy and skills. As
a teacher, you are expected to possess these 21st century skills before you can help your students develop these
skills.
7. Project-Based and Research-Driven
Among the critical attributes of 21st century education is the emphasis on data, information, and evidence-based
decision making. It relies heavily on student-driven activities to encourage active learning. This implies that
teachers of the 21st century need to be knowledgeable about research to guide their students’ learning through
self-directed activities, such as learning projects within and outside their classrooms. Investigatory projects
showcased in many science fairs across Southeast Asia and in the world are examples of research-based activities
of students.

8. Relevant, Rigorous and Real-world

Education in the 21st century is meaningful because it is rooted in real life day-to-day activities of learners. It can
be applied to the realities of the present and includes what students need to develop to enable them to become
productive members of the 21st century.
This critical attribute implies that topics are taught using current and relevant information and linked to real-life
situations and context. As a 21st century teacher, you need to be updated on the current trends, developments,
and issues in your school, community, and in the world, so that your teaching will be relevant to the lives of your
students. Newspapers, TV and radio news, and the internet are good sources of relevant and up-to-date
information that you can access. (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, teacher should
be able to cope with and adapt to these changes.
Thus, teachers must be equipped with attributes, knowledge
and skills critical to 21st century education so that they may be able to
integrate them in
their teaching. 21st
Century teachers
are characterized as:
1. Multi-Literate. Multi-literate teachers know how to
use various technologies in teaching.
2. Multi-Specialist. Multi- specialist teachers are not
only knowledgeable in the subject area they are teaching
but in other areas as well so that they can help the learner
build up what they gain in classrooms and outside the
school and make sense of what was learned.
3. Multiskilled. For teachers to cope with the demand
for widening learning opportunities, they must be skillful
not just in teaching but also in facilitating, organizing groups and activities.
4. Self-directed. Teachers who are responsible in various aspects of school life must know how to initiate
action and bring to fruition the learning goals of the students and the educational goals of the country.
5. Lifelong learner. For 21st century teachers, learning never ends. Teachers must be constantly updated
on the latest information related to their subject and the trends in pedagogy. Moreover, they should also
be sharing and applying what they are learning with their students and colleagues.
6. Flexible. 21st century education is student-centered. Thus, teachers must be able to adapt to various
learning styles and needs of the learners. Teachers must also be flexible enough to ensure that learning
takes place all the time using alternative modes.
7. Creative problem solver. .Problems will be there inside the classroom and within the school. Teachers
must be there to offer innovative ideas and creative solutions to problems.
8. Critical thinker. Teachers need to be critical thinkers so that they could stir students to think about
what they have learned, ask questions, reason out, probe, and establish their own knowledge and belief.
9. Has passion for excellent teaching. Having the passion to teach effectively ensures that students learn
under the care and guidance of a teacher. Ordinary teachers merely talk and give instruction to students,
but excellent teachers have a passion that motivates students to learn and succeed in life., and most of all
with
10. High Emotional Quotient (EQ). 21st century teachers must not only have the head but also the heart to
teach. Teaching is an emotionally taxing and influential job as it involves interaction with human beings.
This demands that negative emotions be held in check to avoid intimidating students, thus stunting
learning. On the other hand, teaching also demands for some level of emotional connections to create an
environment conducive to learning.
(udyong.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4840:the-attributes-of-a-21st-
century-teacher&catid=90&Itemid=1267)

Common 21st Century Technology Tools for Learning

As a teacher for the 21st century, no one can escape from the
reality that we are now in 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.
1. Affinity Groups. These are groups or communities that
unite 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 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” comes 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 21st century.
7. Myspace (http://www.Myspace.com). 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 (http://www.secondlife.com). It is an 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. The Semantic Web is a vision about an extension of the existing World Wide Web, which
provides software programs with machine-interpretable metadata of the published information and data.
In other words, we add further data descriptors to otherwise existing content and data on the Web. As a
 result, computers are able to make meaningful interpretations similar to the way humans process
information to achieve their goals.
10. Webkinz (http:www.webkinz.com). 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
(http://www.wikipedia.org), 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 complied, processed, transacted and analyzed.
14. Prezi. It allows individuals to use pre-made, creative presentation templates.
15. Social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Edmodo, Schoology, Instagram, etc.). these are means to
communicate and share ideas among users.
16. Easybib. It allows individuals to generate citations in any given format.
17. Smartboards and audience response systems. These are replacement for traditional chalkboards or
whiteboards in classrooms.
18. ReadWriteThink.org. (www.readwritethink.org). it is a repository of standards-based literacy lessons that
offer teachers instructional ideas for internet integration.
19. WebQuest Page (www.webquest.org). it provides webquests on an array of topics across content areas
with a template for creating one’s own.
20. Literacy Web (htttp://www.literacy.uconn.edu). it is an online portal that includes a large number of new
literacy’s resources for new literacies for teachers. (http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_glossary.html#t)

Module 1 Activity Sheets

Name: __________________________________ Subject: Building & Enhancing New Literacies
Across the Curriculum
Subject Facilitator: Dhareen O. Laguing, MAT

Test I. Essay.
1. Describe the 21st Century teacher and discuss some innovative tools for learning?
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Test 2. Multiple Choice. Read and analyze each item carefully. Choose and encircle the letter of the best
answer.
1. The following concepts refer to the implications of the 21st Century education for teachers EXCEPT one.
Which is the exception?
a. Teachers must maintain students’ interest by helping them see the connection of what they learn for
life with the real world.
b. Teachers must instill curiosity in students because it is fundamental to lifelong learning.
c. Teachers must be consistent in how they teach.
d. Teachers must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn
outside the formal school.

2. The new breed of teachers takes advantage of technology that enables them to understand, integrate,
create, communicate and compute printed and written materials. Which best describes the 21 st Century
teacher?
a. Multiliterate
b. Multiskilled
c. Multispecialist
d. Multitasked

3. The following are contexts and perspectives of 21st Century education as a paradigm shift from that of the
20th Century, EXCEPT one. Which one is the exception?
a. Integrated and interdisciplinary
b. Technology and multimedia-driven
c. Global classroom-oriented
d. Relevant and real-world

4. The lesson presented in class must be selected and designed to respond to the learners’ life survival today
and his career preparation in the future. This implies which critical attribute of the 21 st century education?
a. Integrated and interdisciplinary
b. Technology and multimedia-driven
c. Global classroom-oriented
d. Relevant and real-world

5. In the context of 21st Century education, the teachers and the learners are branded as digital immigrants
and digital natives, respectively. How will you differentiate them in terms of aspects?
a. Thinking style: The teachers think randomly, while the learners, sequentially.
b. Learning perspective: The teachers prefer experiencing, while the learners opt for intellectualization.
c. Use of senses: The teachers utilize emotion and touch, while the learners, hearing and seeing.
d. Manner of response: The teachers tend to reflect, while the learners usually react.