Modern Teaching Practice

In the 1960’s students were taught like this:

Because they were being prepared for jobs like this:

Historically many schools were based around the needs of employers - schools mainly existed to prepare students immediately for the workforce (21^st Century Schools, 2008). Modern schools do much more than prepare students for jobs . The Mission of Christchurch Boys' High School is to educate fine young men toward outstanding achievement. Many modern schools have a dual focus of supporting students to achieve academically and also to help their students to be good citizens. Attempting to prepare students for the workforce is an outdated and could potentially become an impossible task for schools. Zappa (2012) suggests that up to 65% of today’s secondary school aged students will end up at jobs that haven’t been invented yet. In order to help students to prepare for an uncertain future, several authours have written about the skills needed for the 21^st century secondary school graduate. The Global Achievement Gap by Wagner (2010) advocates the following seven skills for 21^st Century citizens:

·        Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
·        Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence
·        Agility and Adaptability
·        Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
·        Effective Oral and Written Communication
·        Accessing and Analyzing Information
·        Curiosity and Imagination


All teaching in New Zealand is guided by the New Zealand Curriculum and it makes clear statements of what is important in education. “We want our young people to be lifelong learners who are confident and creative, connected, and actively involved” (Ministry of Education 2007, p4). Among other things, the New Zealand Curriculum believes students should be resourceful, enterprising and entrepreneurial, able to relate well to others, effective users of communication tools, members of communities, international citizens, participants in a range of life contexts, contributors to the well-being of New Zealand – social, cultural, economic, and environmental, critical and creative thinkers, active seekers, users, and creators of knowledge, and informed decision makers (Ministry of Education, 2007).

Class room design can have a considerable impact on educating young people (Walker, Brooks & Baepler 2011; Barrett, Zhang, Moffat & Kobbacy, 2012) and in the example below it would appear that the environment would be conducive to encourage students to communicate freely with each other, to be creative, connected and relate to others.

Technology and eLearning can also play a major role to equip students with 21^st century skills. Teaching and learning with technology can encourage students to be effective users of communication tools, to be members of communities, to collaborate and to be international citizens.

However, classroom design or technology alone are not an end in themselves, (Imms, in press). The greatest impact on student performance is the teacher (Hattie, 2013, Wayne & Youngs, 2003). The New Zealand Curriculum (2007) states students learn best when teachers:

 ·        create a supportive learning environment
·        encourage reflective thought and action
·        enhance the relevance of new learning
·        facilitate shared learning
·        make connections to prior learning and experience
·        provide sufficient opportunities to learn
·        inquire into the teaching–learning relationship


There have been significant changes in education and pedagogy since the publication of the New Zealand Curriculum in 2007. The implementation of Bring Your Own Device teaching and Modern Learning Environments are just two examples of how teachers have adapted their teaching practice. The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) recently drew together more than ten years of national and international research on the future of learning. The research identified key themes for a connected and coherent future-oriented learning. Themes include a commitment to personalising learning, a curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity, the rethinking of learners’ and teachers’ roles, and the forging of new partnerships with the wider community. Teaching students in the 21^st Century is an exciting and uncertain task. The modern teacher faces many demands which were not previously encountered in the 1960’s. Teaching every student as an individual, teaching global citizenship and preparing for students for an uncertain future are significant challenges for modern teachers. “Twenty first century education must be future orientated and adaptable to meet the learning demands of an increasingly complex world” Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd, & Hipkins, (2012).

REFERENCES

21^st Century Schools (2008). Retrieved from: http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/what_is_21st_century_education.htm

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012).Supporting future-oriented learning & teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Hattie, J. (2013). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge

Imms, W. (in press). Occupying curriculum as space. In K. Fisher (Ed.) The Translational Design of Schools – an Evidence Based Approach to Aligning Pedagogy and Learning Environment Design (pp. 180-) Amsterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishing.

Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand curriculum.

Wagner, T. (2010). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need--and what we can do about it. Basic Books. Chicago. Wayne, A. J., & Youngs, P. (2003). Teacher characteristics and student achievement gains: A review. Review of Educational research, 73(1), 89-122 Zapper (2012). Retrieved from: https://ingbrief.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/mapping-the-future-of-education-technology-infographic-by-michell-zappa-patrick-james-aug-16-2012-fastcoexist-com/