Education in the 21st Century: Part 1-the 4 cornerstones

According to the Oxford Language Dictionary: a cornerstone is an important quality or feature on which a particular thing depends or is based.

The education system is shaking due to the fact that the cornerstones upon which it is built are outdated, as was observed last year.

Schooling itself relied on a specific set of cornerstones of learning: instruction, curriculum, assessment, and environment.

So let`s take it one by one: instructions

What is the definition of instruction in education?

The deliberate arrangement of activities (including presentation, practice, feedback, and assessment) designed to facilitate achieving specific learning outcomes

After observing and analyzing kids between 3 and 10 years of age for the past decade, we have concluded that these above cornerstones must be fundamentally altered

To improve the quality and quantity of learning, we developed programs tailored to meet the changes in the learners’ evolution. These programs demonstrated immediate benefit and an improvement in the quality and quantity of learning.

In 21st-century learning, the four cornerstones have changed: learning now entails thinking and researching for solutions so that we can solve problems!

Learning this kind of structure will prepare and provide the right set of skills to learners and prepare them for the future workplace as well as prepare them to pursue and develop their own ideas about solving the problems of the future.

These are the 4 cornerstones of 21st-century learning:

We need to STOP using the outdated four cornerstones of learning: instruction, curriculum, assessment, and environment.

What is wrong with instructions?

In our experience, if students simply follow instructions, they spend a lot of time practicing without ever understanding what they are doing.

Quite often, teachers simply give them instructions and expect them to follow, without checking if they understand. For instance, ask your student to think about what they need to do to follow your instructions. They will not know what “thinking” is or what it entails. It was never explained to them how the thinking process works, they only learned to follow instructions.

Another issue with the curriculum is that it is outdated.

Count the number of books, fairy tales, and countless novels set in a world that may seem inconceivable to today’s generation.

The curriculum dates mostly from before 2000, and the way it is arranged, the vocabulary is outdated. As they are designed for physical books, they have no dynamics and cannot be simply uploaded into the digital world. We need to adapt them so that students born after 2000, the children of today, can understand and relate to them. There is a need for a curriculum that challenges the Alpha generation born after the year 2010.

A similar problem exists with assessment methods.

Using technology has made it easier to assess students, correct them, and find resources and new methods

Last but not least, the school environment has evolved from a teacher-centered environment to a more sophisticated one, each with its own unique characteristics.

Learning environments can be today: student- or learner-centered; knowledge-centered; assessment-centered, and community-centered.

Where and how do we transfer these old and outdated cornerstones?

Compared to 20 years ago, the transition can no longer be soft.

There was a window in March of 2019 during the lockdown and the next summer for adjusting the new learning process to the new cornerstones.

Yet, instead of this, the focus was still on giving instructions through a screen for long hours, delivering the same curriculum that was already outdated, and assessing the students through paperwork that was collected and delivered back to the school offices without considering how the ENVIRONMENT has changed drastically.

Teachers, parents, and students were convinced that we should return to “normal”, a normal shaped by struggle and underperformance.

Despite the fact that we all update our phones regularly and understand that we can’t use them efficiently if we don’t, why can’t we appreciate that continuing to push an outdated educational system is not preparing the next generation for the skills they need?

Adding a new cornerstone is all that needs to be done to replace the old one.

It is 20 years too late with a technology that is advancing at light speed: do we fall behind?

Yes and no!

There is a reason that we do not understand how a lot of things work. But there is also a reason that technology is now in a phase where most of the products developed do not require a high degree of programming background.

By combining the existing technologies as well as the ability to collect, analyze data, which is the currency of the future, we will be able to simplify everyday tasks and solve problems.

“There are billions of connected devices and embedded systems that create, collect and share a wealth of IoT data analytics every day, all over the world.”

We have found that students today are fascinated by data.

As part of our typing program in the classrooms, we used an app to measure progress, typing speed, and also practice time. During the introduction, all students appeared excited, but they weren’t prepared to practice on the app. The stars and badges they After seeing the data, they became more motivated to practice. The results were visible, the progress was evident, and the process was understood. By now, they were interested, and I was sharing the progress with them every week, which motivated them. The students could type at the requested word/minute speed by the end of the semester, their spelling improved, and they were performing better during testing since they knew how to use the keyboard and could focus solely on reading and understanding the questions and easily navigate on their keyboards. received from the app did not motivate them since they felt trapped and forced into repetitive activities. With the app’s teacher dashboard, I was monitoring the students’ progress and was impressed at how 10 minutes of practice every day made a big difference. I shared this data with them one day, telling them how impressed I was. They became more motivated to practice after seeing the data. They saw the results, saw the progress, and understood the process. They now were interested and I was weekly sharing the progress with them, and this motivated them. By the end of a semester, all students were able to type at the requested word/minute speed or above, their spelling improved and they were performing better during testing as they know how to use the keyboard and had to focus only on the reading and understanding of the questions and easily navigate on their keyboards.

Still, I am upset that students are using laptops to learn and typing to answer questions and that keyboarding and touch-typing are not being taught.

There is still a greater emphasis on handwriting versus typing

Yes, the “for handwriting” argument is one that is generally imbued with nostalgia, and for some people even a fear of something so familiar going out of popularity.

I ran across this article that explains why handwriting is important, so I will fill in why most of what it states is outdated!.

“This of course means that students need to formally learn how to touch type in class. This doesn’t indicate, however, that it should entirely replace handwriting instruction. The two are equally essential skills. /no they are not/ No matter how pervasive text-language and keyboard-based devices will become in the next 20 years, handwriting will still be required for things like signatures, / e-signatures already replace this/ paying by check, / my note; checks become e-check already/ my note: writing thank you notes,/ sending e-cards/ and jotting down grocery lists. “

We have apps and our fridge also sends us messages with the full list of produce we need to buy, makes price comparisons, and tells us where the closest store is and people can type notes into their phone to be stored.

Today, the art of calligraphy is a way of handwriting, and in thought like that, it can also remain common for a long time.

It is crucial to change the way we think about education by accepting that learning is a constant process, as we face changes every day as we go through life.

What can we do to help our students become lifelong learners?

In the next blog, we will share with you the 4C*S of continuous learning and how we can incorporate them into our everyday learning.

Curiosity, creativity, courage, and collaboration are the 4 C`s!

Follow me on Medium, and let’s prepare for an amazing future filled with knowledge and fun!

In Futurum,

/ A Latin phrase that means into the future/

Katy