Project-based learning, interactive engagement, and real-life relevance are among some of the most important characteristics that today’s teaching should contain. Teachers know they need to adapt their teaching styles and approaches to better relate to today’s students and facilitate a true 21st century education. So, here’s how you can do just that!
Brushing Up on Project-based Teaching
When it comes to hands-on interactivity in the classroom, it’s not only up to students to engage in learning that’s project-based. While this is, of course, a very beneficial way of building 21st century learners, it’s also only one piece of that puzzle. We all tend to think that project-based learning is a student-only activity, but it has come to grow to be much more inclusive for teachers in a way that almost demands their participation. Project-based learning is known to have a discernable impact on student learning as opposed to traditional teaching methods. A lot of that success has to do with the ways that teachers create, enhance and apply their project-based initiatives.
While there is no clear definition for what teachers must do during their project-based lessons, their participation is crucial for ensuring students are receiving an optimal learning experience. This starts with carefully considered content selection, building the right culture to cater to their unique class of students, managing that class effectively, offering instruction, conducting meaningful assessments and coaching their students as often as possible. To foster a well-oiled PBL machine, teachers must continually work to enhance each of these areas. Research has shown that about 95 percent of teacher actions improve the learning experience of children. Since project-based learning is extremely active, meaning that the teacher is constantly moving around and engaging learners, their actions should have an even greater positive effect on students.
It’s simultaneously important for educators to remember that good teaching is so much more than knowing how to use instructional techniques. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly important that teachers know when to use a certain approach, often mixing and matching to offer on-the-fly personalization and feedback. Great teachers are able to find the perfect balance between student-centered learning and teacher-centered teaching. Project-based learning provides the best opportunities for this marriage to be made as it combines multiple learning strategies (cooperative learning, peer tutoring, self-monitoring) to create a full-circle learning experience. This experience includes instruction, resources, evaluation and feedback all organized by a driving question that gives students plenty of opportunities to have their voices heard while they work to develop 21st century skills.
Using Makerspaces to Help Teach the Design Process
Design skills are important for kids to have as they navigate the STEM world and look for ways to creatively showcase their innovation skills from a young age. Makerspaces are actually a great way to transform traditional learning into experiences that unlock new ways of thinking while enhancing the curriculum rather than straying from it. Since 21st century problem solving entails a carefully thought out design process, Maker Education can be a brilliant way to hone those skills early. The best part about trying the maker approach is that it works in the classroom during the school day or fits perfectly into afterschool clubs and even summer camps.
One of the best strategies when it comes to makerspace learning is for teachers to make sure they appeal to and actively activate students’ prior knowledge. This includes prior knowledge of how to use technology as well as what they already know about STEM concepts. It’s good to start by surveying students to gauge who has tried out the design process before, whether in building projects for school or constructing activities with their toys. They’ll start to realize what processes they naturally tend to go through when solving problems and teachers can try to correct their thinking (when applicable) to incorporate the 21st century skills they’ve been learning in class!
A STEM-centered design process is a lot like the scientific method, something that children have been exposed to since the early grades. Seeing the elements of each process (perhaps by drawing a Venn diagram) can help students gauge the similarities and apply the steps into practice. One of the major differences between the two, however, is that, in the design process, there is not necessarily a right or wrong approach to problem solving; children are more so encouraged to creatively explore learning rather than read about how to learn and then try that way. Ultimately, this innovative way of teaching gets kids coming up with new ideas, realizing how and why they conceived those ideas, how their ideas work in action and why their ideas are awesome—which is more fun than the scientific method if you ask us!
Teachers Teaming Up to Improve Teaching
Sure, most teachers probably spend at least a couple hours every week bouncing ideas off their peers, looking for any bit of an edge in the teaching game. Usually, in these collaborative yet informal meetings, they leave with something new in mind to try the next day, the next week or the next school year. Teachers can probably attest to this happening almost every day. Collaboration among educators is nothing new, but the way that collaboration is happening is starting to take a different shape. Instead of these informal meetings, teachers are inviting other educators into their classrooms to offer support and, well, to just observe.
Teachers sitting in on each other’s classes has the same purpose as the informal meetings—to observe how other their peers teach and leave with fresh ideas for their own classes. Well, that and observing how students learn. If a teacher has an interesting style for illustrating a concept, then that’s great, but when teachers can pick up on characteristics of students—especially those they may have in their classroom the next year—they find real value in these exercises. When sitting in on a class, teachers should make note of the strategies kids are using to gather information, remember it and apply it as well as how they discuss their ideas in small groups—both of which are important to their development.
Professional development like this happens during the actual school day more than you probably think and is commonly referred to as lesson study. It also helps the teacher who is teaching as the teachers who are observing can monitor student tendencies since the teacher cannot notice everything every student does throughout the class. Once the class is over, the teacher team can discuss what they saw, identify common trends and start coming up with ideas for how to improve engagement and problem solving. This kind of collaborative environment lets teachers see what influences their students and, more importantly, allows them to tailor future lessons to better suit their learners.
The Essential Elements of Modern Innovative Teaching
The days of popcorn reading and Power Point slides are over and done with (hopefully). In most education systems around the world, teachers have abandoned the boring and embarked on more innovative, interactive and inclusive ways of educating their students. Since the world has changed so much in just the last 10 years (a lot of which has to do with technology), students today don’t learn in the same way as students did a decade ago. They’re familiar with and proficient at using new media for learning and teachers are beginning to realize that they must connect with them in ways that are conducive to the tools that they use. Times have changed and teachers must adapt to a new classroom.
Despite the new world we live in, there will still be disengaged students who educators need to save from falling through the cracks. They need to approach this differently and meet kids where they are in order to reach them—similar to how they would be teaching them in the first place. Teachers should spend some one-on-one time with these students and determine some ways in which they will try to motivate them. Suspensions are not a very effective way of increasing academic performance, so different approaches are recommended. There’s also the distraction factor to consider. With all the tech gadgets that kids use today, they can get caught up in non-academic endeavors in the classroom. The best way to combat this is simple: make sure that kids don’t have the time or the interest in navigating away from class content because that content is so engaging and personally interesting to them.
Modern teachers need to get creative in the ways in which they reach students, essentially requiring them to break away from the status quo. Doing the same old thing time and time again is futile and doesn’t do much to help either the teacher or the student. Rather, teachers should embrace systems that allow their students to take ownership of their learning instead of a monotonous day-to-day routine. Innovative teachers need to move past any fears of technology and instruct their students to do the same while also remaining safe and efficient. And, if you’re going to be an innovative teacher in today’s system, you’ll need to make the most out of the time you have both in and out of the classroom. Whether during in-class instruction or pre-class planning, a modern teacher is nothing if not efficient.
10 Traits of 21st Century Teaching
Teaching—like learning—has evolved a great deal over the last century with much of that evolution taking place in the last 10 or 20 years alone. The best ways of teaching share traits such as strategic communication with students, making learning experiential and incorporating technology. The ways that teachers teach have changed slightly, but technology isn’t here to create a complete overhaul. Tech in teaching can unlock those 21st century skill sets that children need to succeed in the modern world. Most importantly, technology tends to enable or enhance the things that today’s top teachers need to be—and do—every single day.
The best way for teachers to facilitate 21st century classrooms is to focus on project-based learning rather than static learning. It’s hands-on, collaborative, student-centered and provides real-world context for students. This kind of work also allows for students to take ownership and engage in new ways, a second characteristic of 21st century teaching. That results in kids giving extra motivation and having a lot more pride in the work they submit. Teachers also need to practice collaborative teaching in order to get fresh ideas and cooperative learning in order to gauge the effectiveness of new methods. It’s also important for educators to be leaders of change and establish community partnerships through their project-based initiatives.
Beyond the classroom, teachers should find a way to have a greater voice in curriculum design, incorporating project-based learning as much as possible. They also need to be familiar with the technology they are using in instruction, meaning that professional development frequency should be increased. Teachable moments, which are often not part of the curriculum, appear often, and 21st century teachers need to be ready to take advantage of them, often altering their lessons slightly and in real-time to cater to student input. Sharing is becoming a large part of modern education and teachers should give kids the opportunity to share their work with their peers, families and the greater community. And, finally, they still need to be fun. If you’d like to learn more about innovative teaching in the 21st century, stop by our presentation at the Massachusetts Teachers Association Summer Conference on Aug. 2!
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