Emerging model:
Twenty-first century learning

A convention visiter explores the teaching capabilities of the Kidspix Deluxe 3X learning tool.

From July 5-7, I attended the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in San Diego, California. The ISTE is well known among scholars in the field of information and communication technology in education. Five hundred vendors presented products and tools related to students' learning. The software and hardware ranged from digital books to dedicated equipment that focus on how students in the twenty-first century can learn better.

It was interesting to see how the education focus in the twenty-first century is moving from teachers' teaching to students' learning. Nonetheless, the focus on students' learning has its origins in the roots of pedagogy itself. The exhibitions definitely shed light on how readily twenty-first century learning has spread all over the globe.

Numerous corporate partners who share the vision of the twenty-first century learning model on education - such as Oracle Education Foundation, Intel Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Texas Instruments, American Federation of Teachers and other associations - also share an understanding and common language for this emerging education trend. It is this joint effort that is conducting extensive research on twenty-first century learning skills. Although the vision heavily emphasises improving the efficacy of American high schools, Thailand could also benefit from the results of the sustained and comprehensive efforts of socially responsible American corporations that contribute to education and its development on both domestic and international levels.

Six elements

What is twenty-first century learning? It has at its core six elements that help students learn better, which are: twenty-first century content; learning and thinking skills; ICT literacy; life skills; and twenty-first century assessment.

The core subjects are comparable to the subjects specified in the Thai curriculum, such as language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, etc. Twenty-first century content is interesting because the areas focused on are critical to the success of communities and workplaces, for example, global awareness, and civic and entrepreneurial literacy.

Students need to learn and think critically. They must also make effective and innovative use of what they learn throughout their lives.

The learning and thinking skills are critical-thinking, problem-solving, communication, creativity, collaboration, and information and media literacy skills. Students must be ICT literate so they can use technology to help them learn content and other skills. This will enable them to learn effectively, think critically, solve problems holistically, and utilise information efficiently.

It can be said that highly qualified teachers incorporate life skills into their pedagogy. Therefore, life skills - leadership, ethics, self-direction, and social responsibility - are intricate parts of the twenty-first century learning model. The last piece of the puzzle for twenty-first century learning is assessment. It has to be approached carefully because standardised tests can measure only a few of the important skills and only certain types of knowledge students learn.

Effective classroom assessment - such as class observation and peer evaluation, and project assessment - must be utilised. Therefore, even the assessment paradigm is challenged by twenty-first century learning.

How each society perceives and pursues education development must contextualise the methods of students' learning in that society. On one hand, twenty-first century learning illustrates important elements to guide our educational development. It demands a flexible framework and collective efforts keep current our trends in education.

More information on twenty-first century skills can be found on www.twenty-firstcenturyskills.org .