ED 110 Module 1: 21st Century Education Contexts PDF

**Teacher Education Department** First Semester A.Y 2025-2026 **ED 110: BUILDING AND ENHANCING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM** **[Module 1: 21^st^ Century Education Contexts]** **Discussants:** Belencion, Mary Rose Paeste, Sandralyn B. Ma'am Dhalyn V. Natividad Flores, Dhanelie ***(Cou...

**Teacher Education Department** First Semester A.Y 2025-2026 **ED 110: BUILDING AND ENHANCING NEW LITERACIES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM** **[Module 1: 21^st^ Century Education Contexts]** **Discussants:** Belencion, Mary Rose Paeste, Sandralyn B. Ma'am Dhalyn V. Natividad Flores, Dhanelie ***(Course Facilitator)*** ***(BSEd Social Studies-3)*** **Topics:** - 21^st^ Century Education Contexts - The Critical Attributes of 21^st^ Century Education - The Characteristics of a 21^st^ Century Teacher - Common 21^st^ Century Technology Tools for Learning **Introduction** This modern society is ushered in by a dramatic technological revolution. It is an increasingly diverse, globalized and complex media-saturated society. 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 the local, national and global levels by participating in real-life and real-world service-learning projects. Emerging technologies and resulting globalization also provide unlimited possibilities for exciting discoveries and developments. **In this chapter, you are expected to:** - Define 21^st^ Century education; - Describe the 21^st^ Century teacher and the needed innovative tools learning; - Examine the critical attributes of 21^st^ Century education; - Explain how 21^st^ Century education concepts can be integrated in the classroom ; and - Share relevant life lessons and significant values from the experience in practicing 21^st^ Century education. **Learning Targets** At the end of this lesson, you are expected to: - Define 21^st^ Century education; - Describe the 21^st^ Century teacher and the needed innovative tools learning; - Understand what makes education in the 21^st^ Century different; - Explain how 21^st^ Century education concepts can be integrated in the classroom ; and - Drawn relevant life lessons and significant values from the experience in practicing 21^st^ Century education. **21^st^ Century Education Contexts** **21^st^ Century Schools.** Schools in the 21^st^ century focus on a project-based curriculum for life that would engage students in 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 the 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 21^st^ 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. These changes have implications for teachers: (1) Teachers must discover student interest by helping them see what and how they are learning to prepare them for life in the real world; (2) They must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning; (3) They must be flexible in how they teach; and (4) They must excite learners to become more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside formal school. 21^st^ Century learning demands a school that excites students for school. There is a little or no discipline problem because of strong student engagement. Likewise, parents are informed about positive changes in their children. As a result, students manifest significant improvement in basic skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening, researching, scientific explorations, math, multimedia skills and others. **The 21^st^ 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. The classroom is filled with self-directed students, who work independently and interdependently. The curriculum and instruction are designed imbued with the concept of differentiation. Thus, instead of focusing on textbook-driven or fragmented instruction, instruction turns 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/21^st^-century-skills). Learning is not confined through memorization of facts in figure alone but rather is connected to previous knowledge, personal experience, interests, talents and habits. **The 21^st^ Century Learning Environment.** Typically, a 21^st^ Century classroom is not confined to a literal classroom building but a learning environment where students collaborate with their peers, exchange insights, coach and mentor one another and share talents and skills with other students. Cooperative learning is also apparent in which students work in teams because cooperation is given more emphasis than competition, and collaborative learning more than isolated learning. They use technologies, including internet systems and other platforms. Hence, in the process of creating a world-class 21^st^ Century learning environment, building new schools and remodeling of present school facilities can be addressed toward creating environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, "green" schools. Inside every classroom, students shall apply their knowledge of research in life, which is a clear indication of a relevant, rigorous, 21^st^ Century real-life curriculum. An ideal learning environment also considers the kind of spaces needed by students and teachers in conducting investigations and projects by diverse groups for independent work. An ideal learning environment has plenty of wall space and other areas for displaying student work that includes a place where the parents and the community can gather to watch student performances, as well as a place where they can meet for discussions. **Technology in the 21^st^ Century Pedagogy.** Technologies are not ends in themselves but these are tools students use to create knowledge for personal and social change. 21^st^ 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 students in creating opportunities for their knowledge explorations. **Understanding 21^st^ 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. Their predominant senses are motion and touch. They learn through experience and learn differently. Digital immigrants often reflect, are sequential, and linear. The predominant senses are hearing and seeing. They tend to intellectualize and believe that learning is constant (Hawkins and Graham, 1994). Students' entire lives have been immersed in the 21^st^ Century media culture. They take in the world via the filter of computing devices, such as cellular phones, hand held gaming devices, PDAs, and laptops plus the computers, TVs, and game console at home. A survey by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people (ages 8-18) spend on electronic media an average of six hours a day. In addition, many are multitasking, such as listening to music while surfing the Web or instant-messaging friends while playing a video game. The preschoolers easily navigate electronic multimedia resources on games, in which they learn colors, numbers, letters, spelling, and more complex tasks, such as mixing basic colors to create new colors, problem-solving activities, and reading. However, as Dr. Michael Wesch points out, although today's students understand how to access and utilize these tools, they use them only for entertainment purposes. Thus, students should be prepared and assisted to become media literate as they function in an online collaborative research-based environment with the advent of researching, analyzing, synthesizing, critiquing, evaluating and creating new knowledge. **21^st^ Century Skills Outcome and the Demands in the Job Market.** The 21^st^ 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 comprise critical thinking, creative thinking, collaborating, and communicating; (2) *Literacy Skills* which is composed of information literacy, media literacy, and technology 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. Likewise, skills demanded in the job market include knowing a trade, following directions, getting along with others, working hard and being professional, efficient, prompt, honest, and fair. More so, to adapt to these jobs in this information age, students need to think deeply about issues, solve problems creatively, work in teams, Communicate clearly in many media, learn ever-changing technologies and deal with the influx of information. Amidst rapid changes in the world, industry requires students to be flexible, take the initiative, lead when necessary, and create something new and useful. According to Partnership for 21^st^ Century Skills (P21), various industries look for employees who can think critically, solve problems creatively, innovate, 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. **Prepared by: [Mary Rose Belencion]** **The 21^st^ Century Learning Implications.** 21^st^ 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. Schools and teachers should use a variety of applied skills, multiple technologies, and new ways of analyzing and processing information, while also taking initiative, thinking creatively, planning out the process, and working collaboratively in teams with other students. More so, schools may allow students to pursue alternatives, in which students can earn academic merits and satisfy graduation requirements by completing an internship, apprenticeship or volunteer experience. It is in this manner that students can practice a variety of practical, career-based, work-related skills and values while equally completing the academic coursework and meeting the same learning standards required of students. 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, whet 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. **The Paradigm Shift for 21^st^ Century Education** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- **Before 21^st^ Century Education** **21^st^ 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, such as knowledge and comprehension Higher order thinking skills (metacognition), such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation Textbook-driven Research-driven Passive learning Active learning Learners work in isolation and confined in the classroom (walled classroom). Learners work collaboratively with classmates and others around the world (global classroom). Teacher-centered: teacher is dispenser of knowledge, information and attention. Student-centered: teacher is facilitator/coach of students' learning. Little to no student freedom. Great deal of student freedom. "Discipline problems" --- No trust between educators and students. Little student motivation. "Discipline problems" --- Students and teachers have mutual respect and relationship as co-learners. High student motivation. Fragmented curriculum Integrated and Interdisciplinary curriculum Grades taken from formal assessment measures entered in the class record for reporting purposes Grades are based on students' performance as evidence of learning outcome Assessment is for marking purposes and placed as part of lesson plan structure Assessment is important aspect of instruction to gauge learning outcome Low expectations. What students receive is what they get. High expectations that students succeed in learning to high extent. Teacher is judge. No one else sees student work. Outputs are assessed using structured metrics. Self, peer and others serve as evaluators of student learning using wide range of metrics and authentic assessments. Curriculum is irrelevant and meaningless to the students. Curriculum is connected to students' interests, experiences, talents and the real world. Print is the primary vehicle of learning and assessment. Performances, projects and multiple forms of media are used for learning and assessment. Student diversity is ignored. Curriculum and instruction address student diversity. Students just follow orders and instructions while listening to teacher\'s lecture. Students are empowered to lead and initiate while creating solutions and solving problems. Literacy is the 3 R\'s (reading, writing and arithmetic). Multiple literacies of the 21^st^ Century aligned to living and working in a globalized new society. Factory model, based upon the needs of employers for the Industrial Age of the 19^th^ century Global model based upon the needs of a globalized high-tech society. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The paradigm shift from the 20^th^ to the 21^st^ Century, shows that the structure and modalities of education have evolved. Students become the center of teaching-learning process in the 21^st^ 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. +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | **The Critical Attributes of |  | | 21^st^ Century Education** | | | | | | Education continuously changes | | | dramatically throughout time. | | | There is a paradigm shift in the | | | way teaching and learning is | | | delivered. Therefore, the 21^st^ | | | 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).* | | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ *The following are eight attributes of 21^st^ Century education and their implications:* 1. 2. **The Characteristics of a 21^st^ Century Teacher** The 21^st^ Century teaching-learning environment becomes more complicated brought by technological changes. Therefore, teachers should be able to cope with and adapt to these changes. Thus, teachers must be equipped with attributes, knowledge and skills critical to 21^st^ century education so that they may be able to integrate them in their teaching. 21^st^ Century teachers are characterized as: 1\. *Multi-literate.* Teachers know how to use various technologies in teaching. 2\. *Multi-specialist.* Teachers are not only knowledgeable in the course subject they teach but also in other areas so that they can help the learner build up what they gain in the classroom and outside the school and make sense of what was learned. 3*. Multi-skilled.* Teachers cope with the demand for widening learning opportunities by being skillful not just in teaching but also in facilitating and organizing groups and activities. 4\. *Self-directed.* Teachers are responsible for various aspects of school life and know how to initiate action to realize the learning goals of the students and the educational goals of the country, at large. 5\. *Lifelong learner.* Teachers embrace the ideal that learning never ends. Therefore, teachers must be constantly updated on the latest information related to their subject and pedagogic trends. They should also share what they are learning with their students and colleagues with a high sense of professionalism. 6*. Flexible.* Teachers are able to adapt to various learning styles and needs of the learners. They can facilitate learner-centered teaching with flexibility using alternative modes of delivery. 7\. *Creative problem solver.* Teachers create innovative ideas and effective solutions to the arising problems in the field, be it in the classroom, in the school or the profession as a whole. 8\. *Critical thinker.* Teachers are critical thinkers as they encourage students to reflect on what they have learned, and rekindle in them the desire to ask questions, reason out, probe, and establish their own knowledge and belief. 9\. *Has a passion for excellent teaching.* Teachers possess passion in the teaching profession to ensure that students are motivated to learn under their guidance and care. 10\. *High Emotional Quotient (EQ).* Teachers do not just have the head but also the heart to teach. Teaching is emotionally taxing but an influential job as it involves interaction with human beings. **Common 21^st^ Century Technology Tools for Learning** As teacher for the 21^st^ Century, no one can escape from the reality that we are now in a borderless society. It is, therefore, important that we should know different technology tools for learning to respond to the needs of 21^st^ Century learners' and the demands of the times. The following are common 21^st^ Century technology tools. 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 can be moved from one site to another easily. It can document 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.* It is an extension of the current Web that puts data into a common format so that instead of humans working with individual search engines (e.g., Google, Ask Jeeves) to locate information, the search engines themselves feed into a single mechanism that provides this searching on its own. Sometimes called Web 3.0, this technology enables integration of virtually all kinds of information for more efficient and comprehensive retrieval. 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:/Awww.wikipedia.org), an online multilingual free-content encyclopedia, which has 7.9 million articles in 253 languages. 12\. *Youtube* (http://www.Youtube.com). 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 compiled, processed, transacted and analyzed. 14\. *Prezi.* It allows individuals to use pre-made, creative presentation templates. 15\. *Easybib.* It allows individuals to generate citations in any given format. 16\. *Social media platforms* (Facebook, Twitter, Edmodo, Schoology, Instagram, etc.). These are means to communicate and share ideas among users. 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.webdquest.org). It provides Webquests on an array of topics across content areas with a template for creating one's own. 20\. *Literacy Web* (http://www.literacy.uconn.edu). It is an online portal that includes a large number of new literacy's resources for new literacies for teachers. **Prepared by: [Dhanelie Flores]**