The World of Constant Change

In the video Shift Happens, we learn how we are preparing young men and women for careers not yet imagined, where they will make use of technologies not yet invented, and how some of the knowledge students learn in college is going to be outdated before they graduate. To respond to the reality of constant change in the 21st century, many voices outside of teaching and learning environments have been promoting the need to innovate in education. One such organization, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, founded by Apple, Cisco, Ford and Walt Disney among others, created a Framework for 21st Century Learning that focuses on fusing in the classroom the traditional 3Rs with the 4Cs (Critical thinking and problem solving, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Innovation) within a holistic framework:

K-12 teachers across different grades and subjects have been using intentional approaches to nurture a new generation of thinkers, emphasizing the 21st century skills. So what happens when these students enter TCU? Do they continue to be nurtured by learning environments we create or are they facing the traditional classrooms in which the teaching paradigm still prevails?

Traditional Teaching Paradigm in the Classroom

In a traditional classroom, the professor teaches and thus transfers most of the information worth knowing to the student, based on the assigned reading, with some class discussion ensuing. The video A Vision of Students Today portrays the effectiveness of this approach, which often results in the “I am worried about my grade” type of student — unmotivated and lacking passion for his or her studies. The traditional teaching environment assumes that students can remain engaged in an environment where the teacher does most of the talking. Universities built this environment on the premise that the pool of relevant knowledge remains unchanged for some length of time. While some concepts certainly will remain relevant for years to come, the pool of new ideas coming into existence every day is increasing exponentially. Thus, we should make sure we train students not only in our core discipline (the 3Rs) and in the new learning and innovation skills (the 4Cs), but that we also help them find relevant, up-to-date ideas and frameworks to address their heir problems, accurately assessing the worth of information they find.

New Learning Paradigm in the Classroom

Unlike the teaching paradigm, the new learning paradigm assumes that learning occurs both inside and outside the boundaries of the physical classroom. This paradigm assumes that students, teachers, and information influence each other and allow each to grow beyond the disciplinary knowledge. With the new learning paradigm, the teacher becomes a learning designer and a coach in the classroom, and the technology provides access to a wealth of information/support structures that the student can use in the peer-to-peer learning process. The learning classroom gives faculty the ability to focus not only on the 3Rs of the disciplines, but also on the 4Cs that are cross-disciplinary and critical to the 21st century education. If you would like to consider changing from a traditional classroom to a learning classroom that supports 21st Century Student Outcomes, here are some ideas to consider.

  1. Assign reading, research, speaker events, and/or video lectures for homework. Use class time to work in groups on assignments that assume familiarity with the assigned homework material. (This is sometimes referred to as a flipped classroom.)
  2. For assignments, choose complex problems that students are passionate about.  If possible, personalize learning — have students go through a process of inquiry, posing their own questions that the assignment will answer. If possible, look for opportunities to work on service-learning projects that provide tangible outcomes. If possible, focus students on challenges with a global scope to internationalize mind sets.
  3. Promote collaboration — between groups, between classrooms, with different universities, with professionals — to make learning social and more rewarding.
  4. Incorporate game principles in the design of your classes to encourage student engagement.
  5. Build into the curriculum tinkering workshops or labs, where students have opportunities to be creative and make mistakes without incurring penalties.
  6. Provide support systems to help students master the multidimensional skills required of them. For example:
    1. Connect with a reference librarian in your discipline to help with research and with the assessment of information reliability
    2. Connect with career services to learn about professional development opportunities for your students and build these opportunities into your class
    3. Require students to have the writing center review written assignments
    4. Conduct a team building workshop at the beginning of the semester and utilize peer evaluations at the end of term; Give each team five-minute opportunities to reflect on the group process during the course of the semester
    5. Leverage the diverse features of the learning management system and other technology tools to support the 3Rs and the 4Cs of your course
  7. Provide frequent feedback that allows students to see how they are improving.

Conclusion

TCU’s Academic Affairs Master Plan contains proposals for academic enhancements that include the “support for a culture of innovation, engagement, and emphasis on developing programs that anticipate and respond to major societal challenges facing the region, nation and the world.” As we get ready for the Academy of Tomorrow that Provost Donovan has been discussing in recent months, we need to think how we as faculty can respond in our classrooms to these major developments and support the strategic initiatives of the university. Intellectual Commons will provide us with new learning spaces that foster student engagement and collaboration, offering the physical infrastructure to support paradigm change. Ultimately, graduating empowered ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the dynamic and global knowledge-economy of the 21st century is our goal.

Beata Jones

This article was written by Beata M. Jones, Professor of Professional Practice, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management Department, for the Spring 2013 Issue of Insights Magazine.