Designing a 21st century Classroom

 








Which classroom would you like your child to be in?

This is the question we must ask ourselves as we look for answers to why our children are falling behind in the 21st century global competition. To compete in this competition, classrooms need collaborative learning, technology and a rich environment like the third picture towards the bottom. The picture shows a classroom where innovation and teamwork can occur. Where students can stand share ideas with one another the teacher acts as a facilitator. As I look at the other two pictures the scene is familiar: A teacher stands at the front of a room. Children sit in the center, their seats arranged in rows. There is a chalkboard, a wall map, and a teacher driven lesson. These are classrooms in 2010 and 1910.  Although the details may vary, school design has seen few changes in the past  hundred years.

Look at the difference when you add computer to this scene. When you see a projector, a SMART board. These items enrich a classroom. They are just the tip of the iceberg when designing a technologically-rich school for the 21st century. Don't get me wrong, 21st century learning means more than simply plugging in the equipment. Those items are only tools to help us for the real learning through computer networking, video conferencing. New approaches to learning make traditional classroom configurations impractical and obsolete. The schools of tomorrow are already exponientially changing to help us compete in the 21st century.

When watching Designing Schools for 21st Century Learning architect Randall Fleming took us through the idea process in how to create a 21st century school building. The ideas of more natural light through bigger windows, the option of a closed or open space through garage doors, making rooms comfortable and secure these are the elements that contribute to stimulation of the senses. His designs are well researched and developed to create a stimulus rich environment. The design of the environment being a part of the curriculum which enriches our senses to be innovative and creative is one that is used today in classrooms through word walls and centers. As he points out in the end of the video the factory job is becoming obsolete, as the world moves towards an innovative era we need to support 21st century learning to compete. His schools designs stimulate students to develop 21st century skills while feeling secure.

One eye opening realization I had during the video is when Randal discusses research on parents and babies. Parents put murals and mobiles over the crib to stimulate the baby’s environment to learn. Thinking about that idea I picture babies really interacting with their environment and learning from it. Transmit that idea to my classroom and I feel I need to create a richer more interactive environment to stimulate my students more.

No one knows for certain what the future in education will look like. But I know that with the ever increasing need for 21st century skills the only way to develop and enhance those skills is to choose classroom #3.





Links for class 6

Project based schools
http://bit.ly/b8UfBf


Designing a 21st century school

http://newlearninginstitute.org/21stcenturyeducation/student-centered-learning/designing-schools-for-21st-century-learning.html-

Blooming Questions

So what is 21st century classroom look like?  It is adaptive, creative, collaborative, and complex.  It breaks the educational mold. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with amazing new problems as well as exciting new possibilities.  Fortunately, we have living proof, and examples to follow, as we saw through our exercise today.

As I breakdown The Bloom’s Taxonomy exercises in class today.  There were many of the essential themes of the 21^st century skills that enriched the lesson. These components brought forth a student driven approach that forces students to take ownership of their learning.

Using critical thinking/ problem solving we critiqued the questions that we created which dealt with specified problems on how to enhance questions using Bloom’s taxonomy. Students made complex choices and decisions on criteria. We analyzed, and made informed judgments about the questions. After critically thinking about ways to enhance the questions, papers were given to students to then reflect/ compare/ contrast on the points made by the other groups and came to a solution to the problem which was the better questions. Communication was an interesting component because we had to articulate our thoughts clearly and effectively through speaking and writing so that the questions would specifically target what outcomes we were looking for. Collaboration was relevant when we worked effectively together as a diverse team.  One of the key components to working together was our ability to be flexible, and our willingness to make compromises to reach the common goal of finding the three questions. Creativity characteristic came out when invented original questions about the 21^st century skills but the second component was when we had to come up with an imaginative way to enhance the other group’s questions. We had to be open and responsive to the different perspective of having the other group changing/ enhance our questions as well. Innovation was evident in thinking/ developing/ and communicating new original questions based on the essential questions of the PD. We had to be Adaptive to each other’s questions plus the evolving class assignment from the different step it took.

I felt the structure of the lesson was right on point. It was a disguised lesson in which we learned to develop higher order questions using Bloom’s Taxonomy but also (hidden part) used 21^st century skills to develop those questions (pretty crafty).  I feel the lesson was simple yet loaded with components that achieved its objective. I thought about putting a discussion about why we choose those essential questions or how are we going to answer those essential questions, but I realize that wasn’t the desired outcome of the lesson. One interesting realization I made after the lesson (it’s only because of discussion with colleagues about technology in the classroom and the question of how do we teach 21^st century goals without technology?) was we didn’t use technology while using the 21^st century skills tools. This is a great lesson to prove to the nay- sayers who always look for that excuse not to evolve as a teacher.

Today’s work environment required far more than thinking skills and content knowledge. Learning ability to navigate through complex discussions required us to pay rigorous attention to developing ideas and concerns. As I play through the activity in my mind I felt how affective the student driven approach to 21^st century skills are. There were many things that I was experiencing during the exercise that I didn’t really think about until I reflected on it. The exercise really showed the correlation between a classroom environment and the workplace. We had to be flexible and adaptable with ideas presented in our groups. Being flexible but keeping to our beliefs was fun when we tried to word the different questions. We also had to work effectively as our priorities changed through exercise. Those are two characteristics in the working world that are a must to have with the ever changing and rigorous global world. We also took initiative to express our ideas to each other which was the first steps in a series of actions that led us to our goals. This characteristic is important because if you get caught sleeping in the real would you will be left behind. We had a high productivity level with everyone interjecting their ideas. If you’re not productive out in the workforce you will be out of a job fast. We showed great leadership and accountability. We were responsible to our facilitator for the outcomes of the exercise and we showed leadership through different people who took charge in their groups to map out their goals. These qualities are all evident in our exercise and they are life and career skills that will make students productive citizens in a global society.

Through discussions, it has become apparent that in addition to deep subject knowledge students must develop 21st century skills like creativity, critical thinking and problem solving, to succeed in today's world. If we do not create an education system that intentionally combines knowledge and skills, our students and country will be ill equipped to compete with their international peers.