Moving forward with 21st Century Teaching and Learning

It has been about a year and a half since I started my journey towards 21st Century teaching and learning. When my journey began I was really focussed on technology and how the use of technology could enhance the education process. Since that time my thinking has grown in a number of different directions.

I think perhaps the biggest growth has been to realize that 21st Century teaching and learning is not just about technology. It is really about reinventing how we teach and creating new opportunities for children to learn. That sounds like a really fancy statement but what does it really mean?

A 21st century classroom means a dramatic change in the power structure in a classroom. The teacher must move from being the "sage on the stage," to being the "guide on the side." Inquiry based learning becomes the order of the day and students are actively involved in their own knowledge acquisition.

As I have begun to look at ways of translating the ideas of 21st Century teaching and learning into reality I have begun to question how, in the context of our data driven, test driven educational agenda, we ensure the move to 21st Century teaching and learning continues to develop the high levels of literacy and numeracy we believe are so critical to the future success of our students?

21st Century teaching and learning is being touted as a necessary change for education to prepare our students the future. Technology has become a necessary part of life. Children as young as two are using iPads and other forms of technology to read, watch educational programs, play educational games and communicate with members of their families. These children will be walking into our kindergarten classes and what does that mean for how we run our classrooms?

The answers to these questions may seem quite obvious and rhetorical but I am raising them because I recently attended a session with Lynn Sharratt where she led myself and a group of my colleagues through the ideas in the book, Putting Faces on the Data. Since then I have been trying to reconcile the points that she made with the ideas implicit to 21st century teaching and learning. The kind of process that Lynn led her Board through was very prescriptive and specific with the goal being to  raise the literacy and numeracy levels in the Board. The process was very successful but how does that process fit with the creative and innovative thinking encouraged in a 21st century classroom? A classroom by its very design encourages students to demonstrate their thinking in a variety of ways? For me this has become a very fundamental issue and one I believe I need to be able to articulate clearly as a strong advocate of 21st Century teaching and learning.

Today when I met with my Steering Committee we came up with 6 inquiry based questions that we are going to use to guide our work moving forward. These 6 questions will be shared with all of the Principals and Vice Principals in my group and will be used to guide our work moving forward. What is absolutely fundamental and essential to me as an educator is that I am able to quantifiably demonstrate the move to 21st Century teaching and learning is dramatically improving the learning experience of our students while maintaining high levels of literacy and numeracy. Our 6 guiding questions are as follows;

1.  How do we know that student's are working at or above level in literacy and numeracy when we are using 21st Century teaching and learning strategies?
2. How do we know that we have a higher level of engagement?
3. How do we know that boys are doing better in greater numbers?
4. What data do we have to substantiate our claims?
5. How do e-portfolios help with these answers?
6. How do we measure 21st Century teaching and learning with 20th Century tools?