21st Century Learning and Teaching

Educators often talk about 21st-century skills and the benefits of incorporating communication, creativity, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking into lessons. These are skills students rarely learn straight out of a textbook. The best way to teach them, we’ve found, is by making these skills a relevant part of their active lives.

If that sounds daunting, rest assured, it doesn’t always have to be. One way we have taught these skills is through project-based learning (PBL), where students apply what they’ve learned during a hands-on project that is relevant to the real world — and their lives.

To that end, a new report developed by MIDA Learning Technologies, which we researchers worked on, shows that students engaged in PBL understand concepts more deeply than those receiving traditional instruction, resulting in improved problem solving skills. Past research reviewed in the report also suggests that PBL students perform better on a wide range of assessments including standardized testing. The full report includes quantitative and qualitative evaluations of students’ problem-solving abilities after implementation of a pre-built, project-based STEM curriculum in science class.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=PBL

TEACHER LEADERSHIP & DEEPER LEARNING FOR ALL STUDENTS

In this new paper commissioned by the Ford Foundation, Barnett Berry makes the case for how a system of teacher leadership and learning can fuel deeper learning for all students. 

Here is what the paper tackles:

examines current reforms’ limitations and notes some promising emergent examples, (like Social Justice Humanitas Academy in LAUSD); summarizes 30 years of research about how teachers learn and lead (also drawing on stories of teachers CTQ has worked with since our founding in 1998); identifies three promising shifts that could be leveraged to create an effective system of teacher leadership and learning; and
describes next steps that stakeholders (including policymakers, USDOE, state education leaders, superintendents, and others) can take to advance teacher leadership toward a more equitable public education system.  

The infographic below reveals 3 big changes we can leverage now to improve public education for all students.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=LeaderShip

http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Situational+Leadership+Theory