Welcome to 21st Century Teaching and Learning!

What is 21st century teaching and why is it important? Our 21st century society has had a major change and explosion in technological advances that affect the ways we learn, communicate, and generally live our lives. This has lead to changes in the classroom, affecting both student learning needs and teacher instruction. "21st century learning refers to the growing movement to redefine goals in education" (American College of Education, 2020). With this, there is movement away from traditional teaching methods and goals to focus instead on instructional practices that help students  building necessary skills and competencies for success in our 21st century world. This shift is due to the fact that the today's students will likely have multiple careers in their lifetime. To be successful, student learning must extent beyond mastery of content knowledge and instead create “a blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise, and literacies” (Battelle for Kids, 2019, p. 2). It is important for students to build strong skills that when paired with academic knowledge will allow them to be successful in all careers and avenues of life. Thus, a driving question of 21st century teaching and learning is "What do students need to learn to help them succeed in our times?" (American College of Education, 2020). It is important to focus this question on skills and knowledge needed in the classroom and beyond. 

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So what skills do students need to be successful in the 21st century? According to the Battelle for Kids (2019) and their Framework for 21st Century Learning, there are a variety of skills and knowledge that students need to be successful in school, work, and life. This framework combines the key content areas of math, reading, and writing with 21st century themes like global awareness, civic literacy, and more that contain a variety of specific skills necessary for student success. These skills include learning and innovation skills like critical thinking and problem solving; information, media, and technology skills; and life and career skills like flexibility and leadership. These 21st century knowledge and skills create a foundation of learning that can be merged with specific school related standards, assessments, curriculum, instruction, professional development, and learning environments to create a highly engaging learning process that leads to students who are able to thrive in our digital and globally connected 21st century world.